It’s occurred to all of us: you discover the proper mannequin to your wants — a bracket, a field, a cable clip, but it surely solely is available in STL, and doesn’t fairly match. That downside won’t ever occur for those who’re utilizing Iteration3D to get your fashions, as a result of each single factor on the location is fully-parametric, because of an open-source toolchain leveraging 123Dbuilds and Blender.
Blender provides you preview renderings, together with colours the place the fashions are arrange for multi-material printing. Build123D is the CAD behind the scenes — for those who haven’t heard of it, suppose OpenSCAD however in Python, however with chamfers and fillets. It really leverages the identical OpenCascade that’s behind everybody’s different favourite open-source CAD suite, FreeCAD. Something you are able to do in FreeCAD, you are able to do in Build123D, however with code. Besides you don’t have to be taught the code if the mannequin is on Iteration3D; you simply set the parameters and push a button to get an STL of your precise specs.
The draw back is that, as of now, you’re restricted to the hard-coded templates offered by Iteration3D. You possibly can modify their parameters to get the configuration and dimensions you want, however not the pythonic Build123D script that generates them. Nor are you able to presently add your individual fashions to be shared and parametrically altered, like Thingiverse had with their OpenSCAD-based customizer. That stated, we have been instructed that user-uploads are within the pipeline, which is nice information and will effectively flip Iteration3D into our new favourite.
Proper now, for those who’re searching for a field or a pipe hanger or a bracket, plugging your numbers into Iteration3D’s mannequin generator goes to be loads quicker than rolling your individual, climate that rolling be performed in OpenSCAD, FreeCAD, or a type of bits of software program individuals insist on paying for. There’s a very good number of templates — 18 to date — so it’s price testing. Iteration3D continues to be new, having began in early 2025, so we are going to watch their profession with nice curiosity.
Going again to the issue within the introduction, if Iteration3D doesn’t have what you want and you continue to have an STL you want to change the scale of, we may also help you with that.
Due to [Sylvain] for the tip!
