I am a teacher and I have 2 Bambu printers in my classroom. My students love looking at what is posted in MakerWorld for inspiration and to use MakerLab.
What apps are people using to make these models? I currently use Nomad Sculpt and Maker’s Empire. I know about TinkerCad, but not a fan.
Any suggestions for myself and my students that are not too difficult to learn?
Thanks.
blender & fusion are often used softwares!
FreeCAD!
Not freecad then…
What grade are your students in and what would you like to accomplish?
And most importantly, why are you not a fan of TinkerCad?
This is what I usually start with with kids, a template of a brick compatible keychain which they can customize:
Up to my biggest project I fully designed in TinkerCad:
I think it is an awesome medium for quick and intuitive designs.
For most of my projects I use SolidWorks but it ain’t easy (comparable to Fusion360) and for more organic modelling/sculpting I use Sculptris which is an intuitive and free clay-like modelling program
I am 3D printing with 5-8th graders. I found tinkercad to be too complicated for many of them. Part of the problem is I only see them for 2 45 minute periods a week for only a few months before I get a new group.
I found MakersEmpire to be similar to Tinkered but much easier for them to understand.
That’s Catan globe is fantastic! 
Nomad Sculpt is also “simple” to use as it is molding a ball of virtual clay.
Forgot to mention we are iPad based…so something that has an iPad app would be best.
I have a feeling Fusion is going to be too complicated, but I will check it out.
no fusion on ipad, so you can skip that one 
but there is Shapr3D, which is quite powerful ipad app
This is the brick-compatible model I made, if you are ever interested. I’ve given multiple classes using this. Ipad isn’t ideal though but most kids are incredibly handy with those touch screens
For anyone interested https://www.makersempire.com
Thanks. I’ll look into it!
Thanks! Appreciate it! I will check it out.
Shapr3D give free education licenses too! Definitely worth a look.
These tools offer a range of complexity and can cater to different skill levels in your classroom.
Thanks, never heard of a couple of those. Will check them out!
Being iPad based, I bet the combination ends up being Shapr3D & Nomad Sculpt. Shapr3D for functional, Nomad for organic. I’ve only used Nomad and it’s very nice.
MakersEmpire, that I mentioned above, is iPad or Web based. The app is actually easy to use too. It is a has a game function combined with 3D design.
Here’s a hot take… Blender will be obsolete this time next year. Don’t waste your time learning it. AI image generation combined with tools like Image-to-3D is the new Blender.
You’ll need a CAD program for functional prints with moving parts, but if you’re just looking to sculpt, here’s a super quick and easy way.
Find an AI image generator that you like. I’ve been using AI Image Generator
It’s free, has a ton of different styles to choose and produces great looking stuff imo, but has a ton of ads that can clutter the screen.
Create a prompt and generate your image. “a tall and furry, scary looking monster ready to pounce with horns, tiny wings, very big hands and lots of teeth.”
Take that image into the MakerWorld Image to 3D tool and convert.
When you open the IT3D output in Bambu Studio, it will want to use 15 colours. You can reduce it to one colour, print and paint by hand if you want. Or you could paint it yourself in Bambu Studio.
I’m currently printing the version I painted.
For functional prints, I’ve been using Shapr3D for about 3 years now and it’s fantastic.
You promised a hot take and you delivered 
The speed at which AI tools are improving is remarkable. As an open source project, I’ll be curious to see what AI tools are incorporated into Blender workflows. It’s pretty interesting how much it has evolved over the 30 (!) years it has been around.
Other aspects of the software (beyond sculpting) may increase the longevity of the tool as well - an example of this would be geometry nodes.
It’ll definitely be fun to watch how things change over the next year! It’s somewhat selfish of me but I hope Blender isn’t obsolete too soon - I starting trying (and failing) to learn it over 20 years ago and just got to the point where I feel semi-competent haha
[Edited to add: thanks for sharing your workflow @Dr_Operator - it’s helpful to see how people are using new tech]
It’s a bit of a hot take but you are right. I too hate starting from a ball of clay to sculpt anything, I can see potential in AI creating the rough shape and me finetuning it in Sculptris. (my end result is too fixed in my head to be satisfied directly)
But, the topic starter has an educational role. I know we will end up in idiocracy soon but isn’t that the age that we at least need to make a slight effort to try and get something working in that noggin up there?
That was my hot take 
