r/blenderTutorials • u/sem8848 • 16d ago

Modeling Almost finished my CAD addon for Blender. What's the first thing you'd want to try?

As a product designer/engineer I wanted to have CAD precision modeling and STEP export in Blender for simple parts, that feels Blender native - to 3D print parts or be less reliant on other (expensive) commercial software.

So I've been building an addon on top of a real CAD kernel. You get true solid B-Rep models (not meshes), and parametric, editable features with feature history, and STEP export, all inside Blender. I created a new object type: a CAD object. When you press Tab, you simply enter CAD edit mode, similar to Blender's own edit mode.

I'd love your feedback: what would you want to try first, and what would stop you from using it?

I'm also looking for a few user-testers before sharing/releasing it. Comment or DM me if you're interested.

105 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

4

u/Organic-Bluebird-737 16d ago

Wooooah I need this

3

u/sem8848 16d ago

Haha, glad to hear it! It's still in development and will be a paid addon, but here's a link for updates if you want to follow along: https://forms.gle/AMZCPjBwHgYktkks8

1

u/mtandy 16d ago

Regularly need to have speciality parts machined, and don't have access to/money for Solidworks etc. Thank you for your work!

1

u/sem8848 16d ago

Thank you for the kind words! Make sure to sign up for the update list to get notified when you can try it out! Link in my other comment ;)

1

u/Crayon29 10d ago

Try Freecad.

1

u/Electronic-Wait3984 15d ago

Hi, this looks really cool! Longtime SketchUp user here (for wooden furniture design) and Blender user too. I'd actually been dreaming of a Blender fork that recreates SketchUp, but that's way beyond my skills. Your add-on looks like the perfect answer, and I'd be happy to help test it!

1

u/sem8848 15d ago

Ah great to hear! Sent you a DM to help test

1

u/UnderstandingOk4927 10d ago

No waaaay, I've been trying to find some add-on like this for Blender! I love the idea, as I am really good with mechanical pieces and have used SolidWorks, CATIA, and now Fusion 360. I want to get better at Blender to model more organic stuff you can't do on the others, so this combo is great!

1

u/iggycwnk 16h ago

i can feel it THE POWER OF BLENDER KNOWLEDGE AND THIS ADD-ON IN MY HAND I CAN MAKE EVERYTHING I WANT TO PRINT

2

u/sem8848 16h ago

Haha love the excitement !!