Weston LibGuides: 3D Printing: Goodies: Software and more

Free 3D Printing Tools! Did we mention they are free?

You can find many online tutorials to learn how to use these tools.

Tinkercad
Free 3D drawing software. Exports your drawing as an .stl file. The simplest way to make a 3D object.
Blender
Advanced 3D drawing software. Free. Lots of people swear by it.
Fusion 360
Advanced CAD (computer aided design) software. Sign up as a student for a free account.
Cura
A slicing program designed to work with the Ultimaker 2. This is where you set the size of your object, the printing speed, supports etc.
Netfabb
A free program that repairs your 3D drawings for optimal printing.

Thingiverse
A repository where you can find and share 3D models.
Repables
A repository of 3D printing files.
3D Warehouse
A repository of 3D printable files with an emphasis on design and architecture.
NIH 3D Print Exchange
Provides models that are compatible with 3D printers, and a set of tools to create and share 3D-printable models related to biomedical science.
Smithsonian X 3D
The Smithsonian Institution's new project to support 3D printing with scans from their collection. The selection isn't huge, but it seems like it will grow over time.
Asian Art Museum on Thingiverse
A small collection of models from the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco
Metropolitan Museum of Art on Thingiverse
About 75 3d models from the museum's collection.
British Museum on SketchFab
Some gorgeous models to download.
Sketchfab
A huge repository of 3d models of all types.
YouMagine
A repository where you can share and download 3d designs. Created by the Ultimaker folks.