Should Industrial Designers Learn Blender?

I'm answering the top questions I received about learning Blender for Industrial Designers.

Time Stamps:
0:00 - Introduction
0:37 - 1. Should industrial designers learn Blender?
2:18 - 2. How do you work with CAD in Blender?
5:07 - 3. When is Blender useful for industrial designers?
6:32 - 4. How does Blender rendering compare to KeyShot?
8:56 - 5. What makes KeyShot worth paying for?
11:12 - 6. Do we need a powerful computer to learn Blender?
12:15 - 7. How many hrs to be able to use Blender for client work?
12:42 - 8. Should I learn Blender or keep working on what I'm using?
14:38 - 9. Blender vs. solid modeling vs. surface modeling
16:54 - 10. How intutitive is Blender for non-3D users?
18:20 - 11. Most difficult part of Blender for CAD users?
21:21 - 12. What useful Blender add-ons do I reccomend?
23:40 - 13. What about Blender is overrated?
25:33 - 14. Is it important to master Blender?
26:22 - 15. Why did I choose Blender to learn over others?
28:27 - 16. How long does blender take to learn with no 3D experience?
29:37 - 17. Is 100 hours enough to learn Blender?

[dylanpierce_]

In my opinion as an industrial designer, understanding 3D modeling software is absolutely necessary. Which software depends on the field of work. Our R&D department has many engineers who have spent years understanding manufacturing processes, tolerances, structural integrity, etc. It is humorous to think I could pick up their software and contribute to the degree they do (CREO has a very steep learning curve). Blender allows me to fulfill my job and provide detailed conceptual work that then can be refined for production through a more suitable means. Knowing your goal when deciding on which modeling software to apply will save you lots of time and unneeded stress. Highly recommend Blender, especially for industrial design.

[nachito]

The biggest advantage I've seen from using blender in my workflow is how incredibly fast I can mock up a rough model of whatever I'm working on. It's so much more forgiving than traditional CAD, and I can then use those rough models to make final models in CAD or use as underlays for clean sketch renders.

On a separate note, I've had great results exporting as .obj from my CAD software (Creo) for rendering in Blender. It comes in as triangles, but the object shading is baked in and looks flawless. Not great if you want to modify the model in blender, although some tools still work like fast Booleans and some deformations.

[PinkMushroomPie]

Product designer here that uses blender sometimes. Blender/Max/Cinema4D are amazing for visual work and even tho they can be precise in some instances, cad softwares are still valuable in their own departament.
I once meet a guy when I was in uni that asked me why I do not use max to model and he never understood when I said "well because I need things to be really exact" and he gave me examples of people that recreate guns as an "but it is, u just don't know how to use it" :/ I had the same year to work on a kitchen blender and 1 mm is enough to break a design, because u have circuits and u also need reinforcements when u have something made with plastic and modeling in blender can trick u and there are 10K thing that can go bad in the real world.
Also I guess is matters more what kind of designer u wanna be >.> I like both but ik people that just wanna do cool renders and that's fine

[williammonteleone]

I’m a mechanical engineer who regularly works with ID guys. They do their concepting in SolidWorks and render in Keyshot. My complaint is that they get really bogged down in SW surfacing which inhibits their creativity, and is a really slow way to work. I’m trying to get them to try subdiv modeling in Blender. Our engineering dept is going to re-model everything anyway. So far, no interest.

[frankyphix]

Probably depends on the industry. We don't really have the luxury of spending time churning out multiple concept designs - we usually discuss the design with the client and go straight into cad modelling. Speed and proficiency in this domain allows for functional iterations and means the 3d data is universal - we can print with it, render with it and finally run production with it (usually injection molding).

I guess time is limited. So I could jump into a freeform space like Blender and churn out some cool designs, but in the end I'm going to have to CAD those up from scratch anyway and then run into the design constraints of the manufacturing process and really - I'd rather just save that time and jump into cad from the start.

Blender is great for animation though. Keyshot is severely limited with its animation tools so for anything more complex and stylized Blender is very nice.

Plasticity (design software) has a live bridge to blender so you can edit a fillet and have the model in blender update as well. Haven't used it much but the idea seems cool.

[xanzuls]

Very cool video, one of the best things about Blender are the addons, there's alteast 50 addons for almost every hurdle you could imagine in blender, and 90% of them free and rest of them are dirt cheap compared to other software plugins. For examples, if you find the HDRI process to be a bit cumbersome, just use the easy hdri addon, render queue addon. there's also addon for SDF modelling where you just focus on shape and not topology and it will create decent quad topology automatically for rendering, also hard agree on the fact on supporting blender monetarily.

Also, small tip on using Blender, if you are looking for something but you don't wanna dig deep into menus to find it, use the operator/menu search, the hotkey is F3 and you can find everything Blender can do in the specific context.

[cgpetey]

Blender is a great tool to have in your belt. It's great for concepting and visulization. It will never replace a solid modeler but its a great compliment.

[benjaminehrenberg]

I started my career with keyshot after dropping v-ray in 2012. In 2021 I’ve started learning blender when version 2.8 was launched. It was the best decision of my life cause it made me a more productive designer. For everything outside standard product views in studio lighting I’ll use blender to create the visuals since it allows me to be creative in my storytelling. I can quickly iterate on scenes, use particle systems, geo nodes place objects, simulations etc to spice up the realism without moving between software like I would need in keyshot. It makes storytelling so much more fun. Also importing CAD files isn’t much of an issue since most CAD software allows you to export FBX or OBJ files and you can use some plugins to do retopology and get nice quads. Interface is also not an issue if you can navigate Rhino you know about messy UI😅. When it comes to modeling I will use the tool which is best for the job, CAD obviously is where I feel home, but blender can be super useful when you deal with organic surfaces, were you can also use sculpting to play with form in a totally natural way.

[rajendrameena]

Actually the deciding points of mesh and Nurbs modelling are-
1. Type of material you want to play with. For RCC concrete structures, mesh modelling is more than enough but for precise metal cutting where even 1 mm can make it break the design Nurbs are only solution.
2. If you need to model very dynamic objects and you are in the conceptual phase then mesh will perform better.

3. When dealing with small details and large details in the same model, it is very hard to control the topology in meshes because they need uniform polygon so it becomes a pain to manage loops every time you have to make some big changes and hence I think Nurbs perform better here because they made of curves which we can extract anytime to make surface out of it, untrim it and we are good to go. However in recent rhino versions, I noticed that rhino divide large surface into smaller surfaces internally to optimize performance in booleans, so when we extract curves out of those surfaces they just came out to be useless to tweak and we have to rebuild them but it loose their precision.

[Byronx]

Is great that you give it a shot to blender! I followed you because I know blender but I wanted to know more about Keyshot, funny that you are now learning blender and you are still doing amazing renders

[dMistri]

Here is my workflow from CAD>Nurbs>Mesh.
1. for CAD either use Autocad/Rhino or any cad software.
2. For Nurbs work- use Rhino and moi 3d(Moment of inspiration 3d). Rhino is stable but not as fast as easy as moi 3d. both support 3dm file and you can directly copy-paste between them.
3. For nurbs to mesh conversion, dont use rhino. save the file to Rhino 5 version and open in Moi 3d and export from here. the benefit is that it can export the geometry with clean topolgy that you can use in blender. play with settings and you will be amazed how easy the conversion is.
4. Now open blender and import the obj file.

[zuowa]

An incredible coincidence. I just decided to design a product and draw up a specification for the factory. And I've done it in Sketchup many times in the past, but this time I decided I wanted to do it in Blender. I hope to be able to get the functionality I need by installing the plugins.

[YrOnimuS]

I wish you could do live linking from your CAD program to Blender. Then I would stay in my CAD program and make the appropriate changes and simply update the file without having to start all over again in Blender. To be honest, I'm surprised that this Keyshot-like solution doesn't already exist. Rhino+Grasshopper+Blender or Solid+Blender would be such a powerful combination. (Has anyone had any experience with Speckle? It looks like live linking. But the workflow seems a bit rough somehow.)

I think you really hit a nerve with this topic. Personally, I'm not happy with the direction Keyshot is taking and I'm already looking for alternatives. But many thanks for your assessment. I loved following your journey on Instagram.

[user_xyz]

I want to say something about the second question which mentions the problematic topology when exporting from CAD to Blender. Yes, the topology is messy, but not problematic if your model does not require quad topology (and no, you don't need quad topology for every model). If you need quad topology (for example for subd or deforming your object) then yes, retopo is needed. Yet I think that for models that don't need quad topology (static game assets, models for concept rendering, etc.) a CAD -> Blender workflow is superior due to its insane speed. You make your model in a CAD software like Plasticity (which even has a Blender bridge), export it to Blender and then texture and render it there. Super fast and easy since you don't have to deal with the problems of polygon based software while modeling.
Just a little side note. Cheers.

[georgefernandez]

Very well said and explained. I am trying to learn C4d now and have tried using blender in the past. They are equally challenging but provide so many tools that it can be overwhelming at times. I applaud you for taking the time to go through it and share the journey.

[HustleRussell]

Hey Will - I haven't yet migrated to Blender, but I have been using subdivision polygonal modeling for Industrial Design for 12ish years. I find it invaluable as an early exploratory 3D modeling tool - it even is super helpful to bring in as a reference for various engineering and prototyping purposes.

Also, I don't modify CAD in a sub-d program, but I do heavily reference CAD (as an exported STL) for cross sectional references, basic engineering hard points/geometry references, etc.

[tydl-eexj]

Best is to learn one NURBS modeller and one polygon modeller. You need to learn to model in polygon modeller and import the polygon model into iinto CAD and build a precise CAD model with it as underlay and vice versa.

[dannyjevriend]

Awesome video, Will! Many are curious about this. Blender is more than just an industrial design tool, it offers design, animation, rendering, post-effects, and even some video editing. For industrial designers, deciding if these features distract or broaden their view can be tough. This video can definitely assist with that decision 🙏

[ganapathym]

There are some people specifically making ships and boat using nurbs of blender.

[Romain_Guimbal]

Great to have your opinion on the question ! For me the answer is YES, because I'm currently developing a full class A parametric NURBS modeling addon for Blender called SurfacePsycho, and it could change the game ! (And it is openSource) 🤩

Also most cad software do have EDIT MODE and MODIFIERS. In SolidWorks it is everywhere, you enter the edit mode of your sketches and parts all the time, and the modifier stack is your tree view. It is really just a different naming !