Got a few filaments of different types, enclosure, fire extinguisher.
Ordered some spare nozzles and bed
Installed Blender (as if I’ll ever be able to use it!), OrcaSlicer, self hosted Obico server (Docker - bleurgh), Mainsail os on a spare Raspberry Pi.
All I need now is a printer. Looks like DPD have lost it. 
Remind me which printer you ordered? The Ace twins have embedded linux “computers” that make your Raspberry Pi incompatible.
If your running Windows on your main PC I’d recommend 2 additional applications.
Microsoft 3D Builder - Used to ship with Windows but they have made it scarce recently.
See Download Microsoft 3D Builder for Windows in 2025: Complete Guide - Let's Print 3D
Fusion Pro - Free hobbyist license. Compare Autodesk Fusion vs Autodesk Fusion for Personal Use | Autodesk
Fusion has a steep learning curve but in my mind superior to blender for solid modeling. Blender is at it’s roots an animation package with solid modeling
added in" later. Fusion is a parametric CAD program.
Sovol sv06 ace. I wasn’t certain all the apps would work but I can always just uninstall again.
My only PC is running on Linux. Fedora 42.
I installed Blender because it’s compatible with Linux and I don’t have to mess with WINE, which is a PITA.
To be honest, I’ve played with the simple tools that come with OrcaSlicer and I suspect they are adequate for anything I might want to do.
Hi,
Fyi, freecad is also compatible with Unix.
Mine runs on debian.
Indeed it is! Even better, available on Flatpak.
Duly installed.
Thanks! I don’t know how I missed that one.
Will seek out some tutorials etc and see if I can work it out.
On Linux, I think you’ll be very happy with OrcaSlicer (I’m running version 2.3.1-dev which has updated Sovol profiles and a couple of other niceties), a browser to use the web based Mainsail interface to control the printer (I like the Brave browser), and FreeCAD. It’s an easy Linux installation and it’s now a stable and fully functional open source parametric CAD program that will be much easier to use for CAD than trying to use Blender which is more of a freehand 3D drawing tool. I recently installed and played with Blender for modeling organic shapes but I do very little of that. It can also repair open mesh STLs. I also have MeshLab installed and it can repair broken STLs as well.
In practice, I almost never use Blender or MeshLab. My tool chain is FreeCAD, OrcaSlicer and the browser to monitor and control the printer. OrcaSlicer talks to the Klipper based printer by sending the G code directly to the printer via WiFi. After that, I monitor the printer in a browser tab, where I can load and unload filament, preheat the bed, monitor and cancel prints, etc.
I recommend not watching the online FreeCAD video tutorials, although some are very good if you are serious about learning CAD. If you do watch, make certain it’s a recent video so you’re seeing something that applies to version 1.0. The user interface kept changing prior to that and earlier videos will have you trying to do things that don’t apply to the modern stable release of FreeCAD.
I’d recommend learning FreeCAD in what I think of as TinkerCAD mode. As soon as you run FreeCAD, select the Part workbench, and not the more complicated Part Design workbench. You can make the Part workbench the default when FreeCAD starts. The Part workbench allows you to design with solids - cube, cylinder, cone, tube, sphere, torus. It’s still parametric CAD but it draws the objects for you and you change the parameters to be the size and shape you want. You can then use Boolean operators to add these primitive shapes together, subtract one from another, or create an intersection of two parts. Then, you can use the fillet tool to round edges or create curved surfaces, and you can use the chamfer tool to bevel edges or create angled surfaces. Combining all of these simple operations together can make some surprisingly complex parts, and you can learn the “real CAD” as needed to do other tasks such as complex organic 3D shapes with engraved text. The YouTube videos are a great way to pick up those advanced skills one at a time, as you need them, in easily learned bite size pieces.
FreeCAD allows you to maintain full parametric control. After 3D printing a test part, you might decide it needs to be 2 mm longer, and a radius needs to be larger. You can simply edit the part in the tree diagram, select the feature you want to change, double click to open a dialog box and change the parameter. Most of my parts are simple repair parts or functional parts, but I think you’ll be surprised at the complexity of parts you can design quickly using FreeCAD with only the Parts workbench.
LED light mount for my motorcycle:
Elbow to repair a pressure washer inlet:
Back panel for my SV08 enclosure:
Back plate for rotary product photo booth:
Cheek rest for a carbine:
I CAD something every other day, so this is just a random sampling of screenshots. Today, I’m 3D scanning a pistol to make a custom TPU-LW pocket holster that’s a perfect fit.
Very interesting. Thanks!
None of it much practical use unless DPD miraculously find my damn printer.
+1 for meshlab.
Be prepared to be overwhelmed at first. Tons of tools and filters to choose from. Load up a model and ruin it, reload and ruin it again, and again. Eventually ruin becomes fix or improve it.
Another you should have installed is OpenSCAD. Lots of parametric models on Thingverse are in SCAD format. I DON’T design with it but I am able to use it to customize downloaded models.
I used OpenSCAD before FreeCAD was available. I think FreeCAD started as a graphical front end for OpenSCAD and FreeCAD can still export an OpenSCAD file. OpenSCAD files are a very small CAD file format because it’s a code description of how a part is made. It would describe a golf ball as a sphere with a smaller sphere repeatedly cut from its surface for the dimples, and the positions of the smaller spheres would be some mathematical function probably in spherical coordinates with a couple of variables incremented in a couple of nested loops. It’d probably be 6-10 lines of code.
OpenSCAD is still a great way to design very geometric parts. When I’m designing in FreeCAD, I tend to think similarly to designing in OpenSCAD.
My comment about surprising complexity arising quickly from using FreeCAD by adding, subtracting and intersecting solids in the Part workbench and then chamfering and filleting edges applies a hundredfold to OpenSCAD. It’s amazing to see a few lines of geometry describing code render as a visually complex 3D part, and being able to adjust a parameter or two in the OpenSCAD code and watching the 3D object change is addicting.
OpenSCAD now installed.
So many new applications there’s a danger I’m going to be butterflying between them and never actually properly learning to use any.
edit: aaaannnd … Meshlab.
Printer “probably lost” refund issued. In a triumph of hope over expectation I’ve ordered another.
Someone posted that last year if I remember right, AFAIK it doesn’t happen that often…and it’s always the carriers fault.
I bought it off Amazon in Prime day sale. I couldn’t buy from the Sovol site, didn’t seem to offer the printer as purchasable in the UK.
The non-delivery was 100% the fault of DPD. It was obvious they had lost it from the very first piece of tracking information. As soon as I saw it was being sent via DPD I assumed it wasn’t going to arrive.
Very sorry to hear your printer was lost in transit. It’s stressful enough anxiously waiting for your new printer without something like that happening. How does a carrier “lose” a 3D printer? It sounds like someone stole it while it was in the carrier’s possession. I hope you are enjoying your new printer very soon.
Hi,
I suggest you to send a email to SOVOL (info@sovol3d.com) in order to inform them of the problem.
I have had a couple of email exchanges with Sovol via Amazon, I contacted them as soon as the the tracking went awry.
As for someone taking it, obviously I don’t know but it’s not all that unusual for Amazon parcels sent via DPD to this location to go missing and I think the reason is more likely to be incompetence. They don’t directly deliver to the Scottish Islands, they send the parcel to a second company in Glasgow, who transport it on from there. It requires someone who knows how it works to take the correct action, or to be bothered to find out. I once bought a mattress from Amazon that got sent to Northern Ireland before it went missing.
From what you say, you live in the middle of nowhere.
Yes, and DPD charge accordingly. A 10Kg parcel from/to mainland UK addresses would cost less than £10. From mainland to my address would cost more than £20. Prices from a business to a customer would be less but you get the idea.
Not only is it more expensive, but packages also get lost. Great deal !!!
