[Bobboau]

blender is a competent 3d editor...

[Pyro MX]

I think you were referring to the General Public License?

Yes, Blender is indeed a wonderful app. But the expertise in the industry seems to lie elsewhere. And as much as I'd love to see Blender get adopted more than it is actually in the industry, having diversity (in both free software and proprietary software) is the key. The more people are able to work, the more people you get. For SCP related-stuff, good thing Water built a cob export script. I don't know what I'd do without it !

[Mika]

Ummm, Blender is not something which I would consider using to design something that is going to be manufactured.

It would be nice to clear up what I meant with 3D modelling, so might as well do that right here: CAD software.

[pecenipicek]

CAD is CAD, when you mention 3D modelling, 90% of the people will think, oh, polygonal modelling software.




i'd kill for cinema4d to finally get proper true nurbs surfaces.

[Bobboau]

I really haven't used a 'proper' CAD program, and I haven't done a lot of 'improper' CAD work either (I've used truespace a few times to design things I build, it wasn't fun, but it was better than doing it by hand). why exactly do you think blender is deficent for that purpose (I actualy have hardly used it, so I'm not advocating it, just wondering why you think that)

[pecenipicek]

because per default, blender, as do most 3D modelling packages uses polygons as its way of storing surfaces.

[Pyro MX]

I don't think that CAD programs have the same uses as programs like Blender. It's not really a defect, rather a different kind of modeling tool.

[pecenipicek]

indeed. different programs for different fields. cad programs are more for conformity to real world sizes.


3D programs the like of blender are more for modelling for photo-realistic (or unrealistic) rendering, not for making molds for example.

[Mika]

Ah, you already seem to have mentioned some of the things which make it problematic. I would add on top of that software robustness and accurate, correct calculations. And support for some physical quantities as moment of inertia, boolean operations on general 3D shapes and such.

[Pyro MX]

Blender does have a physics and game engine enbedded in it. Although I've never fiddled with it. General features of the physics engine are listed there under "physics and particles". And it does support boolean operations on 3D shapes.

[Mika]

Correction: It does have some physics in it. But not all the necessary stuff for mechanical design. I'm not sure about general 3D shapes, it should be pretty much NURBS based to do that. Given that it doesn't open any of STEP, SAT, IGES, SolidWorks or CATIA formats, I don't think it does NURBS too well. I haven't been dealing with basic polygons that much myself, it is a completely different world. Would be interesting to see if STL files (triangles) gain popularity in CAD data exchange, but I haven't seen any being utilized in my field of work.