CMU School of Drama


Thursday, February 01, 2024

Making Blender Do Things That CAD Can Only Dream Of

Make:: CAD packages like Fusion360 have the ability to set something as a value that you can change on the fly. It’s great. A good example is that if you’re designing laser cut pieces that have to slot together, you can set your material thickness and all your slot thicknesses to a specific variable, then later adjust that variable to match your raw material. That single adjustment will update all the proper parts in the file and your model will fit together nicely. It’s a system that is available but it is also cumbersome.

4 comments:

Leumas said...

I think it is a very powerful tool that can do a lot of things, and I think that this article did a good job of explaining another thing that Blender can do, through the release of Geometry nodes a couple versions ago. I was pretty disappointed with the article, with it mostly just being two Tic-Toks.
I really love using Blender as a 3d modeling and sculpting tool, and I think that it is the best rendering tool out of any 3d software I have used thus far. That being said, its primary purpose and design is primarily towards the artist. While there are many workflows to choose from in Blender, the majority of them are primarily focused on creating an image or animation. While there are ways to use Blenders tools for CAD purposes, it is not the use case that the software is primarily targeted at. I think that users will have a better experience trying to use CAD in an environment that is meant for those kinds of workflows, rather than trying to force a piece of software like Blender to do something it is not designed to do.

Jojo G. said...

I remember when I started using blender as a kid it was known as the free not very polished program that people used when they had nothing better to use. And that was true for a while but recently blender’s been getting better and now it’s on par with most and barely lacks any features anymore. At this point if I didn’t have cad through school I wouldn’t even think of using anything else because the sheer power blender has as a program with zero cost is insane. And I think part of the reason blender has been getting better and better is people like this taking blender to the next level constantly pushing what it can do and as more people do that Blender adds more features to make it easier which then invites people to push the new features to their limits. It’s been going back and forth like this through plugins that got adopted and I can’t wait to see what comes next in this market.

Carolyn Burback said...


I always wonder what is the “best” software to learn/use for scenic detailing because I hear mixed opinions about all of them. Blender, at least from this article, looks like it would be really useful for illustrating and planning out cnc cuts and complex hardwear on special units. I think 3D is becoming more and more popular and I’ve noticed in PTM some drafts are 3D and some are still 2D. The article mentioned solidworks, vectorworks, and CAD as alternatives that couldn’t live up to what Blender is able to achieve and I think that’s true but the idea of learning a whole new software on my own seems very daunting. I know every other department uses vectorworks because it’s easier to import lighting fixtures and other layouts, and it’s nice because it’s compatible with other softwares of the organization such as Lightwright. I think it’s actually strange we learn CAD in freshman year since the main people who go on to use it are TDs and Scenic designers.

Abigail Lytar said...

I found this article to be very interesting to read. It is amazing how far blender has come, and how powerful it is. I think the article was lacking in some areas but overall did a decent job of explaining the Geometry Nodes that were introduced a few versions ago. I was disappointed that it was only really two tik-Tok videos. I personally have never used Blender, but I have heard that it is a very effective and mostly user friendly 3d modeling tool. That being said, Blender has a hard time competing with CAD software's because it is primarily targeted toward the artist and creating an image and animation. I feel like from what I know about blender and Cad software's, cad in a workplace would be more effective than trying to manipulate blender into doing what you want it to do, however I can see the future applications of it for artists and designers if they continue to improve it.