Any good guides to getting started?

[jeremy-gillick 0]

I just ordered my first 3D printer (an Ultimaker, of course) and while I wait for it to arrive I'd like to start learning all I can. I'm familiar with the basics and have some experience with Sketchup and CAD programs. Now I'd like to get into the nitty gritty, however I cannot seem to find many guides to 3D printing. I see a lot of of one-off topics across the internet and buying guides but have yet to find a complete guide to learning 3D printing. Perhaps I've been looking in all the wrong places.

I've also been browsing thingiverse and collecting parts that I want to print and know that simply learning through experience will be valuable.

What are your favorite resources and guides?

 

[shaqiu 0]

This link is for reprap users but also contains sufficient contents for a ultimaker beginner :-)

http://reprap.org/wiki/The_incomplete_reprap_beginner's_guide

 

[drayson 75]

Hi Jeremy,

great to hear that you choose an UM. Which one? the UM1 or UM2?

Basically it is very easy. There should be some kind of flowchart somewhere in this forum (if I remember correctly...)

You downloaded or modeled a part (STL-file), then just load it into cura and it automatically starts slicing. For beginning, I would suggest to use the quickprint setting first so you get a first wow-effect :-)

Regarding guides, you will find a lot of information and advices here in the forum.

For resources, I can suggest thingiverse as it has a loooooooot stuff in there, but it´s Makerbot-driven and the conditions for publish things are a bit "strange"...

Youmagine is the Ultimaker-related source, with a lot better publishing rules and really open source.

I hope I catched the things you´re interested in but I guess there will be a few more giving their input... :-)

 

[skint 62]

I would also like to see a " Complete Noobs guide to printing ".

 

[jeremy-gillick 0]

I got a UM2. As much as I love the idea of building my own machine from scratch and customizing it, my free time is limited and know that it would be more rewarding at first to get running and building quickly and homebrew later as I get my footing. I've been watching the 3D printer area for years and am amazingly excited to have my first one on the way!

Looks like the reprap guide is a good place to start. Building stuff from thingiverse (and youmagine) will also be helpful, but I know there are things that many people don't know out the gate. Like the 45 degree rule and support structures. I can only imagine there are other things to learn and know as you go. Maybe I'll start to put together some sort of guide and lessons learned as I go.

 

[peggyb 171]

here you are:

http://richrap.blogspot.nl