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Check out this Luna-ish stabby cat “keychain” I modeled and printed (hexbear.net)

submitted 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) by Carcharodonna@hexbear.net to c/hobby@hexbear.net

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I was inspired by this: https://www.printables.com/model/86396-self-defense-cat but wanted to make it more robust, so I traced the shape and made my own model in pirated Solidworks. One side looks better than the other but came out well overall I think. It’s thicker and at 100% infill. Also much sharper. Would certainly hurt to get punched in the face with this… “keychain”.

EDIT: I'd be happy to share the file too if anyone wants it. I'm not sure where I could upload it but I'd be willing to try.

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[–] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

What are your thoughts on Solidworks vs. other solid modeling applications? I use FreeCAD at home to model things for my 3D printer, but I've also had the opportunity to use Creo Parametric (formerly Pro-Engineer) at work. We have Solidworks too (the software is on the computer), but I haven't gone out of my way to get IT to set up the licensing because it is a bit beyond my job description to begin with. In my humble opinion, I am pretty happy with FreeCAD, but the fillet tool will absolutely kill you at the end of the day.

In my experience, Creo is (obviously) more robust, but the gap gets smaller every year, and there have been several occasions where the engineers are hogging all the licenses so I'll just bang something out in FreeCAD. We have a couple CNC programs in production (tens of thousands of parts made) which started as a sketches in the FreeCAD sketcher workbench.

[–] Carcharodonna@hexbear.net 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

I use solidworks because it's familiar to me and tbf it is a very nice CAD program and has a ton of neat features, but honestly I would never pay for it. Others I've tried include Freecad, Fusion 360, and Blender CAD Sketcher. Freecad felt difficult for me but this was awhile back and I didn't spend a ton of time trying to learn it. Fusion 360 feels like it lacks features compared to SW and now they keep your files in the cloud which sounds horrible. Blender CAD Sketcher is surprisingly easy to use and would probably be useful for more creative modeling since it is a Blender add-on, but it handles models different from Solidworks. I've heard Freecad is a lot better now, so I've been meaning to DL it again and try it out.

EDIT: One more thing... Solidworks is pretty easy to pirate of course, so is worth trying out.

[–] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

but honestly I would never pay for it.

Well yeah. You might as well buy a CNC mill with that money :D

I haven't tried SW, but from my experience with Creo, the workflow is very similar to FreeCAD. Designing 2D sketches driven by an algebraic constraint solver, extruding / pocketing them, and repeating indefinitely. You could run into similar problems as well, like if you make a sketch on an unreliable datum, and then go change sketches and dimensions earlier in the model tree, it is fairly easy to break the model. FreeCAD was notoriously fragile in this regard, but the 1.0 release incorporated significant improvements to what they call the "topological naming problem." None the less, I feel like these trials have made me better. There are often several ways to model the same geometry, but it helps to spend some time thinking about what is the most robust approach. What has the least likelihood to explode if you go back and change something? There is a methodology behind this which carries across to all CAD systems.

I'm kind of surprised to hear Blender CAD is in good shape. It always seemed like a cursed project to me, but I haven't taken a close look in a long time. Not to say Blender itself is bad. Like you said, It is probably the most capable free software program when it comes to doing 3D sculptures and such. I've only dabbled with it in amateur game development, and in that discipline it is incredibly solid.

One more thing... Solidworks is pretty easy to pirate of course, so is worth trying out.

Good to know. I should try it out, if only because it would help me get in the door for a CNC programming position.

For the record, the same is true for Creo Parametric. The main reason I haven't used it much at home is because of issues running it in WINE on Linux. Rebooting to run it on Windows was too inconvenient for me to invest much time in it. But if that isn't a problem, it's an option for anybody reading.

[–] Carcharodonna@hexbear.net 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Well yeah. You might as well buy a CNC mill with that money :D

They do (I think) have a student or non-business version for cheaper but it's still relatively pricey, especially compared to free.

I haven't tried SW, but from my experience with Creo, the workflow is very similar to FreeCAD. Designing 2D sketches driven by an algebraic constraint solver, extruding / pocketing them, and repeating indefinitely.

This is basically Solidworks too but has a lot of different tools for doing specific things and also has some pretty powerful simulation addons if you need to do anything like make load-bearing parts. Also is good for setting up custom workflows and alternate configurations and a bunch of other potentially useful stuff.

I'm kind of surprised to hear Blender CAD is in good shape. It always seemed like a cursed project to me, but I haven't taken a close look in a long time. Not to say Blender itself is bad. Like you said, It is probably the most capable free software program when it comes to doing 3D sculptures and such. I've only dabbled with it in amateur game development, and in that discipline it is incredibly solid.

I'm talking about this specifically: https://www.cadsketcher.com/ I haven't used it in a bit but when I did it was pretty easy to learn. Probably not something you'd use for really complex models but seems great for stuff like 3D prints.

The main reason I haven't used it much at home is because of issues running it in WINE on Linux. Rebooting to run it on Windows was too inconvenient for me to invest much time in it.

Solidworks might also have this issue... Not sure the best way to run it on Linux. I wonder if Proton would work for it?

[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 5 points 4 hours ago

Hell yeah! catgirl-salute

[–] whatnots@hexbear.net 6 points 5 hours ago

[–] Vingst@hexbear.net 7 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

That's cool but if you really want to carry something for less-lethal self defense, please just carry pepper spray. You're just gonna hurt your hand and piss off an attacker if you use this.

[–] Carcharodonna@hexbear.net 9 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

It does feel pretty comfy in my hand and I don't think this would cause life-threatening injuries. It would definitely inflict a great deal of pain and maybe take an eye or two out. I agree that pepper spray is ideal though for stopping an attacker, though.

Honestly though this is really just me being a mall ninja and making something fun and slightly dangerous.

[–] Vingst@hexbear.net 7 points 5 hours ago

Right on, that's reasonable.

[–] TheRogueKitten@hexbear.net 5 points 5 hours ago

You have my attention. 🐈‍⬛️

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 2 points 5 hours ago

Can Sailor Moon throw these like batarangs? Super cool.