Great. Hopefully you watch the mesh video as well. That by itself solves a lot of CAD work.
I'm not a mechanical engineer so I don't use any of these programs outside of 3D printing. I wish I was because I use 3D printing almost exclusively for mechanical things. Printing pool related objects became one of my 3D printing hobbies because of extensions and right now I doddle with printing "LD" shafts. In doing that, stress testing became a focus of mine, and while I wish I could say I went all the way down the rabbit hole with that, I just stopped. You just don't need a lot for shafts. However, the first video I watched (I've only seen about 10 total) was this one...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0YsC53mFvY
NOTE: The above video demonstrates meshes too. I guess if you were a CAD/CAM whiz you might find all that easy to do without meshes, but for me the meshes just seem easiest (and is probably almost always cleaner).
!! RANT related to 3D printing billiard parts !!
*IF* you _OWN_ a 3D printer, my belief (at 95% now) is that if you print _DISPOSABLE_ parts, you can print a shaft at least as good as anything you can buy. While I suspected I would eventually discover that I was still against it on the basis of recycling. However, with the advancements on recycling 3D materials becoming a hot topic, it's just a matter of time until it won't be a concern. So the ability to have the part in a matter of hours, tweaked how you like, the parts being repeatable and the low cost, this just becomes a "no brainer" _IF_ you own a 3D printer.
To end the specificity of pool shafts, right now I'm nearly certain that the butt should just be the lowest possible weight made of wood and the shaft should be made in 2 pieces. I'm going to rework my designs into 2 pieces because that way I will only have to print an object at most in 15" lengths (hopefully like 10"). I haven't done any stress testing yet on the effects of this, but it seems like the best approach as the shorter the printed piece, the faster and cheaper it becomes. I don't know, it's all a guess based on playing around at this point, so I'm very open to opinions.
Anyways, if you ever want a CoreXY printer or a printer of some fashion where the build surface doesn't move (or at least one axis is stationary), I _HIGHLY_ recommend building your own. I did _NOT_ do this and wish _VERY_ much that I did as the costs are way, way lower. The best part is that to learn how to get up and started in building your own printer isn't hard at all as you can just use assembly manuals from dozens of other printers to learn the concepts and mechanical goals.
