Abstract:

Nowadays, secondary schools face the task of preparing students to master modern technologies that they will encounter in their professional life after the studies. These technologies include also 3D printing. An important part of 3D printing technology is obtaining a data model of the object to be printed. It is possible to obtain the model in different ways: take it from someone else who had prepared it before, scan a real physical object, or create a model using CAD (Computer-Aided Design) applications. In terms of the learning process, the most important for students is to gain the ability to create their own digital model of the future object. Such model will have exactly the required parameters and it will be also possible to make additional changes there according to specific requirements. Moreover, the students are involved in a creative activity by preparing the model. There are various software tools available which can serve to create the models. Different requirements for the resulting model will be at art schools and different at technical schools. According to these requirements and students’ abilities it is therefore necessary to choose the appropriate software for creating a model and its subsequent physical realization by a 3D printer. In the presented paper, several CAD applications for creating 3D models for printing by FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling) technology are introduced and compared. Practical experience with creating models for 3D printing at a secondary school is also given here.

Keywords:

3D printing, 3D printer, CAD, educational process.