New to 3d printing need some advice

Hi I am thinking of building my first reprap prusa i3 but I am a total novice with software. What software would be a good start for for a beginner ? Also where is the best place in the uk to buy frame parts for the single plate aluminium frame prusa i3.

Thanks Nikki

For your first printer, you are best off going with a kit rather than piecing together the printer yourself. Buying from a reputable kit supplier will also mean dedicated support after the sale in most cases.

Most kits will ship with a RAMPS 1.4 board or similar 8-bit controller and rely on either Marlin or Repetier for the firmware to load onto the arduino chip. Again, the kit supplier will often provide a copy of the firmware that should be configured for your printer.

For software to connect to and control the printer, I believe the most common freely available options right now are MatterControl, Repetier-Host, and Ponterface. There are other options like OctoPrint, though most people will start out with Repetier-Host or Ponterface which are easier options to use.

For design software, AutoDesk 123 is a free option that is relatively easy to use. I think some people also use Sketch-up with addon's for generating STL files as well as more complex applications like Blender. Another alternative is OpenSCAD, but I believe it is a more procedual, programmatic tool rather than a straightforward design tool.

Thanks for your reply I should have said that I am a engineer by trade so building the hardware will be the easy part. I think I will download AutoDesk 123 for my cad program and use repetier for the firmware and host

thanks Nikki

Check out "Onshape" CAD. They are new to the market. Free to use.

Check out "Onshape" CAD. They are new to the market. Free to use.

I self-sourced my first machine. It was more expensive and harder than getting a kit, but I built exactly the machine I wanted and I learned a ton. It's up to you.

Quote
epicepee
I self-sourced my first machine. It was more expensive and harder than getting a kit, but I built exactly the machine I wanted and I learned a ton. It's up to you.

This is what i have been doing. My uncle bought a kit which he has been having hassles with. It has made him want to build a new one. He spent a couple days trying to get his kit working fairly well and with my self sourced kit i got pretty decent results on the first print. Obviously there was loads of room for improvement.

If your the kind of guy that likes DIY then take the plunge build your own. There are loads of designs out there. Bonus if you know someone with a printer as you can print all your parts on theirs.