How To Setup Blender 3.0 In Millimetres (mm) Precision Modeling

A short video showing you how to setup blender 3.0+ into millimetres (mm) for precision modeling and all your hard surface modeling needs. I'll explain quickly and clearly how to set up blender in millimetres to do precision modelling and with a few quality of life changes.

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Time Stamps:

0:00 - Blender 3.0 Startup & Quality Of Life Changes.
01:01 - How To Setup Blender In Millimeters (mm).
01:50 - Viewport & Precision Quality Of Life Changes.

[hiankun]

I searched for "how to change blender units" and found your channel. The information in your videos are incredible and really practical. Thank you!

[MattFromAmerica]

Dude, I appreciate you so much! I watched this video when it came, used Blender for a bit, now I am back a couple years later and this holds up to Blender 4 as well! I have a cool project I am working on. I am using the Recreator3d, Ender based pull-trusion for recycling PET. The next thing I am printing is a phone case and then a light. Once I get it all figured out I am going to take it and a printer to the North Philippines.

[thm]

The tutorials I have always needed <3

I've been using Blender for simple 3D print edits for quite a while now, but just put up with a lot of annoyances, because who has time to google every single thing...

This is perfect, thanks a lot!

[SaschaUncia]

That's how mine was set up. The only issue I have with it is floating point errors. Each default cube is now 1mm but still one internal unit, so large objects, or objects with large scaling values quickly start to behave strangely or generate floating point errors (example: you type in 30mm on the x axis dimensions and you get 29.87 instead). Make sure to constantly apply scale to minimize this. The CAD-Like transforms addon for blender also starts to quickly produce spazztic results if floating point errors are encountered.

Another option is to learn to use an open-source or affordable parametric CAD software alongside Blender. There are things that CAD just does many times better and there's nothing stopping you from using both apps together for their strengths.

Recommendations for CAD:
- Alibre ATOM (The basic version of Alibre CAD, popular with small workshops and has most of the features you'd get out of the full package. At $200 it's fairly affordable. It's aimed at hobbyists and woodwork shops but is licensed for commercial usage.)
- Free CAD (Free and open source, but buggy and not as polished)
- Fusion 360 Personal (Only if you don't plan to sell anything you make. F360 has free licensing for personal use, I know a lot of people still like this.)
- TinkerCAD (Never used it and seems pretty basic, but if it fits your needs then it's an option)

There are probably others but those are the ones I know about. If you plan to do a lot of CAD-type work or sell things I'd recommend Alibre, it's professional software and will pay for itself in saving you hours of frustration. Alibre's interface asnd workflow are heavily based on Solidworks so the skills you learn transfer over well if you get a job with CAD later on.

I learnt Solidworks in college but the pricing is absurd for the freelance or home user, same with most other industry standard CAD packages... >->

[petebateman]

Nice job! I always send people on r/blender asking about 3D printing to your channel. Keep up the great work!

[DEATHTRUTH]

Came for just the mm aspect, ended up with a much much better workflow. Thanks!

thank you so much, I always see this video when I want to set up my blender

[BFun]

Just want to say thanks so much for these tips! Especially saving the default startup file! Also want to thank you for ALL of your tutorials! Great stuff and made so that even fresh off the vine noobs such as myself, can easily understand and grasp! I've watched many (OMG many) others and I find your style to be the one that really works. You might speak a tad quick sometimes for a newbie like me, but that's what pause, rewind and replay are for, right? Lol! Thanks again, great stuff!

[mack]

thank you, i have always, after using rhino, considered blender to be a very very long haul flight in coach, you just upgraded me to first class.

[new_comment]

Thank you for making these tutorials, really clear and straight to the point. I just got my first 3d printer as a gift and I'm starting my 3d modeling journey. I don't have the money for the course, but I've already learned a ton of basic Blender use, through your tuts on YT.

[MrElwood]

This very quick and short video was exremely helpful!! Thanks

[SaucemanSauceman]

Thanks! I keep coming back to your vids

[pauldavison]

EXCELLENT - Thank you very, very much.

[djC]

Funny, checking out the new CADSketcher your latest video was talking about. Had to come here to get the unit scale right since stuff wasn't quite right w/o it. So did all that made a CAD sketch via the wiki "getting started" section and noticed with all the adjustments I did the light and camera were nowhere to be found. Until I noticed they were in the hole of the part I made and like just a couple of mm from the world origin. Maybe I'll reposition them in the startup file :D

[cessers]

I've learned so much from your channel over the last year. Happy to support the new course. Cheers!

[jamesssydney]

Well done mate this is fantastic! Just starting to use blender after using fusion 360 and Autocad for years!

[cutty]

It's bittersweet knowing that I can save my startup without a cube. I don't know how many cubes I immediately and then re-added back in when starting. I like being able to set up everything like that without having to redo it every time. It gets old and I typically forget something.

[thyagorodriguesalvarez]

muito obigado! very fast and directly to point explains :D love it.

[rudypieplenbosch]

Great setup tips, Especially the 4K ones were very helpfull, thanks man.

[alexrhinehart]

Thank you so much! This is an amazing tutorial.