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3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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If you see an issue please flag it
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If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
I'll include the software (FreeCAD 0.20.2) for compatibility.
Although, my files work fine on 0.21, I'll add that just in case.
Sorry. What is the diffrence between STEP and STL? I thought STL was preffered.
I'm not an expert but I looked it up. STL is just a simple mesh for the exterior surface of a CAD model. While STEP saves the entire geometry in its pure form, so you can edit it later. STL is fine for printing but you want to make the actual models available too in case someone wants to edit them.
It's like the difference between a PDF and a Microsoft Word document.
Alright, STEP it is.
Lots of people post STLs because you can feed them directly to the slicer for printing. But it only represents the surface mesh of an object, and only as polygons. A STEP file basically captures how the part is designed in CAD, so it's much better if you need to modify the part. It also gives you the original form of things like curves, where the STL would be quantized into a fixed number of polygons.
I'll go with STEP.
Thanks.
Sure. You can always include both as well. Folks who don't have CAD software may not be able to use the STEP files.
Ok
Since you're using FreeCAD I'll assume you're interested in Free Software. If so, Liberapay and OpenCollective could be alright alternatives to Patreon. They take a lower platform cut of your donations, but they don't offer 'tiers' and automatic awards for donors.