DO NOT model cars. | Blender 2.8
Vložit
- čas přidán 16. 08. 2020
- Read the Disclaimer in the Comments.
Join the Squad and Share your Work on Discord: / discord
I created 5 Free Automotive HDRs for Download: mouval.com/free-hdrs/
Patreon / mouval
Instagram: chimpbadger...
business inquiries or donations :)
db@mouval.com
Equipment:
Camera: amzn.to/2Q3vQMJ
Lens: amzn.to/2Q3Q2hu
Tripod: A Box. Legit just a cardboard box. - Jak na to + styl
I teach a set of high precision polygon modeling techniques in my course "Master Car Creation in Blender" that's being studied by Hyundai as well as other companies in the industry that have started using Blender. I can't say to what extent the techniques are being applied though, I'm sure alias is still used for the final product. So I agree with some of your points, Blender's not replacing cad or alias any time soon, but after using Blender for 20 years, it's been quite nice seeing it break into all the different industries and watching it succeed in ways that many kept saying would never happen. In their defense though, it certainly took time to get here, but it's really taking off now. -Chris
The Elite of the Elite has finally arrived. I am fighting for Blender being implemented into major automotive pipelines for 8 years, brainwashing the hell out of everyone. It seems like recently it is also being used for sketching out cars in 3D (concepts). I myself only work far after that step when cars need to get visualized or configured. At that stage, it makes 0 sense to model a car that already was produced. In the early stages of AR, cars were retopologized, but unsuccessfully because it was not configurable, and this step was not scalable at all keeping in mind new cars come out every year (in 3D, but CAD). For some years, a lot of money is put into AI retopo. Also for years steaming is the way to go, so there is no need to reduce data size, at least for desktop or VR. AR is still a dead end, as long as AI retopo does not work. Also, at least myself had issues implementing Blender into render pipelines with VRED as a competitor. The only place I successfully brought blender into pipelines used till this day, is the bridge between CAD and Unity/UE4. So glad seeing you here finally, a lot of people mentioned your tutorial xD If you want to have a chat, hit me up at db@mouval.com. Might be interesting to exchange some knowledge since I am quite deep into the German automotive scene. Greetings from Berlin, Damian
@@DamianMathew haha, I'm not even sure how I came across this video. I almost didn't reply though because it was a bit older, but wanted to share what I could about some of the industry taking notice of Blender. I actually don't know much at all about the auto industry. I've only had a handful of conversations with industry guys remarking on the shift towards polygon modeling for the concept stages, and how there's a growing interest in Blender for that which is awesome. It seems like a lot more needs to be done to Blender's tools before it's usable for more parts of the pipeline, but pretty exciting to see our work peddling the software is making an impact over time =) SO happy to see it getting the recognition it deserves, and watching that funding explode. Can't wait to see what it looks like in the future and to see how much it takes over.
@@blengine We have seen a big shift to polygon modeling the last two years. In fact we’ve had at least 15 people at Volvo Group and Volvo Cars talking your courses before including myself to big thanks for that.
Recently we have been hiring people specific with Blender too, its been quite ingrained in the studio.
@@liamkeating8511 Man that's cool to hear. I remember talking to you on Artstation, and I saw you worked at Volvo and thought it was awesome that you were checking out my training. It's extra awesome to hear it's been making its way across the company, and that Blender's being used more and more there.
@@blengine @Damian Mathew It is great to be reading a conversation from people who work in the industry. I myself work at the very beginning of the pipeline, quite opposite from Damian. I would say Blender seems to be increasingly useful for that part of the process since modeling larger quantity of concepts in shorter time seems to be a possibility. Also having the ability to quickly live time visualize in eevee as well as soon look it up in VR all from the same software seems to be a huge advantage! I don't see it ever replacing VRED since it is made for our particular industry pipeline but at the very beginning of design stage Blender seems to have a great place. Thanks for both of your videos!!
6 million polygons is "low poly" in AutoCAD
yes exactly xD
Yes but you can do a Limited dissolve or other non destructive reduction
I'm making a car in Blender and so far it has 14 524 228 polygons (It's not finished yet)
Aleks Ivanov RIP RAM xD
I think people making cars in blender aren't planning on producing and manufacturing a whole ass car lmao
PlainSailingWeather yes that’s a good point that also is totally fine. People can do what ever they want of course, but if they wanted to earn money with their cars, they probably will have to stick with the I industry standard. I even modeled a spaceship yesterday haha. Not in CAD but in Blender. Why? Cause it’s fun haha
@@DamianMathew So you just admitted that the whole Video was a waste of everyone's time. The point being the AVERAGE person models for fun. 16:48 of my life I could have spend doing fun things...... LIKE MODELING A CAR in BLENDER.
@@Wayneawebb stop hating and start learning haha. My advice
@@DamianMathew Attitude much? I just learnt that you are a total MORON. I WON'T be watching anymore of your Crap.
@@Wayneawebb you are the one with attitude
Title should be: DO NOT Manufacture Cars From Poly Models
Riley Christian yes haha
Except for the CyberTruck.
@@macrumpton Exactly xD
Its not click bait ish enough haha
@@DamianMathew I just hate every click bait video
Blender is for artists not for engineers, that obvious.
Yes!
So True
yeah
Also good for game developing
so whats for engineers but still has so much features?
I'm an automotive engineer. I use CAD at work. I'm also make 3D animation by blender as a hobby. And I confirm what you're saying is so true.
I'm starting using CAD too,I've been struggling hours even to model a low poly car in Blender...like It was ridiculous, now I'm gonna use CAD...
Out of curiosity, what do you do as an engineer? Like idk the mechanics...
Super awesome thanks.. Now with UE5 I can model in CAD and use Nanite :)
I a. mechanical engineering student wish to be automotive designer.. otherwise.. modelling car for real purposes what software should i use.. blender or cad
I have SketchUp and I searched and found that it too is a CAD software, can I model cars with it ?
Let's see you find a CAD file for a 1920's car. lol
Narek Avetisyan yes good example xD
but if you have to model it where will you?
Aren't a few resto mod companies remaking those parts to this day? That's how the got la vatuore noir in the crew right?
Basically, if I want to model for factories that "print" things, use CAD
since I want to model for graphic art, Blender is fine.
Myles Frampton yes exactly, you hit the nail on the head!
@@DamianMathew You didn't need a 16 minute, overly fluffed, mistitled, clickbait video to get that out.
There's absolutely fuck all wrong with modelling vehicles.
@@DamianMathew Blender is used for 3d printing
@@Tomm4070 not mechanical designs
But rather like graphical shit like idk a cool gun
@@regularname1825 Yes, Blender is used in mechanical designs and into prosthetic arm design (like robotic arm) to help people they need that.
Mechanical engineer here with experience in CAD as well blender. Much relatable video.
MechMotions I hope I didn’t say anything wrong about CAD since I’m not a CAD professional. But I tried my best!
@@DamianMathew You are completely right. One doubt is whats the format you export CAD to open in blender? STL? what is the parameter you uses? or are you using any third party tool for conversion?
MechMotions industry standard I would say is delta gen. But I don’t own a license. I usually depends on the car companies to convert it for me. To blender usually you would need fbx or obj. That’s works fine. Stl I wouldn’t recommend because it doesn’t have a hierarchy or materials
Totally agree. Fellow mechanical engineer. SolidWorks is so precise and easy for those real small details
@@mechmotions stl is worse for the texturing and overall finish. Obj I like less than obj. And more wide used. If it's in wrong Format Autodesk Maya makes a fbx binary converter
I'm a product design engineer (using SolidWorks) during the day and a Blender hobbyist at night, so yes, both worlds have their unique strengths.
The major hassle in my opinion still is exchangability between them, especially from polys to CAD.
You're correct in most of this, but instead of saying CAD you should perhaps distinguish between NURBS based modelling vs. polygon based modelling.
Typical CAD packages you are talking of are most likely ALIAS, Rhinoceros 3D and parametric modelers such as CATIA or Solidwork or FreeCAD.
Usually anything manufacturing oriented modelling requiring numerical accuracy would be NURBS based.
Anything where organic and less numerical accurate results that look good are asked for would be done in polygon based software.
Personally I model with Rhino 3D and render with Blender. Seems like a good combination which does not require hughly expensive subscriptions.
Keep churning out those videos, you've done already some really helpful videos. Thank you.
I am definitely not a CAD pro, I would even consider me a CAD Noob to be honest xD So thanks a lot for your comment, it's a great add-on to the video! I am glad you like my videos! :D
What about NURBS in Blender? There is the option, is it not optimum?
Abhilash Kashyap I cant say 100%, but I’m pretty sure you can’t export it as a cad file for the robots to understand. Only stl, wich is Polygon based.
@@DamianMathew ow, OK. So the problem will be with exporting. But surely has made, or will make, an addon for it.
P.S. just found out your channel. Really loved the video
Abhilash Kashyap yeah hard to say if blender wants to even play that game since they are specialized on a lot of other things already. Let’s see what the future brings!
I'm a senior automotive artist at quite a big company, I've been doing automotive cgi since 2005 and I can say, this video is full of bad information.
Model what the hell you want in whatever program you want.
I mean, why use ZBrush to sculpt a human? Just go out and make a real baby!
He's talking about modeling cars in blender is not industry standard,you can model whatever you want and they don't have to be industry standard
Making a real baby is more expensive than any modeling program subscription!
They are produced with your models? No. Same thing with a building, you can do a building in Blender and be really close to the real thing, but when you want to enter production of said building you'll need CAD.
@@Ooze27 Jesus, what the hell. Are you the kind of guy that also needs a video to explain to him how to wipe a butt or some other basic shit that any human being outside of total retardation realizes without some goof taking 16 minutes to explain it?
I found this very interesting because it corresponds exactly to my workflow. I'm using blender exactly as you mention : for visualisation and animation. The main part (the one I want to highlight in my scene) comes from a CAD model, then it's all about shading, environnement (light and assets) and camera views, the kind of thing you can't do or won't do in CAD (no, in my entire life I've NEVER modeled a stone or a realisticly shaped planck in CAD) .
Finally, I would say the real difference is engineer vs artist point of view.
And yes, as a many years CAD user, modeling in blender (would be the same with others similar software) is a pain for me, but certainly because I can't get rid of my CAD habits.
Stéphane NUFER great comment and thanks for sharing! Cool you use both and I know that feeling of switching. I already had to use so many programs that kind of did the same but had a complete different interface. But I guess that won’t change in the near future haha. But keep on going!
Absolutely agree, i am the guy that made that porsche render and sent it to you, i was thinking about this thing a lot, i have tried rhino a while ago and i was able to get great and smooth results with minimum time, this video was all i needed to ditch polygonal modeling for cars, you always get pinching with polygonal no matter what (its the truth every awesome model has flaws), will be finishing a project then start actually using cad more, i'll probably go with rhino tho as i already know its basics
That sounds great! I’d love to see you results!
Thank you very much for this info Damian!
I modeled cars in Blender for few years and i honestly never know or heard about this before.
I may look into CAD modeling in the future, because my main motive is for my cars to look as realistic as possible. Good Luck!
Modelling cars in blender is a great practice. Also, anyone that can model cars in blender can model anything pretty much, so you didn't waste your time. But if you ever want to create cars for a real automotive client, you'll need CAD. Or you specialize on rendering. They will give you CAD and expect you to render it in VRED actually, but sometimes Blender is also okay.
it is "a great practice" that will become completely useless once you start modelling your car in a CAD (because with NURBS the process is completely different)
Awesome quick and great tutorial. Danke!! 🙏
Sorry to say but I have to correct you on this. I'm working as a professional car designer and the total Process of developing a car from sketch to production takes somewhere between 3 and 6 years depending on the company structure. Poly modelling is used for at least a period of 1-2 years to build quick early design proposals, sometimes up to 20 complete cars (including interiors) all in poly before moving to surface modelling. I would say at this point in the automotive industry maybe even about 30% of the modellers are poly modellers or a mix between designers and modellers and it is due to the speed of iterations, a very important tool in the whole process.
Yes I agree. I am only talking about marketing. Also i do mention concepts, but not quite clearly. For me sketching a car with pen or poly doesn’t mean modeling a car. I know, sounds stupid. Since I am far back in the line, a car to me is a finished driving car with engine.
About the 30% guys, I guess again that depends on the department. I personally don’t have anything to do with the design department. I do VR, AR, Commercials, Configurators, Webpage Marketing Shots and so on. In all of these huge aspects with a ton of people and money, no modeling is needed, since the car is already modeled. that was the point of the video, but i didnt make that all to clear since I didnt concider car design as a thing since its so far away fron my work.
So i do agree in all your points ofcourse.
Yeah dont model cars in Blender ...except you want to work in car design where blender is used to make early concepts. And dont model cars for "incar" apps!! where of course you need poly models with low poly count like in video games. Yeah wanna see how you use nurbs there... and of course dont model cars for entire Visualization process :D .....where of course you cant again use nurbs ......and of course dont model cars for VR and AR aplications ......guys continue model cars in Blender or every other poly software .....believe me .... ;) ....
@@DamianMathew if you work or VR/ AR ...tell me how you use directly nurbs ? :D ....and dont tell me that you tesselate the nurbs because for VR and AR you need high optimized data with very low poly count (you need manual retopo there). Ah and please tell me where you get all parts from the car that are so called "soft parts" .....seats, tires, or the inside of doors, the stearing wheel for example. This are all parts somebody need to model in poly because engineers will never model the pads. You need poly models in many many cases ....especially for visualization ...to let them look "real" ...
@@Polypal3D the softbodys already exist thanks to existing configurator pipelines.
Tessellation with custom tools or even just Deltagen. Also I worked on the early stages of AI retopo. But hand retopo, is never a good solution. And also keep in mind i basically was the first one world wide working on this. I invented many workflows that are used till this day. And about poly count yes&no. It depends alot on how you render them. I for example had 60fps on iPhone7 with 10mio Polys back in the day. And download speed is not an issues cause the end user should not receive any 3D data anyways.
i work in the field of car configurators since 2006. You must been working on this before internet was invented :D i would love to see your "AI retopo" in action. This is a game changer for the whole industry. So strange why InstaLOD is still arround :D ....if there is AI Retopo ...come to us! We will give you millions to improve our workflow. Hope your AI delivers beutiful quads ... :) and hope your AI knows where we need a lot of details and where we need less of them...
DISCLAIMER:
My response to all the hate: czcams.com/video/3NDIleNTgDE/video.html
I am only talking about the Automotive Industry. Also I am talking about the Marketing and Visualization side only (The stuff you see on TV or on their Webpages). I am not a Car Designer and non of my Videos are about designing cars. They will have a 3D Model ready of every single part since the car will only generate money if it is actually built and sold. Alias and ICEM, at least in Germany, are the Industry Standard. Blender is only used for Visualization, but keep in mind also here VRED is the industry standard not Blender.
In blenders model points are indefinite/approximate location/input while using cad it has a definite location and it can use to fed on machine making cars..
You are still wrong.
Thank you Damian for making this video trying to educating 3d modelling beginners a basic principle: use the right tool to build the right thing, instead of promoting the use of Blender to 3d-model everything. I, myself was such a case in point. Trying to model the interior of a van with Blender a few years ago, it was so f***ing difficult that I totally dropped learning Blender. I thought that was bcoz I wasn't smart or learning dilegently enough. So recently I decided to start again but somehow I came across FreeCAD and everything just makes sense. The reason is CAD is for precise modelling, Blender is for sexy fancy visualization. I would still learn Blender for rendering and composition, but not car modelling. If I watched your videio earlier, it would have saved me much time.
Great to hear! I noticed a lot of people are not open to software. For example I had complains in the comments before why I use Photoshop and not the Compositor. I always try to choose the best tool for the task. A lot of people forget that Blender mainly is a visualization tool. Of course you can use blender for everything, but also from experience I can say in the history of my 3D career I have never got poly based models. ALWAYS I got step or simular file formats from clients. So I don’t even think it is possible to discuss if blender is a modeling industry standard. I think the only time you really need polygons are for game assets. Otherwise blender is for animation, rendering and so one. Not for products. Blender is also good for organic stuff like photogrammetry, even tho the remesher in blender also isn’t my first choice haha.
I use both, I use Rhino 3D for NURBS and Blender for mesh modelling and texturing those NURBS models (transforming them to meshes first and only for animation purpouses)
I do both. Fusion for mechanical stuff (assets) and Blender for more artsy stuff. ZBrush for characters. It’s a pain to retopo the cad output so you can use it in a game engine for example but it’s worth it sometimes.
Yeah that sounds good!
I use Cinema 4d and SolidWorks at work. You can literally open a native SolidWorks file in C4D v20 and higher. Love your car videos man!
Yeah, you can open it, but not edit it in a CAD style. It will be converted to polygons sadly. Great you like my videos! :D
Nice one dude! Never knew about his stuff.. keep it coming...!
Glad I was able to help!
Thankyou so much, it cleared a lot of stuff for me
4:12 I Only Know Vitaly Bulgarov who uses both xD Crazy guy
i saw the CG Masters that create a 2 different models and it is gorgeous
Oh I have not - ill check it out!
Nil has made an amazing Corvette model entirely in Blender as well. And that CG Masters tutorial series just proves how great Blender can be for car modelling.
And in fact, in the limit, subsurf is just a continuous transformation that converges every point into a smooth surface. Pixar has proven than on a paper some years ago, which solves part of the problem with polygon modelling. And CAD doesn't solve the clean topology problem well enough, so for the real stuff (films, animations and movies), it is not recommended.
Hey! I know what video you mean now. But where is the engine? Where are the cables and electronics? Where's the fuel line and tank? How should it ever drive? It won't. It's worthless. It will make about 0,00 Euro. I am talking about real cars for real brands and not hobby renders. You can do that, I do it myself, but it won't make any money. Why would Chevrolet pay you to model a car they already modelled perfectly? Exactly, they won't. If you want to model cars, if you are lucky, you maybe can model the track that slides the car seat back and forward. You think you will ever meet the guy who designed the chiron? I guess not, because he is like super star. You can become this superstar, I don't want to discourage you. Here is an Example: Audi comes to you, they need a top-notch marketing shot to sell their new RS7. Do you think they will want you to model the car? Of course not - they already have it! You need the stitching of the back seat in a certain configuration? They have it. They have it all. And if you want to be the guy modelling a screw for some part in the trunk, you can - but in CAD. Because that's the rule. That's the industry standard. You can't fight it. Maybe over years you can, but not as a no one walking in Audi's doors today.
@@DamianMathew very rude of you. But we do model our cars in Blender, because Blender is used for Movies, Games, Animation, ArchViz and much more. I think you are the one that doesn't know your stuff. Topology is really really important, and shame on you if you can't realize that.
Thank you for your videos, I just stumbled upon them but I really enjoy your insight on things.
I was wondering how you handle cad data in blender.
Do you get the polygonized data from your clients or do you do that yourself if so can you give us some tips on that?
I had to deal with a couple of stl files and it took hours or days to even open the scene in a non-nurbs program like Maya. Asking the client to split the file up in smaller chunks helped and did the job at the time there but still wasn't the optimal solution I think. 🤔
Cheers, and have a lovely day.
J
Which software should i use to model cars for 3d printing ?
Even in CAD, certain complex geometry such as repeating patterns like you showed with the connector isn't modelled as it is tedious and time consuming. Instead it's just added as a note or a description in the final drawings so the manufacturing people know what to do. Computational design software is helping to bridge this gap though such as Dynamo for Alias or Grasshopper in Rhino. I guess Blender's equivalent of Dynamo and Grasshopper is going to be the upcoming Everything Nodes. Looking forward to that.
Yusuf Islam oh very interessting! I don’t know it’s just added as a note in some cases but I guess that makes sense since it’s almost more like a material type in a way. Thanks for sharing! :D
@@DamianMathew Yes there are many examples where modelling detail in CAD just isn't done. One such example is perforated sheet metal. A client of mine is an exhaust manufacturer in the UK. Some of their internal components are tubes made from perforated sheet metal and they wanted me to render a cutaway of one of their products. They sent me all the CAD data but I had to remodel the internal tube with the perforations. It sent the poly count through the roof.
Yusuf Islam that’s very interesting as well! Makes complete sense. Really never heard of that but totally makes sense. The ‘material’ is not part of the model. Also if it looks like as it was part of the model, in production it’s not. I definitely learned something new!
Quite a relatable video. Being a mechanical engineer I always go for design using solidworks. Quite reliable in hard surface modeling workflow.
Never thought of it like this. Thanks for the video.
great you liked it!
Very helpful thankyou! i will be looking into alias for sure. i have been using gravity sketch to make some concepts and with very few control points its easy to get nice smooth curved looking surfaces, but then as soon as you loop cut to add details it messes the whole thing up haha
I completely agree with this! I hope to go into alias modelling one day!
I'd say some designers do experiment with polygon programs like blender such as Maya in concept modeling to quickly bring ideas to 3d and help with presentation, sketching etc, but then a cad modeller or team will work with engineers and other professionals to eventually build a model suitable for manafacturing!
Really good video as usual!👌🏾
I am glad you liked this video! Interesting point about the 'sketching'. I also saw Eevee beeing used here and then recently for these presentations but I think that's quite new and only thanks to 'real time technology' like unity, UE4 and Eevee.
Damian : u can not use lines and polygons for cars
tesla cyber truck : so am I fake?
hahah xD only exception xD
@@DamianMathew Hi big fan I was wondering if you can make tutorial about making headlights look more real.
@@napoliporporo5393 Yes I have that on my list, its coming! Glad you like my Videos :D If you havnt, definatly go check out my discord, everyone is very active there, and they help each other.
Lada riva also lol
I'm a motion graphics designer and 3D generalist working with Cinema 4D and Blender, but I have a background in industrial/product design and have started my venture into 3D (product modelling) with Alias Wavefront (now Autodesk Alias) which is a NURBS modeller and standard software in the automotive industry. So I know both worlds quite well and it's interesting to see you talk about this topic and seeing people's interest and viewpoints.
Nice video! I completely agree. If you also use cad could you make a video of how to import cad models into blender for modeling? Because when I do that the geometry often is pretty bad and it doesn't render properly.
Padelis Kyr to have a quick response: the automotive industry often uses deltagen or deltabatch. Also VRED is Common but it separates every triangle. Still, it looks good tho.
Drinking game: Drink a shot everytime he says "CAD"
This is the most important video for my career as i wanna be a car designer... I was struggling to make car models in maya ,blender and was getting headaches.. Thank you so much man !
Automotive designers use programs like Blender and Autodesk Speedform for concept creation, those programs speed up the workflow significantly. After a design is chosen they switch to Autodesk Alias mainly ... My advice would be ... DON'T focus on one program ... play around and have FUN designing. Oooh and learn Photoshop. If you want to get better at automotive design look up Sketch-It! Leandro Trovati on CZcams ... he is the best
A designer doesn’t need to know how model at all. Your ideas are the most important thing and photoshop is all you need. If you want to learn modelling it could help you to understand your volumes in 3d better but it doesn’t matter which software you use for that. Polygon or NURBS (or CAD as he calls it) makes no difference.
I am a transportation designer and not an engineer but, I do agree to your points, for quick concept modelling I use blender sometimes, after concept sketches and form ideation’s , depending upon the priorities, but the real surfacing is done in Autodesk Alias, these two software’s are built for two different purposes, also, I know designers who know both polygon modelling as well as cad modelling😄
You are totally right about the manufacturing side of stuff, Blender is not made for manufacturing. I am both CAD and Blender user, and for me the fastest way to visualize a concept from hand sketch will depend on the model itself. Say if you are making a bolt, screw, or mounting for certain appliances, it is wayyy faster to use CAD, because the stuff I mention got simple shapes (couple lines, and maybe one or two curves and splines, and some circles) and most likely those stuff will need super high accuracy. But for car concepts, I'd say Blender is way faster than CAD. Modelling a car hood and roof for example will take a good 30-60 minutes on a good day in CAD and that is if your lucky (no error in the splines, lofts, and boundaries), while in blender it will take around 15-20 minutes average for a pro blender user. And you know car manufacturer don't produce car straightaway from the concept, after they visualize their sketch, they will build a clay model and then scan it to become a CAD file, or just remodel them in CAD.
But great info and great videos anyway, liked!!
I work in the automotive design-field and there's definitely upsides to modelling cars in Blender. However, this is only true for the very early faces of the design process, the first transition from 2D sketches to 3D. I use both Blender and Alias in my daily work. At some point you'll have to of course remodel everything in Alias and move on to class-A surfacing, but when you're starting from zero Blender is just a lot quicker to produce believable early-stage design proposals. Since the last decade it's pretty common now to have a few poly-modellers in every design studio. There is a demand for poly modellers from the industry, but you would never model from a blueprint because that doesn't exist. You start with a 2D sketch and some basic technical input from engineering. It does require some artistic skill/talent, think of it as the difference between sketching/drawing an object by eye versus tracing/painting over an image.
Comments like this man, thanks for the info seriously
Looks like this Blender/Alias hybrid thing is getting more popular. A few years back most people did Alias or Maya, a few did both. Right now I got quite a few colleagues doing Blender and Alias. Enough of a reason for me to take a closer look at Blender. Gotta say I was surprised, it's actually really good for design modeling. And thanks to the Alias subd OBJ import it's all working pretty well together.
Thank you! I was wrong for 15 years, making living from modeling cars, planes and other vehicles (polygon models). Now I can change my life, maybe I start to grow carrots or something...
I just saw this comment xD
If you were modeling cars that already were modeled by the automotive brand it’s self, I think the guy that paid you wasted a lot of money or is making illegal money. If they were generic cars like for GTA, then yeah, you are in the 0.00001% that actually model cars from scratch as a job. Or maybe you modeled vehicles before the time of 3D.
But feel free to share the story. I’d be interested to hear.
@@DamianMathew The thing is, interested or passionate hobbyists don't get access to the 3D models put out by car manufacturers. They are shared under NDA agreements and only for that particular job. So how does a passionate 3d guy that does this as a hobby get his hands on the 3d models that you are talking about so he doesn't have to "waste" his time and learn how to model cars in a polymodeling software? Is there a store that let's you purchase these 3d models so you can use them to build yourself a portfolio? Do you write emails to the manufactures and say "pretty please"?
Very nice work by the way, I enjoy your videos. I know VRED is used a lot for rendering vehicles and it's finally nice to know about the cad software used for transportation/vehicle design. Hopefully I'm not coming out too strong. I simply noticed that the points you mention seem to only apply to industry professionals and I wonder how people wanting to get into rendering cars would go about. Either, there is some secret that I don't where y'all get your sweet cad cars with modelled interior etc , or option 2 is to purchase a 3d model from someone that sells a remodelled version of the real car and you hope for the best that your money is well spent or option 3 is you learn it your self.
Lots of people didnt get what you are trying to say in this video, Great Advice by the way.
can i import blender files to fusion and redraw it there for true dimensions?
Blender is majorly used for visualization. So if u have your own design of car, u can use blender to visualise it. In such case blender helps a lot than cad
Diliban Deepu yes exactly! You could also model it in blender, but for a automotive brand it won’t make any sense. Also a Car also has an engine, screws an stuff.
@@DamianMathew I think, for these kind of modelling Fusion 360 suits well.
@@dilibanb2226 At end, you can use any software. But Fusion is not the Industry Standard in the German Automotive Industry. At least according to all the people I know.
Well, you should rename your video to something like "the difference between models for screen and models for the real world".
Yes you are right, every car (or any other product) that's produced has Geometrical CAD Data.
Most companies are using Catia or NX to manage the Data.
And for the final design of the Car Surfaces software like ICEM Surf or Alias is used to produce Class A Surfaces.
To render/visualize and use that CAD Data in any tool like Blender (Maya, Unreal) you need to Tessellate it.
The tesselation parameters will define your final Polycount.
Sometimes the tesselated model will have geometrical issues but you won't see them, because of the Vertex Normal Map.
As a example, imagine creating a UV Map for Carbon Fibre Part if the Geometry Topology is messy.
Some other Issues are :
-no UV Maps
-Incorrect Surface Separation
-Intersecting geometries (softparts, like rubbers).
-sometimes the cad data is incomplete
Always a big issue missing softparts (seats with fabrics, leather dashboard).
Those parts needs to be created in a DCC App (maya, max, blender etc.).
And don't forget about all the model variation, differrent stitches.
Most car companies that have Web Car Configurators, will also have optimized Models for that Task.
The newest trend are Realtime Configurators using Unreal or Unity.
Theres still a long way to transfer, organize and optimize the CAD Data to a Realtime Engine.
Wow this is a great add-on to the video you really added some great value here! I’m not kidding, this is really great, I love how you really summed it up. Thanks a lot, I think this will definitely help some people out here trying to get on track!
hi Daniel,I am new in 3d Modelling
as a mechanical engineering student I really want to improve my skill for my future job
currently I am using Autodesk Inventor, I model a car base on 3d sketch (surfacing)
is that way correct?, I just tracing the image and start to drag the point without any dimension
thank youu for the good advice :3 i see a lot of people missed the point of do not suffer, learn cad if you want to go pro
I think a lot of people didn’t watch the video and only read the title haha. Glad you liked it!
Hey thanks for sharing this video it really helped gain some clarity as to what limitations, challenges and perks of blender. I feel you may have already answered this question but i could still gain some more clarity on this topic
Now after two years do you still recommend using blender for rendering and animation for a transportation designer?
What is the industry perspective on this, as an aspiring transportation designer does blender seem a good option to model a concept vehicle OR stick to Autodesk Alias ( industry standard) and blender could be supported in other ways such as animation and rendering.
Because my fear spending alot of time to understand a software, being comfortable with it and later realise its different from what the Industry expects from you and thefore not getting a job. And from what i understand and i could be wrong so please forgive and correct me where i am wrong, as a transportation designer they dont deal with modelling a fully detailed high quality vehicle, becuase theres a different team for that. But we do use 3D modelling softwares alot to communicate and showcase the concept better whether its for underlays/overlays to rendering and animating...
And as an aspiring transportation designer i would like to know your view of the future of the software? Will there be a bridge between modelling and sendind it to production using blender?
Actually you can , you should make surfaces that follow SubDivision surface modeling principals and then export them as .OBJ and import them in Siemens NX or dassaults systemes Catia or Solidworks as SubD surfaces , then those polygon surfaces will be used by SubD algorithm as CAD compatible surfaces and will work perfectly , you can use blender or any other polygon modeling softwares for that 😊
ill try that.
edit, it didnt work as i was expecting, solid works didnt calculated the mesh into a smooth surface, not sure what im doing wrong
@@mkaia47 you need an Addon called power surfacing for solidworks, that's the tool for your SUBD workflow in SW.
That's a big brain move but the industry is still a bit sketchy about SUBD surfaces, maybe for concept models it's cool. But usually you need to do some class A surfaces for manufacturing. I tried this trick before and it's magical. I imported a low poly model as a subd mesh and, it works great 👍
@@nonameishere7234 I supported the nPower add on for Solidworks. If you have the Power Surfacing Retopo you can retopologize an imported mesh into a BREP surface, but now you are talking several thousand dollars for Solidworks, buying Power Surfacing RE and so on. You would be better off modeling the car with power surfacing to start. On the nPower site i did a 4hr video series on concept car modeling with the tool many years ago.
Tools like Tsplines in Fusion 360 and Inventor and Power Surfacing in solidworks give a nod to Class A surfacing techniques with a Poly Modeling workflow. There are compromises wherever you go. I have found that for detailed modeling it takes way longer in Blender. There are better tools but the attempted conversion from a mesh to a true BREP or class-A surface is usually not great. I think its great as a concept tool or if you are going to model lower Poly models for things like games. If the intent is to create a production type part the tools to do so are just different.
When I was consulting one of my clients made truck fender flares. I helped them work on the design process. They got CAD files from all the manufacturers so the starting CAD geometry was super clean. I have done concept car design for clients using solidworks both with nPower and with Surfacing tools. I much prefer the flexibility and speed of doing it the subD type modeling way. Companies like Factory Five as well as other smaller "kit car" and one off companies use CAD tools to design their bodies. Most Auto Manufacturers use tools like Alias Auto, NX or Catia.
This is correct
6 million triangles, really, the best my computer can handle is 500k
RIP haha. Automotive PCs often have 256GB of RAM
@@DamianMathew me with 4. RIP already
@@DamianMathew F, a poor automotive engineering student here, struggling with my 4GB VRAM.
Shaurya Pant they scammed you xD No just kidding, I guess only in side the company you’ll get the big boy PCs. They cost around 15k usually with P6000s
Can confirm that even back in 2005/6 converted car CAD models were like 5 million polygons (not triangles). Rendering them out in Maya using Mental Ray was a stressful nightmare.
Thank you for another awesome video, young Ryan Gosling!
Daniel Newton glad you liked it! Ryan Gosling xD people say I look like MGK sometimes. But I guess only when I’m shaved haha
Very insightful, thanks man.
Being an engineering student, I used to do CAD in Solid Works.
In my experience, Blender is better in making artistic and creative stuff while Solidworks is better at designing precision measurements and manufacturing systems.
what was the time at your place when u wer making this video?? , and yeah- the car is a porsche 911, probably Carrera 😕
I HAD BEEN SEARCHING FOR CAR TUTORIALS IN BLENDER FOR HALF A YEAAARRR !! 😪
You can of course model in Blender. But keep in mind, in a real Automotive job, you might not have to ever model a car in Blender. Except soft body parts like leather. Time of Video: midday i guess? No idea, why are you asking xD
after creating an alias model, what is the best way to get it into blender
Industry standard stuff like VRED or Deltagen. For the average guy, I recommend MOI3D. Free solution would be FreeCAD.
I never knew about this it’s good to know if i were to ever get into modeling cars as a career
Mm.. Nice colour for an M-Byte
No way you guessed the car. Not bad!
Ah yes, people building cars out of 3d models they make is definitely a "normal use case", you know when I made this really crap low poly car model the other day my first thought was "you know I definitely want to invest in the probably very large amount of capital necessary to acquire the materials and equipment necessary to manufacture this blocky ass car so I can drive it!"I mean everyone clearly thinks that way so why wouldn't I?
I'm obviously being sarcastic of course, I'm pretty sure 99% of the time when someone makes a model for anything they aren't usually planning on transferring that model to the real world, in fact it's usually far more common to do things the other way around, most people convert real world objects to 3d models with photogrammetry or modelling from reference images or blueprints, I would say that's the "normal use case" for car modelling, so, the way its modelled generally doesnt martwe as long as long as it's a good level of detail for what you want to do with it, obviously if you want to actually build it it needs to be super high detail but that's pretty uncommon
I fully agree! Only my videos are about making money and working for real clients and not hobby projects. I personally just think there are enough hobby tutorials, that’s why I am trying to make 3D industry aimed tutorials so people see what’s needed. I also noticed since I started CZcams how many misconceptions there are in the blender or even 3D community in general especially when talking about cars. But I do agree that most don’t want go to production, but I bet you, most want to earn money and most would love to work for companies like Bugatti. Just most car tutorials are leading people into the wrong direction, that’s why I made this video.
Great analysis. I did have to go through CAD in my engineering days but I’m a software engineer now and I came across blender videos to throw in some of my UX design ideas to create using blender. I could relate to your explanation of how CAD uses smooth curve fitting for production grade output but but but what if Blender decides to incorporate that feature in future? I can see freelance designers designing their models and car companies picking em up in future, like Design as a Service. What do you think about that?
Thank you:)
This is really good piece of information to anyone who is in 3D industry, thankies
when you work for games you create low poly retopo models of high poly cars, and then bake normal maps and whatever textures.
Since humans make a better job than computers to optimize polygon count, 3D artists model cars in maya/blender/3DsMax or whatever software they use in their pipeline.
if you think someone is going to use a cad model for games or animation, then it is just your opinion. In this case your title should be "hey did you know that cad makes great surfaces with un-noticeable un-optimized garbage-worthy topology under the hood"
That's coool but why would you wanna model anything outside of cad other than for games? Also lol I was modelling a car and now I am like what's even the point?
It depends on the result you want to achieve. But in a real automotive job, they will give you CAD. But cars are great for learning to model in Blender. If you can model a car, you can almost model anything to be honest. Also keep in mind, you can't make leather seats in CAD. That's soft body modelling and a Blender task.
Animations too, Blender good for tht
Hi ! might I ask you what kind of job could I find with knowledge of how to modelling a car?
Can you recommend some good sites/sources to get cad models from?
I see where you coming from but,
I've seen people that have produced trash with CAD and Solid works,
And I know people who have produced masterpieces with blender(e.g The Natural Art Freak).
It's not about the software, the question is how much do you know.
Yes! BUT wait! And I know Natural Art, this boy crazy! BUT BUT BUT WAIT! haha. A car is more than just a shell. You need an engine and really everything. Every single screw. Everything the real car also has, otherwise how do you want to build it? Its worthless if it's not a production ready car. Either you're the guy modelling a cylinder head with the software provided or you just render. Like most people. The norm will be creating images of cars. These cars are already ready to use and done. No images are made with cars that arnt done yet, because it has to look like the thing they are selling at the end you know? Designers are pretty much the only ones actually modelling cars, but these are like superstars and it's really hard to become one.
Nice video. Mechanical engineer here with 25 years of experience. I use Blender to model/render cars just for fun... so Blender is ok for me.
Márcio Siviero yeah exactly. For rendering it’s perfect. Also modeling, but you can give the model into production. Depends on what you want to do with the model.
It is fun I got in Recently
Hey Damian, thanks for the video.
As an automotive designer I use CAD (Solidworks) to create my models. Recently I imported said model into Blender to be able to render and texture it, however the light and environment reflections on the surfaces are below optimal, very jagged, sharp and unrealistic. I can only assume this is because of the poor topology that results from file conversion between Solidworks (parasolid file type) to Blender (OBJ/FBX). Do you have any suggestions or tips as to how these poor reflections can be resolved? Still a bit of a noob in Blender, especially when comes to topology, so any information or reference to documents will be much appreciated 🙏
Dude! I just found your channel and I love the content. Not just tutorials but good advise. Keep up the good work. Thanks!
conchabelo thanks a lot, I’m glad you like it so far! If you have any questions, hit me up anytime!
Everything you said is true. However, I used cad for a short time and I can say that, importing objects from cad into blender and vice versa has many problems. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't. I consider that cad is for real products and blender is for virtual products.
Yes exactly, and yes it introduces a lot of problems. BUT when working for cars, you would need a 1-year budget or more to remodel ALL configurable parts of only one car. You won't get this budget money-wise but also not time-wise. They will say you have to use the CAD. They will say find a way. So depends on the project.
Guys blender has the ASCII and binary Autodesk has a converter for fbx it fixed all these issues for me from SolidWorks
I was in the middle of modeling cars in Blender...when this video popped up...I'm a sculptor tho
A couple example CAD programs that are free would have been informative...
Edit: nvrmind...quick Google search shows me why you didn't...
There are some. FreeCAD is the most popular I think, but I don't think it's that good. But give it a try! But also what I tried to say is, if you work for an automotive brand, they will give you the model unless you're a designer. But that's just a tiny fraction of people. Most will be working on configurators or images for web and marketing. You would be modelling the Environment usually.
Lmao
@@DamianMathew yeah I tried FreeCad...seems like it's for 12yrs olds...
Edit: I appreciate you assuming what I might want to or will be doing...
@@jhay_vine5083 hilarious right...
justaname onyourscreen for 12 year olds xD yes can be I think it is quite simple.
It also depends on which stage of the project you are in. For early stages i see no prob using blender if it helps to visualize an idea better. If its for visualization its okay! Many automotive design students are using blender for sketch modeling and its totally okay at the end its about representing an idea, u can sketch in photoshop, do a fast 3D or whatever. At the end of the day the modeler will do the final 3d model, not even all auto designers are pro 3d modelers.
hi, how about Fusion 360? sometimes people use the same t-spline in that cad program
I think surfacing is more difficult than t-spline
Right of the bat: Alias is the industry standard, at least in Germany. I don't know much about fusion, but what I have seen is that at least for me, it doesn't have enough features. It is hard getting fusion to blender for example. As far as I know there is no resolution setting for fbx exports.
long story short: do not model things for using in real life in polygonal modelling software, use CAD.
100%
First comment! Next comment after watching ;)
You guys are crazy man xD thanks so much!
Is it possible to import locators&photos&cameras from "image modeler"?
Oh no idea
Hi DM, I am a professional NX CAD engineer worked on AMG and GM projects recently decided to explore the higher surfacing programs like Alias/3Ds/blender...with Speedform now in Alias does it make sense to use Alias than 3Ds(poly modelling) ?
I have few tutorials suggesting poly modelling cars in 3Ds but not sure if its for games or production. I am a lil confused which one to pick and master--what I have in mind is creating car models and improvising them with wide body add ons etc please tell me Alias is best suited or 3Ds My models dont have to be class A or have very accurate Class A surfaces. I already tried 3Ds but didnt like the UI very much. would like to know your thoughts. I am not using Blender.
Vikas
From what I have heard from professional car designers - yes they use CAD (Alias mostly), but they also use Maya for quick 3D concepting, so the Poly modelling tools like Blender do have their use even in a Pro- pipeline.
Good point! I think since Real-Time is a thing, that really changed the concept phase thanks to eevee, unity3D and UE4.
Amazing video, with good explanation. In my company we start using blender now, for quick and dirty visualisation. It's mostly because we change so much that to build and rebuild in cad is bothersome. Blender has the really neat lattice modifier that lets you warp things around while you talk. However if you plan to spend more than four hours on a model you go with nurbs/alias.
@@teahousereloaded Ah very interesting, thanks for the insight! I'm not sure if I can name it here, but one automotive brand here in Germany almost completely switched to blender. Not for production, but pretty much for all other tasks. So its coming ..... slowly.
But but artsy gamex has created more than 50 cars, how?
What exactly do you mean?
@@DamianMathew he is talking about another youtuber named "artsy gamex"
Ah I see. Not sure how to answer @Ayush. You can model cars if you want for fun, but I doubt Lamborghini or Bugatti are booking Artsy Gamex. He will be just doing it for fun.
@@DamianMathew ya u are right, we can use for games or renders alone :)
@@incridablekarthi228 Exactly!
What a fine video. The Photoshop/Indesign metaphor was spot on.
So when you create renders in blender for your own projects. do you use blender to model the cars or CAD?
Official projects 100% aaaalways. The main issue is, real cars are super duper complex because of the configurations. Also usually you build a pipeline, so all cars work with your stuff you made. So if you start modelling things yourself, it won't work with the rest of the cars and won't be following a pipeline. I do model cars tho, but just for fun.
As Automotive designer I can tell you:
As a designer you can model car and make nice presentation to your boss but then you have to pass your mesh design to a proper modeller like Alias modeller or ICEM surf modeller...
For now many guys in our studio using a Blender :)
Yeah exactly! The thing is I guess you can use anything for concept designs, even a pen a paper. And I am seeing more and more blender beeing used as well.
@@DamianMathew - so Damien, you are arguing against yourself then
3D Artist here working in a design / 3D visualization bureau doing work mostly for automotive suppliers:
Sometimes we have to design cars for our customers (to avoid using branded vehicles but also for our customers to have their "own" cars which are used in all marketing materials etc). For that we have our MOI 3D guy (also CAD software). He is so much faster with better results than me and the rest of my colleagues could ever achieve using Cinema 4D.
Actually I rarely have to model anything at all, since the more generic stuff like houses, roads, people etc is just bought from places like turbosquid. It´s just way more efficient that way. Oh and yes, for most more specific parts we just get the CAD data from our customers and convert over for usage in Cinema 4D.
Oh and just to clarify - when we design / model cars, we operate on a rather low level compared to an actual car manufacturer. It´s still just something that has to look nice and as functional as possible for marketing purposes, nothing which actually gets built.
Also nowadays you see quite a few 3D / concept guys over on ArtStation using MOI 3D or similar software for concepting or even making game assets since it gets easier and easier to convert it over to polygon-based software and game engines. Really powerful stuff for anything hard surface. Though most people still use it in conjunction with Blender or similar software for asset creation.
TL;DR: Thanks for the video, completely on point and informative for people who don´t know about CAD! :)
Cheers
Jadyrion 100% agreed! I’d like to write more as a reply, but you already said it all - great comment and thanks for sharing! :D
Thanks Damien, very useful!
I don´t model cars, but i think it´s a great video, very helpful to understand certain differences between 3d software. Thanks!
Sebastián Igareta that’s great, glad it helped! :D
I don't understand what you mean. You are talking like animation or games in blender doesn't exist.
Actually most people use blender only for game model or animation
You are a photographer. Porsche books you. Will you start building the Porsche 911 to take a photo? Porsche has all models, otherwise the car wouln't exist in the first place. You model the street and so on, not the car. Animation same game.
Games: You created Forza. You need cars. You can't just add a Porsche without permission. So you get permission - guess what you will get as well: all models. Old cars before 3D days will need to get modeled by hand. Also, the CAD needs retopo. Certain racetrack parts need modeling as well.
Okay you want to model a 911 for fun. You can. But don't think about selling or rendering it publicly or even commercially (archviz). You think Porsche spends millions on a marketing champaign for fun? No. They will go to court because you hurt the new 911's reputation. You don't do things for brands for fun. Let's say I have a brand that makes kitchen plates. Why would you model and render it for free if I didn't even ask you?
Last example: you are an influencer. You have an AMG C63. You post it but it wasn't sponsored. AMG can force you to take it down because they don't want the brand associated with you.
What I am saying is: If you work for the brand, you get everything.
If you don't work for the brand, why would you even touch it.
@@DamianMathew i understand what you mean but what I understand when someone should ask me how to model a car in blender. I would would understand them as if they just mean a random car that takes reference from a real life car but not exactly copying it. If you are an artist you don't want or even can copy real life that's not a 100% possible. So I would show him how to model a car in blender that's based of a original car and looks kind of similar to it, but I don't think a brand can sue me for it if I am not saying that it exactly theirs.
@@termozoid6248 Educational purpose is an exception incl. my channel. Also 'Artist' as an 3D-Artist (ironically) is on the edge, especially dealing with hard surface stuff like cars. Some say it is not Art, some say it is. In Germany it is important to seperate Art and non-art tax wise and as you say legal wise. On cars the art jail free card usually is not accepted. Also car design, is another story. I only talk about marketing stuff using 3D.
@@DamianMathew Achso du bist Deutsch? Ich habe dein Channel noch nicht so lange verfolgt. Man hat das muss ich zu geben ein bisschen an deinem Akzent bemerkt aber eigentlich kannst english so gut das ich erstmal dachte du könntest auch von ganz wo anders her kommen.
Thanks for the advice man, now im learning make my own stylized character, i have modeled 3 cars in blender, it was only to learn about 3d modeling, maybe from now i will stop making cars, one question, are you working on some project right now? Im just wondering
Yes cars are great for learning modelling actually! But in a real world, it's very rare that anyone will book you to model a car. You're much more likely to model everything except the car. Except Leather parts like seats - these are often modelled in software like blender. And yes, I am always working. I work more than I sleep actually. To be honest I wish I could do CZcams all day, but I got to pay rent and stuff at the end of the month. #OneCry
How about 3d scanned car and edit using blender? Is it still not good?
So you model cars in CADs like eg. Inventor and then import them in Blender as a mesh? Could you make some short video about the workflow?
i use cad and blender both and people always complains about my un-optimize mesh, now every one knows how i feel
I want to know where I can get a cad modeled car for rendering practice
For practice you won’t get any models. For practice I recommend you use models by Ford. They are very good but cost a bit 3D.Ford.com
If you want to drive the free or cheap track, also checkout Blendermarket or RexFu on GrabCAD
I don't know why so many people are talking smack about the title. I found this helpful & I don't work on the computer.
True, the switching between CAD and Poly design is really mind breaking... (to stay polite) ^^' I work as Electronic & Mechanical Designer using SolidWorks a CAD tool. Nice Video by the way
How do I fix the uneven surface on the model which I imported from Solidworks? I have tried both supported formats wrl and stl but both seems to have uneven surfaces. How do I fix this in blender?
I’m not sure but it sounds like the normals are broken. Maybe try .step or fbx? But really hard to say, also I never used solid works
@@DamianMathew I have seen your another video where you used Mol3D to covert Solidworks files to obj and then imported on blender. It worked fine for me and problem has been solved ✌️
@@nakulbisht1174 ah awesome! Always good to hear when my videos help :D
4:17 Cough I can do both. I can CAD and Blender. To be more precise it's Creo/ProEngineer I've learned in university and blender for myself. While I pretty good skilled in Creo, clearly not perfect, I am not that skilled in blender. Sculpting is a bit difficult with only a mouse and general model is still something I didn't figured out how to do it, for example trying to model a Bugatti Type 35.
But you clarification helped a lot to diffire between CAD programs and Blender. Thanks a lot
There is a Russian CZcams channel about the production of replica cars. And the authors use a blender to model matrices for fibers, but they grind the matrices. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the blender is multifunctional, since they work with a 3d scan of parts and do not need to use many applications. So there is a fact that the blender is used in the production of cars. The channel is called Машинаторы.
Both of the cad software you mentioned are not free where blender is so if it possible can you tell me of a free cad modelling software for modelling cars I’d be grateful.
there's an interesting comparison between CAD vs polygon modeling and additive vs subtractive colour models: CAD is basically subtractive in that you start w a surface and cut it away (w booleans in the computer and w tools irl) while polygon modeling is additive in that you start w nothing and build up your shape w polygons (w primitives in the computer and w various 3d printing methods irl).
as far as which is "easier" goes, it's really just a matter of a) what you're used to and b) how your mind works. my dad was an architect, so i played around w AutoCAD for years as a kid (along w very early versions of 3D Studio, which eventually became 3DS Max). these days I do modeling for fun in Blender -- I'd say CAD is prob still more intuitive for me as it's what I grew up with, but I'm much better at Blender these days. FWIW, there is basic NURBS modeling in Blender, which allows you to at least get a flavour of how surface modeling in CAD works.
Very interesting!
you can take a cad file and export it as an fbx or step or obj and a few others and use the models in c4d or blender that way.
yes exactly
And so, how can you open CAD models?
I want a cool render. What should I use?