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Wow, man. How have I not heard of this software sooner?! EDIT: Your downvotes are ridiculous. I'm not being snarky or karma-whoring. I really am happy to learn

Wow, man. How have I not heard of this software sooner?! EDIT: Your downvotes are ridiculous. I'm not being snarky or karma-whoring. I really am happy to learn about Blender. All of the free versions of proprietary 3D software packages have awful licencing models and operating system support. A cross platform 3D modeling and animation suite that runs on linux, for free is kind of awesome!

AznHisoka 10y ago
because when you google it you just get results for the kitchen item. there are 1 billion possible unique word combinations in the world, were the creators that lazy in naming this? /s
- mirekrusin 10y ago
  There are 1 billion interesting things about Blender and you're talking about something that 1 person in the world has problem with.
- jafingi 10y ago
  No. You just need to learn how to Google stuff. It's one of the most important disciplines to know on the Internet. You know the name "Blender" and that it's used for 3D modeling. So search for "Blender 3D"
  - quirkafleeg 10y ago
    It's not even necessary to do that; I don't know what he's talking about. I just typed "blender" into Google now. 93,000,000 results, of which this is the first: https://www.blender.org/ https://www.blender.org/ And this is the second: https://www.blender.org/download https://www.blender.org/download On google.com/ncr the results are: First result, blender.org (with search box and six links from the site below it); second result, "Blender on Steam"; third result, Blender Wikipedia page; fourth result, Blender subreddit. I'd be more annoyed/confused if I wanted the kitchen item.
    - AznHisoka 10y ago
      original poster. i take what i said back and misspoke. i am building my own search engine and am annoyed because blender 3d appears when i do searches for 'blender' and expected the kitchen item result.
      - BuuQu9hu 10y ago
        I expect you need Google's Internet-wide tracking and profiling before you can tell if a particular user is a 3D geek or tech person and therefore wants Blender 3D rather than a place to buy blenders.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
buzzybee 10y ago
It's a reasonably well known tool among most 3D artist communities. It does something of everything at this point. The downside typically stated is that the UX for modelling workflow in particular is alienating, and most folks have trouble coming to grips with it. Commercial and proprietary packages often edge it out on certain features, and there is tooling path-dependency in industry work that has given Autodesk a position similar to Adobe's position with Photoshop, only with an added layer of fragmentation across products due to buy-outs of competition. Regardless, Blender does get stronger every time I see it, and it's had more and more uptake. (What I tend to do when I need a 3D thing is to model it in Wings3D, which is also free, and then import the OBJ to Blender to do anything else.)
- exDM69 10y ago
  Blender's UX may be unconventional, but there are some really good ideas in there. My favorite is the space bar menu. Hit space bar almost anywhere and a menu pops up. Type in a search, e.g. "cube" and it will fuzzy find "add a cube". Almost all actions are available this way. When I have been using SketchUp, an app widely considered easy to use and approachable, I always get lost in the menus. You never know if something is behind the right click menu or the top menu bar. I'd much rather press the space bar and type in a search. Blender's biggest issue is that it is very different from the more established 3d modelling apps. It makes migration more difficult. I use SketchUp for woodworking plans, because it handles real world measurements and has smart snapping features. For more artistic modelling, I go with Blender.
  - legodt 10y ago
    If you like that text menu you might want to play around with RhinoCAD. You can do all of your work from a command line, so the workflow feels powerful and snappy. The drawback is that there is no fuzzy search like you mention so you need to know commands before executing them
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- peterashford 10y ago
IndianAstronaut 10y ago
I am also intrigued by its Python interface. Haven't explored it much, but this syntax is much more intuitive than things like open scad.
quirkafleeg 10y ago
> Your downvotes are ridiculous. This is often true, but do you seriously think "Wow, man. How have I not heard of this software sooner?!" is worth registering an account for and posting? You don't even say thanks to the submitter. It's a useless post for anyone who doesn't come to HN to read about what software you are personally un/aware of. Posts like "+1" or "Thanks" or "this" or "woah" (without any other content) are probably better expressed by just upvoting the post you're grateful for/agree with. Since you complained about downvotes, your post is now one the most upvoted in the thread with 10+ karma. That's ridiculous.
- Gracana 10y ago
  > You don't even say thanks to the submitter. Ohhh, don't do that. I thanked a submitter once because I enjoyed their post and nobody had commented, and that earned me downvotes and a patronizing response about why such things aren't welcome here.
  - quirkafleeg 10y ago
    Yeah, but if he's going to the trouble of signing up here just to say how he didn't know about the software before, the least he could do is say thanks to the one who helped him find it.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
dajohnson89 10y ago
1) you created an account simply to express surprise that you haven't heard of an extremely popular software project. 2) complaining about downvotes is incredibly lame
melling 10y ago
it's a 20-year-old piece of software. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software) People have been making cool movies with it for years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ There's no need to exclaim about finding out that you didn't know about a popular piece of software: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=blender&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=blender&sort=byPopularity&pref...

AznHisoka 10y ago

because when you google it you just get results for the kitchen item. there are 1 billion possible unique word combinations in the world, were the creators that lazy in naming this? /s

mirekrusin 10y ago
There are 1 billion interesting things about Blender and you're talking about something that 1 person in the world has problem with.
jafingi 10y ago
No. You just need to learn how to Google stuff. It's one of the most important disciplines to know on the Internet. You know the name "Blender" and that it's used for 3D modeling. So search for "Blender 3D"
- quirkafleeg 10y ago
  It's not even necessary to do that; I don't know what he's talking about. I just typed "blender" into Google now. 93,000,000 results, of which this is the first: https://www.blender.org/ https://www.blender.org/ And this is the second: https://www.blender.org/download https://www.blender.org/download On google.com/ncr the results are: First result, blender.org (with search box and six links from the site below it); second result, "Blender on Steam"; third result, Blender Wikipedia page; fourth result, Blender subreddit. I'd be more annoyed/confused if I wanted the kitchen item.
  - AznHisoka 10y ago
    original poster. i take what i said back and misspoke. i am building my own search engine and am annoyed because blender 3d appears when i do searches for 'blender' and expected the kitchen item result.
    - BuuQu9hu 10y ago
      I expect you need Google's Internet-wide tracking and profiling before you can tell if a particular user is a 3D geek or tech person and therefore wants Blender 3D rather than a place to buy blenders.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

buzzybee 10y ago

It's a reasonably well known tool among most 3D artist communities. It does something of everything at this point. The downside typically stated is that the UX for modelling workflow in particular is alienating, and most folks have trouble coming to grips with it. Commercial and proprietary packages often edge it out on certain features, and there is tooling path-dependency in industry work that has given Autodesk a position similar to Adobe's position with Photoshop, only with an added layer of fragmentation across products due to buy-outs of competition. Regardless, Blender does get stronger every time I see it, and it's had more and more uptake. (What I tend to do when I need a 3D thing is to model it in Wings3D, which is also free, and then import the OBJ to Blender to do anything else.)

exDM69 10y ago
Blender's UX may be unconventional, but there are some really good ideas in there. My favorite is the space bar menu. Hit space bar almost anywhere and a menu pops up. Type in a search, e.g. "cube" and it will fuzzy find "add a cube". Almost all actions are available this way. When I have been using SketchUp, an app widely considered easy to use and approachable, I always get lost in the menus. You never know if something is behind the right click menu or the top menu bar. I'd much rather press the space bar and type in a search. Blender's biggest issue is that it is very different from the more established 3d modelling apps. It makes migration more difficult. I use SketchUp for woodworking plans, because it handles real world measurements and has smart snapping features. For more artistic modelling, I go with Blender.
- legodt 10y ago
  If you like that text menu you might want to play around with RhinoCAD. You can do all of your work from a command line, so the workflow feels powerful and snappy. The drawback is that there is no fuzzy search like you mention so you need to know commands before executing them
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
peterashford 10y ago

IndianAstronaut 10y ago

I am also intrigued by its Python interface. Haven't explored it much, but this syntax is much more intuitive than things like open scad.

quirkafleeg 10y ago

> Your downvotes are ridiculous. This is often true, but do you seriously think "Wow, man. How have I not heard of this software sooner?!" is worth registering an account for and posting? You don't even say thanks to the submitter. It's a useless post for anyone who doesn't come to HN to read about what software you are personally un/aware of. Posts like "+1" or "Thanks" or "this" or "woah" (without any other content) are probably better expressed by just upvoting the post you're grateful for/agree with. Since you complained about downvotes, your post is now one the most upvoted in the thread with 10+ karma. That's ridiculous.

Gracana 10y ago
> You don't even say thanks to the submitter. Ohhh, don't do that. I thanked a submitter once because I enjoyed their post and nobody had commented, and that earned me downvotes and a patronizing response about why such things aren't welcome here.
- quirkafleeg 10y ago
  Yeah, but if he's going to the trouble of signing up here just to say how he didn't know about the software before, the least he could do is say thanks to the one who helped him find it.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

dajohnson89 10y ago

1) you created an account simply to express surprise that you haven't heard of an extremely popular software project. 2) complaining about downvotes is incredibly lame

melling 10y ago

it's a 20-year-old piece of software. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software) People have been making cool movies with it for years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ There's no need to exclaim about finding out that you didn't know about a popular piece of software: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=blender&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=blender&sort=byPopularity&pref...