Why I don't use Plasticity

I've had a few questions about this software and it seemed easiest to answer in a video and hopefully give some insight into my thoughts on this program.
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[kulusic]

Getting good bevels and fillets on compound organic shapes in blender is an absolute nightmare, even with mesh machine there's certain shapes that take hours to fix topologically before you can get clean bevels that don't break shading. I'd recommend doodling in blender because its faster and has lots of procedural tools, but once you find the shapes you want you can build them really quickly in Plasticity.

[filamentio]

6:20 Many people think 3D modeling for gaming, film or 3D printing is the same, but it isn't, you have to know exactly what you want to do with your design at the end of the day.
So I think it's great that you're specifically addressing this

[knightandlord]

I’ve been a product designer for a long time and I’ve had to include 3D in my workflow. This debate reminds me of the no-code debate also. Which brings me to my first point:

I’d say currently that the mesh quality from Plasticity isn’t up to par. If it doesn’t have texturing and rendering, then it’s just important to make the mesh quality as good as possible.

Secondly, for a new tool, telling people you’ll pay for version one and get no other update from 2.0 upwards seem very unfair.

They’re a small & growing team and I see so much potential in it. They should also consider taking the Figma route. Putting it on the web. It’ll be a great game changer.

[Kuechmeister]

Plasticity looks a bit like blender, but you can never compare a nurb tool with a poly based (3D, modeling, sculping, animation, rigging, lighting, texturing, shading and render) tool. You can compare blender with cinema4d, lightwave, 3DStudioMax, SoftimageXSI, Maya or maybe Modo, but Plasticity you must compare with Moi3D, Fusion360°, Freecad, ViaCad, Rhino, Shapr3D... It is only a mini CAD Tool. I have tried to compare Moi3D with Plasticity and this alone is hard because in the CAD-Nurb world, the tools are using different CAD Kernels too, with their own pro and conts.

[systematicpsychologic]

I'm a big fan of Plasticity and Blender, but yeah, good points. Very different workflows and advantages.

[yanis_s]

Comparing Plasticity with Blender is like comparing a truck with a supercar. Which one is better? Depends on how you look at it! I think it would be much better to compare Plasticity with other Nurbs modeling softwares like Rhino or Fusion 360.
What Plasticity is doing here is quite amazing, because they try to simplify 3d cad modeling and try to make it much more quicker, and more easy to learn. I personally tried to leran Rhino, Fusion 360 and even modeling in Blender, but I always hated the learning process. Simply because, as a beginner, it is very time consuming and slow. What I hated the most in these softs, was that you need to do so many steps just to achieve a simple goal. A lot of hidden features burried under complex menus. I think a lot of people have experienced, what I am saying here!
Then I found out about Plasticity and I have never been so excited to learn modeling - it is really fun and I can see my progress just after a couple of hours. This is impressive in my eyes! I think it is much harder to create a software that everyone can master, rather than something complex that only a few people can learn in a longer time period. Plasticity in my eyes is like an Iphone, when other Nurbs modeling softwares are like Nokia or Blackberry :)

Remember, it is a brand new software that is created by 1 or 2 people (I believe) and in a recenet years - just this fact is quite impressive. Imagine, what will they do in the upcoming years with a bigger team, more budget and more time spent on development? Blender has been around since 1995 man :D Think about it!

[caketality]

I think the thing that’s made Plasticity so much better than Blender for me is that it may be a more limited toolset but it’s good at bare essentials so it fits my very limited skillset. It’s much easier to stay excited about the awful thing you’ve made when you can see progress between sessions a lot easier. It’s good as a sketchpad where you’re learning more than creating.

I’ll be curious to see how it scales, Blender being a Swiss Army knife of tools makes it hard to see ever really dropping it.

[shadowstate]

I'd like to see something like Plasticity's NURBS modeling system integrated directly into Blender - keeping with the name "Blender" a blended modeling system.

[chikhai]

Blender's UI has hamstrung me even wanting to learn it. Its like wanting to ride a bicycle but you're confronted with the cockpit of the space shuttle. Coming from a CAD background I know the fundamentals of putting an object together and manipulating it in a 3D space, but I've suffered from information overload when trying to use Blender. For me, even basic tools seem buried away in a sub menu somewhere.

I'm not bashing Blender on how powerful and versatile it is, because for a free piece of software (even in its default configuration) it blows a lot of "premium" software out of the water.

The simplicity of Plasticity is what has made it the key part of my workflow. Granted, the UI appears very basic (you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a re-skin of 3D Builder) but everything you need is a a couple of keystrokes away. Even at such an early stage in its development you have everything you need to create some very complex models in a relatively short amount of time.

I think your observation on the two distinct modelling philosophies is a valid one, but I think it also depends on your background in terms of what impact it has. Personally, I took to it like a duck to water and it was just like using AutoCAD in the bad old days, but I can see people who cut their teeth on Blender or ZBrush finding it irritating.

As far as creating 3D models for print is concerned, I have yet to have any issues with rogue geometry or slicers throwing a fit when presented with a file from Plasticity, and I've used Plasticity to create some relatively complex models. Not so long ago I created a servo skull (for use in Inquisitor) in Plasticity which used an imported step file of a skull as its base. This was an anatomically correct skull, so a bit of judicious editing was required to get it to a stage where it would print properly (filling the interior of the skull, trimming the bones in the back of the nose cavity etc). The finished model didn't present Lychee with any errors; no awkward islands that couldn't be supported and the printed model showed no signs of any external geometry issues. Granted it as printed at 54mm scale, but I've seen some 28mm sculpts that have had visible geometry that wasn't down to the printer or slicers interpretation of the file but the actual sculpt itself (I won't point fingers, but they're out there). So far it has been very competent at creating models that are fit to print.

I don't think Plasticity is for everyone, but it definitely has its use cases. I think most of it is down to your previous experience of 3D modelling.

[colinhare]

Coming at it from a traditional CAD ownership model where licences are a) expensive b) usually internet based so always need connection and c) expire after a year or two, this is a bargain. I've been using Plasticity for a couple of weeks and I'm so impressed, i will be buying it for my 3D modelling needs.

[greyareaRK]

I honestly didn't know Blender was non-destructive. I really need to sit down with that software. I'm impressed and frustrated with Plasticity. The exercises are amazing, but I quickly run into trouble when I go off script with a design, encountering many errors with no way to identify or correct them.

[jdavidguerrero]

I totally get your points. I have used it for 3d printing in resin for 1/24 scale model cars and the quality of the mesh and the result I get from the printer is perfect.

[kwisatzhaderach]

They claim: "...with no subscriptions, you own your software"...ok, but to have the updated version beyond 1.x, you have to pay the yearly...subscription fee 😂

[xzerol]

I believe you are talking about the differences between surface modeling and wireframe modeling in the design field. There are indeed significant distinctions between the two, and the handling of edges in surface modeling (PL) surpasses what wireframe modeling (BL) can achieve. I agree that combining both techniques can be very convenient. If you aim for perfect wireframing, you can import the results from surface modeling (PL) into ZBrush for topological adjustments, which can lead to relatively flawless wireframes. I think it's essential to consider these two software tools as complementary to each other, leveraging their respective strengths rather than putting them in opposition, as they have different inherent capabilities.

[kiwivi]

I have used blender for quite a while and decided to try out plasticity. I agree with a lot of what you mention and definitely see pros of both, I recommend either starting blender and seeing how you go or if possible picking up both as there is definitely great pros to both software and always recommended to use the best tools for the task instead of having to get around some issues you may run into. Good video overall 👍

[Tiniuc]

The potential for bridging between plasticity and blender in the future is very interesting.

[scottk]

I really appreciate that you're careful to point out that the drawbacks to using Plasticity are based upon your needs and use case. I've pondered how to write software to re-topologize surfaces which have been booleaned in CAD, but I'm pretty sure the math would melt my head. So I understand that the quad output from complex models is a tricky beast, but I'm a little disappointed to see that Plasticity exports surfaces which would still need some cleanup before going to a slicer.

To Plasticity's credit, my head exploded when I saw someone effortlessly create a 5-curve lofted surface in Plasticity.

[NakedShavedEwok]

You adjust the tolerances to increase the poly count. I've exported things out of plasticity that are multi million polys. You're just doing it wrong.

[icedriver]

I think an Editable History in Plasticity would make the results more editable. Maya has a construction history and 3ds Max has modifiers.

[carloso]

This is really helpful. Thank you ! I really want to try it out, specifically for the ease of fillet creation