------------------------- MECHANICAL BLENDER blender 2.48a based USER MANUAL UPDATED: 12:51 02/09/2009 ------------------------- CREDITS ------------------------- Blender Foundation (http://www.blender.org) Insegraf (http://www.insegraf.es) Bixo (http://www.bixo.org) Marc Pampols aka Rockhound (http://www.marcpampols.com) Jaume Bellet aka mauge as main coder (mauge at bixo.org) COPYRIGHTS ------------------------- > Original coode for triangulation is described in "Computational Geometry in C" (Second Edition), and Copyright 1998 by Joseph O'Rourke (orourke@cs.smith.edu). It has been modified to work with blender with some features added GENERAL INFO ------------------------- Mechanical Blender pretends to be a complete CAD environment for mechanical design based on blender. OpenSource, and operative system independent. It's actually in early development, so it's not still suitable for working with it. If you like coding or you want to be involved on it, collaboration will be appreciated ;) WHY ------------------------- Nowadays, I have not found any free opensource application suitable for mechanical design. There are a few "pro" applications, which all try to be a complete environment for the company, from prototype design (virtual prototype) to final product manufacture. In my opinion this makes applications only suitable for large companies. Small and medium companies cannot afford it, or its a big amount of money for them. Also you must pay for maintenance, in most obligatory for one year. If you don't continue with it your software will be obsolete (usually commercial strategies?) in few years, and probably you will need to buy a full license again. Also you need a full license for any workstation (if you are legal, of course). Another inconvenient is that all of them work only with Windows, if not, dealers recommend only for Windows although an hypothetical linux version was available. (I have not seen it) There are other minor applications, also available for linux, but i've never worked with it. If they work well probably a large company who develop a "pro" application will buy it (or his technology), and you will get on first point. At least, this is my opinion on what I have seen recently. So, why we can try to get a suitable application based on Blender? Today blender is a very good application for 3D modelling, and also its game engine should be useful for simulations and interactive presentations. With blender 2.48 you cannot do mechanical design in a easy and logic way, it's not done for that. You can find tutorials about it, but it gets lot of time to achieve something basic, and usually changes are hard. And time and reusability are money if you work with it. So the whole objective for this project is adding this basic features, like sketching, assembling, and getting suitable information to get formal drawings and documents. If you go to a "pro" application legally, you will get a company (in fact, companies) below the program, which will help in what you need, and you will not find any disclaimer like the one following. If you go to openSource, you'll get binaries but also the code if you want, so if you are a company and you work with it, it will be a good idea to help on develop, as you have not paid anything for it being legal. DISCLAIMER ------------------------- Mechanical blender is according to blender copyright. New features added are subject to the GPL license, which you can find on GPL-license.txt on same folder of this file. If not found, please download it from the web: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html Mechanical Blender comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. Is distributed in the hope that it will be useful and IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. ------------------------- WORKING WITH IT ------------------------- if you are new to blender, it's recomended to read any one of tutorials available on the web about blender interface before start. As new workflows are made to create objects and drawings, you don't need any other blender specific knowledges at the beginning. Of course, you can do anything you could do with the blender official release. TIPS ------------------------- If you need to move or rotate an object with presicion it can be done with Manipulator (CRTL+SPC) and input numeric data when transtate/rotate. Object position and rotation can be set with transform properties (N), on global axis. Plane restricted movements can be done with manipulator, with SHIFT+LMB on invariant axis. WORKING OPTIONS ------------------------- Found in a new Panel, called "Cad", they save default options for mechanical blender behaviours. They are saved in .blend file, so if you want to make it as default, Save Default Settings (CTRL+U) on File menu. SHORT CUTS ------------------------- Shorcuts are important to increase productivity, usually are the fastest way to achive some comands. -- On selected sketch in Edit Mode. l > New line p > New Point r > New Circle d > New Dimension Enter > Finish Active command. Esc > Cancel Active Command -- While drawing s > Select Snap Mode s,1 to sketch s,2 to grid s,3 none CTRL+S Switch snap to sketch flag ALT+S Switch snap to grid flag --On dimension selected NUM PAD INTRO> enter to numeric input value for dimension. from blender (useful commands) c > Center View to cursor. . > Manipulator position to cursor CTRL + . local Manipulator SKETCH OBJECT ------------------------- Available from info window menu under [Cad->New Sketch] or in the toolbox (under [Add->New Sketch]). It creates a new sketch centered on current 3D position. His orientation it's according to "Aligned to view" flag, it can be changed on info window, on "Edit methods". Its default name is "sketch". It's a plane where 2D geometry is drawn. It jumps to Edit Mode Acording to "Switch to Edit Mode". When selected, cursor position changes are restricted to sketch plane, wich is necessary to add geometry on it. Default: - x,y,z axes are drawn - Grid is displayed when selected and default grid for blender is hidden. - Snap to grid Disabled - Snap to Sketch Enabled On editing panel, when selected are the options for selected sketch: links, settings, utilities and operations. >> Links and Materials: You can change the current data block name, and sketch name. Sketch DataBlock is identified by SK. All objects with same datablock share the same sketch data. To clone a sketch, select it and press (ALT+D). Default sketch data block is "Sketch". >> Sketch Settings: When scaled grid size is not modified, it's size its configured here. >> Sketch Utils: EDIT MODE MUST BE SELECTED. You cand find there the utilities for drawing on sketch, and manipulate its data. >> SKetch Groups: You cand find there operations needed to group entities on the sketch. It's used to grup entities to apply modifiers on it, so modifiers are usually applyed on sketch groups. SKETCH SETTINGS ------------------------- Grid Spacing: separation between grid lines, default 1.0 Lines: Number of lines drawn, default, 60 Divisions: Number of divisions between strong drawn lines. Display Grid Floor, X Axis, Y Axis, Z Axis, enables display when selected. Snap to Grid: Enables snap on grid on mouse click Snap to Sketch. Enable snap to existing points. (Avoids having repeated points). It's precision is according to Grid Spacing. Snap to Sketch priority is higher SKETCH UTILS DRAWING ON SKETCH ------------------------- Cursor position must be on sketch plane. Options are displayed under sketch utils panel. You must be on edit mode to add new data on sketch. When input is done via button, default data is created on cursor position. If is done with shortcut or toolbox, it's interactive. >> Line (L shortcut): Starts a line on current cursor position. LBM to add a new point. RMB to cancel. Enter to finish line. Default size (y=10) >> Center (P shortcut): Puts a point on sketch on cursor position. >> Circle (R shortcut): Draws a circle at cursor position. LBM to add new one, concentric. RMB to cancel. Enter to finish line. Default size (Diameter=10) SKETCH UTILS CONSTRAINS ON SKETCH ------------------------- POINT CONSTRAINS ------------------------- They are set on Cad Util Panel, when one or more points are selected. There two types of point constraints, "user constraints" and "automatic constraint". Automatic constraints are inserted by application. When a constraint fails due to sketch solve, it's drawn red. >> Fix, Fix X, Fix Y: User. Fix current(s) value of point. It's applyed only in first point selected. >> Coincident, Coincident X, Coincident Y: User.Two points are needed. Makes point share coordinates. Note that Coincident Constraint can be similar to "toolbox->sketch->Join selected points", but coincident constraint only make both points having same X and Y coordinates. >> Distance to Point: Automatic. It's inserted when forcing value on a dimension. It's deleted when dimension is deleted or unflaged as force value. SKETCH UTILS MODIFY THE SKETCH ------------------------- You Must be on Edit Mode. Control points are drawn in this mode. Select and unselect of points is done with MRB. With SHIFT you can add or substract to current selection. Points can be moved/resituated on the plane using the manipulator. Also A and P shortcut are working to select / deselect. You can use center as reference for movements, using the period key (.) CTRL+. it sets to local and ALT+. TO active SKETCH GROUPS ------------------------- You should group entities to apply it's modifiers. You can add a group, delete it, manipulate its data, select or unselect it's data. MECHANICAL MODIFIERS ------------------------- You can bulid Solids from sketch entities with modifiers. If no sketch group is specified, it applys to the whole sketch data. MECHANICAL MODIFIERS BUILDING SOLIDS: SketchExtrude ------------------------- SketchExtrude works more or less like the boolean modifier. It must be applyed to a mesh object, in wich data will be created or modified. It can be add or substract operation. If aplied to empty mesh, only add is allowed. Parameters > operation: Add / Substratc > Height: Height of extrusion (set from -1000 to 1000) > Sketch: Name of the sketch used to buid solid. The main improve is that it work with deriveddata. So, a SketchExtrude modifier can compute data below another one. As result is a derived data, its not visible on edit mode (so its data can be modified). To modify its data (vertices, edges, faces) you must aply it. When aplied, it's not sketch dependent, so changes in sketch are not reflected. So it's not a good idea to aply it, unless you need to modify manually. DIMENSIONS ON SKETCH ------------------------- To create a dimension, use Sketch->dimension on toolbox on editmode. If two points are selected it creates an aligned dimension betwen two points. You can change to Horitzontal/vertical dimension with MMB. Once created you can select and move the dimension. You can fix it's value when selected on Cad Utils Panels. If the real dimension does not match with fixed value, it's display in red. This is due to a error solving the sketch. Fixing a dimension creates a "distance to point" constraint on each point. For a fast dimension value input, once selected dimension, with NUMPAD intro you can enter the new value. Accept with NUMPAD intro, and cancel with ESC. if dimension was not forced to use value, it's set to force. ------- TOOLBOX ------- 3D view Toolbox --------------- Whe no sketch is edited, yoy can create one sketch with Add -> Sketch When editing sketch, you can add drawing objects. Options are Center Line Circle Arc Under Sketch Submenu you can find dimension option, and a tool for joining sketch points. ------------------------- COMPILING IT ------------------------- You can get binaries from source, using scons system as shown in some blender tutorials. Compile has been tested on windows (msvc), linux (ubuntu) and macosx. Probably you will need external libraries, that can be installed with apt-get under linux or downloaded from official blender svn for windows. Target "mechanical" is needed for scons. Also the project files for msvc9 are updated. ------------------------- RELEASE LOGS ------------------------- >> ??/??/2009 V0.1 (2.48a based) - First beta Version released ;) - Sketch Object added -line -circle -point -Dimensions -Sketch Groups - Sketch Extrude Modifier ------------------------- QUESTIONS, BUGS AND MORE ------------------------- please visit https://projects.blender.org/projects/mechanicblender/