Blender Institute Project Collaboration - Blender 101!!!

I just saw this today on Hackaday when i did a search about the new MOARstruder! I’m surprised i didn’t see this in the announcements forum as this is big news. https://hackaday.com/tag/moarstruder/

https://3dprint.com/160661/lulzbot-announcements-aleph/

even more exciting than the MOARstruder is the new partnership between AO and the Blender Institute to create a more CAD friendly modeling suite!!!

I am personally very excited about this because i have been waiting for a good Open Source and cross platform (ideally Ubuntu Linux compatible) CAD modeling software that is comparable and just as easy to use as Solidworks. For years i have noticed that Blender has the ability to be this new CAD, but it having originally been designed for artists rather than engineers it never quite met the challenge. I personally hope this will change even if a Blender Fork is created specifically for CAD. I am very interested to see how AO helps the Blender 101 project proceed.

I look forward to the day when i can stop using an expensive, proprietary, windows-based-only CAD software that is Solidworks. And can move to a better, cross-platform, linux-compatible Blender CAD alternative. Hooray!! :smiley:

https://code.blender.org/2016/12/the-blender-101-project-and-you/

A question or two for AO staff specifically:

How far are you guy’s along on this? What are your goals for this project and how quickly do you think it will evolve? Any other comments on this partnership or software development that you’d like to add? Is there anyway that we as customers and the community can help you?

Anyone else excited about this? Or is it just me?

Huh, very cool, hadn’t seen that one yet, I like BLender. I’m absolutly horrible at using it compared to inventor, but it’s a fun program!

I use blender to edit videos. Pretty impressive graphics application. Along with GIMP probably two of the best open-source packages.

Because I knew Blender I started out using it for CAD, which turned out to be a true nightmare (1000 = 1, say what!?). But since I don’t want to make the jump to windows I stuck with FreeCAD. Although they say it’s not up to par with SolidWorks, I have learned to use the tools I have available to make whatever I can think of. It may take longer than SolidWorks, but I wouldn’t know :wink:

Now, Blender adding CAD capabilities, THAT would be a nice fork indeed!

I have FreeCAD in my OpenSource arsenal, along with OpenSCAD. Freecad has some nice import and export features so i do use it for that, but for regular CAD work from the ground up i just haven’t been able to get over the learning curve (and at least from my view point) the malintuitive interface. Now if FreeCAD were to be heavily worked on too i certainly wouldn’t mind. It has great potential. For those who have managed to use it on a more daily basis my hat is off to you guys.

OpenSCAD isn’t bad for what it is. I’ve actually managed to use it for two projects of mine. Though in general it is what i call a “very mathy programmers type of CAD”. If you normally think that way then OpenSCAD would be your best friend. I normally don’t, but on occasion i can hack a program together or tinker enough to edit someone else’s existing program to do what i want.

Blender in it’s current state was never meant for true CAD. It has some very advanced modeling features, but the interface itself is the limiting factor. Which is why i’m excited to see how developed this project gets. Only time will tell.

add Inkscape to that list!

actually in my originally taffy machine puller project my two large gears were designed in inkscape and then sent off to be laser cut out of acrylic.