Anyone into 3d modelling more than me? I’m especially interested in these patterns that you often see on vases or lamps. How can those be done? I know about math abilities in OpenSCAD but i’m sure there are some more interactive and less codish approaches to this kind of stuff, right?
Any help would be appreciated.
some examples attached (stolen from thingiverse)
Try this video tutorial about lamp shade with similar pattern made in very powerful (and free for makers) #Fusion360: Fusion 360: Design a 3D Printed Lampshade - YouTube (and if you add bottom and inner surface, you have a vase).
@Tomas_Vit thanks i’m into Fusion a lot actually but this pattern function is the only thing fusion can do about it that (in this case) limits your surface possibilities quite a lot.
I use Blender which has numerous plugins and tutorials on youtube, I make use of their threading plugin to make threaded parts. I’m open minded to other renderers though- somebody else recommended Fusion360 too. I have access to SolidWorks at the University I work at, but I want to use open source if possible. FreeCAD is more graphical, but it seems somewhat slow. For example the Spider v2 .step file in the Ubuntu version took about 15 minutes to load and then is very slow to move around.
Real contenders (don’t mind the steep learning curve):
thanks so far. I don’t own a Rhino license so I think I’ll have to take a closer look at blender finally after trying to avoid it during the last years.
Blender is very powerfull for 3D graphic design, but Fusion 360 (developed by Autodesk), OnShape (runs in web browser, made by team around former founder of SolidWorks) etc. are better for design of real, physical printed things, assemblies and mechanical designs. They have more engineer’s approach of creating things (CAD). Yes, the learning curve is steeper than with SketchUp, but it is worth the time.
sure, that’s why I focused on Fusion360 so far and avoided blender but it has some appeal and some abilities that can be handy for 3D printing I guess. at least for everything that is not classically technical.
OK, it’s on you. But if you use Fusion 360 already, take a look to advanced modelling functions (Sculp Environment) before you will try to learn second complicated system). 
Good luck with modelling your ideas anyway.
Blender takes a while to figure out, and it is difficult to select and move an object around at first: for example selecting an object is a right click. I mostly do everything with the boolean difference modifier- mostly screw and embedded nut holes. Yeah in terms of blender for engineering - it would be nice to have assemblies with parts and to export a bill of materials- like SolidWorks - probably a plug-in that does that exists somewhere- I haven’t actually searched for it. I haven’t ever even used anything other than cube, cylinder, and text - no curves or anything. You can easily go into “edit mode” to edit an object, select the vertices, edges, or faces and move vertices around pretty easily. Then extrude is the only other thing I use which is a really simple but very powerful tool- to just take a 2D shape and extrude it into 3D.