CAD Modeling In Blender 3.2 | Using CAD Sketcher

Learn how to do and see how I do CAD-like modeling in blender 3.2 using CAD Sketcher. This is pretty much a brand new parametric precision modelling workflow for blender. CAD Sketcher is very much still in early development but things are looking very promising and growing quickly.

MAKER TALES ACADEMY
- - Learn Blender Fast Through 3D Print Design Paid Course - - -

-- Useful Links --

Learn Blender 2.9+/3.0 through a precision modelling playlist:

If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below and I'll do my best to get back to them as soon as I can or even better join the discord and I'll be sure to see it.

💬 Maker Tales Discord Server

🛠 Subscribe To Keep Making:

📨 Share with a friend:

📺 Watch My Most Recent Upload:

Other Places Where you can find me:

Time Stamps: (Coming Soon)

0:01 -

[fred]

Being able to do cad drawings in Blender would be a gift from God.

[AndersLundberg-ex]

As a design engineer of 28 years in Catia and a Blender nerd I really like this. Good stuff.

[chateaux-arts]

I understand the desire to appeal to Blender users with a shortcut-based workflow, but the large number of shortcuts, some of which overlap Blender's defaults seems less than ideal. I would much rather see these functions broken out into pie menus or shortcut menus to spare users the memorization (and have the opportunity to add tooltips).

[andrewstewart]

I use solidworks professionally and have a license personally, however this is amazing as a free ware tool to allow users to develop structural 3d models, thank you to everyone behind the development of this software.

[hakunamatata]

Showing beautifully how to use CAD Sketcher with recent updates, is the best way not just to make the user experience as gold as possible, but overcome problems as you go.
I've learned so much with this video alone regarding CAD Sketcher.

[Vilde]

This is just what I need... I got Fusion360 but still, I really hate having to use multiple tools for modeling, I guess Blender will soon really be enough for everything!

[zeekjones]

The CAD precise measurements are definitely better than my work around.
I'll have to give this a try.
Recently I've made a few practical models in Blender, and scaled from the print bed in the slicer, a known measure, to get things to the right sizing.
Getting measurements rather than making fractions in the workflow is a definite time saver.

_I was already familiar with making digital arts, but the main reason I got a printer was to also be able to make things in practical real world applications too._

[derwhalfisch]

for me as a near beginner, this is amongst the few best tutorial vids i've ever watched, it's so clean and dense.

[methodermis]

Was very skeptical that this was an ad for a paid plugin, but no this is free and it works.

[totheknee]

This is amazing! I had no idea CAD was this far along in Blender. So great!

[wzardbeard]

as a 3d modeller who has just got into 3d printing, thank god this exists - i already know my way around blender and really cannot be bothered to learn a new software

[romanmgelman]

This finally looks promising! I was always a little underwhelmed by your demos of the plugin but this one has brought back my hope for the future of CAD in Blender. Thank you!

[tensiondriven]

Regarding all the keyboard shortcuts; an addon or system that would display frequently-used shortcuts for a given context would really help my learning. Basically for every step of the tutorial you provided, a popover in the lower-left could appear and suggest what your next move might be. I think this could really help lower the learning curve. (Theoretically one could train an AI on input data to generate this, but I bet you could get 90% of the way there with simple heuristics.) e.g.

(when looking at a new document) Ctrl-Shift-A - Add Sketch
(when a tool is selected) Right-click - Cancel tool
(when origin and line are seleced) - Shift-N - Add Midpoint Constraint
(when anything dimensionable is selected) - Alt-D - Add Dimension

I imagine several shortcuts listed for most of these, i just took examples from your video.

PS, I've been following CADSketcher since you started making videos about it! I am *very* reluctantly about to learn Fusion360. Really, really wish there was a great open source CAD tool that started simple and supported complex modeling. Maybe there's a way to build Blender Lite with a focus on CAD? Make it 75% TinkerCad, 25% CADSketcher? I think Thangs should invest in building this, as an open-source project it would grow, and they could then link it into their ecosystem. <- someone please make this happen

[KnowArt]

holy damn. this keeps getting better and better

[matbrady]

I'm in no way interested in learning CAD, however... your enthusiasm and your incredible tutorials makes me at least flirt with the idea of learning it. I also think that your championing of Blender to quietly devour any other program's monopoly on CAD software is extremely exciting. While I'm likely not ever going to learn CAD it's great to see your enthusiasm and I've subscribed for that alone. I also learn a few things along the way (like Limited Dissolve in this video for instance). Thanks for making the Blender community awesome. Keep it up! :)

[remghoost]

Freaking proper tutorial.
Succinct, quick, and you called out all of the hotkeys you were using.

I came here just looking for how to extrude a circle to a cylinder and accidentally became a CAD master. haha.
Keep on being awesome. <3

[brunosantabreu]

I have not enough words to say how this amazing and a game changer

[theeau]

Fantastic ! The constraints are nice and clear. Blender is on its way to CAD !

[JakeSabre-wihq]

I have used Inventor and Blender a lot. What i've seen of CAD Sketcher I am really excited about! The shortcuts are SO intuitive, and dimensions are tidier than Inventor's sketch system. Keep up the good work sir! Can't wait to see more, and I intend to use CAD Sketcher myself!!!

[AlexAugustinex]

You guys are not kidding around when you say 'CAD in Blender'. Awesome work, Can't wait to use it.