Can a tinkercad file be turned into a real cad drawing?

[D.sebens]

I am going to make some more tool holders for my lathe and I figured I'd make a cad drawing for fun. I could just copy the one in hand but wanted to exercise my mind a little drawing it up. I have everything but the dovetail on the back before I thought, can I even print this in a drafting format for machining? I dont see that as an option with tinkercad. Freecad makes my brain go fuzzy. I can export to .obj .stl .glb and .svg. Do any of these formats play nice with other cad programs? If so would someone want to import it to their program and show the measurements in a 3 view(or iso I guess)? I'm not done with it yet, I figure why bother unless I can do something with the end file.

 

[Flyinfool]

the STL should import into most CAD programs.

STL is also the output type that is used for most 3D printers.

When you import a part from one CAD program to another, the part will lose all history. You can still edit the part but you will not be able to make changes by editing the sketches that were originally used to make the part. The new CAD program will let you make a new sketch on any surface and you can then cut or extrude that sketch for editing.

Unless the part is real complex you are often better starting over in the new CAD program.

 

[D.sebens]

Dangit! The problem is I don’t know what free to use program I should use. The freecad seemed very complicated and also would screw up quite a bit on my mac.

 

[WobblyHand]

Can you export to STEP? At least a step file is a transportable CAD file. STL's are meshes. Yeah you can print from them, but they aren't good for CAD.

 

[D.sebens]

Just the files I listed. Tinkercad is an autodesk platform so I imagine it’s locked down due to that. It will transfer to fusion 360 if I owned it. I think I could share it to someone that does have it though.

 

[WobblyHand]

FreeCAD along with many other 3D CAD programs takes a while to get going. I watched a video series to learn FreeCAD. I did about a dozen videos before I was confident enough to start doing my own designs. Took me about three weeks to learn the basics.

 

[D.sebens]

I couldn’t even make a hole in a part with freecad. Also it had random errors in the script screen part and functions wouldn’t work.

I have Linux on my server but don’t really want to use that. Id either have to go to the basement or vnc and don’t really want to do either. There might of been updates to freecad since I tried it.


I learned in school with autocad. Drawing 2d in 3 view or iso seems so much easier. Much like real drafting. Now everything is 3d.

 

[WobblyHand]

I run Linux all the time, it's on my laptop. But I wouldn't vnc to the server unless you have a very fast network. If you do, it might be worthwhile. I compiled FreeCAD 0.22dev on my machine and am running it. Once you get all the prerequisites, it's not bad. Or you can run the AppImage. I didn't learn cad in school. I didn't learn it at work either, which didn't help my career any. I was way too busy at work and they weren't big on the staff improving their skills on work time. But I did learn it at home. I dedicated the time for it. I told myself that I was going to learn it, and I sat down and did that. It took a bit of uninterrupted time, but it has been well worth it.

The 3d stuff is a change from conventional drafting. But I've found knowing CAD to be extremely helpful in visualizing things, or designing them. Except for some simple stuff, I design everything in CAD, create drawings for it, and then machine it. It turns out to be faster and cheaper for me to do it this way.

 

[D.sebens]

I run Linux all the time, it's on my laptop. But I wouldn't vnc to the server unless you have a very fast network. If you do, it might be worthwhile. I compiled FreeCAD 0.22dev on my machine and am running it. Once you get all the prerequisites, it's not bad. Or you can run the AppImage. I didn't learn cad in school. I didn't learn it at work either, which didn't help my career any. I was way too busy at work and they weren't big on the staff improving their skills on work time. But I did learn it at home. I dedicated the time for it. I told myself that I was going to learn it, and I sat down and did that. It took a bit of uninterrupted time, but it has been well worth it.

The 3d stuff is a change from conventional drafting. But I've found knowing CAD to be extremely helpful in visualizing things, or designing them. Except for some simple stuff, I design everything in CAD, create drawings for it, and then machine it. It turns out to be faster and cheaper for me to do it this way.

I’ve built a lot from source. It’s not the fear of Linux just the inconvenience. I might try it on there. I actually believe I can do x (display server)forwarding in mac through ssh. Then it would run like a program on mac. It would have less overhead than vnc.

 

[WobblyHand]

I’ve built a lot from source. It’s not the fear of Linux just the inconvenience. I might try it on there. I actually believe I can do x (display server)forwarding in mac through ssh. Then it would run like a program on mac. It would have less overhead than vnc.

Yes, you can ssh into your server and run graphics remotely given decent network bandwidth. I'd rather do that than vnc. Vnc isn't very good for CAD, BTDT.