I'm Ditching Blender for Onshape

Thanks for watching! Let me know if you liked the video, disagreed, agreed...? I love your comments.

OnShape is great, but it is important to know that if you want to own the rights to your creations, or use them commercially, then you have to bump up to at least the standard plan which was $1500 annually at last look. On their free plan all models are public and it specifies non-commercial use only. Definitely a great tool but those things can be deal breakers depending on your budget and project needs.

FYI, there is a 3D printing add-on for Blender that helps find and fix non-manifold geometry. I have really only just gotten started with blender, but it seems to work pretty well so far. I agree that it makes sense to learn blender along with a proper CAD program though. As you said, they're fundamentally different tools that serve different purposes.

My problem with Onshape is privacy. With blender or fusion360 you can keep the stuff you design private.

I'm actually not an 3D printing guy (at least for now), but I would say the Blender add-on mentioned is "CAD Sketcher" which really helped me to make correct house plan and keep it usable both for 2D and 3D view.

Just wanted to point out that there are non-destructive workflows for Blender. Chipp Walters is one of the guys that's worked on this. I think his Nitrox 3d workflow is meant to be used with vanilla blender. There are also plugins that help with this, like Meshmachine (though that plugin does a lot more than just non-destructive workgflows.) Blender is more of a 3d modeling, animation, and video toolbox than it is just a 3d animation software. You can use it to make models, animate models, composite video, edit video, do 2d animation with the grease pencil, sculpting (like with zbrush,) and even some parametric modeling with plugins like Cad Sketcher. While it's been a while since I've checked, it also had NURBS and metaballs which are not strictly mesh modeling features. NURBS are more akin to the models that parametric CAD software puts out. Metaballs were, as far as I can tell, a way to generate organic shapes that were then refined by sculpting. There's a lot to Blender, but at the end of the day, what software you use is up to your preferences and what you need out of it. Blender is a great option for making things that don't need a lot of precision or are more organic, even if you can use it to make precision mesh models. CAD, specifically parametric CAD, is great if you do need precision and the ability to iterate. Just my two cents.

I started using Blender years ago before I got into 3d printing. And for me personally, this is still the best program, with huge modeling capabilities. But there are few lessons for 3D printing. And at the level at which I use it, I did not find it at all. The biggest problem so far for me in modeling is rounding and chamfering, but mostly this is because I often model non-destructively. And I made the technical details. And unlike cad programs, I easily combine technical elements with artistic ones. It helps me a lot at work.

Great video. I started using OnShape about a month ago and love the work flow. Still learning the advanced stuff like assemblies.

Blender and Onshape serve different purposes and excel in their respective domains. However, if you're seeking a middle ground, consider exploring Plasticity as an alternative option.

I started with Fusion and then jumped to FreeCAD. A lot of the Fusion workflow translated to FreeCAD (plus, I've had real mechanical engineering and design training so I already had a basic knowledge of the general workflow). Since I spend 3/4 of my computing life in Linux, using FreeCAD on my Linux platform without resorting to a VM was another plus. Aside from decorative minis just because, the bulk of my work is in the design and testing of engineered mechanical parts. FreeCAD gives me the power to handle even the most complex assembly that I need to create.

I'm ditching Blender because they didn't sponsor this video.

I tried onshape, and for a few simple objects it worked fine, but when faced with a more complex part in a project I encountered a few annoying bugs, so I went back to fusion. Mostly while trying to select things, or when I wanted to enter constraints and exact numerical values to multiple dimensions when placing simple geometric shapes in sketches.

Personal bookmarks shared : 1:29 choices 1:37 few weeks 2:10 organic 3:10 manifold 5:38 unusable constraint 7:40 online, smartphone 8:50 CADsketcher addon ++++ 9:45 manifold 10:30 organic 10:48 reference image

Open source software is always going to have the longevity factor and not come with licensing issues. Some software is going to have new features that make them stand out, but eventually the open source software will also implement those features and just be better.

For those interested in Blender for 3DP, I recommend taking a look at CAD Sketcher add-on, which allows for a fully parametric, non-destructive workflow. MakerTales has some great videos about CAD Sketcher as well as precision mesh modeling in Blender.

I've been using FreeCAD, but Onshape seems cool. I might try it out. One thing I like about FreeCAD is that the parameters can be put into a spreadsheet and you can simply modify the spreadsheet to change the dimensions of things in the 3D model / sketch.

I agree with your observations between organic and parametric modelling. I prefer Freecad because it is NOT cloud based and my internet connection is not always reliable. I enjoy seeing different approaches to CAD modelling so welcome to the band of u-tube demonstrators.

Nice straightforward assessment. Blender is a visualization and animation application, whose modeling workflow is centrally geared towards creating meshes that deform well and play well with physically-based rendering. Those constraints simply do not apply to 3D printers, who, on the other hand, need more precision. Optimizing one application's architecture and UI for both is pretty much impossible. It's better to have two. 'Bye Bye Blender' is a bit harsh..😅.

I’d be really interested in seeing more tutorial or “learn with me” type videos on Onshape. I started 3D printing less than 1 month ago. From the start I had some very specific builds in mind for my kit car. I found Onshape in exactly the same way via the teaching tech videos, which are excellent. I’m already up and running designing parts that I imagined may take me many, many months, if not years, to learn how to do. It’s an excellent product with a reasonable learning curve, but there’s loads I’m still to learn.

Comparing Blender and OnShape is an apples and oranges comparison. They are for different things. Comparing OnShape to FreeCAD, TinkerCAD, Fusion 360, etc. would have been more useful.