Thanks for the feedback. But, I disagree. Since I was trying to provide context and a reason to find a solution for the 3D Rotation, I needed to demonstrate how it works on other tools (Rhino) and explain how it relates to Blender. Besides that, I never assume people knows all the steps. It will end up being a long video.

@@blender3darchitect The length of the video doesn't make it efficient and that's my point; you could explain all this steps without repeating 3 times the same thing or with big blank. Probably just need some more editing, just saying.

@@blender3darchitect And by the way it would be a 15s video with CAD transform. Even if it's a paid addon (and I've no fee on this) it would be much more encouraging for people who really want to do CAD with blender.

Absolutely! I will include more Add-ons later as topics for videos/tutorials. I still have to start a series on CAD Sketcher and many others. Thanks again for the feedback!

@@blender3darchitect yes, sorry if I have the critic a bit rude but your themes/subjects are appealling but the length / content importance and attention required are not yet coherent I feel, which could make one hesitant to watch them. Anyway keep up the good work. You should have a look at TechSec and section box addon too which are very good and usefull.

what should be the default?

​@@GGReaverAnything, readily comprehensive to anyone other that an obsessive, aspergers recluse.

That is one of the reasons we see many Add-ons trying to give solutions to those problems. In many ways, it is almost mandatory to use Add-ons to develop any design with Blender.

I think you should use both. Each one has specific uses in many design workflows.

@@blender3darchitect I agree, even though I do a bit too much _without_ addons.

Yes, you are correct. TinyCAD will work on the same mesh. If you need to merge two objects you can select them and press CTRL+J (Join) or use the Object → Join menu. This works in Object Mode.

Hi Pat, maybe I forgot to turn it on. But, on all recent videos I'm using the screencast keys Add-on to display my keys and mouse.

Because it was designed to be a polygonal modeling suite, not a CAD tool. The fact that the gap is being bridged with tools like we are being shown here, is something to celebrate.

as the other commenter said, it's because polygonal modeling isn't CAD, nor vice versa. if you need precise CAD-style 3d tools and you don't want to/can't just pony up for AutoCAD-in which, case i certainly wouldn't blame you, bc it costs a fortune-you could try something like Plasticity.

@@evilotis01I'm sorry, that's a totally false distinction, however common it appears to be. The reason Blender is so lacking in mechanical design orientated precision is because it was never a development priority. It been playing about with this application for about 25 years. It's always aimed at animated cartoons, filmic visualisation, entertainment and games. It's absolutely nothing to do with the basic geometry engine ie. Polygonal vs, Nurbs vs Brep etc. It's that the developers just didn't know, understand or care much about real world use cases like mechanical design.

um... ok, if you say so

We can't even create a wall without a prompt window. Lol

@@MrLelopes Blender BIM, Achimesh, Archipack...

They did. There's been one in Blender as a built-in addon for years now. You need to turn on Material Library and Material Utilities in the addons (or install via Get Extensions in 4.2+) tab, in preferences. A Material Library VX dropdown will appear in the materials tab for you to manage your own materials with, as well getting two material library examples. Shift Q in the viewport will also give you bunch of functionality there for organising materials in your scene.

@@Arjjacks I just checked! Material Ulitities looks quite usefull! Not sure about Material Library VX. I still have to manually add materials to library just like marking an asset for asset browser. Would have been way better if something autodetects all the materials in the scene file and manages them accordingly because deleting a material from VX doesnt delete the material from the scene file.

@@oblivion1501 Yeah, I suppose the Material Library is basically just a proto Asset Browser at this point. Mainly it just opens up a couple of preset libraries for you to browse that come shipped with Blender. Still, Mat Utils lets you manage materials directly in the viewport, it just doesn't filter or categorise anything.

yeah all other DCCs have a material manager. Once again Blender devs need to find time to copy others, but they're too busy doing shit we don't need like screwing with the video editor or faux real time compositor. QOL features are what blender needs, not shit features no professional uses.

@@misanthrope_01 If you're not compositing or doing any kind of postprocessing to your renders after the fact, then you're miles from being any kind of professional. And the VSE isn't just for video editing, it's for sequencing scenes within Blender itself, allowing for the organisation of multiple animation scenes in a production and synchronising in the audio to boot.

This type of feedback is what can move their development in that direction. I face it all the time when I'm giving a workshop on both of them. People ask me: "Why can't it be like SketchUp?" One of the main problems both of them face (BlenderBIM/Bonsai and FreeCAD) is lack of devs to implement features. In FreeCAD we have basically Yorik (Architect and Dev) handling the BIM/Arch Workbench. Bonsai has more people working on it, but if you look at the release notes of each new version, we have 3-6 people responsible for most of the commits. One way to change that is make more people use the software. With more usage we might have the necessary funding to hire more devs push them forward. Thanks for your input.

​@blender3darchitect it really feels like demanding stuff from free software. If you watch a recent tutorial (2023 is as recent as it gets) and one from 7 years ago, the workflow is exactly the same and by now it is kind of a given that a 3d modeling tool should show the modeling in real time, ask any blender mesh modeler if they could model as is proposed in bim addon or at the arch bench in freecad. Architects are not really different from that. I did contribute donating for a few times, but I honestly gave up when I understood that the software (freecad) wasn't going anywhere. It's the dog chasing it's tail: It can't go anywhere without users donating, it won't get users cause no architect could actually project beyond the most basic shed on it. Architects can't project on it cause the tools needed aren't developed, they aren't cause there is no money, there is no money cause there are no users donating, there aren't user because.....et ,etc,etc😢

@@blender3darchitect I truly understand the challenges the development team is facing, but it's very difficult to convince people with such an unintuitive basic operation

Yes, you can create or load external libraries. In the video, I'm using the Demo Library that ships with the Add-on. I installed the latest update. Do you see more options? Different libraries?

@@blender3darchitect I installed it a few minutes into watching your video. It's an awesome addon. Thanks for the tutorials.

Exactly this. That face duplication method was a bit ridiculous.

Nope, just old-fashioned static blocks. :(

Glad to know you are liking the tutorials :) The workshop that has this type of project is this one: blender3darchitect.gumroad.com/l/technicaldrawingBlender But, it is outdated. I'm currently recording a new batch of workshops and this one will get a new version. With more content and downloadable assets. As soon it is available, I will post a video or article here on the channel.

@phils2023 Do it in Edit mode. Switch from Object Mode to Edit mode. Also toggle on X-ray mode. Then, in Edit Mode toggle on the Vertex Selection. Then select all the parts of the object you want to stretch. For example, if you want to enlarge the width of a cabinet door, simply select one-half of the door and then use 'Grab' G-key to pull to your desired distance. For more precision, simply type in distance as you are pulling. It will snap to the desired location. Hope that helps.

Absolutely! The secret is to align the 3D Cursor and use it as a pivot. You can rotate objects or shapes from anywhere.

Thank you I want to learn to do this as easily as in Sketchup - in Blender the local setting keeps jumping back to global - do you cover this in your books or courses about blender?

It will depend on Autodesk. They usually don't provide easy access to their binary file formats. But, it would be incredible to have a Maya importer in Blender.

@@blender3darchitect I thought independent programmers wrote these import filters?

@@basspig They are independent programmers, but in some cases they need the "keys" to read certain types of data. For instance, in Maya we have MB files that are binary. The MA file is a plain-text version, which you can easily ready anywhere. At some point, Autodesk needs to release documentation on how to read those MB files to create a viable importer for any software. A company might also pay royalties to license the code to read those files, which is the case for many "compatible" tools. A popular example of that is the DWG format. Many companies get to a deal with Autodesk to license the software required to read it.

@@blender3darchitect thank you for that explanation. I have downloaded a .max file to test the new .max import. It was a kitchen. The import sorta worked, but many cabinet faces are missing or rotated, the sink was all in pieces and rotated different ways. About 70% good import, but textures and faces area mess.

I can't guarantee it will open or import all files. However, if you want a reference, the model I'm using to test the add-on in the video is from 3ds Max 2018.

@@blender3darchitect I downloaded a file from CG Trader last night and imported it. It go most of the basic geometry, but some surfaces were missing or flipped normals, some objects were in a 90 degree position relative to the example image, and many textures were wrong or completely missing. It was a model of a kitchen in max format. Cabinet doors were flipped up vertically in a few places, some faces were missing, and textures were the right color but the wrong scale (wood grain was solid brown, no grain).

so, no bone's and animation?

Unfortunately no. Since it is a different type of data, you need to manually import the new versions to Blender.