3D CAD with Autodesk 123D: Designing for 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, and Personal Fabrication

If you've arrived at a stage in your creative life where you're ready to do more with your computer, it's time to learn how to combine its power with new advances in computer-aided design (CAD) and fabrication to make something awesome--in three dimensions!

The free suite of Autodesk 123D software offers all the tools you need to capture or design three-dimensional objects and characters. This book tells you how to harness that power to print or fabricate just about anything you can imagine.

Want to make something mechanical or structural that's based on precise measurements? 123D Design can help! Ready to create something cool based on a character, an organic shape, or something found in nature? 123D Catch, 123D Meshmixer, and 123D Sculpt+ will assist.

Learn how to use these tools, plus 123D Make--perfect for prototyping designs you'll cut with a CNC mill--to take your creativity to a new level.

An ideal book for Makers, hobbyists, students, artists, and designers (including beginners!), this book opens up the inexpensive world of personal fabrication to everyone.

In 3D CAD with Autodesk 123D, you'll:

• Meet the classic Stanford bunny and learn to modify it with Meshmixer
• Scan and 3D print anything around you
• Design your own 3D-printed guitar
• Find models in the Sculpt+ community and make a skeleton!
• Build a birdhouse, prototype a playground, or create a statue
• Learn everything from basics to troubleshooting skills
• Get started making right away

Jesse Harrington Au is a fourteen-year veteran of using CAD for engineering, character development and animation. Jesse speaks, blogs, writes curriculum, gives workshops and makes creations of all kinds through his work with Autodesk. Jesse has created amazing interactive designs for clients of all sizes including the Exploratorium, Resident Evil Studios, Mathalete and Catapult design. He has also given groundbreaking workshops such as en-light-enment, which focused on introducing the idea of pedal power technology as a teaching platform at the Future of Energy Leadership Conference in Pristina, Kosovo.

Emily Gertz is a correspondent for OnEarth Magazine. She has been covering DIY environmental monitoring since 2004, when she interviewed engineer-artist Natalie Jeremijenko for Worldchanging.com. Her latest, on citizen radiation monitoring in Japan, was published by OnEarth Magazine in April 2011. She has been hands-on with internet technologies since 1994 as a web producer, community host, and content strategist. Her articles have appeared in Grist, Dwell, Scientific American, Popular Mechanics, and more.