Just as important to the 3D printing community as the printers themselves, is the software people use to create their models with. Within just a couple of years we have gone from software which has had a steep learning 
Recently Autodesk has been working diligently with 3D printing industry leader 3D Systems to cater their software more towards the 3D printing community. Past updates have seen several key integrations of features which make the software a breeze to use, for those looking to 3D print their models.
This week Autodesk released their 123D Design software update V1.4. The update, which is the first in nearly a year, continues to expand on its 3D printing offerings, and includes the following key changes/additions:
- A new UI introduces similar look and feel with other products from the 123D family, like Tinkercad.
- Easier access to all of your models and projects, regardless of the app you made them in. MyProjects provides access to models created in 123D Catch, 123D Make and 123D Creature.
- Support for opening, inserting, and saving meshes in STL and OBJ formats.
- Perform Combine, Subtract and Intersect operations between meshes and solids.
- New option for combining objects on STL export, in order to support printers that read first body only.
- Import SVG files and use them as sketches or as simple extrusions.
- Drop selected objects to the grid with a simple key (F10).
- Added option for hiding grid.
- New toggle for enabling or disabling implicit grouping when snapping between parts.
- New option for defining snapping increments for different operations.
- 3D Print now sends model to Meshmixer for processing before 3D printing.
- Premium members can now download unlimited models from 123D Content Library.
- Free members can now download up to 10 models a month.
- Stability fixes on Copy-Paste.
- Performance and stability bug fixes.
- Support for 3dconnexion devices.
- Shortcut Keys on F1.
- Feedback Survey directly in app under Help.
- Also includes updates for 123D Premium members, and bug fixes.
As the 3D printing market expands, we will likely be seeing faster, more comprehensive updates to the various CAD / 3D modelling software on the market. This will come as developers all try to compete for interest among the 3D printing community. Autodesk 123D Design is a free software with an option to upgrade. The software can be download here. If you have problems or simply want to discsuss 123D V1.4, check out the forum thread.
