Blog posts of '2017' 'December'

In 2016, SelfCAD was introduced to the 3D printing community as a tool that brought modeling, slicing and sculpting capabilities together in one program. The online, browser-based software was designed to simplify the 3D printing process for beginners and advanced users and to make the technology more easily accessible to everyone. Tools such as Magic Fix make sure that 3D designs are printable, and generators help users to easily create advanced shapes.

The makers of SelfCAD, however, have made it clear that while this is a great tool for beginners, it’s not just a tool for beginners. Advanced users can get a lot of valuable use out of SelfCAD, and the team recently heeded the feedback of those advanced users to add a new, comprehensive set of drawing tools.

“Although our existing 3D drawing won great appreciation from artists, especially our free hand and real-time boolean drawings, we continued to receive requests from the industrial designer community to add traditional 2D drawing as well,” said Aaron Breuer, Founder of SelfCAD.

ition to its 3D drawing tools, SelfCAD now offers a set of 2D drawing tools, including the following:

• Brush drawing
• Text drawing
• Line drawing
• Spline drawing
• Circular drawing
• Rectangular drawing
• Ellipse drawing
• Donut drawing

Users can still drag and drop basic shapes from the shape generator in the right-side menu, but drawing is now easier thanks to the basic shape modes. All you need to do is select a mode, then click and drag to scale the shape.

“Line drawing allows you to draw rectangular shapes, every click creates an edge connected to the previous one. Another added feature: converting lines into splines and combine lines and splines into one shape,” said SelfCAD Product Manager Natalia. 

SelfCAD hopes that, along with its inexpensive price, the new drawing tools will attract more advanced users such as product designers, product developers and engineers in 2018. It will remain a beginner-friendly software, however, with accessibility being a priority, hence the low cost and ease of use.

“SelfCAD’s mission is to make 3D designing and printing accessible to everyone, including professional designers, as well as hobbyists and students who have little to no prior expertise using CAD/CAM software,” the company stated. “One of the greatest achievements of SelfCAD is its simplicity and a low entry price point. Advanced shapes can be created within minutes using various shape creators. SelfCAD is an online browser-based CAD/CAM platform which allows the user to model, sculpt, slice and print online. With SelfCAD, users do not have to spend months learning complex software and pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege. SelfCAD is about simplicity, affordability and accessibility. Designers can learn, create, and print objects in a fraction of the time required with traditional CAD/CAM software.”

SelfCAD offers a free 30-day trial to interested users, and is offered for $5.99/month or $39.99/year, with free two-year licenses available for students, teachers and nonprofits.