Blender and Skechup - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Cujo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2019, 01:03:07 pm
content: Is there any use for Blender and Skechup for electronics design or repair ?https://www.blender.org/https://www.sketchup.com/

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2019, 01:15:35 pm
content: For design yes, both are useful to make 3D models for your PCB design. They're not used in repair.It's very useful when designing a product to have your PCB designed with 3D components.You can then import the 3D model of your enclosure and figure out all the alignment issues before ordering.Ideally you get all your 3D component models from the manufacturer of each component, but not all manufacturers have them and quite often you need to make your own or edit oneI think you need a plugin for sketchup to export STEP files though and i don't think it's freeI'm sure blender does STEP export out-of-the-box Blender is complex though.Other options are- Fusion 360- Onshape- FreeCAD

author: soldar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2019, 05:46:14 pm
content: I have never used Blender and have no idea what it does so I would be interested in knowing more about it.I have Sketchup 8.0 which is an older version and I use it a lot for general 3D. It is simple and works well.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2019, 10:19:17 am
content: Blender is overkill for most people.You could make a professional hollywood animated movie with blender

author: soldar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2019, 02:41:34 pm
content: I use Sketchup a lot to make plans for anything I intend to make or build but it is mainly larger things like shelves, remodeling, construction, etc. I have also modeled smaller parts occasionally. For me it is just for giving me a sense of what it will look like and printing plans I can use for the building.I do not know that Sketchup is specially suited for PCB design but I guess not really.I hate it that Sketchup has been bought and sold several times and it might not be entirely free any more. I just stick to old version 8 which does everything I need.In fact, I enjoy the designing part more than the building part so many projects never get past the Sketchup stage.I posted some graphics in this thread:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/building-workbench-with-pallets/

author: Illusionist
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2019, 06:17:18 pm
content: I've used Blender quite a bit for making 3D objects, animations, avatars, clothing etc. for virtual worlds like Second Life. It's quite a learning curve to get used to it. I would say it's one of the least intuitive programs I've ever encountered. Once you get the hang of it though, it's very powerful and on a par with the most expensive commercial 3D software used by movie producers etc.. You can even make full 3D movies in Blender (As noted above by Psi). You can import and export files in many other 3D formats, and for 3D printing I believe. I've never done that because I don't have a 3D printer.Sketchup, at least when I last tried it some time ago, was relatively simple to learn to use but not even in the same league for capability. Especially when I tried to export models from it for use in virtual world simulators. That's not to say it isn't useful... it depends what you want to acheive. For a few quick and relatively easy 3D models, I would imagine it would be far quicker to get up to speed with Sketchup.