The Software Tools

Overview of the Software Tools Used

The best part of these tools: they work regardless of OS - Windows, Mac, or Linux. There's a couple pieces of software I installed on my 2008 Mac Pro (this is nearly 8 years old). It has 16 GB of RAM and is running 10.9.5 Mavericks. I have a Linux laptop with 8GB that can handle Blender.

Cura

The first piece of software came with the Lulzbot Mini - Cura. Cura is an open source "slicer". Basically you need a slicer to create instructions to send to your printer. You can put multiple objects on the virtual bed, scale/rotate them, and add supports (we'll cover this later). The instructions are exported in "gcode" - mostly important if you are putting those instructions on a memory stick and putting the stick into your printer. (This is not an option for the Lulzbot - it needs a computer hooked up to it.)

If you are just downloading models from the internet - that's ALL you need.

Blender

The second piece of software I installed was a 3D modeling program, to create new objects. I settled on learning Blender - none of the software I found was strictly meant for 3D printing. Blender is also open source/free. It has a lot of features, including animation and video editing that I won't be needing. I considered Google's Sketch-up - it's supposed to be much simpler and easier to grasp. (As it wasn't meant for 3D printing, it can sometimes require MeshMixer to make it a solid object to print.) In the end, I was going for a complete learning experience, and wanted more tools than I needed. If you're a student, you might check out Maya - a friend mentioned he got a 3-year license for free/cheap. Tinkercad and Fusion 360 are often used by other 3D printing people.

The file type Blender saves is ".blend", but you can export it as an .stl file, which is what ...most? slicing software use. If I have made progress on an object, I will usually try to save it every 15 minutes. My naming convention is similar to what I practiced when learning ruby - 5.2.1. This would mean I've gone through 5 major revisions, I am on the second minor version (but pretty much version 5), and the first minor tweak to the minor version. I have a simple text file, where I take quick notes on what the new version added in case I come back to a project 6 months later.

If you are looking for a simple design+print solution, you can stop here.

Octoprint

Octoprint takes over the "print server" aspect. My Lulzbot needs a computer to push the gcode to it, but it doesn't care too much about what computer does it. I picked up a Raspberry Pi B, a wireless USB stick, and a 8+GB micro-SD card. I would probably wait a month or so before adding it to your process - I'll eventually have a documentation of how I set mine up. The cool part of Octoprint is that  if you attached a cheap USB camera (goodwill=win!), you can watch what it's printing or even get a time-lapse done. Another benefit of Octoprint is that you can have multiple computers feed their models to it - laptop, desktop...it doesn't care.