It was in 2017 that I painfully entered into the practice of 3D printing. Pain because what could a beginner do, if not buy a Delta and first of all, unmount the firmware and tinker with it?

This was before learning how to calibrate the plate! What then in a delta from 300 € is more a mix of magic, blasphemies and luck.

One thing that bored me a lot was to look for ready-made drawings, so I started studying FreeCad, for the sake of learning how to use it, not so much for printing.

In a day of desperation, I sold the Delta and finally moved on to something sensible for a beginner, the Cartesian, Creality Ender 3.

The plate calibrated in 2 minutes and produced absolutely perfect prints immediately, jubilation.

Last year, I decided that the cad was too boring for one who takes the measurements, so I made the big jump to the 3D sculpture with the ZBrush software.

Regarding the 3D sculpture and knowing nothing about it, I had the unfortunate idea of giving €300 for a video course to the scammers of vfxwizard.

A course made by beasts, in which nothing was explained, the montages were glued to the c ... or in a lesson halfway there was another video attached that had nothing to do with the previous.

Once those scammers were sent to that country, I decided to follow the most obvious way, or RTFM.

Read The ****** Manual!

Having zero bases of topology, shaders and similiar, I started to read the manual in English , (i'm italian) , which was taken from the software and from the site.

Slowly, I began to understand the videos in English until I discovered the channel in Spanish. Spanish is like the Venetian dialect, and then they explain very well in comparison to the Americans.

Tutorial Kames For Zbrush

Juan Gonalez Gomez For FreeCad

They really have an edge, and listening to them is always pleasant.

Once I started drawing with 3D printing in mind (an extra level of difficulty), I had to find a place that would give me the satisfaction to continue.

Thingiverse is a broth of junk stolen and thrown away, landfill style.

Pinshape and company were not focused on the press.

Cult3D: b'oh there was no feeling

MyMiniFactory did not inspire me at the beginning but followed my "better few but good" principle.

MyMiniFactory

MyMiniFactory immediately has an effective impact for the designers, you have to prove that the object is printable, through a photo of the object. Which should not be underestimated.

Once they did the press, but the amount of objects is substantially high, and therefore before it is published, a human review passes.

If you cannot print the object, you will have to wait for some good Samaritan to print your object, but if you are a beginner, months will pass.

Overtime on MyMiniFactory, I got to talk to the team members and this, in my eyes, diversified it from the others.

Behind it all there is a team, real, interested in making the project and its users grow.

I participated in the new customizer, giving feedback, which did not end in space, there was someone to interact with, a human relationship; which I had not perceived elsewhere.

The sore point is the sales, to skim the Sunday sellers, there is a tax of 25 € per month, in my opinion very high, based on the prices of the items on sale.

But on the other hand, they advertise you, they follow you and you are not just a number.

Adi of MyMiniFactory advised me to focus on three categories, so I spent some time looking for them.

I went from furniture knobs to D&D style miniatures, and finally to the "statuettes" on the 10cm.

The latter allowed me to enjoy the details, without going crazy to print them.

I had great satisfaction when on Twitter, MyMiniFactory republished some of my designs, I am a mega beginner, so being noticed gave me enormous satisfaction.

Then I had fun creating my fairy houses in the customizer.

Today I celebrate, my goal of

70,697 visits to my profile
501 likes
3,791 downloads
43 followers
68 published objects

It is a great milestone for a beginner who started from scratch.

In such a short time and calculating that I studied and experienced everything, in the little free time between two young children, the creation of content for RaspberryItaly.com and Moreware.org , other problems family to follow and other new hobbies to try.

To date, the time to draw is increasingly scarce, but being able to create your own ideas always gives great joy.

FreeCad is a bit scabby in some cases, luckily I discovered TinkerCad , perfect for creating a printable CAD project in simplicity.

I met Tinkercad thanks to one of the many MyMiniFactory competitions. The competitions are exciting and the prizes fantastic, I recommend you to participate.

Enrico Sartori

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