Designing for 3D printing can be quite different than designing for other purposes. Something that looks beautiful in your CAD program could be extremely difficult or messy to print which creates a frustrating experience for any Maker.
To create an easily printable object, there are five key design rules to keep in mind:
Supports are extra material that act as “scaffolding” to hold a design in place if there is nothing beneath it to build on. Depending on your design, supports may be necessary to prevent filament from drooping when it’s printed. After the print is complete, the supports can be broken off and cleaned up to leave you with your final design. In most cases, the supports are automatically generated by the slicing software that converts your STL file into a format the 3D printer can read, called G-code. If you’d like to ensure a specific support structure is created, you can design it into your model directly, but in most cases, the auto-generated support structures do the trick.
Although supports are sometimes necessary, there are a lot of benefits to designing in a way that avoids them altogether. Here’s a few reasons why you should care about reducing supports:
Saves time and money: Designs that require a lot of supports waste material, since the supports are removed and likely thrown away once the print is complete. Additionally, adding supports means the product will take longer to print (more material = more time), and we’ve seen supports increase print time by up to 100% in extreme cases. When you add in the time required to clean up the supports post-print, the difference in time to completion can be significant.
Lowers probability of printing errors: Supports add more complexity to the design which raises the probability of errors when printing. It’s common for longer, more complex prints to fail much more frequently than short, simple prints. Keep it simple to raise your chances for a successful print!
Creates smoother surface finish: Using supports typically creates a rougher surface and again, creates more work during post processing to smooth it out. In some cases, the surface may be damaged beyond reasonable repair when using supports. The picture below is an example of a 3D printed part that is printed with supports(left) and without(right).
Design by mold3d
If you can’t avoid using supports but do have access to a dual extrusion printer, we recommend using a soluble supporting material like HIPS, which is discussed in more detail in our filament guide.
YHT Rule
This is a good way to remember what shapes are safe to design without supports and which to avoid. Thanks to one of our top designers who wrote a more detailed article on Supports and the YHT Rule. The basic rule goes as follows:
Anything in a “Y” shape is safe to print without support because it’s a gradual slope which still has enough material beneath it to keep it from drooping. This is another way to think of the 45 Degree Rule, which states that in general, overhangs with a slope greater than 45 degrees will require supports. The more gradual the angle, the better. This is why cone shapes are generally safe.
Designs that take the form of an “H”, where the middle overhang connects to either side is called bridging. Typically, bridges shorter than 36 mm long print with drooping of 0-0.5 mm, bridges 36 to 60 mm long print with drooping of 0.5-2 mm, and bridges longer than 60 mm long print with significant drooping of 2-5 mm. These rules aren’t set in stone, however, since it depends on your material and print settings.
Anything with a “T” shaped overhang will not have any support and will almost certainly create errors in your print. There just isn’t enough to hold the material up in this configuration.
Split the model into multiple partsAnother way to avoid supports is to split up your model into multiple parts so they can each print flat. To help with this, the Onshape Part Studio has a tool that splits up designs easily. If you haven’t done this yet, refer to Onshape’s blog on A Guide to Successful 3D Printing for more detailed instructions. After you print the parts, you can bond them with an adhesive like cyanoacrylate (super glue) or a solvent. This can be especially useful for complex designs and larger prints.
Orient your model properlySometimes, supports can be reduced simply by rotating your design into the appropriate orientation for printing. For example, in the case of the ‘T’ print above, the need for supports can be completely removed by laying it flat on it’s back. You don’t always need to make changes to your model to improve results.
Anchor your printAnchor parts of your design that would go beyond 45 degrees and attach them to a different part of the model to avoid overhang. For example, in the first picture below you can see the arms are attached to the back. This is a good method to avoid overhang and allows you to print the design as a whole whereas the model below have their arms straight out which will create some problems when printing.
There are limitations on how much detail a 3D printer can successfully reproduce, which means you need to take these physical limits into account when creating intricate designs.
Here are some suggested guidelines on detailing for an FDM printer:
Most FDM printers claim to print a minimum layer resolution of about .05mm, but realistically most designs work best with .1mm per layer.
The suggested minimum text size on the top or bottom build plane of your model is 16 point boldface and 10 point bold face for vertical walls on most FDM printers
The suggested minimum wall thickness for designs depends on the specific layer thickness used by the printer and the specifics of the design (how large it is, how much weight it will hold, etc.), but a wall size of 1mm or larger is generally safe for most FDM printers.
The minimum spacing between interlocking parts is .4mm on most FDM printers.
Prints with narrow parts can often get overheated during printing and warp the design. To prevent overheating in one place, you need to disperse the heat and allow the hot end of the extruder to move away from your object to give it time to “cool off”. You can do this by creating a thin object away from your 3D print that is the same height so that as you’re printing your design, the hot tip moves away to print the other object away from your design. This will create an extra tower whose only purpose is to divert the hot end of the extruder while printing to prevent overheating
Photo by simplify3d.com
Depending on the intended use of your printed piece, your choice of material can affect certain aspects of your design, and needs to be taken into account for the best results.
For example, if you’re designing parts that are meant for mechanical purposes, you need to consider the strength and flexibility of the material it will be printed with and ensure your design will meet your desired specifications. Additionally, if your parts are meant to fit together with other items or other printed parts, you’ll need to take into account how much your material will shrink and warp after cooling.
For a quick easy comparison of the properties of the most common types of filament used in FDM 3D printers, check out our handy 3D printing filament guide.
If you’re designing for an FDM printer, you’ll most likely be exporting your design as an .STL file which creates a representation of your design in triangles. High poly counts create more detail in the print but can create file sizes which are difficult for your slicing program and 3D printer to handle. Typical file sizes range from 200KB to 10MB, but different printers have different capabilities so it’s important to know the limits of your printer. The goal is to create a file that’s as small as possible while still maintaining the detail in the design.
Once you’ve used Onshape to create your masterpiece, what’s next? If you’re interested in selling or sharing your designs online, that’s where Pinshape comes in. We’re a 3D printing design community and marketplace where designers can upload and download 3D printing designs to sell or share with the community. With our Pinshape App on the Onshape App Store, you can sell your designs on Pinshape without leaving your design page!
All you have to do is download the app, create an account or login through Facebook and select which items you want to share in the drop down menu. If you want to learn more about how to use the Pinshape App with Onshape, visit our blog on how it works. Our community would love to see what you’re working on and we’re excited to have Onshape designers join our community!
Whether you are designing for printing yourself or to share with others, we hope these tips helped!
Have fun and happy printing!
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The Maxwell Render team is excited to announce our partnership with Onshape.
Maxwell Render is a standalone render engine currently used by thousands of companies worldwide for making perfect images and animations from 3D/CAD models.
Maxwell customers are designers, engineers and architects, and they use Maxwell because it gives them amazing quality and accuracy along with a unique, easy set-up which allows you to focus on lighting - rather than the more technical aspects of rendering.
You can signup for a free license of Maxwell for Onshape here. Once you have access you’ll be able to directly read Onshape models within Maxwell Render Studio.
To help explain the integration I’ll walk you through the workflow for rendering your Onshape models.
I am going to use the casting model that you can find within Onshape as a public model. (click here to view).
Maxwell Render Studio is where you read in your data and prepare your shot…
Inside Studio use the Onshape button to sign in to your account. Once logged in all your documents are shown in the import browser. Simply choose the model you are interested in rendering.
Once the part, or assembly is read, you will have the full capabilities of Maxwell Studio. You can add materials, setup your camera, and control the environment.
One of my favorite things to do is using the sunlight system. Here is the casting model with a simple floor, chrome material and time of day set to 3PM... that’s it.
One thing I love about Maxwell is the physically correct approach it takes. Basically you have 2 things you use to to reach your desired quality. Amount of time or sample levels. In Maxwell the longer you let it run the better it looks. So you can set a predefined time for a given render. Alternately you can just specify a certain quality you wish to reach (sample level) and simply wait for Maxwell to reach the solution. It really depends on what you need.
Want to try it out for yourself? Signup for Maxwell for Onshape today. It’s free!
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Another update to our mobile apps is here, bringing you powerful 3D CAD whenever and wherever you need it. Update your apps and give them a go.
Due to overwhelming demand, we’ve added two new options to the Settings page on iOS. Open the iOS Settings app, scroll down until you find Onshape and toggle the options on to give them a try (if the Settings app was open when you updated Onshape, you will need to close the Settings app and reopen it again for these options to appear).
The first option, “Open help in a browser,” as the name suggests, opens help in Safari instead of a panel inside Onshape. Why do you need this? Well, you could double-click the Home button to switch between Onshape and Safari, or you could do this:
Onshape can now take advantage of multitasking in iOS 9 to display compatible apps side by side. So now you can have Onshape and Safari open at the same time (or Skype, or email, etc.) – ideal if you are working through a tutorial or collaborating with someone else. Multitasking also supports picture-in-picture so you can watch your favorite TV show, the latest blockbuster, or an Onshape video tutorial, all while modeling in 3D.
The second option, “Show touches,” are the orange trails you see in the video above that show you which icon has been pressed or which multi-touch gestures have been used to manipulate the model on screen. We’ve been using these in our tutorial videos for a while and many users have requested this capability to make it easier when presenting to others or making their own instructional videos.
Follow Mode is now available on your iPad and iPhone. Tap the name of the person you wish to follow and you can instantly see which model they are working on as well as the view they can see. If they are running Onshape in a browser, you can also see the position of their mouse cursor. In addition, you can choose to be the leader, so others can double-click your name in their browser or iOS device.
You can now create a Center Point Arc when sketching by defining the center, start, and end points. Tap the icon shown above, tap to locate the center of the arc, then tap to locate the start point and drag or tap to position the end point.
From the Documents page, click the little “i” icon to the right of a Document to open the Document info panel. You can now see who you shared the Document with and their respective permissions without having to open the Document first.
Now when you make changes to a Part Studio or Assembly, and the Document contains drawings, you can update the drawing by tapping the Update drawing icon. If the drawing is up to date, the Update drawing icon will be grayed out.
The Feature list and Assembly tree have been redesigned to make them easier to navigate and use. Updates include:
New layout and skin
Collaboration clues
Rollback bar
Searching and filtering support
Hide / show filter search bar
Indicate the feature that's currently being edited
Highlight selected features/parts
Highlight for related selections
Indication for when a feature is suppressed
Error handling - Icon and text
Assembly expand/collapse tree and child indentation
Onshape Mobile apps give you complete access to your full CAD system on your phone or tablet. You can create and edit 3D models wherever you go. So check out the updates at the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and let us know what you think of the new features!
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Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has already transformed many areas of our lives - information technology, marketing, education, healthcare - everything is moving to the cloud. Now the time has arrived for breaking away from the traditional model of desktop-installed software in product design. Onshape is doing it for CAD. SimScale is doing it for simulation.
By eliminating software installation costs, licensing fees, and the need for yearly updates, cloud-based platforms are opening up the playing field and making design tools accessible to everyone from beginners and students all the way up to experienced industry users.
SimScale is a company that is making it possible to do powerful engineering simulations via a standard web browser. All you need is an Internet connection to test and validate the performance of your product designs. In addition to its easy-to-access simulation features, SimScale also has an active community of users who you can interact with and learn from.
From your SimScale Dashboard, you start by uploading a CAD geometry in a .STEP or .IGES file format. If you are using Onshape as your CAD tool, the SimScale Connector App allows you to directly import your CAD models into SimScale with the click of a mouse. You then mesh the geometry, set up the simulation parameters, and run the simulation. Once the simulation is finished, you can post-process the results and make further design decisions. One of the biggest benefits of simulation is that it allows you, the designer, to quickly optimize your designs in a virtual environment instead of using a costly physical prototyping process.
With Onshape and SimScale, it is now possible to have a complete design workflow – CAD, mesh, simulation, results – right in your web browser. Watch the video at the top of this post to see how it works.
If you are interested to learn more on how you can improve your product design using Onshape and SimScale together, signup for our upcoming webinar.
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Yesterday, we announced the public release of the Onshape App Store, the first “try and buy” app store for the CAD world. With apps for CAM, rendering, finite element analysis (FEA), fluid dynamics, and more, the Onshape App Store greatly expands every Onshape user’s capabilities and gives them the freedom to choose which apps work best.
Today, we are going to take a closer look at how to use the Onshape App Store.
The first step is getting there. You’ll find a “Go To App Store” icon in the bottom left corner of your Documents page.
After entering your username and password, you will be taken to the Onshape App Store.
Here you can scroll through the different apps. You have filter options on the left, search at the top, and sort options on the right. To learn more about an app, left click it in the list.
You’ll find a product description, screenshots, and customer reviews of the app. If you want to use an app, just click “Get Application” for Desktop and Cloud Connected apps, or “Subscribe” for Integrated Cloud Apps.
Desktop and Cloud Connected Apps connect directly with your Onshape account and make it easy to import models from Onshape.
Integrated Cloud Apps integrate directly within Onshape and are conveniently accessed from a tab in your Document. You can add an Integrated Cloud App to a Document by selecting “Create Tab,” then “Add Application.”
Interested in a more detailed walkthrough? Check out the video above.
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Now that the holiday festivities are out of the way, we can get back on track with regular updates to your favorite full-cloud 3D CAD. And this update, like many others before it, will not disappoint!
Top of the list is the brand new Onshape App Store. With just a few clicks, you can add CAM, FEA, CFD, Rendering, plus many other capabilities from dozens of established best-in-class software partners.
There are several convenient ways to browse the Onshape App Store. You can either:
Go to appstore.onshape.com.
Look for the large button in the bottom left corner of your Documents page; or
Click the link at the top of the Create Tab (+) menu.
For more detailed information about the App Store, please see this post by Onshape’s Vice President of R&D, Dave Corcoran. We'll be covering each app in more detail over the coming weeks and many more apps are scheduled to be added to the App Store soon. If you’re subscribed to the blog, you’ll be the first to know when new partners come on board.
Now let’s take a look at all the brand new features and capabilities in Onshape...
The Workspace History button is no more.
You can now browse your history and manage versions and branches all at the same time from the Manage Versions and History button. By combining versions and history, you can see what changes have been made between each version and you can see what changes have been made on each branch. This makes it much easier to keep track of all the changes within your Document.
When sketching lines, arcs, circles, and rectangles, you can now type in a size and Onshape will automatically add a dimension for you, making it very quick to build fully dimensioned sketches.
For rectangles, Onshape will prompt you for the horizontal size first, then the vertical. To skip the horizontal size, move your mouse closer to the other dimension until it highlights, then enter a value.
You can now create standard ANSI inch and ISO metric holes, using the Hole feature. To create a standard hole, specify the standard, size, depth, and if it’s a clearance, tapped or drilled hole. If it’s tapped, the correct drill size will be selected for you. When bolting two or more plates together, you can specify that the top plates have clearance holes and the bottom plate is tapped.
The most recently used hole sizes are stored in the Document, making multiple hole creation faster.
The video above details all the great new enhancements in Drawings. Here is a summary:
Isometric is now a standard view type, so you can add an isometric as your first view.
Notes with Leaders can now be attached to an isometric view.
Balloon callouts can be attached to an edge or point to a face. The leader type changes from an arrow to a dot, depending on where you place it. Balloon numbers increment automatically, but you can override the text if you wish.
The Drawing Properties dialog lets you control the appearance of all the dimensions on your drawing. You can control text size, decimal places, leading and trailing zeros, and more. Manually altered dimensions are not affected.
Title block fields can now be linked to Drawing Properties.
Drawing Properties and Title Block settings are stored in your drawing templates.
Linear Dimension text can now be snapped to the center of the dimension during placement.
Drawing load time has been reduced by up to 40%.
Sketches can now be exported to older versions of DWG and DXF to provide compatibility with older 2D CAD systems, nesting programs, and machine controls. Sketches can be exported to DXF Release 9 and 10, and to both DXF and DWG Release 11-12, 13, 14, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013. To access, right click a sketch in the Feature list and select Export as DXF/DWG.
That should be enough to keep you busy for now. Enjoy!
Have an idea for a new feature or improvement in Onshape? Use the Feedback tool under the help menu in Onshape and let us know what’s on your mind.
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