61–70 of 106 posts
I am pretty convinced Blender will be one the most important tools over the next decade. They should teach kids how to use it in middle/high school. Also a great gateway to learn coding with geometry node.
I'm not a programmer so I struggled with the fundamental concepts a bit when learning Geometry Nodes, but it's been the best new addition to my life in a long time. I think I haven't watched any TV show in a year or two because I prefer to spend my time fiddling with GN and answering people's questions about it on Blender Stack Exchange (found out that it's a fantastic way to learn—they're like little prompts leading you to discover areas you hadn't even realized existed). Blender community is so big, creative, enthusiastic, and helpful—you go on Blender-Twitter and it's people making playful/interesting stuff all day and sharing how they did it. I can't stop gushing about it to anyone who'd listen.
Can blender replace sketchup? I just found out sketchup isn't free anymore.
Depends on what you're doing with it. I'm an architect who have been using SketchUp professionally for 20 years now, and I use Blender for hobby (Geometry Nodes stuff). For architecture work, Blender absolutely can NOT replace SketchUp, unfortunately (it doesn't even have a universal Section tool, for example), even though it's an incomparably more powerful program in every other area.
Can't you get the same thing with a boolean modifier?
Illustration: https://i.stack.imgur.com/FlM1E.png
I love Blender and hope to contribute some day soon. But hoo-boy the codebase is intimidating.
A great way to get started is to write your own addon and get familiar with the Python API. Then as you come across bugs or missing features, you'll have a concrete goal on what you could contribute to, with a anchor to something you're doing "from the outside". If I remember correctly, Geometry Nodes got started as a Blender addon (called "animation nodes") which eventually the Blender organization went as far as em…
I guess Python has just spoiled me. I need a class and "everything is right there". In Blender's C/C++, functionality always seems spread across a variety of files and callbacks in a variety of folders. I tried to follow the main loop through an extremely simple action (select a cube onscreen) to see how the stuff I know happens, happens (draw orange outline, highlight in outliner, update undo history, etc.) I knew it would be a lot, but geez, even one of those things is like a week of reading through code.
I do remember how intimidating Blender was the first time I used it though, vs how easy and natural it is now. I'm looking forward to when it will 'click' enough that I can find my way around even though I don't know how everything works. A 'core workflow' to trace through how stuff happens, if you will.
Any word about the CAD Sketcher addon?
Interesting, I hadn't heard of this before. As a mechanical engineer, it seems like it wouldn't be able to compete with the free (non-open source) CAD platforms - as much as I would absolutely love to see an open source CAD software grow out of something like Blender. What is your use case for it?
Early in the year I made the switch from Modo (by The Foundary) to Blender 3.x, and I've been enjoying it. Since I use 3D software for my video games business it's quite daunting to switch a significant part of your workflow over, because the muscle-memory of all the shortcuts is all there, and you've learnt the Way To Do Things™ in that particular piece of software. As much as I liked Modo, I was paying a monthly su…
> Early in the year I made the switch from Modo (by The Foundary) to Blender 3.x Hah, that's me. Except i was out of CG for ~7 years or w/e. I used Modo extensively from 1.0 to .. i want to say 5.0 or something. Tons of modeling. I adored Modo for modeling. This was all before they were bought by Foundary or w/e, though. Back when it was Luxology. Maybe you have an opinion here.. but how is Blender for modeling? Spec…
You can get the Blender viewport behaviors to match Modo, but you'll need to customize all the Input/Navigation/Keymap settings. The modeling tools themselves are mostly kind of there at a foundational level, but it’s all really clunky in comparison. I wish that Blender had the work plane and tool pipe. I just learned the Blender way to do things, instead of trying to fight it.
I love blender. Software developers on hackernews HAVE to try out the blender python api. It's just an integral part of my workflow especially for modding games.
Does this mean you can run Blender from Python without the command line?
https://docs.blender.org/api/3.4/info_advanced_blender_as_bp...
Any word about the CAD Sketcher addon?
Interesting, I hadn't heard of this before. As a mechanical engineer, it seems like it wouldn't be able to compete with the free (non-open source) CAD platforms - as much as I would absolutely love to see an open source CAD software grow out of something like Blender. What is your use case for it?
It uses the geometric constraint solver from Solvespace, which is OSS CAD that I contribute too. The same solver has also been integrated into one workbench in FreeCAD. It makes a lot of sense to me that someone wants it directly in Blender for simple parametric designs. Not everything is character animation after all! :-)
