If you’re already familiar with 3D printing, you know that without a 3D model you can’t bring anything to life. But the geometry isn’t the be all and end all, because not every model is printable as designed. Traditionally, this has made 3D printing an iterative process — create the model geometry, set up the 3D print job and run a test print — then rinse and repeat until the print looks good.
In this article, we’re going to focus on step one — creating the model geometry — and ways you can optimize it to make improvements to your 3D printing. Typically, this step takes the most amount of time and input from the user. Therefore, it’s the best place to look to make improvements to the overall 3D printing process.
Time and effort users need to put into their 3D printing projects.
Artistic vs. engineering 3D printing
3D printing is all about taking an idea and making it a reality. These ideas generally fall into two families: art and/or engineering. This is, admittedly, an oversimplification. However, for the purposes of this discussion, it’s important to differentiate between the two categories. Assessing if a part is art or engineering will determine the recommended software to use. For instance, if it is art, then using the tools that come packaged with a 3D printer may be all you need.
Here, we are going to focus on engineering parts. For this application, there are many software options to create a 3D model and set up a 3D printer. However, there are many situations where SOLIDWORKS should be your go-to tool for creating engineering parts for 3D printing — here’s why:
- Capabilities
- Community
- Cost
Capabilities and ease of use
Since it was first introduced in 1995, SOLIDWORKS has grown to become one of the most popular computer aided design (CAD) software options on the market. This popularity arose because it was incredibly robust and easy to use. Fast-forward 30 years, and it is a mature product with numerous capabilities — especially for 3D printing. However, its developers haven’t forgotten its ease-of-use roots.
Typically, there’s an inverse relationship between capability and ease of use. As tools get more capable or powerful there is more to learn, and user interfaces (UIs) become bloated. Thus, it gets harder to learn.
SOLIDWORKS, however, flips the script and doesn’t sacrifice ease of use for a robust feature set. It accomplishes this feat by offering numerous educational aids, training, user communities and a UI that doesn’t throw people into the deep end. Instead, the UI starts slow and guides the user along their individual path. Many of these guided paths include tools to improve the 3D printing experience. In a matter of weeks, designers of all experience levels can go from crawling to walking, and even running, while using SOLIDWORKS.
Community and resources
You can do more today because of the knowledge gained by the large and engaged SOLIDWORKS community. Just look to YouTube, Reddit or forums and you’ll find passionate users with a wealth of knowledge and an eagerness to share. This will accelerate your design, 3D printing and learning processes by limiting the hurdles others overcame before you.
YouTube is probably your first stop when looking for general knowledge and how-to content. Since 3D printing is becoming ever more popular in engineering and hobby applications, there is no shortage of content on the subject. Having an extensive library in terms of breadth and depth of topics is key to quickly leveling up and improving your skills. There are the official SOLIDWORKS Channels, official SOLIDWORKS reseller channels and plenty of community leaders and hobbyists pumping out content to fuel your journey.
One of the other popular places to go for help, general advice or to raise specific questions is Reddit. Compared to other CAD software, SOLIDWORKS has an impressive and active community.
The Reddit community sizes for popular CAD software — as of July 2024.
Accessible to any user
For makers, the minimum price to get started with SOLIDWORKS is incredibly low. Keep in mind that the price ceiling can quickly rise with additional tools, features, seats and access. Also, this maker price isn’t available to companies and organizations. However, the makers license is a great way to dip your toes in the world of CAD because it’s fully capable and gets you access to the maker communities. This can really accelerate your 3D printing with SOLIDWORKS.
Why SOLIDWORKS is good for 3D printing
The reasons SOLIDWORKS became popular are the same reasons why you should choose it to produce geometry for your 3D printing. This is a bold statement, as there are scenarios where CAD is not necessary for the 3D printing process — as it is possible to create geometry directly in the 3D printing software.
Creating 3D geometry in the 3D printing software Bambu Studio.
You can also find ready-to-print models on any number of websites like GRABCAD.
Ready-to-print 3D geometry is available on GRABCAD and similar websites. (Image: GRABCAD.)
But if you truly want to create something new — limited solely by your imagination — you need a CAD tool that is capable of delivering. With SOLIDWOWRKS, you can create anything big or small. It’s also a good tool to design a single part for your garage project or an assembly of thousands of parts.
What has been the foundation of SOLIDWORKS growth and popularity is that its power and complexity is disguised by an outer layer of elegance and simplicity. Once you get started, you’ll see that you can make huge gains in your skills very quickly.
For instance, SOLIDWORKS offers a parametric, feature-based modeling system. This means that all the geometry is defined by parameters such as length, size or curvature. Once you get the hang of that logic, you can create the geometry of almost anything you can think of. It’s also easy to find the commands you need, as they are categorized within easy-to-understand tabs, like:
- Features: Create or cut geometry, such as extrude, revolve and sweep.
- Sketch: Make the building blocks of geometry, such as lines and circles.
- Surfaces: Typically for experts, offering surface modeling capabilities.
- Sheet Metal: Create, form, bend or stamp a part out of sheet metal.
- Weldments: Create parts or structures that are welded.
- Mold Tools: Create parts via injection molding.
- Mesh Modeling: Work with 3D scans or meshed data.
- Direct Editing: Advanced commands used to freeform edits to models.
There’s a lot to learn before you know what tool to use to get a job done. But that’s ok, because with the incredibly vast communities at your fingertips, you can easily get help and bring your vision to life with a 3D printer.