Hi all. Does anyone have a free 3d drawing program to recommend?

Hi. Would recommend blender.

Quite complex program with alot of possibilities, tons of tutorials and a large forum.

Blender is an open source project, like Inkscape and GIMP.

If the end product is strictly visual/print/e-media, Blender is my vote also.

If you need precise 3d models for engineering/art in the real world, a CAD program is highly suggested. FreeCad, Fusion360, OnShape.

tylerdurden wrote:If the end product is strictly visual/print/e-media, Blender is my vote also.

If you need precise 3d models for engineering/art in the real world, a CAD program is highly suggested. FreeCad, Fusion360, OnShape.

This.

Also consider OpenSCAD, which may or may not suit you depending on whether you're more of a programmer or an artist/designer.

I'm looking for a program best suited for designing sculpture. An ideal program would provide measurements of shapes so that I know what sizes to cut when making the scuptures. I don't know programming.

Do you mean like for a 3d printer? I mean, if you want to draw the scupture in a 3d program, is it just to see what it's going to look like? Because if you need to measure the pieces, that seems like you'll be sending to another program.

I assume Blender has some kind of measuring tool, but I have no idea if it's simple or advanced. But I'm sure CAD programs will be able to provide very precise measurement. It's what they do, provide precision.

If the sculpture is made with geometric shapes, cad is the way to go.

If the sculpture is organic/flowing/naturalistic, a mesh or nurbs modeler like Blender is the choice, but measurements will be a little more complicated.

Sometimes both are needed to actually build in the real world.

Since when is Blender a NURBS-modeler? It´s a subdivision modeler.
If you don´t want to spend any money Blender is the way to go then or SketchUp for non-organic more CAD-like purposes.

Cheers
P.

Polygon wrote:Since when is Blender a NURBS-modeler?

Somewhere around v.2.5, I don't recall exactly.

Blender implements both Bézier curves and Non Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) curves and surfaces. Both are defined in terms of a set of “control vertices” (or “control points”) which define a “control polygon”, though each follow a different set of mathematical laws. The way the curve and the surface are interpolated might seem similar, at first glance, to Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces. The curve is interpolated while the surface is attracted.

A third type of “curve” available here is the polygonal one, which is just a set of straight segments forming an angled line. It does not seem to create a “poly” directly, though, you have to “convert” it from a Bézier or NURBS…

Note that a same object can simultaneously contain Bézier, NURBS and poly curves…

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2 ... ing/Curves

Sorry but you´re wrong, NURB-Splines have been there since the beginning. But these don´t make a NURBS-modeler. Rhino (http://www.rhino3d.com/en/) and MoI(http://moi3d.com) are pure NURBS-modeler. Blender is still a Subdivision-Surface-(SDS)Modeler.

Cheers
P.

Blender has nurbs modeling and mesh modeling. And it's free, as the OP requests.

MOI3d costs $, Rhino costs $$$.

Sorry but you´re still wrong. Blender uses NURB-Splines just as a precursor; the geometry will be built and rendered as/by polygons and not NURBS-hulls.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthr ... S-modeller
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthr ... -a-history
Have a nice one.

Cheers
P.

I'm looking for a program where I can design sculptures with geometric shapes that I can take measurements from for building the sculpture by hand. Not 3d printing.

Will the programs give you a layout with measurements?

Almost all CAD programs will generate drawings with dimensions.

glasslady wrote:I'm looking for a program where I can design sculptures with geometric shapes that I can take measurements from for building the sculpture by hand. Not 3d printing.

Will the programs give you a layout with measurements?

That sounds like something Blender should be able to do. But I don't know specifically if it does.

I'm sure there's a support forum for Blender, where you can ask.

With blender you can unwrap 3D models but it's an illustration tool, like 3dsmax and not a cad program -saving drafts is not the program's focus, though might worth looking at custom addons. As far as I can remember it has an addon directed to making papercut models.

Papercut models sounds very interesting.

Bryn, send to what other program and for what? Yes, measurements of the pieces is important.

You wrote: Do you mean like for a 3d printer? I mean, if you want to draw the scupture in a 3d program, is it just to see what it's going to look like? Because if you need to measure the pieces, that seems like you'll be sending to another program.

I´m under the impression of mixed terminologies. What do you mean when you say "design sculptures with geometric shapes"? I guess you can drw it on paper with dividers/set square and take a ruler for measurments. Why using a software at all? And are you talking about 2d drawings from different angles or a 3d-modeling software:


Cheers
P.

glasslady wrote:Bryn, send to what other program and for what? Yes, measurements of the pieces is important.

You wrote: Do you mean like for a 3d printer? I mean, if you want to draw the scupture in a 3d program, is it just to see what it's going to look like? Because if you need to measure the pieces, that seems like you'll be sending to another program.

Before you had clarified that you need the measurements to be able to reproduce the sculpture by hand, I wondered if you needed to send the drawing and measurements to a cutter or plotter, or generate gcode. Part of my original confusion, was that for myself, I would need to know the measurements, to be able to draw it. So I was confused why you wouldn't already know the measurements.

But in any case, for what you've told us about this project, I would investigate Blender and CAD programs for this. Blender is free and open source (like Inkscape) and I'm sure there are free and/or open source CAD programs too.

Perhaps Blender would be able to handle very smooth, curvy and flowing type of object, and CAD better for very angular or blocky type of object. But with heavy emphasis on "perhaps".

I would also say Blender because:
1) You can create sculpted type of shapes. It is very flexible.
2) Geometric (simple) shapes are also possible. So not a showstopper.
3) It's free, so you can try it out and decide for yourself and change your mind at no cost.
4) You can find custom commands to accelerate your particular process. Or make your own.
So for measuring points from the finished design, you should be able to get someone to make you a script to generate lists of coordinates. Making transferring values to real models very quick.
(In the past I have had programs made to cut 2D sections through 3D models to make coordinate lists for our clay modellers. Saving a lot of time and mistakes)

Note: The Blender user interface is not as slick as other high end modellers. But is OK one you get used to it, if you use it a lot.

Lots of info here! Thanks everyone.

I make sculptures out of sheets of glass.

To reply to a comment - I make 3D forms with flat surfaces. 2D measurements don't help for the 3rd dimension as lines get foreshortened or lengthened in 2d to compensate for perspective. It'll save a lot of glass to do trial and error in a program.

Oh, that sounds very interesting! Do you have a photo, or a link to a photo? By "sheets of glass", I get the mental picture of something huge. But maybe it's smaller. Is it sort of like a mosaic, with many, many, many very small, flat pieces of glass, except in 3d?

I guess I can only speak for myself, but I suspect a lot of us would love to see your final product(s), when you finally get everything decided, and finish a project.

I fully agree with Brynn - please share a glimpse of your work, glasslady! (I think we met on launchpad? Username: Hachmann)

Yes, I think we met on launchpad.

I don't have have any pics of the kind of work I want to use the 3d program for. I've been doing only traditional stained glass for a long time. There are sculptures I wanted to do but it was too difficult for me to plan on my own. So, I'm hoping to use a 3d program to figure out how to construct pieces I wanted to play around with. I'll post when I have some.