Blender is a free and open source 3D creation suite available in under the GNU General Public License. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline.
Blender Cloud is a related service accessible via subscription, and is a training and content platform providing access to expertise from the Blender Institute for advancing one's use of Blender.
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SketchUp
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
SketchUp is 3D modeling software with an emphasis on usability. SketchUp is a Trimble product.
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Blender
SketchUp
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We've only used the consumer (non-pro) version of SketchUp, which we love, but is very limited in features and output capabilities compared to Blender. While Blender's learning curve is MUCH steeper than SketchUp, it feels like truly complete, professional design software.
Blender is an excellent tool for everything from simple to complex 3D animations, the creation of 3D images, etc. It performs excellently in all of these areas. In the realm of 3D modelling, animation and rendering, there is very little that Blender is not suited for.
Real estate is not really the most likely use for Sketchup, since it has so many choices and possibilities. But, it is an innovative way to differentiate yourself from the competition. The program is very well-suited to the myopic seller or buyer who can't visualize future changes and their effect on value.
Creating complex polygonal geometries is very easy in Blender.
Edit Mode and Sculpt Mode helps in creating non uniform surfaces for objects like rocks, surfaces, terrains etc.
Blender can use various external plugins to make it work in more smoother way. For example to import any 3d object one can use sketchfab plugin and easily import the free assets from web after logging in.
Blender has a better rendering engine known as Cycles, it is far more better than any other stock rendering engine which can generate realistic lightning, shadows and reflections.
The animations can easily be generated with blender animation toolbar and also it incorporate any other animations made in any other software.
The bone generation and its behavior of animations can be achieved easily in blender.
Quickly exploring solutions in 3D: We get a lot of "what if" and "what would that look like" questions. While hand-sketching and hand-drafting can be fairly quick, SketchUp allows me to quickly create 3D and 2D views of a detail or solution, change dimensions and materials in a flash, and show a client or installer the plan in minutes.
Creating professional design documents in LayOut: Projects of any scale need good documentation. Using a combination of SketchUp and LayOut, I can create a Design Intent Set, plans for permitting, a set for mechanical trades to mark-up, etc. Having clear, appropriately-scaled drawings with dimensions or notations is a must, and we don't always have the time or budget to get an architect involved!
Using live files to guide discussions: Not all clients are "visual" people, so opening their model and orbiting around their space in real time has been extremely helpful. Clients and trades enjoy the perspective views so much that we often include them in the full-sized drawing sets to give a good "overall" view of the project intent. For complex or tight spaces, sometimes un-rendered plans and elevations just aren't enough!
It would be great to see a render queue added. This would increase my productivity significantly. Currently I don't have budget for a render farm. Meaning I have to do my renders overnight, however some renders only take a few hours. A render queue would allow me to make the most of the 12+ hours I'm out of the office.
UV editing, in particular unwrapping or projecting can produce varied results.
Exporting/importing files from other programs may not always be compatible.
I'm an engineer and I feel SketchUp is more geared towards architects. However, I still find it useful for certain aspects of my job such as creating renderings.
Has a tendency to slow down as the file size gets larger. Apparently, it runs on an outdated engine that has trouble with very heavy models.
We typically wait a few years in between renewing, as even older versions are powerful tools for modeling, and we make sure the amount of feature changes are worth the re-investment.
Because while it's a pretty good piece of software, the default built-in commands, the interface layout, and certain functions aren't as logical in their way of being arranged and executed. This, of course, doesn't diminish its use or effectiveness in your field of work, but it is quite awkward at first. A big advantage is that Blender lets you customize the interface however you want as well as keyboard shortcuts and several general program parameters.
It is very user friendly and easy to learn. It's simplicity allows for a low learning curve so more people can learn it faster. The downside is that most schools are no longer teaching it, so many younger professionals come out of school not knowing it and knowing more complex software and they have a hard time "dumbing down" their skillsets
Sketchup is so intuitive; I can't recall ever looking for official support. However, there are many user forums online that can answer more questions. The usefulness of the online forums is, however, tempered by the fact that there have been many versions of the software under different ownership and support regimes, and thus finding the right information for the right version of the software can be a challenge.
Well, in fact, I haven't used any of that software, but there is one thing I know: Blender is free. That's huge for small business owners like me; it is the difference between having the tool and not having it. I have heard other people saying that the Autodesk offerings have some other tools Blender doesn't have and are better for animation, especially Maya, but no small-engineering business owner cares for that. Now, from the animation and artistic point of view, even if my business was making animated movies indie, I'd used Blender simply by its cost.
To me, SketchUp is better to study designs because it is easier to manipulate than Revit. Revit has each part of the model connected so it is great to "keep your design honest" however, in trying to be creative, you are often inhibited. It is not as easy to push/pull and manipulate quickly to see if an idea works. You also have so many people working in a model and each view impacts one another, so if you are in the middle of studying one area, another person cannot work on that same area
As it is a beginner-friendly software with increasing demand in the animation sector again, it positively impacts the business.
Except in some specific cases, no one will use Blender on their own at a professional level.
When I was a beginner, it took me a lot of time to learn, consequently designing the creation. But if we want to learn to master Blender, we can do it. As long as we have time and a lot of willpower, since, we repeat, it is not a simple program and hides thousands of tools and possibilities.
Increased revenue by allowing our customers to see the final products faster, input comments and finalize design decisions.
We develop furniture and the rendering capabilities and graphics found in the basic package allow the fabricators a broader understanding of what is being created.
We develop all of our work in SketchUp. I initially felt it was a simplistic cadd software. By re-tooling my thinking I have found fantastic results with the program. I must admit that I learn something new every day. There is a wealth of information on how to do and create things on YouTube. It has a very large community of supporters.
