3D Printing your designs using sketchup & a simple 3D printer
Unless you are able to make your own designs yourself. 3D printing is not going to be much fun. YOu will be tied to printing other peoples designs. The are lot’s of 3D software’s out there you can use to make your own 3D designs. If you are a student or an organisation you might want to try the high ends 3D software’s. (Not covered here). These software’s require special training’s but they also offer a lot more than the simple one’s.
If you are an hobbyist or just getting started in 3D designs/printing. I recommend sketchup by trimble.
The following tutorial shows how to make a simple 3D design and actually print it on a simple 3D printer.
Getting Sketchup
Learning the basics
The following tutorial will get you started on sketchup.
Draw a simple cube
Emmanuel Adetutu's blog 