This past October, 3DPrint.com announced that we would be offering our first round of online training in designing for 3D printing. We offered two comprehensive courses, Beginner Design for 3D Printing and Advanced Design for 3D Printing, with the Beginner course starting in March of this year and leading directly into the Advanced course. Right now, Advanced Design for 3D Printing is about to enter its final week, and participants are busy creating their final designs. We’ll be announcing the winning design in a future article, so stay tuned.
If you weren’t able to participate in either of these courses, you’re about to get another chance. We received lots of interest in our inaugural online design classes, so now we’re pleased to announce that we’re offering them again, beginning in June. Until May 24, you can register for one or both classes at a discounted price of $199 each; after that, the cost will go up to $249, so sign up early if you’re interested. You can also get a discount for combining classes; until May 24, registration for both classes together is only $319.
Beginner Design for 3D Printing will be a bi-weekly course this time, taking place on Tuesday and Thursday from June 20 to 29. Sessions will include:
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Erin Arden
Session 1, Tuesday June 20, 2-3 PM: Beginning Design Principles: Part 1, taught by entrepreneur and 3D printing and design specialist Erin Arden. Arden is the former Training Director at MakerBot. In this session, you’ll learn how to design basic shapes using Tinkercad.
- Session 2, Thursday June 22, 2-3 PM: Beginning Design Principles, Part 2, also taught by Arden. In this session, you’ll learn how to import 2D and 3D files, use community-developed shapes, and create geometric holes.
- Session 3, Tuesday, June 27, 2-3 PM: Broken Files & Manifold 3D Design, taught by Vectary Customer Education Lead Andrej Klement. You’ll learn how to use modeling tool Vectary to recognize and prevent broken 3D models.
- Session 4, Thursday, June 29, 2-3 PM: Sculptural Designs, taught by digital art educator Jennifer Fry of Larkspur-Corte Madera Schools. In this session, you’ll use Pixologic Sculptris to create 3D designs.
For your final project, you’ll learn how to make your design 3D printable, and all participants will receive a certificate of completion from 3DPrint.com.
Advanced Design for 3D Printing will begin on July 11 and run until July 27, also on a bi-weekly basis. Sessions include:
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Jeffry Turnmire
Session 1, Tuesday July 11, 2-3 PM: 3D Printing Engineering Principles, Part 1, taught by Jeffry Turnmire, professional engineer and Vice President of Applied Engineering & Management Corporation. In this class, you’ll learn how to design with tolerance, avoid support materials, and create assemblies.
- Session 2, Thursday July 13, 2-3 PM: 3D Printing Engineering Principles, Part 2, also taught by Turnmire. This session will teach you how to animate assemblies, create sophisticated material simulations, and consider the final outcome of your projects with post-processing techniques. Both Part 1 and Part 2 will teach you how to use Autodesk Fusion 360.
- Session 3, Tuesday July 18, 2-3 PM, instructor TBA: Coding/Generative Design. In this session, you’ll learn how to use coding language to generate 3D models in Processing.
- Session 4, July 20-27: Design Week. Participants will create and refine a final design, based on a set of specifications, for a class-wide contest. The winner will be announced in a future article on 3DPrint.com.
All times are ET.
As you can see, there’s a lot to learn. If you already have some experience in 3D design, you can skip Beginner Design (though Beginner Design is recommended) and just take Advanced, or you can take both. Group discounts are also available; groups of three or more can save 20% on registration. Contact us for more information. Discuss in the Design for 3D Printing forum at 3DPB.com.