Goodbye FreeCAD, hello bespoke cup holder!

[fishplug]

OnShape has been great for doing stuff quickly and bypassing any hardware issue by being cloud based, but what I don't like is that (on the free version) all your models are public.

I don't mind in this particular case as it's hardly an original design (well, the coin and pen holder bits are I suppose) but I prefer to have the option and choice of what I do and don't share.

Ironically I'm very much in favour of all things Open Source so it would probably end up in the public domain anyway, but at least under my control.

Started my final print yesterday and ran out of ABS just a few layers from completion so I've ordered up some ASA and will print them at the weekend

Will definitely be giving Fusion a go.

 

[fishplug]

I've also struggled to figure out how to do multi-colour prints but I don't think OnShape is my long term software of choice so I'll pick that up again if I think Fusion is the way forward

 

[matbic]

I have found asking ClaudeAI how to do things in fusion can (and sometimes not) very helpful. It certainly better than digging though the thousands of youtube videos!

Anyway ask if you get stuck - i am very critical of software but Fusion has become my go to software. Like you I am disappointed its not open source but its too good!

On top tip - spend some time understanding how the time line at the bottom works - it’s not the first thing I guess most people look at until they get very frustrated they can’t get something to work.

Every thing you do gets added as a step in the time line at the bottom - so if you draw a 2d sketch that’s 1 step, then extrude it that’s a second step.

If you click on the 1st step and edit the sketch then Fusion will reapply step 2 and the extrusion will change.

All is good - however as you add sketches to for example the side of the extrusion just did - things get a bit interlocked - and you can’t do things you want!

For example going back to the first sketch and removing the line, that makes the surface on the extrusion, that the second sketch was placed on - leaves the second sketch lost in space (it will go a nasty yellow colour).

Not getting this nearly made me give up for first few designs!

 

[Realist]

I’ll have a look at it one year, same with my laser cutter I purchased off eBay and so far not used it.

That’s me, boys and their toys.

 

[fishplug]

I’ll have a look at it one year, same with my laser cutter I purchased off eBay and so far not used it.

That’s me, boys and their toys.

All I understood from reading that is that you have a laser cutter you're not using and it's free to a good home if they come and collect?



Thanks matbic I might well take you up on your offer if when I get stuck!

 

[Realist]

All I understood from reading that is that you have a laser cutter you're not using and it's free to a good home if they come and collect?



Thanks matbic I might well take you up on your offer if when I get stuck!

You wish LOL

 

[fishplug]

I've always fancied a laser cutter, but they're out of my price range for the amount of use I would make of them.

One day maybe, but I've got a long list of 'affordable' toys I 'need' to buy first

 

[Nigel Crompton]

I tried and tried and tried with FreeCAD but for whatever reason it just completely failed to work on my MAC.

I followed tutorials to the letter and it just gave completely unexpected results every single time.

Partly due to frustration and partly due to the fact I wasn't actually trying to make something I needed, just trying to learn it all got put on the back burner and forgotten about.

That is until this weekend.

I had bought some 3D printed cup holders from eBay before I had a 3D printer and they served me well for a couple of years and then this summer's heatwave actually started melting them!

Looking at them with a bit more 3D printing knowledge they'd clearly been made with the bare minimum material for the fastest print time and the cheapest PLA... The 'structural' part of the arm was a cavity in the 3D print that had a piece of wood jammed in it.

Anyway....

The point is that I needed something to hold my drinks, so I set about trying to find STL files which I did but...

I just need it to hold a small water bottle or a can. 70mm

The only ones I found online were 85mm - I don't even know what kind of a drink that's designed to hold!

That's not true, I did find one at 70mm but it had an open hexagon pattern design to it that I just didn't like so I decided it was time to try again and do some modelling myself.

Having ditched FreeCAD as an option I randomly picked OnShape to try and with a bit of frustration along the way I managed to make a cup holder.

I tweaked and adjusted a few measurements and then somewhat randomly decided to add a shopping trolley token / pound coin / euro coin holder as well as a pencil holder (modelled around an IKEA pencil!)

I hope you've already printed some trolley-tokens?

 

[Lenny HB]

I hope you've already printed some trolley-tokens?

I designed & printed a load of trolley tokens, Red with UK on them & Blue with EU on them.

 

[Lenny HB]

I have found asking ClaudeAI how to do things in fusion can (and sometimes not) very helpful. It certainly better than digging though the thousands of youtube videos!

Anyway ask if you get stuck - i am very critical of software but Fusion has become my go to software. Like you I am disappointed its not open source but its too good!

On top tip - spend some time understanding how the time line at the bottom works - it’s not the first thing I guess most people look at until they get very frustrated they can’t get something to work.

Every thing you do gets added as a step in the time line at the bottom - so if you draw a 2d sketch that’s 1 step, then extrude it that’s a second step.

If you click on the 1st step and edit the sketch then Fusion will reapply step 2 and the extrusion will change.

All is good - however as you add sketches to for example the side of the extrusion just did - things get a bit interlocked - and you can’t do things you want!

For example going back to the first sketch and removing the line, that makes the surface on the extrusion, that the second sketch was placed on - leaves the second sketch lost in space (it will go a nasty yellow colour).

Not getting this nearly made me give up for first few designs!

I've pulled a lot of hair getting frustrated with Fusion, the way it works it certainly has some odd quirks. I find joining components in an assembly it often does really weird things, I tend to do it manually now, just need to be careful to get items lined up.

 

[Gromett]

If you can't get to grips with cad or don't want to spend the time. You can use AI and an MCP server.

For instance with freecad you can use https://github.com/neka-nat/freecad-mcp

Here is a very short basic video. Basically you tell the AI what you want and it does it for you in freecad.

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[matbic]

joining components in an assembly it often does really weird things

Yes I am also at that stage with assemblys they are very challenging to constrain to fit together as you expect and then it’s difficult to use one as a tool to cut in to another. Each component has its own timeline and independent axis so you have a hard time relating across from one component to another.

Several components is not like having several bodies in a single component. Bodies in the same component all share the same time line and axis. Here the relationships between the separate bodies can be as complex as you like.

I discovered that if you set multiple bodies as visible and then export file as 3MF when you import this in to Bambu studio to slice you can get it as the various bodies individually so you can print them all on one plate.