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Old 03-27-2018, 11:03 AM
sprogs sprogs is offline
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Which program ?

A simple question really. I would love to start designing my own models but I don't know which program to use, As a pensioner I cannot afford expensive software so could you advise me on my best options from a financially challenged beginner's point of view ?
Liz
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Old 03-27-2018, 02:02 PM
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Knife Knife is offline
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I use Sketchup from Google for 3D design. It is free and easy to learn. You have to modify it with a couple of plug-in programs to unfold and flatten the models for printing. I use the free program Paint.Net to do the details on the unfolded sheets.

There are much more capable programs out there, these are just the ones I use.
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Old 03-27-2018, 02:15 PM
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John Bowden John Bowden is offline
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Blender - 3D software

https://www.blender.org/

GIMP graphics program

https://www.gimp.org/
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Old 03-27-2018, 06:46 PM
cfuruti cfuruti is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Bowden View Post
Blender - 3D software

https://www.blender.org/

GIMP graphics program

https://www.gimp.org/
GIMP for raster-oriented (Photoshop-like) workflows, Inkscape https://inkscape.org
if you prefer working in vectors (think Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw).

Krita's (https://krita.org) late versions have received a lot of praise, though I haven't used it yet. Due to a chronic shortage of collaborators, GIMP's progress is rather slow, so Krita seems poised to overtake it. Well, competition is usually good.
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Old 03-27-2018, 06:59 PM
sreinmann sreinmann is offline
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It is only accessible to me because work purchases office 365 pro,but I exclusively design in MS Publisher. It’s also reconnected me with geometry. Google calculators are among my top hits.
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Old 03-28-2018, 01:44 AM
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Kevin WS Kevin WS is offline
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Good suggestions all round.

My penny's worth.....

Knife's suggestions are great for you to start with - you can play around a bit.

Knife - are the plugins free?

Or, as an alternative to the Sketchup and Paint, have a look at Krita. This will do design and painting. Have a look at each.

Gimp is good, but has a steep learning curve sometimes, and is not too intuitive. It costs you nothing to look though, so do so. You may like it.

All of the above are freeware (Paint comes with Windows).
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Old 03-28-2018, 06:04 AM
cfuruti cfuruti is offline
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Or, as an alternative to the Sketchup and Paint, have a look at Krita. This will do design and painting. Have a look at each.
Krita and GIMP are alternatives to Photoshop, all three of which are more sophisticated than Paint; all four are raster-based, 2D-only. Your mention of Sketchup is a bit confusing: Sketchup and Blender are alternatives to 3ds Max, Maya, Metasequoia, Rhino and the like.

The OP must bear in mind that modeling requires several workflows, therefore more than one software is needed. Roughly:
  • design the 3D mesh with a tool like Blender or SketchUp. Some people import ready-made meshes, or extract models from game assets; either way, a 3D tool is almost always necessary to remove excessive polygons or adjust inconsistent or self-penetrating geometry
  • unfold the mesh. This is not a common task for graphic users, so usually a 3rd party plugin is needed
  • optimize the unfolded parts, add tabs, adjust the lay-out, and so on. IMHO vector-based tool like Inkscape/Illustrator is better here than raster-based like GIMP/Photoshop, but tastes vary. This and the previous step can be made much easier by specialized tools like Pepakura Designer (paid)
  • for designing/tweaking textures, do use raster editors, although some vector tools include powerful filters which can do amazing pixel-level manipulation
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Old 03-29-2018, 07:51 PM
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ShadowCory ShadowCory is offline
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Maya for the 3d model design
Pepakura for unfolding
Krita for digital painting
Inkscape for making designs that are not modeled in 3d first
I also scan in hand drawn parts and trace them in Inkscape
oh, and PDO Tools from ImCold here on PaperModelers.com
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Old 03-29-2018, 08:27 PM
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murphyaa murphyaa is offline
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I use Rhino for designing, unfolding and adding tabs. Photoshop for textures, colors, and final sheet arrangement.
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Old 03-30-2018, 10:52 AM
sprogs sprogs is offline
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Forgive me all, but I haven't understood a word beyond "And, The, Tabs and I)
Dear Knife, I most nearly understood you.
Would you please tell me what program and plug-ins I need ?
Liz
With thanks to you all
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