Hello everybody,
I’d like to get into Blender, with a view to possibly do CAD with it because I see it’s now - at least partially - a thing.
I used to work professionally with SolidWorks in 2008. Then I changed jobs entirely. But I’ve always liked doing CAD: I love making complex working mechanical models that move accurately.
I’ve also always wanted to do animations - something SolidWorks could do back then, but not very easily. I tried to get into Blender many years ago, but it was… let’s say a steep learning curve, to be kind.
Fast-forward to today:
My company bought a Prusa 3D printer. That thing is fascinating. 3D printing is also something I’ve wanted to get into for years, and this too seems to have matured into a really good, mostly trouble-free technology.
And then I watched a really interesting video yesterday from one of my favorite Youtuber, Animagraffs, in which he shows in details how he uses Blender to create his marvellous animations. In his video, Blender looks sooo much better and so much more stable and complete than what I tried years ago.
Finally, I’m almost exclusively a Linux user. I could swallow - barely - the cost of a SolidWorks license, but I’ve always hated to have to use Windows to use SolidWorks. That’s mostly what kept me off of using it again since I changed jobs.
After all those years, it seems like all those technologies have matured enough that a reasonably clever but not exceptionally bright dude like me can actually hope to create animations, model printable parts and possibly do 2008-level parametric CAD in Blender.
And so I think it’s time I finally invest the time to learn Blender. I feel it’s one of the essential generic skills a well-rounded computer user should possess, like editing photos, audio or videos, and it seems like I could build on Blender skills to finally get into 3D printing and do CAD again, all in my favorite OS. And even if I can’t do CAD with it yet, it seems that it’s not too far off.
How woud you recommend I go about learning how to use Blender? I don’t want to do complicated things, just learn the basics properly and build solid foundations.
Blender is cool and all, but I’d suggest you use Fusion 360 instead. Blender is not a CAD tool and it doesn’t understand what solid bodies are.
You ca install The 3d printing addon to make the objects manifold. I’ve been using Blender for 3d printing and had no problem with it.
Blender is fine for 3D printing, I use it myself too. But it’s not the best tool for the job. In my experience, the Boolean tools in it will mess something up sooner rather than later. Even Tinker
ToyCAD does booleans better than Blender.Blender is very very good, but it is not always the best solution for everything 3D-related.
Fusion 360 is a non-starter for me. It ticks all the barf boxes:
But yeah, I believe you’re right: Blender probably isn’t the best tool for CAD work. But that’s not primarily why I want to learn it. The fact that there are hints that it can do some CAD work simply adds to its appeal to me. But if it turns out to be mediocre at that when I get good enough at Blendering to form a proper opinion, it’s okay too.
In the meantime, for “real” CAD, I think I’ll probably give FreeCAD a spin: this is something I also tried many years ago, and it was really nowhere at the time. But it too has evolved and matured, and I keep hearing good things about it. So I guess it’s time to give it a whirl again too.
FreeCAD had evolved nowhere. There are no good non proprietary CAD apps.
Well, I installed it and I’m trying to model something with it now. So I’ll have my own opinion soon 🙂 I don’t do this professionally anymore, so it’s not like I’m wasting my time or anything…,
Well, good luck.
I’ve just made my first 3D-printed object with FreeCAD and the Prusa MK4 at my workplace: FreeCAD is a bit of a pain but I suspect it’s just a matter of getting used to its quirks, and the PrusaSlicer program is totally trouble-free.
It’s not perfect but it’s free and open-source from beginning to end, it all runs in Linux and quite frankly it’s very impressive for community-built software!
Good for you!
Jesus… It can do it all but it’s unintuitive and overly complicated. Still, with enough time, I can make STEP files of reasonably complex parts. It hasn’t crashed on me or given me grief beyond its lack of ease of use.
Oh no, my free software isn’t free!