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DesignSpark Mechanical: Top features and tips by Richard Gledhill (Hitex UK)

Up until now, free 3D software has generally lacked really useful features, or it’s been hampered by a limited number of incompatible file formats. I’ve played around with Google SketchUp and Autodesk 123D, but could never get my brain around them, despite being an expert in hardware and software design.

However, two days with DesignSpark Mechanical (DSM) and its tutorials, and I was drawing complex cubes and cylinders. It just clicked. For the first time in my engineering life, I can really show my creative side.

My favourite DesignSpark Mechanical features

Create shell: The ‘create shell’ function allows you to convert a solid object into a shell, like taking the lid off a cardboard box. This is so much easier than creating an enclosure from scratch.

Corkscrew: It enables you to create screw threads very easily, either the inner (like a bottle cap) or the outer (like a bottle neck).Very clever stuff.

DSM gives you access to these powerful features but, somehow, combines them with a very simple user interface. Normally, it’s either easy-to-use, or powerful, not both – DSM is the first professional 3D software to be straightforward to pick up, powerful and best of all: free! 

Tips for beginners

One bit of advice would be to download the demo and have a play with it for a couple of hours, working your way through the tutorials. Without covering the basic controls, you’ll find it a bit weird, but just a few minutes with a tutorial will sort all that and get you running quickly.

As for the DesignSpark tutorials, I’d recommend the video on ‘inserting 3D models into a panel design’. It’s very useful as it describes not only how to find and download parts online, but also how to put them into the design.

Using DSM at Hitex

DesignSpark Mechanical has already found a home at Hitex UK. We are just beginning prototyping a medical device with a customer, and we will be doing some initial concept design work for the enclosure in DSM and 3D printing the results. We are also using DSM with our 3D printer to make test enclosures for some of our other projects. Designers with 3D printers will find DSM absolutely ideal.

More DesignSpark Mechanical tips

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