Blender

[stevsmith]

Hi Guys,

Do any of you have any experience using Blender?

Is it pretty easy to use and pick up?

[f700es]

No, it's not easy to use but it is powerful. The current GUI is WAY better than the original but if you put the time in to learn it does have potential.

[stevsmith]

Cool,

What would you recommend as a starting program for this kind of modelling? I'm quite keen on learning as I'm growing slightly tired with the limitability and complexity of Solidworks' surface tools.

I have an Autodesk Student account, so getting the software to learn shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[SLW210]

There are lots of great tutorials for Blender. Getting used to the difference between platforms is the biggest hurdle.

 

 

Here are some links for Blender

 

 

http://blenderartists.org/forum/forum.php

 

 

http://www.blender.org/support/tutorials/

 

 

As for Autodesk Software you might look at MAYA and 3DS Max

 

 

http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/overview

 

 

http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-3ds-max/overview

 

 

Not sure if this suits your needs but give Wings 3D a look.

 

 

http://www.wings3d.com/

 

 

http://www.wings3d.com/?page_id=25

[f700es]

Well if you have a student account you can grab Maya and 3DMax which will be better packages for sure but they will be student versions. If that is not an issue then you are good to go.

Again nothing wrong with Blender, I am just not familiar with it's user interface. In fact I just downloaded the current version to take a look at it. It has an impressive tool set for what it costs Now it you just want to play with/learn some box/polygon modeling Wings3D is very slick.

 

A good low cost (not free) nurbs program is MOI3D. Developed by a former Rhino guy and in constant development.

 

Edit: Argh, SLW beat me to a reply

[f700es]

1st thing to do on Blender is to switch select from right-mouse button back to left-mouse button.

[stevsmith]

Thanks for this guy, I've downloaded Blender and will give it a try over the next few weeks. It could look like I would also give 3DS Max a shot as well. It looks more "product design" like.

 

I just want to broaden my portfolio, using SW at work just bores me know. This will just be my little hobby.

[f700es]

Well if you want product design look at AutoDesk Alias Design.

[stevsmith]

Well if you want product design look at AutoDesk Alias Design.

 

Now that's more like it... Why haven't I heard of this before now.

[stevsmith]

Well it seems like the graphics card in my laptop isn't good enough for Alias. So Blender it is (for now )

[Cad64]

Blender is a really good program. The interface takes a little getting used to, but that's true of any program really. It should be able to do pretty much everything you need it to do.

[SanMiguel]

wondering if there are good precision modeling tutorial for blender. im use to sketchup but i cant export my SU files to blender coz its a freeware. havent tried exporting my 3d CAD to blender:x. wanted to model a plane cockpit. thanks!

[f700es]

wondering if there are good precision modeling tutorial for blender. im use to sketchup but i cant export my SU files to blender coz its a freeware. havent tried exporting my 3d CAD to blender:x. wanted to model a plane cockpit. thanks!

 

You can save your SU models to .dae (collada) which current versions of blender can open. Google using sketchup files in blender. Lots of info out there.

[SanMiguel]

You can save your SU models to .dae (collada) which current versions of blender can open. Google using sketchup files in blender. Lots of info out there.

 

For some reason my SU cannot save into .dae only kmz format. is there a script i can DL to save it to .dae? Im using the old old Freeware version.

[f700es]

What version of SU do you have? Version 8 and up can export out to .dae.