Hi there, new to this whole gig, from Australia.

[Envisage]

Hi there. I've come up with a design that I want to print and build for sale. It's a small hand held electronic device with minimal electronic complexity etc and not a lot of fine detail to the components. Obviously precise fit on the parts to be printed is important, but more so than usual as I plan to print the moulds in SLA (that's the one that was recommended to me as having a high smoothness and heat resistance) spray the moulds with a temperature spray (yet to research them!) and then use a bench top injection moulder to print out the product. Then I'll be hand assembling them.

I came here hoping to find some advice for CAD programs like Design Spark Mechanical, which I find easy to learn the basics, but very hard to make it do EXACTLY what I want it to do. I've managed to get 90% through the model making process in it, and I've hit a HARD WALL with applying threading to the parts, as I've got them designed in halves so they can effectively be injection moulded.

It's so painful to try to learn these programs alone. Does anyone know of a discord channel for it? Or a program that wont cost me money that I can use to rebuild the design?

Anyway, come say hello, I'll be around to check if I get any hits quite often I assume!

With Kind Regards,
Matthew Sargent.

[Xenocrates]

To clarify, the threads themselves are bisected, or the holes are? In either case, if DSM supports boolean operations (I've not used it), you should be able to create a threaded component and subtract that from the main body to create the threads. If not, Fusion 360 (It's free) will do this. However, I advise you don't use injection molded threads, as they pull out easily, and would like to suggest either using self tapping screws (Since any molded in threads will be weak and prone to errors, you at least get more material that can be cut into and hopefully heal slightly), or better (but more expensively), threaded heat set inserts.

As far as the mold side goes, I would contact Formlabs about their high-temp engineering resin, since they explicitly note injection molds as a use case for it. It's expensive at something like 200 USD per liter, but it's a lot cheaper than a machined mold.

[joe]

Or a program that wont cost me money that I can use to rebuild the design?

.

Fusion 360 my friend. http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion ... wAodrSgJgw

Free for enthusiasts and startups making less than $100 grand a year.
It blows Design Spark Mechanical out of the water. very easy to learn, tons of tutorials and constantly updated.

[Envisage]

Hey guys, that's some great tips, thanks so much for the replies. I'm on Fusion 360 at the moment and I'll definitely check out Formlabs!

Thanks so much