So I picked up a used Prusa Mendel

Hey!

I picked up a used Prusa Mendel and I need someone with experience to give me a rundown. What cad programs work best, what problems should I expect. Please give me a heads up on what you wished someone told you when you first started.

Richard
richardjrussell@yahoo.com

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2012 12:14PM by richardjrussell.

Welcome!

>What cad programs work best
1) OpenSCAD for Prusa modifications, whatever you prefer for everything else. I like OpenSCAD, Wings3D and Inkscape.

> what problems should I expect.
2) Pretty much anything can and will go wrong. At some point you'll bang your head against a seemingly impossible obstacle, but press on. You'll learn from your mistakes.

> Please give me a heads up on what you wished someone told you when you first started.
3) It's going to take longer to master this than you might think. Persevering is so much worth it in the end though. And also: [reprap.org] is awesome.

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-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

Any CAD program that an output to .stl will work I use Solidworks simply because that is what I know, learn what the different Gcode commands do, find out what firmware you have and what board you have.

This will all help with your understanding. Make some objects from thingiverse and see how they come out

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Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

Hi Richard,

Depending on what firmware you are running, you may need to change settings and calibrate your machine.

You should also take a look at both Skeinforge and Slic3r for Gcode generation - I'm in the middle of doing a Slic3r tutorial on my blog, this also gives advice on calibrating your extruder.

I use Sketchup for designing at the moment, but I have started using Autocad 123D (it's free and very good), many people use OpenSCAD if you are happy with a code based way of modelling.

When you have it all printing, then take a look at this flickr group, (The Art of 3D print failure) it should help you with normal setup and print problems.

This forum section deals with printing issues, you will have loads of them...

Good luck and keep us updated on progress.

Rich.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]