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Design for 3D-Printing

(blog.rahix.de)
837 points q3k | 1 comments | 04 May 25 17:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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hengheng ◴[04 May 25 19:07 UTC] No.43888730[source]▶
Great article. This is all above the skill level of the average part on thingiverse or printables, but the good parts on there are going to follow similar ideas. Love the mouse ears, press-fit holes and step-by-step alignment of layers to build impossible bridges.

Notably, in fusion 360 this would all be designed in "plastics" mode, and yet that mode is oblivious to whether the part is printed or moulded. I wonder if any CAD engine can do "production-aware design" that constrains design to the capabilities of standardized machines, e.g. keeping a metal part 3-d millable. I've seen strict design rule enforcement with PCBs, and I have seen sheet metal macros, but nothing for general mechanical CAD.

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1. 0_____0 ◴[05 May 25 00:30 UTC] No.43890844[source]▶
There are DFM tools that you can use on the back end of your design process e.g. through fictiv/protolabs etc. However there is a lot of stuff that is "technically machineable" but way more expensive to do, and it really is an engineer's job to both understand how the part is made, talk to the machinists if they don't, and to trade off the design complexity vs. the engineering needs.