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Blender 4.3

blender.org

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Re: Blender 4.3

#81

Post by rounce »

amelius wrote: post #71
eblanshey wrote: post #68

Like others have mentioned, Blender has become quite the successful open-source story. They used to be riddled with bugs and UX issues, much like FreeCAD was. Yesterday FreeCAD released v1 of their software, and they seem to be on the same redemption path as Blender. It's too bad their v1 release didn't gain much traction on here, as more people ought to give FreeCAD another whirl. The improvements there are massive.…

To what extent can Blender replace FreeCAD for mechanical engineering purposes?

Why? They’re fundamentally different applications for different purposes.

Re: Blender 4.3

#82

Post by amelius »

cultofmetatron wrote: post #75
amelius wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To what extent can Blender replace FreeCAD for mechanical engineering purposes?

I would say avoid it. blender is an excellent MESH modeler but that puts it fundamentally at odds with being a good parametric modeler. a parametric modeler's base primitives are based in deformations on solid objects. mesh modelers are just vertices connected by line segments where 3 form a face. servicable if you're just doing simple objects for a 3d printer but disastrous if you need precision.

I don't understand why precision would be an issue? Is it not possible to fix the position of vertices to sub-micron precision?

I know that Blender is used more in the movie industry. But what if I wanted to make, say, an animation of some cartoon character that gets shredded in a gearbox? What program would I use?

Re: Blender 4.3

#83

Post by amelius »

rounce wrote: post #81
amelius wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To what extent can Blender replace FreeCAD for mechanical engineering purposes?

Why? They’re fundamentally different applications for different purposes.

I was thinking that since Blender has physics simulation, and it also has nice video renderings, that would be two great reasons to use it for mechanical designs with moving parts, for example.

But I don't have much experience in designing parts. I like SolveSpace, but it becomes slow for medium/large designs. I know FreeCAD has a lot of problems with stability and UI consistency, so I avoided it.

Re: Blender 4.3

#84

Post by haunter »

xyst wrote: post #26

If you are remodeling your home, strongly suggest using Bonsai (previously Blender BIM) add-on to model and plan. In addition to getting my layout just right down to the ft, and using current materials (ie, hardwood, cabinet placement). I modeled out HVAC ducts and overall system. I had planned on doing major renovations (including plumbing, electric, networking) and would have modeled those as well since the walls w…

For the average person Sweet Home 3D is a much better choice http://www.sweethome3d.com/

Re: Blender 4.3

#86

Post by regularfry »

amelius wrote: post #71
eblanshey wrote: post #68

Like others have mentioned, Blender has become quite the successful open-source story. They used to be riddled with bugs and UX issues, much like FreeCAD was. Yesterday FreeCAD released v1 of their software, and they seem to be on the same redemption path as Blender. It's too bad their v1 release didn't gain much traction on here, as more people ought to give FreeCAD another whirl. The improvements there are massive.…

To what extent can Blender replace FreeCAD for mechanical engineering purposes?

Rigging. The assembly bits in FreeCAD just haven't been great historically, and the Ondsel assembly layer is very new. If you want to visually check for clashes I can see how someone might prefer to just import a bunch of STLs into Blender, rig them up, and wiggle them about.

Re: Blender 4.3

#87

Post by regularfry »

hi_hi wrote: post #20

From a beginners perspective, a good mouse is crucial for working in these kind of tools. It's touched on at the start of the donut tutorial (linked elsewhere) but I just wanted to re-iterate it here. Now, I haven't done serious 3d work for many years, and recently tried getting into Blender again on my Mac laptop with a Magic mouse. It was a horrible experience. Can anyone recommend a good mouse you can buy nowadays…

I'm quite fond of Steelseries gaming mice for this sort of thing. You want the resolution.

But also it's worth giving a graphics tablet a try and see if that works for your workflow. I find it much easier for sculpting.

Re: Blender 4.3

#88

Post by daemin »

zztop44 wrote: post #80
daemin wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web versions don't work with all browsers, they also want you to use the app, and heavily promote using the app, even though the app is just a web page in a browser that's not your browser. If they want you to use an installed app then they should just build a native app that can be installed.

But what’s stopping you just using the web page (in a browser that it works with)? Yes, they want you to use the app, but you can still do what you want.

I have done that in the past, though it was more that certain features were just broken in a browser rather than the whole website not working.

If I needed to run another entire browser just for this website I wouldn't bother.

Re: Blender 4.3

#89

Post by 1jss »

hi_hi wrote: post #20

From a beginners perspective, a good mouse is crucial for working in these kind of tools. It's touched on at the start of the donut tutorial (linked elsewhere) but I just wanted to re-iterate it here. Now, I haven't done serious 3d work for many years, and recently tried getting into Blender again on my Mac laptop with a Magic mouse. It was a horrible experience. Can anyone recommend a good mouse you can buy nowadays…

I switched to an Evoluent vertical mouse for its ergonomics, but the feature I like the most is the middle click button! It has 3 buttons for left, middle and right click, a vertical scroll wheel and two navigation buttons for back and forward (that I never use). Find it really comfy to use in Blender and elsewhere.

Re: Blender 4.3

#90

Post by stevage »

jasode wrote: post #72
greenknight wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What really kickstarted their development... was the introduction of the Blender Development Fund -- https://fund.blender.org/ They made tiers, made it simple and easy, and promoted it. Before the fund really was pushed... they were getting about 5,000 USD per month to develop it... Now it is sitting at 215,000 USD per month. More money = More developers. More Developers = Better product. Yes it didnt happen overnigh…

>What really kickstarted their development... was the introduction of the Blender Development Fund [...] >More money = More developers. There was actually another "kickstart" before that kickstart. Blender's open-source timeline has a very unusual history in that it was a commercial product funded by €4.5 million in VC capital . Those original investors lost their money by selling in a "down round" to a 2nd set of in…

Ah, that's really interesting history, thank you. And confirms I'm not crazy - I had vaguely thought long ago that Blender cost money.
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