One month ago, I didn't really know what 3D printing was. Yesterday, I designed in FreeCAD my first model and printed it. What an amazing experience.

It appears that you need to get the nozzle closer to the print bed. You shouldn't have gaps between the lines like the rough side. Also, check the slicer settings to make sure it's doing several top layers/walls.
- Please forgive my rudimentary knowledge here, but if it was a z height issue, wouldn't it affect the bottom part of the print where it's nice and smooth as well? I clean and level between every print, and the corners seem to be very snug at least using the paper method. It's just enough clearance that I can still push and pull the paper without it catching on the nozzle
  
  For one thing, the paper method only gets you so close. I find you actually have to watch your first layer go down and adjust that way. If you have a Prusa, there is a menu where you can make adjustments as it's printing and it has a first layer calibration tool built in.
  Second, check the slicer and see what it's calling the very top layer vs what it's calling the part that looks messed up. I'm willing to bet that the clean looking part is called top layer, whereas the messed up part isn't. Prusa slicer ads additional material when it knows that it's the very top of a print so that it looks better.
  Either that, or is say you had a clog which caused under extension, but that may have worked out by the end of your print.
- How can you tell that OP hasn’t leveled their bed properly? You can’t see the bottom layer in their picture.
  
  Not level, Z height. Z height shows as lines spaced too far apart. Could also be under-extruding.

If you can get used to an open source tool like free cat, don't let anyone here dissuade you from it. Something to be aware of with the closed source tools is that at any moment they can take them away. CAD tools like that are super expensive if there isn't a free plan, and there's every reason to believe that someday the free plan will go away.
I haven't been able to wrap my head around freak out because just not that smart, but that doesn't mean I don't realize tinkercad can go away at any moment. It metaphorically keeps me up at night.
- I think FreeCAD would win a lot more converts if it focused on usability. Fusion360 and Onshape are parametric modelers just like FreeCAD yet they're way simpler, taskcentric and more forgiving tools to use.
  
  The worst thing about FreeCAD is that it's extremely unreliable. You click a wrong button and your work is gone.

What slicer are you using?
Also was the clean part attached to the bed or do you have ironing turned in on the slicer?
- I'm using Prusa slicer. I don't think I have ironing turned on, but I'll double check

Hey, I'm working on a guitar pedal. It is a multi-effects pedal based on a Pi Pico:
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It will connect to a VGA monitor and have cool visual effects to go along the with the playing. So far I have implemented:
Delay, Room Echoes, Low Pass, High Pass, Bandpass, Wah Pedal, Phaser, Flanger, Distortion, Overdrive, and Ring Modulator.
The pedal can be programmed so that several effects are cascaded.

Congrats, and enjoy your new tools.
3D printing to me is still amazing; if you can think it, you can design it on a computer, and then you can make it real. Blows my mind to go from idea to real in just a few hours.

Did you turn layer ironing / smoothing on for the last layer not all top layers? Aside from smoothing modern slicers can also use more attractive patterns for top layers than zig zag such as hilbert.
It also looks like you might have underflow issues so maybe check your e-step setting on your printer to ensure you're extruding proper amount of filament. There are articles that explain the process but you basically mark a reference point on the filament, e.g. 10cm away from where it enters the extruder, tell the printer to extrude 10cm, mark and measure how far away the mark is from where it's meant to be. So if the filament moves 7cm when it should have 10cm then your e-steps need to be multiplied by 10/7.

Look at OpenSCAD too, if you have clumsy hands or tunnel syndrome or something.
It's for drawing objects for printing with code, using primitives and CSG, and a very simple tool to use at that.

FreeCad is a nice foss entry, but it tends to get arcane the further you dive. If you find fc stops doing what you need then try fusion 360. F360 is closed source and makes you save files in the cloud so it's a birch that way, but about 10x easier to use.
- F360 personal is limited to 10 saved designs, and I don't know how expensive but a lot. I mean I use it but I wish I didn't
  
  10 saves that you can actively work on. You can toggle them between “editable” and “read only” at any time, so it’s a stupid nuisance but not really more than that.
  At least it doesn’t force you to publish designs online like onshape does
  
  What a shitty limitation though.
  
  Same
  
  I mean I just export my files to my drive and then the 20 file limitation is nonexistent
- I used to recommend F360 for beginner but now I think Onshape is a better option.
  
  Onshape is indeed quite easy to get the hang of. Only downside is that it doesn't work that well with a shitty internet connection. So trying to finish a model between classes was definitely easier when I was still using f360.
- Avoid cloud based software. All of your work disappears when it gets shut down or if they just feel like deleting your files or closing your account for any reason they choose.
  There are other open source CAD programs like SolveSpace, which many people consider to be easier than FreeCAD.
  There is BRL-CAD which is quite capable if you don't mind the 1980's style GUI. There is also OpenSCAD if you like scripting instead of a point and click interface.
  
  Haven't heard off solve space, will try it out
  
  Solvespace is amazing, the interface is probably the most consistent among any CAD program. Unfortunately volumetric operations (Union, subtraction ..) are kind of buggy sometimes.
- Me again with unpopular approach, just pirate solidworks and enjoy the best CAD experience 😉

Did you print the foot switch upside down and then flip it? If so, how does its other side look?
I can’t tell how the surface quality is by the knobs.
Your “main” top surface looks like under-extrusion.
- It's all a single part, so that's how it printed. I have a sneaking suspicion it's because of how I did the steps in free CAD, not having a clue what I was doing, etc. before I pass any judgment, I'm going to print other files and see if the issue persists. I'm already planning to rebuild the entire thing in free CAD again, using what I've learned in the process
  
  It’d be interesting to see what it looked like in the slicer, just in case it’s obvious there.
  And yeah, each new FreeCAD project I do builds on what I’ve learned and it gets easier to get better results.

No idea why you're having issues 3d printing. I've never heard of FreeCAD. But curious if you've ever tried Blender? It's free, and really good for modeling stuff like this.
- Blender is the last thing I would recommend to someone making functional parts like that. Fusion 360 is probably a more intuitive leap from FreeCAD, or OnShape, which I wish I had learned instead of Fusion in the first place.
- I've been familiar with Blender for many years, at least by name, being a Linux nerd for probably half my life. Never really used it though, in truth I had to pick a cad software and that was available in the repositories lol. I do find a free CAD maddeningly frustrating to use though, so maybe I should check out blender too.
  
  Blender is great for decorative/pretty stuff. CAD software is great for functional stuff as pointed out by others. It’s just so much easier to get accurate measurements and dimensions with CAD software compared to blender.
  
  I would definitely give it a try, maybe a flavor of 3.6 since 4 just came out. But over the last 19 years it's really had some major improvements and works really well for a free software (relatively bug free) for what it is. Best of luck on your 3D printing journey!
- Blender, even with the CAD plug-in, does not have the dimensional precision required for real engineering modeling. The Blender UI is also even clunkier than FreeCAD in many ways.

Seems to be underextruded a bit.
Probably something to do with temperature or your nozzle being slightly clogged.
See if you have the setting for "ironing" turned on in your slicer.
- Thanks, everyone seems to agree on the under extrusion bit, so that definitely seems like what it is. I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure out exactly what. I may look at the e steps next. Ironing is not turned on, and I just cleaned the nozzle.
  
  Before you go through a bunch of calibration, I'd see if it happens with a different filament. Those black particles there are likely something with a higher melting point than the surrounding PLA, otherwise they'd "smear" during printing. I'm betting you're hitting some intermittent clogs. See if the problem happens with a single color filament.
  
  I don’t have a prusa, but can you calibrate E steps on that printer? That can definitely result in a nice looking first layer and following less-filled layers if it’s off.

Well we got another one hooked 😂

New Lemmy Post: One month ago, I didn't really know what 3D printing was. Yesterday, I designed in FreeCAD my first model and printed it. What an amazing experience. (https://lemmy.world/post/10186306)
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