Blender 3.0 Or FreeCAD For 3D Printing | Which Should You Learn?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.พ. 2022
- Getting started in 3D design for 3D Printing comes with a big early decision should you learn FreeCAD or Blender 3.0 and which will be best to learn first for 3D printing and should you even try and learn one over the other. A quick video showcasing my opinion on both and why you should pick one over another.
MAKER TALES ACADEMY
- - Learn Blender Fast Through 3D Print Design Paid Course - -
academy.makertales.com/p/how-...
Useful Links:
----- Precision Gear Addon (Gumroad): bit.ly/PGears ----
Learn The Fundamentals of FreeCAD here for 3D Printing:
• How To Use FreeCAD For...
Free Course | Learn Blender 2.9+/3.0 through precision modelling playlist:
• Learn Blender 3.1/2.9+...
If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below and I'll do my best to get back to them as soon as I can or even better join the discord and I'll be sure to see it.
💬 Maker Tales Discord Server
/ discord
🛠 Subscribe To Keep Making:
bit.ly/sub2MT
📨 Share with a friend:
• Blender 3.0 Or FreeCAD...
📺 Watch My Most Recent Upload:
bit.ly/recentMT
Other Places Where you can find me:
Patreon: / makertales
Instagram: / makertales
Twitter: / themakertales
Facebook: / makertales - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Mr. Maker Tales, I want to thank you very much for all the FreeCAD videos you put into your channel in the past months.
Every single one of them was fantastic, very well explained and I learnt a lot thanks to them. For that reason and now that you finished your Blender Course in your channel, I want to ask you *PLEASE PLEASE* continue with *FREECAD video-tutorials* more in deep.
That would be of great help for all of us that follow and learnt from you previous FreeCAD vids and want to learn more !.
Thank you very much in advance and hope to see new FreeCAD vids in your channel very soon.
Greetings from Chile, South America, John.
I'm sold! I've gotten so used to CAD that I sometimes forget it's disadvantages. Can't wait to follow your upcoming course!
Great video! I love your content. Just so ya know, you never need 5 decimal places. I use Solidworks basicly everyday. 3 decimal places is the most you will need for most detaied designs. 2 decimal places is good enough for dimensions that aren't to holes. This is especially true for sheet metal. With each decimal place the cost of production increases exponentially.
I still firmly believe having the knowledge in both tools is key to creating anything you need, especially when working with other vendors if you're not yet set up for completely vertical production. Very interested to see how well the CNC add-ons are implemented in blender... I'd also like to see some form of slicing and gcode implemented as well for fdm and sla.
I absolutely agree with you!
I would however suggest to most to learn blender first if there needs don't NEED CAD as I personally believe they will have more fun faster and get that 3D modeling bug to push through that learning curve that FreeCAD has.
@@Keep-Making definitely... Jumping in to FreeCAD with no experience is usually a very short and frustrating trip, usually diverting to fusion... Blender has a much better tutorial ecosystem with lots of content and helps ease folks in.
@@Keep-Making interesting! I am a beginner with a Bambu Lab and have 2 product ideas, and slowly am starting to realize I need Blender for the first (something low poly-art based) and a CAD program for the second... (a box that has electronics and there will be lots of prototyping the shape...)... ah well, better get to it i guess!
Great advice!! This was the exact video I needed! I was about to commit to FreeCAD but I tought I better look at how it compares to Blender. So glad I did. Thanks for the video and awesome explaination!
I just got a 3d scanner, I was using blender, fusion, freecad. now its meshlab, blender, freecad, 3d builder. workflow takes me all over the place these tools all do what they do well.
Blender is a must. Freecad can be time saving in some cases. Meshlab can handle far more vertices than blender and is good for getting things ready for blender or freecad, 3d builder is the fastest way to tell if a model can be printed and can try to auto fix the file.
blender is amazing. it was hard to get started but little by little i learned how to do more things and now i'm at the point that i can model pretty much anything i set my mind to (for 3d printing that is) and i love blender so much. i even got cad sketcher just to try it and it seems like a pain, i can get things done so much faster just with the mesh modeling.
Thank you for this perspective!
the good thing about cad programs is you can generally set things up where if a dimension or feature needs to change on a part, you can make it so that everything dependent on that feature you just changed scales appropriately.
"oh i need to make this mounting hole pattern fit a different motor that mounts with 8 screws instead of 6 and its metric instead of standard threading now?"
you can literally change 2 values in solidworks and it will make that happen if you set it up correctly in the first place.
its definitely more suited to industry and mechanical applications where you will have revisions and redesigns and someone might need to access your part later to change it
instant like and subscribe! great production quality. knowledgable. interesting. glad I found your channel :)
Thank you for your work!
The models you showed just look stunning! What 3D printer did you use? Thanks
Thanks great information
Thankyou very much Sir love your work appreciate your advice immensely
I love how you can pick up the example models without looking, its almost like a magic show.
Blender has been frustrating me. If boolean operations weren't finicky, and you could do basic things like bevel some text without having to manually intervene for the meshes of various letters, it wouldn't be such a pain. Sometimes I spend so much time doing 3d print workarounds in Blender that I think I must learn FreeCAD and see if I can ultimately do the same things quicker and cleaner.
Freecad is kind of unforgiving, but with a bit of practice and learning it is really flexible and good for 3D printing.
If you are artistic, I think blender would be a better fit, but if you like thinking in Cartesian coordinates and don’t mind some mental math freecad is quicker to make things of specific dimensions.
Also, freecad is so good at adding operations using polar, linear or symmetrical patterns.
@Honk before it's too late If you figure out, let me know your conclusion, please.
Fusion 360... If you are doing only things that requires precision, but you are using text... Fusion has hard times with high verts count
honestly I've learned FreeCad and finally deleted it because of all the damn bugs. Its a very pre-beta application, which is why the devs still have the version at 0.21 even though its been around a long time.
A couple really cheap addons take care of any issues with booleans, bevels, and most other more complex geometry issues.
You should do a series where you take solid body models and walk through the process of creating them in blender (none of those miniature / organic stuff. - plenty of TH-cam on that). I’d definitely watch that with interest and share it. And I think you’re the person to do it
Take a look at my playlist called precision modelling in action
Can parametric be added to blender in the future?
And can you do impellers and similar stuff in blender "easily"
Yepp, Blender is awesome! And can probably do most things people need for 3d printing needs - probably even for basic CNC stuff. What it currently cannot do yet is to export any formats (like STEP) that can describe true curves, circles etc. And afaik the more expensive CAM programs can generate G-code that instructs the CNC machine to carve perfect curves from the provided radii. With triangulated files as a basis this would be more difficult (the CAM program would essentially have to reverse engineer the initial round geometric base shapes before the triangulation from the mesh). So most likely you won't get the same smooth/efficient G-Code that one could get from e.g. a Nurbs based STEP file.
Also CAD programs have a lot of additional plugins howadays (like FEA, CFD etc.) that can be important. And most CAD people probably use libraries of standard parts that come with the bigger CAD packages. Many of these plugins and standard parts could possibly also be provided for Blender - if somebody does the work...
Yep. For CNC stuff or doing anything with industry you need STEP files and Blender (or other mesh based modelers) aren't going to get those ever (although they could get step import pretty easily, just not export). If you're just 3d printing though, mesh based formats are fine.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Blender stores data in-term of 3D meshes, instead of true geometrical constructions. So, it can't export them in those 3D CAD format precisely. As per Jonathan - Blender can approximate the model upto 5 decimal digits precision only. Stl, step and other CAD formats use true geometric form. It can do upto whatever precision level we so desire.
i was going to mention grabCAD. my projects have a lot of interlinking parts and bodies so i'll stick with parametric modeling. please continue with your videos. they are all interesting
Can you explain what you said about the "sundial" is impossible to make on blender due to the "mathematics"?
Why naming FreeCAD at all if in the video you are just telling what can and can not be done in Blender, comparing to parametric CAD software in general? Why are you trying to put barriers between Blender and FreeCAD? It is not one or the other, you can use both.
I want to download 3d terrain models from TouchTerrain and then add text labels to them before printing them. A guy at my local makerspace 3D printing club told me it would be "easy", but 2 months later I am still stuck! I started with blender, but my text needs macrons over the vowels and the built in text with blender didn't seem to be able to handle that.🤯 I will give your free course a try, but if you ever wanted to make a video along those lines I would be very grateful!
So is your commitment to teaching FreeCAD on hold pending the integration of the Real Thunder branch into Master?
Hi there, is there anyway to know if your product designs needs more than "five decimal places of presition" mostly curious if mice, keyboards, headsets needs that? thanks
A good question indeed. The question for me however is not so much accuracy but rather if it is a one-off design or will I want to go back and change it, scale it, add more of a certain element (e.g 6 slots instead of 4 slots in a CD holder) without redoing a significant part of the model. I have not used Blender before; and wondering if it's parametrics are good enough to do rapid-prototype of such things?
You might be pleasantly surprised how parametric blender can be when the model is made with adaptation in mind. I'll have a lot more coming out in the future here. Alternatively, if you really want to take the plunge and me be being a little cheeky I will be covering it pretty extensively in my paid course coming out in just 2 weeks. Not a bad pre-sale deal going on at the moment 🙃
Decimal places does not matter that much. Tree is the most important feature for anything usefull.
As I am 47 and not a young fellow I'm just starting out and trying to wrap my head around all these different design tools I just want to make simple things like door stops and curtain rod hangers just little things for around the house but just trying to make these things is such a headache and get my head around it is immensely painful trying to learn
In the FreeCAD wiki there are instructions for embedding FreeCAD within Blender. I'm wondering if there isn't going to be more common ground between these two packages.
(I'm sure both sets of developers do in fact talk to one another).
If people can create a 3D object in the software they're happiest learning and most comfortable with, then that's the one to go with.
I'm more familiar with FreeCAD but I will need to create some figures so I'm considering MakeHuman which I believe is/was part of Blender. FreeCAD users will frequently export to Blender and render there as it looks much better. But FreeCAD has some specialist WorkBenches that make the creation of certain objects easier. (Or that's my suspicion at least).
I think your question should have been, 'Which one should you learn _first_ ?'
If that's the case id say hands down blender. Itll be getting more cad features anyways.
I have experience with both. Which should I chose for precision modeling 3d prints with bearings, screw holes etc... Freecad is sometimes the bane of my life... can that be done in blender?
The other thing that parametric CAD packages provide is analysis and manufacture preparation tools like BOMs etc
Interesting video. I think both have their place and it mostly depends on the maker. I use both.
I use FreeCAD when I'm building something that is parametrically driven. I have a number of models that I need to adjust based on client requirements and it is trivial with a spreadsheet-driven setup in FreeCAD. I'm not sure if blender can do that sort of thing as easily.
coming from a solidworks background here but design tables are a godsend when you need a bunch of variants of the same part
Is blender good for printing accurately scale models or highly detailed automotive replicas? Which would be the best software for model printing.
thank you very much broo❤for this 9 minutes and more. i appreciate it. shall you give me one advise, i want to make automatic pet feeder, to manufacture and sell. i am very beginner, that my first connection with creating product and also design, 16 years old boy. and now i come across the design. what would be your professional recommendations? now i am struggling with casting box,gauge. it does not requires to create model with electronic i guess. but it must to be place somwhere yes, i think you know better than me, pls give me some recommendations, blender or freecad for such product? and if you have some more advises. i am here to hear you carefully.😃
I remember using AutoCAD in high school back in 1994 or so, but that was the only time I ever used it. I've been tempted to try using a CAD program again, though I don't actually have the need for it.
Thanks for this comparison-i picked up freecad from your tutorials but then you changed to blender … im still not 100pct sure which you would suggest for model railroad building (1/87)… buildings, rolling material etc
Hedwig, I can honestly say that I think you'll get more bang for your time if you learn blender rather than FreeCAD for your specific needs.
mesh modeling blender but how to cut holes and make meserment to fited to somting
I thought that blender wasn't good for 3D Printing because of vertexes? I couldn't print a base human model using it.
I like using blender for prototyping things quick and dirty. Working with booleans also make everything nice to edit later on.
I Started learning blender. I was going to do Both Blender and FreeCad. I didn't think blender would be easy to do more engineering orientated things..... Does FreeCad have addons like heat metal simulation and those types of things?
Nice explanation
I went through a good chunk of your TH-cam Tutorial series on Blender Precision modelling, I found there just seemed too be way too many quirks and things to watch out for. It really just seemed like Blender wasn't built to do CAD effectively. It was a shame because learning Blender opens up a lot other doors. I'm upset I couldn't get through it.
Oddly for me the most obvious open source CAD program I've found is openSCAD.
Yea and it takes too much time but editing STL from the Internet maybe better with blender for free
A deficiency with Blender is that making movable mechanical assemblies is a massive pain. You need to set up a rig and do a whole bunch of stuff with constraints and drivers and shit. Or perhaps have horrible bunch of empties and parents and constraints. It's all very gross and time consuming compared to mates. With proper parametric CAD you just download a bunch of pre-built step models of components from McMaster-Carr, GrabCad, and Traceparts and assemble them together with mates and you got yourself a working robot in short order. I suspect a bunch of the robot rigging stuff will be improved late 2022-end of 2023 though with the animation tools refactor (previously "Animation-2020" project -- currently delayed indefinitely).
Oh but it's worth noting that FreeCAD's assembly system is also currently terrible...but it will probably be fixed before Blender is good at mechanical rigging as RealThunder, a developer for FreeCAD, has been adding a lot of commits lately to fix a lot of what is wrong with FreeCAD and whenever those fixes are reviewed and merged in like a year from now (maybe), it should be much better and almost as good as classic commercial CAD.
Yeah freeCAD is more for me as I am mechanical design engineering and assembling at work also using my skills I have learnt as a side hustle might learn blender one day though.
I think it really depends on the project. If it's something engineered (like e.g. a cup/headphone holder) FreeCAD or other CAD program is the way to go. If it's more of an artsy thing (like a printable sculpture), then I think using blender is a better choice.
Why not both? If you gonna make mechanical CAD components then you go with FreeCAD, cause is faster and way easier and more precise. Blender for another lever of modeling.
Start with one, learn the other later.
I like freecad for functional parts. Changing things is easy and it looks cleaner to me.
I like Blender for the rest or to give a more "beauty" detailing on function parts.
Don't think if it's about "Can you do it" but more of a "Why would you" Like sure I can do video editing with Blender but.... Would I?
Exectly the Question I asked myself. So the question i asked myself, what is better to make Prop guns/knifes. If so I would put my Energy 20/80 20% in CAD and 80% in Blender
Good to know cnc tools for blender are in the offing!
How is the sun dial the one thing you couldnt do in blender? Was that sarcasm that totally went over my head?
You should make some episodes showing what useful things you can model and 3D print for your house.
My mindset is not cad, I am used to modeling vertices and mesh quickly. But indeed curves is a consession.
I use OpenSCAD. When I got started OpenSCAD could run on any computer I had kicking around and blender needed more resources.
I don't think you actually answered why someone would want to use blender for making models that will be 3d printed. One thing about a text based system like OpenSCAD is the ease with which one can modify and make different versions of a model.
I have been thinking I'll work on picking up blender when I retire in a few years. I'm also interested in looking at FreeCAD. There are things that OpenSCAD can't do. Blender looks to be a lot more complex. I'm generally using a laptop at home and rarely use a mouse.
EDIT
Okay I once again ran into th-cam.com/video/QSsVFu929jo/w-d-xo.html which reminded me of issues with freeCAD. I'm thinking that has not been resolved yet?
With the learning curve so steep for new users, go with Blender. Unfortunately I have waisted way to much time in cad when I should have used that time learning more in Blender. Mesh is the future. Freecad is too convoluted, confusing and I have lost my hard work several times due to there poor UI.
Ive just got myself my first 3d printer.
Im learning both Blender and FreeCAD.
Blender is far easier. Unless I need accurate models.
Hi Jonathan:
As you sound British (you're indeed), let me suggest a free software made by a British company. The software is called DesignSparks Mechanical by RS. If you don't know it, it's a free alternative to SolidWorks for example.
Give it a try.
Hope that helps.
Thanks & greets from Argentina (Hope it is from England someday)
Marcelo Miguel Bazan.
I've not heard of DesignSpark...looks interesting. Bummer that it's Windows only, but I'm gonna see if it will work under Wine in Linux.
I find mesh modelling more intuitive, but most of my work requires a parametric approach. :/
Both
"For Windows user, a new build of Daily branch using Conda is available. It was made in response to a request from a developer for experiementing using FreeCAD inside Blender, as Conda build (in all platforms) uses Python 3.9". This come along with the realthunder's 2022-04-07 update.
If freecad support SubD modeling, then my life is complete!
SubD is mesh modelling which is antithetical to FreeCAD's parametric approach.
Suscrito!!!! Saludos.
Meanwhile Blender just got a CAD extension for that sweet parametric modelling.
I've been testing out that add-on, and while it's hopeful, it's got a long way to go before it can compete with other parametric modeling apps.
Blender still can't do NURBS properly, which is what all 3D CAD software uses. It also can't export STEP files, which are what CNC machines use.
At least you admitted that if you don't need accuracy then blender
For functional parts FreeCAD or any other similar "traditional" program is only viable way.
my uni teachers will kick the shit out of anyone who uses 5 decimal places in measurements in schematics D:
but of course, mb there are some specific cases for it, though we had really more than 1
blender is poly based, so regardless of how you word it, it can never ever be a CAD software. FreeCAD on the other hand is a cad software.
🤦 Promo>SM!
Blender is not really for 3D printing. It is too complex a package. Fusion 360 is much better.
Just totally rubish video.