My Mendel90 is really starting to look like a 3D printer.

3D Printing
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My Mendel90 is really starting to look like a 3D printer. It’s going together very smoothly… Thanks to @nop_head and crew for packaging such a quality kit.
It won’t be long before I need to try and figure out the software tool chain to get from imagination to plastic. Any tips on the best software tools to use would be greatly appreciated

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I use sketchup. It has some caveats but I just like the way it works. You will need some stl import/export plugins (google) .
Other quality options are 123d. It outputs good stl files where as sketchup you need to repair most.
I would start with one of those.
Once you export an STL you open it in netfab studio and click extra , repair part.
Click automatic repair , default, apply, replace part --> yes
Part --> export part --> as stl
click repair if it pops up, and save it.
It should be saved as Xrepaired.stl

Place that file into slic3r drag and drop to the grid. it will load up.
Select slicing settings (harder than i make it out to be) This is the fines stage.
Export Gcode

Load Gcode into printer.
Warm up.
Home
PRint

I just started too. This gave me trouble too. This should help.

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Thanks for that explanation. I’m loading and trying some of the tools in parallel with building the printer so that hopefully I’ll be up to speed when the time comes.