Quick question re: accurate dimensional design using Blender -- are any of you folks

3D Printing
,
1

Quick question re: accurate dimensional design using Blender – are any of you folks using Blender as a make-do CAD tool? I have heard rumors about there be a good number to size blender units when working in small millimeter scale – and a way to setup snaps to have an experience akin to a CAD app – but I have only done character design work in Blender really, where scale wasn’t that essential.

I’m a big fan of Rhino3D, which is supposed to be reasonable affordable when it launches for Mac, but I’m looking to try to locate open source design apps for much of what I do for the purposes of tutorials and teaching! I really love Blender so I kinda wish I could just move in. That BlenderCAD branch looks like it withered and died a couple of years ago.

2

I’ve been using the free version of SketchUp so far it handles everything I need. Took a good weekend to learn what I required but now I can put together most of what I need in a few minutes. They also have a very extensive list of online video tutorials. Also the dimensional support is execilent.

3

Maybe look into FreeCAD, I believe it has some sort of SCAD backend to it, and it’s actually pretty darn good. It’s free and pretty powerful.

4

see http://rab3d.com for a series of excellent blender CAD tutorials

5

thanks so much! I just grabbed his Precision Modeling blender PDF and am reading through. Some simple setup stuff I never thought of here. Do you know the author?

6

@Matthew_Griffin no, just a very useful resource that I’m aware of :slight_smile:

7

@Bruce_Ennis Sketchup is very capable for 3D printing, I agree! http://www.MasterSketchup.com has some great tutorials for those just starting out.