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This query may exist elsewhere, but my search skills are rather weak.

With the ease of 3D printing and fab shops, what is a good CAD program for a beginner? I'm on a Mac.

I'm reasonably tech savvy (aside from search skills) and have a background in graphic design, but all my previous designs for custom figures have resulted in failure due to trying to translate paper designs to figures via sculpting from hand. But I've really been inspired by the growing complexity of third-party offerings to step up my game.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and who knows might eventually result in even more third-party TF love.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... s_software

You probably don't have to have a strictly CAD program starting out, as most graphics packages can support the same types of 3d formats as CAD. It will really depend on what the 3d printing wants to use but you can probably start with something free (art of illusion/blender/wings 3d on that list) to get the feel of 3d CAD type things first. The 3d formats are easily converted to CAD files from regular 3d graphic art files once you get the hang of it. I haven't done any 3d printing or I would tell you more, I am mostly into graphics and not CAD. Usually the 3d art programs have more easy to use modeling and texturing tricks and the CAD programs have more things for calculating problems in engineering and that sort of thing as well as laying out architectural drafts, blue prints, etc.

The RepRap Project (an inexpensive (cough) 3D printer capable of reproducing itself) has a list of CAD software, some of which are freeware.

Thanks to both of you for your recommendations.

I noticed on the RepRap site they said they use AoI for most things. I have some experience with blender and AoI, and happen to be a member of an AoI user community so if you end up using those I could maybe help out some by giving some tips. If you end up using blender I would recommend getting the latest "Blender for Dummies" book. I think the one out now is on 2.48 blender, but it still is good for 2.49b and the concepts for alot of the new 2.57b blender are the same. They are soon coming out with a new one that covers 2.5x branch, don't know if it is out yet though. Blender has a higher learning curve than AoI but once you read a simple guide like the Dummies book it is not that bad and has plenty of exporters for any CAD format you might want.

Personally, I like to use Autodesk autoCAD for building basic parts. (For me) Its is easier to input exact measurements and tolerances in CAD. I then export to Blender to do the "fun stuff", the less consequential modeling ex:kibble, faces, smaller details. I know that shapeways.com has an online file conversion service that is free, but both CAD and Blender will export to .stl certificate that shapeways will recognize.