[Bf-committers] Google Summer of Code 2016 - Adding CAD functionality to Blender

matmenu matmenu at live.fr
Wed Mar 2 18:50:13 CET 2016


Hi João,

Good to see some interest in improving Blender's CAD capabilities :) I 
think it would be a good idea to speak about it on Blenderartists, 
giving some focus to avoid the Christmas list effect. From experience 
and what I read on the forums though, improving the snapping system 
would be very welcome.

For dimensioning, there are already many addons, 2 of them are really 
good: 
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Curve/Dimension 
and
https://www.blender3darchitect.com/2012/10/dimension-lines-for-blender-with-the-caliper-add-on/ 
and https://github.com/Antonioya/blender/tree/master/measureit.

I find it interesting to have some work done in Python in this GSoC as 
it will ensure users are able to use it in the end :)

Regards

On 02/03/2016 13:17, João Araújo wrote:
> Good afternoon,
>
> I am a college student who has known Blender for a few years now, and would
> like to contribute in GSoC 2016 by adding CAD functionality. I would like
> to ear your thoughts on my project idea.
>
> I have been checking on what has been done to implement CAD in Blender. I
> didn't find almost any software. Mostly there were forum discussions about
> how great it would be if Blender could have CAD features, while others
> stated that it would be impractical.
>
> The only actual add-on I found was this one
>
> http://www.cad4arch.com/cadtools/index.htm
>
> but although it is still being developed, it is paid and only works with
> Blender 2.49b. The author states an intention of embedding it into Blender,
> though.
>
> >From what I read, and based on my experience working with CAD packages, I
> compiled a list of targets for what I would propose myself to achieve
> during GSoC:
>
> ordered from most important to less important
>
>    - Add a new editor that would allow the user to make ISO-compliant
> drawings of individual parts.
>        - This requires, from the top of my head, the ability of drawing the
> 6 isometric views, at a standard scale, on standard sized paper (A4, A3,
> etc.), adding dimensions (lengths and angles), centerlines, axes, being
> able to do section views (with crosshatch drawing) and detail views.
>    - Add sketch tools (the ability to draw lines, circles, rectangles, etc.
> ; this serves the purpose of increasing the precision of drawing with
> Blender)
>    - Add reference geometry (reference planes and axes)
>    - Add a dimensioning tool (something that allows the user to edit the
> dimensions a posteriori the sketch being created)
>    - Modify the array modifier in order to allow explicit circular arrays
>         - This can already be achieved using a trick with empties, but I
> would like to clarify this workflow and simplify it (for example, instead
> of the user rotating the empty by 360/n degrees, where n is the number of
> objects, he would simply select n and the modifier would take care of the
> rest)
>    - Add a fillet tool (a very simple addition; can be done with vertex
> groups and the bevel modifier currently; once again I simply want to
> simplify it)
>    - Add a precise offset tool (currently, I can simply extrude and scale ;
> I want to make this work with the dimensioning tool mentioned above)
>
>
> I believe these are all feasible by me, with the first one being the most
> complex and one of the few requiring C programming. The others could be
> implemented as a Python Add-On.
>
> Best regards,
> Joao
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