I recommend SelfCAD, https://www.selfcad.com.
What Is SelfCAD And It’s meant For Who?
SelfCAD is an online 3d designing software that allows you to model, sculpt, draw, sketch, and animate all under one program. It has brought almost all the best and useful tools of the cutting edge programs into one package. Each user usually has its own requirements. It has all the tools needed by professionals of all kinds. Whether you’re an engineer, architect, hobbyist, or student this online 3D modeling software has something for you.
The mission of SelfCAD is to make 3D modeling and 3D printing easy and accessible to everyone.
Difference Between SelfCAD And Other CAD Programs.
Most of the professional CAD programs with all features are usually expensive and average users don’t afford them or they have to dig deep in their pockets in order to buy it and most are complex too. Hence one has to take if not weeks, months in order to master the concepts of the program. Some of the free and cheap programs don’t have all the necessary 3D modeling and printing tools. SelfCAD has bridged this gap as it’s affordable, easy to learn and it targets all the industries.
SelfCAD is fully-featured, but the aggregate amount of tools is much less than any compatible software package because of its brilliant UX. Most programs have many tools which are not useful, SelfCAD has reduced the number of tools and only useful tools are available. This makes it much easier to use and master.
Key Features Of SelfCAD
Intuitive and versatile- You can learn SelfCAD quite easily. You don’t need months of training in order to get started.
Accessible- It’s browser-based. You can access it wherever you are. You can save your design on the cloud and continue working with them.
Fully-featured- It has consolidated all the features necessary for 3D printing in one place. This includes 3D modeling, sketching, drawing and slicing features as well as animation. Users don’t need to switch between programs anymore, everything is done under one program.
A library of ready to print objects- SelfCAD partnered with Myminifactory to allow users to have access to more than 45k objects which are ready to print.
3D Models created in SelfCAD are ready to print. There is the magic fix tool which ensures that the designs are printable.
Important Tools Of SelfCAD
Image to 3D
With the Image to 3D tool, you can take any photo and turn it into a 3D model at a click of a button. This tool can detect the background and remove it! The outcome is a 3D printable model.
Custom Drawing And Sketching Tools
There are FreeHand Drawing and Sketching Tools which you can use to create any model from scratch easily. SelfCAD is all about drawing, sketching and modeling objects in the simplest way possible. The drawing and sketching tools can help you go beyond ready-made objects so that you can create your own because SelfCAD is all about doing things in the simplest way possible.
Sculpting
SelfCAD has powerful Sculpting Tools and it has all the basic functions that you would expect from any other basic sculpting software. Though you can’t compare it with ZBrush as ZBrush is more powerful. If you need a beginner level Sculpting tool this is a great fit. Once the tablet version of SelfCAD is launched, sculpting, drawing, and sketching will be much more interesting.
3D print
SelfCAD has an in-built slicer. Once you click the 3D print tool, you will be able to access the in-built slicer which you can use to generate the G-Code that you will send to your printer.
Usually when using other programs one needs to install other software or extensions to prepare their models for 3D printing or after designing they have to switch to other programs. But thanks to SelfCAD, the all in one program where everything is done under one platform.
There is a 3D printing animation feature that allows you to preview the 3D printing process of your design too.
3D Animation
The Animation Feature was recently added during the release of SelfCAD 2.9. You can animate colors, transformations, and entire objects easily. Working with layers is easier too and this makes SelfCAD one of the easiest software for creating simple 3D animations.
SelfCAD Pricing
SelfCAD is much affordable. There is a free account though it’s limited in functionality and to access all the features you can upgrade your account only at $14.99/M.
Whether you are working on basic 3D designs, innovative concepts or unique shapes, SelfCAD will help you realize and unleash your imagination easily. Whatever you conceive you can bring it into a reality quickly. There are more updates we should be expecting in a few months to come like the Rendering option which is being worked on.
You can sign up for the free plan and test it and see if this is something best for you.
There are many tutorials on Youtube that can help one get started easily in SelfCAD. You can begin with this tutorial explaining the ins and outs of SelfCAD, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZhu13zE3mA&t=24s then you can check out the step by step Instructables to teach yourself SelfCAD. https://www.instructables.com/howto/selfcad/.