Got an idea and want to make a simple 3D model, but don’t want to install a full-fledged CAD modeling suite and queue up a few hours of tutorial videos? Check out SketchForge, a 3D modeling program that runs locally in one’s browser without any need for an account, or external services.
SketchForge takes a more WYSIWYG approach to 3D modeling by making it easy to put an object together with primitive shapes, and making it extra easy to specify dimensions and align parts with one another. There’s also a sketch feature that makes it easier to create more complex shapes by making a 2D drawing, then extruding or revolving it into a solid. We like that it has STEP format export as an option, making it easy to import your creation into another CAD program of your choice later. Most 3D printer slicers natively support the STEP format nowadays, too.
It’s a bit reminiscent of Tinkercad in concept, but entirely local. It’s still new, but there’s a demo online that gives a good idea of its capabilities if you’d like to give it a spin.
We’re reminded of CaDoodle, another project that takes the “Tinkercad, but local” approach but as a standalone executable, instead of browser-based.
Slick – i like it.
++ for Local
Local, no installation: a win by any other name…
not for me shrug
but anecdotally, when i wanted to print a phone/tablet stand like in the cover photo (for video conferencing during rona), i decided that its complication (low) : amount of material (high) ratio was all wrong for 3d printing and i used a bit of plywood instead :)
It can 3d model other things besides tablet stands..
yes :)
Bit of an aside, but I have been looking for an alternative for fusion360…It was just an easy pickup from my engineering days with solidworks. I’ll have to check this out.
My most recent design/print was an A/C exhaust plate/hose adapter. Free a/c (because missing essential part) is back in service. Hell that one print basically made the printer worth it since I didn’t have to pay $400 for an a/c
I believe there is a legal requirement at this point that someone mention FreeCAD whether or not it sounds like it would meet you needs. I don’t see that anyone else has yet, soooooo….
Have you taken a look at FreeCAD (https://freecad.org)? Not web based, but cross platform (Linux/Windows/MacOS). I can’t compare it to solidworks (never did professional cad) or fusion (never trusted anything cloud-based). Steep learning curve, but many features and in very active development.
FreeCAD is a fanboy version of CATIA, so its UI/UX style is derived from a 1990’s French aerospace corporation where the original is from: it’s compartmentalized into “workbenches” whose functions are overlapping and competing, and often incompatible. It can’t quite decide whether it’s supposed to be a duck or a horse, so it’s both.
FreeCAD has hierarchies that are not quite the same as the rest of the industry, so you have to mind that e.g. a “part” is actually more like an assembly container whereas a “body” is what others would call a part, but a part actually is a single object even though it can contain many objects. This confusion stems from trying to mash Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) modeling together with Feature Editing in the same program – that’s the duck and the horse – which results in a lot of conflicts and breakage.
As a result, FreeCAD is not a single cohesive application program that does its job well; it’s actually more like a “launcher” for a bunch of smaller CAD tools that each do their own things in their own ways and have some mutual definitions that allow them to work on the same model data, with the risk of breaking it.
With this in mind, if you wish to learn FreeCAD, remember that you’re not learning good practices in modeling as much as you’re learning the particular tricks of how to dodge the minefields in FreeCAD.
I’ll stick with SketchUp2017 while Materializr develops.
Not only is it local without account and more responsive than Tinkercad, it also natively supports Chamfers and Fillets! I will definitely switch, thanks a bunch for sharing
Wow thats actually pretty sick!
Is it only on parametric models or can it do chamfer and fillers on meshes? I’m still looking for a mesh editor that can do that.
If it can do threads, I’m in.