Digital Design Software
Fab Lab Tulsa is a digital fabrication laboratory that heavily uses software. Familiarity with software or at least the drive to learn new software is essential for all lab members.
The lab uses many free software packages for design purposes that anyone can download and start using on their own personal computer. Follow the links below to view some free software packages and whenever possible utilize online tutorials to accelerate your learning experience.
| 2D DESIGN SOFTWARE | 3D EDITING SOFTWARE |
3D DESIGN SOFTWARE | 3D SCANNING SOFTWARE | 3D PRINTING SOFTWARE |
| Inkscape | Mesh Mixer | TinkerCAD | ReconstructMe | MakerBot Print |
| QCAD | MeshLab | SketchUp | Formlabs Preform | |
| SolidEdge | 3D Builder | Cura | ||
| Gimp | Blender | |||
| LibreCAD | Sculptris | |||
| Fusion 360 | ||||
| Onshape | ||||
| OpenSCAD | ||||
| FreeCAD | ||||
| MICROCONTROLLER SOFTWARE | CIRCUIT DESIGN SOFTWARE | |||
| Arduino | Eagle | |||
| Python | Fritzing | |||
| DesignSpark |
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| KiCad |
Fab Modules
The MIT Center for Bits and Atoms and the international fab lab network are developing software to facilitate tool-pathing for and communicating with digital fabrication machinery commonly found in all fab labs. You can a find a downloadable version for Ubuntu and OSX here and a web version at fabmodules.org. This software is under development.
Trial and Other Software
| 2D DESIGN SOFTWARE | 3D DESIGN SOFTWARE |
LAB MACHINERY SOFTWARE |
| TurboCAD (Trial) | Solidworks (Trial) | CutStudio (Vinyl Cutter) |
| CorelDraw (Trial) | Geomagic Design (Trial, fmr. Alibre) | Bantam Software (PCB Milling Machine) |
| CorelCAD (Trial) | Rhinoceros (Trial) | VCarve Pro (Large Milling Machine) |
| Adobe Products | AutoDesk Inventor (Trial) | |
| Moment of Inspiration |
File Formats
File format is more important than the software used to create your digital part file. Below is a list of design file formats necessary to communicate with the lab’s machinery.
| MACHINE | DESIGN FILE FORMAT(S) |
| VINYL CUTTER | |
| LASER CUTTER | |
| FDM 3D PRINTERS | .STL, .OBJ |
| SLA 3D PRINTER | .STL, .OBJ |
| PCB MILLING MACHINE | .SVG, GBR |
| LARGE MILLING MACHINE | .CRV, .DXF, .DWG, .EPS, .AI, .PDF, .PVC, .V3D, .V3M, .SKP,, SVG, .STL, .3DM, .3DS, .ASC, .PRJ, .X, .LWO, .WRL, .OBJ, .JPEG, .JPG, .BMP, .GIF, .TIF, .TIFF, .PNG, |
