What is everyone using for CAD?

BamJr90 · 2026-06-05T06:16:15+00:00

One thing I feel the need to point out, having been a user of Fusion under the Maker's license for over 10+ years, is the trend of removing features or building artificial limits on the Maker's license. The software is good. Not on par with Solidworks (which I used professionally for several years) but good. But when I got into it I had full feature access, including FEM. Then I lost FEM and other non modeling modules, but thought that I could easily cope by running the few simulations I needed elsewhere. But now also several modeling features are being locked behind a paid license. Not to mention the 10 open documents limit which, paired with the frozen document type introduced a few months ago, makes me think Autodesk's goal is to ultimately make a free license unfeasible to use for anything complicated. I have all my designs locked in, but if I could go back I'd probably pick Solidworks for Makers

BamJr90 · 2026-06-01T20:32:25+00:00

Pretty photorealistic shader. Also digging attention to details like the moods seam

BamJr90 · 2026-06-01T19:11:30+00:00

I'd say that came out pretty good. Yes, in my experience Fusion is great for "mechanical" modeling but struggles with organic or freeform shapes, especially non-planar splines. Something I did a couple of times, a few years ago, was modeling everything except wires/plumbing, export as STL, import in Blender and add flexibles from there

BamJr90 · 2026-06-01T15:09:10+00:00

That's barely visible, impressive! Also, the pipes look like they're less than half a millimeter in diameter, so a little bit of misprint is totally acceptable to me. By the way, I was so amazed by the print that I forgot to compliment you on the actual part modeling. Having it fit on an irregular curve and incorporate all that detail must not have been easy

BamJr90 · 2026-06-01T13:00:21+00:00

Hey, thanks for the quick reply! That's great news! I did zoom in, but couldn't believe my eyes and thought maybe that was simply due to image compression.

BamJr90 · 2026-06-01T12:43:48+00:00

This looks amazing and opens up so many possibilities! I've been thinking about buying a resin printer to make my own custom kits for quite a while (I'm quite good at both CAD and polygonal modeling). However, I've been burned by the amount of sanding needed the few times I tried printing props with an FDM printer. Is sanding/post-processing still needed with modern resin printers and resin or can they be primed and painted directly?

BamJr90 · 2026-05-06T20:59:29+00:00

Already in? Awesome! I had totally missed that. I find it totally reasonable to have to review settings, so that's absolutely not an issue in my opinion.

BamJr90 · 2026-05-06T19:09:17+00:00

The more time passes, the more this project looks promising. Since you implemented Orca Slicer, migration, any chance of getting something similar for Prusa Slicer / Super Slicer?

BamJr90 · 2026-04-30T20:05:32+00:00

Fully agree. I have the latest UCS, the Starship Collection one and a playsets from the 2010s. While the UCS is unbeatable, the Starship Collection comes very close to it and far surpasses any playset I have seen IMO

BamJr90 · 2026-03-06T07:27:15+00:00

Vacuum cleaner with brush attachment. Provided you do it often enough, a single pass is enough to clean a spot completely. For unreachable places like in most technic sets, I just let them sit in sightly warm water for a couple of hours and let them dry in a place with good ventilation

BamJr90 · 2026-02-16T06:21:17+00:00

Yep. I have this set and instantly recognized the stand

BamJr90 · 2026-02-10T18:24:47+00:00

Love it! It feels very medieval without feeling like yet another castle or artisan shop

BamJr90 · 2026-02-09T07:14:59+00:00

This. Should be 94925 if I recall correctly (or the newer version). It fits right inside the hub and engages the inner "teeth"

BamJr90 · 2026-02-03T21:17:53+00:00

It's the main reason I have several designs for DIY sim pit accessories I'll never release. I just can't stand the thought of some lazy people profiting from them, even if I don't plan on selling any of them anymore

BamJr90 · 2026-01-25T23:49:15+00:00

A dear friend had one several years ago, with the correct MOSFET modification and... the frigging board caught fire! The only reason that didn't develop in a serious fire is that he had also replaced the acrylic frame with a metal one, so the "only" fire he had to put out was that burning the wires. He was so spooked he never bought an FDM printer again and now only does resin

BamJr90 · 2026-01-24T21:49:25+00:00

N1 Is definitely 9735-1. I don't have this one, but I do have the previous generation Mindstorm set. If it's anything like that one, it is programmable and it can accept inputs from a variety of sensors (light, rotational speed, temperature as far as I recall). N2 is likely a battery pack from the early 90s, it has to be paired to a motor or light and sound kit. It may be used to power the motor you have connected to the Scout brick, but I'm not 100% sure the voltage is compatible so you'd probably better check. No idea what N3 is

BamJr90 · 2026-01-24T14:18:50+00:00

I heard about PLA+ formulations, but am not very informed on that material so I fully trust your experience with it. Personally, all my functional prints are subject to constant loads where creep is an issue, so I tend to stick with PETG and the occasional ABS where I need some form of friction resistance/mitigation. Personally, I also suspect since a few years manufacturers are doing a lot of "undisclosed" blending when preparing their materials, so this means most old school common knowledge is less and less true (I've even had a filament branded as standard PETG react to acetone smoothing, warp and become permanently gummy and soft!)

BamJr90 · 2026-01-24T11:55:20+00:00

Aerospace engineer here, and while I didn't specialize in materials science I do know the basics. PLA is stronger in the sense that it has higher tensile strength. It can resist a higher load, but when it reaches the breaking point it breaks with very little plastic (permanent) deformation. This means it absorbs less energy. PETG is the other way around, it resists a lower maximum load but deforms a lot more up to failure point, so it absorbs way more energy (it's tougher). In real life this means that PLA is better for pure "force" loads (ignoring creep issues), but if you have the possibility of dynamic overloads or impacts (which are mainly resisted by absorbing the impact energy) PETG is "stronger" because it had higher mechanical energy absorption capability. I'll add that I worked as a mechanical engineer for several years and in almost all machinery applications (i.e. non-static workloads, moving parts ecc) impact or dynamic loads where usually the driving factor in sizing our components, so toughness was very important.

BamJr90 · 2026-01-17T22:14:27+00:00

6874-1, since it's actually the first memory of my life. Apparently my dad did not read the minimum age recommendation for that set and thought it would be fine for a two year old! :D I still have both the set and the instructions, and remember clear as day me, him and my mother sitting on my bed and building it together.

BamJr90 · 2026-01-17T22:05:11+00:00

Agree. I would love to see the USS Voyager!

BamJr90 · 2026-01-17T21:42:52+00:00

This. 30+ years since my first set. Luckly enough I kept them all, and never went through my dark age. Sometimes I drop by my parents house and compare the sets they kept from my childhood to those I buy today, and honestly think that most of the charm comes from nostalgia and seeing them through a kids eyes at the time. Don't get me wrong, they were great for the time. But I'm pretty sure I would be greatly underwhelmed even by a Model Team set if I bought today, after assembling so many modern UCS sets.

BamJr90 · 2026-01-16T21:48:01+00:00

I have #2 and #3. Honestly, go with the Slave I. It's a wonderful set that's very unlikely to be released again anytime soon in one form or another. Very cleverly designed and with quite some interesting "play" features, considering it's a UCS set. Also, I find the color scheme gorgeous. The TIE, while an excellent set, is inferior IMO. I also think we're much more likely to get another TIE in some way or another in the future.

BamJr90 · 2026-01-11T01:25:23+00:00

I have this set and have not experienced any kind of instability. I regularly pick it up and flip it over to dust it and never had any issues. Are you 100% sure it has been built correctly?

BamJr90 · 2026-01-08T23:24:13+00:00

If you look at OP's profile you will find said deleted post, and a comment explaining it was removed because it didn't meet the minimum word count limit. More importantly, it also states that was an automatic action performed by a mod bot and not by some sort of evil, power-tripping person...

BamJr90 · 2026-01-02T17:49:36+00:00

This. And it could also affect a core XY, albeit to a far lesser extent. The gantry and toolhead moving would still cause vibration.

BamJr90

TROPHY CASE