I was just about to export a blender file to Sketchup, then to Layout to get some dimension drawings. Doing this instead. (EDIT) This needs a lot of work. So I have played around with this for about 2 hrs and just trying to get 3 basic point to point measurements in a front ortho view. Wow, very time consuming. Many issues. Like yes the text aligns to the camera, but the dimension lines and extensions don't. Very buggy, can't see which dimension is active (they are all highlighted.) Can't find or see all the empties. What if I just want X axis width or Z heigh? Unless those two points are directly in line on a Z axis, it won't give me the ortho measurement (Z height). Have to select the empty and manually move it . . . but can't find or see the empty. Every single dim needs to be massaged quite a bit to get it to look right. Just very slow and fiddly. Honestly it would be quicker to pull a line dwg into Inkscape and create dims that way and it would look more like a formal dwg. I mean, this should potentially be better than MeasureIt because MeasureIt annotations don't render because they aren't real 3D objects. These are. However, MeasureIt just works far better in the adding dimensions department.
Blender is for sure one of the most powerful modeling tool, but quite frank that many options can be overwhelming... "It is so easy, you just have to click Crtl+Alt+F6+F+A+P+Tab, enter those 5 different sub-menus and you can customize the angle of the curvature for the letter D in the text :)
Hi MakerTales ! are you plan to Update this addon ? (I just buy it and it seems he doesn't work properly with Blender 4.2) Thank's for all your work, you're helping users in so many different cases.
Hello! A machinist and fabricator here. This addon is exactly what I was waiting for!! Great job!! I'm looking foward to see how it evolves, and why not I'm also dreaming with sort of addon where CadSketcher, Measurable and Cad Transform all live nicely integrated and happy.
This is the kind of functionality Blender needs. It would be amazing if you could do an updated video on CAD Transform, CAD Sketcher as well as this new addon! I've been trying to learn Blender for 3D printing but I just cannot function in this software without the ability to move objects around and edit them relatively easily which is why I'm still using Fusion 360.
Getting there slowly but surely... As for your request lets see... I don't think CAD Trasforms has had any updates from what i'm aware of. CAD Sketcher is get VERY close to 1.0.0 probably by the middle of the year with a bit of luck and a great updates is coming soon too. and I'm sorry to hear you've been struggling with blender. Rememeber i have a full free extensive course here on youtube that is 99% still upto date plus I have a paid could that is learning blender for 3d printing and making things as you learn. Hope that helps.
@@Keep-Making Do you find that scaling or rotating in CAD Transforms doesn't work reliably? I sometimes have to exit blender and restart it to get snapping in CAD Transform to work. Do you find the same, or am I doing something wrong?
@@darrennew8211 rotating in CADtransforms seems hit or miss. I spend 10 minutes trying snap rotate to a custom axis and end up giving up and using native blender. The transform seems pretty solid as does the scale ( the limited times I’ve used scale) Blender default scale snap works for 90% of what I need and is way more intuitive.
@@ironmikeharrington Yeah, I agree. My main problem is sometimes after working for a bit I can't get the snap circles to show up for CAD Transforms. It invariably works if I exit blender and start it up again. I think the Scale would be more handy if you could pick a scale point, then the distance over which to scale; like, scale around the center of the circle, then scale the *diameter* to some number without moving the center. But 99% of my stuff is transforms, and for the rest I can use MeasureIt and just carefully adjust scales well enough. :-) I look forward to his next update, if any.
This is great and will work great with or compliment cad sketcher. as my drawing are getting more complicated I have to keep going back into other sketches to check my measurements. I'll now be able to set this up on my model. my question is if I change a dimension will measurable update a measurement ?
😅 If only.... Take a look at the default if you think this is complicated ua-cam.com/video/g1WdWiqUaqs/v-deo.html I could probably make the same video now in 20 minutes, not an 1 hour and bit. But oh well it's all in blender and I can do it to any mesh model so I'm happy.
Sometimes I need to measure the total length of several edges. To do this, I duplicate them. Then I turn it into a bezier curve. And I'm using CurveTools to measure the length of this curve. It would be nice if there was an easier way to do this.🙂😉
I love that there’s a measuring alternative, and adjusted my scale units to 0.001 for my, but now cannot figure out the camera. The cube is 2mm. Everything’s too small. Please any advice. Apologies is there is a video. I haven’t found it yet.
This doesn't function properly with imperial units below 1 inch. It simply doesn't display the measurement numbers. Scale at .001. Decimals increased. No luck.
Can a 2 point measurement be tied to empties? Reason I ask is in measureit I have had to do real world measurements of an edges with opposite bevels….ie not in the same plane. I usually make a helper vertices is snapped to the same plane as one of the bevels, this is required for an overall length, but makes the mesh a bit sloppy as there are random vertices floating about. I didn’t see a two point measurement demonstrated but if it uses empties that can be adjusted this would solve my problem. That being said do these measurements scale with the object mesh changes? I am working on a real world project right now that I find is requiring all of the above mentioned.
By scaling I of course mean is the measurement empties tied to mesh points so that a change in point position will update the measurement. Also how does this handle topology changes? I find in measureit adding an extra loop or cut in the middle of the object explodes my measurements, likely due to point order changes. Very interested
I just don’t get it. What is the purpose of this add on? If it is to very slowly annotate an object then I guess it’s ok. What happens if you go in and amend the object?
Hi, thanks for the video. I am interested in buying the addon, but you don't have configured paypal, only Credit Card, which is unusally here in Germany. Any other way to get the addon?
Thanks very much for sharing this information in a clear and concise video. The add on looks well designed and implemented. I look forward to trying it out.
Sorry bud. Bought it but it's not working. It keeps on throwing a measurement in the center of everything, measuring 0.000. No idea what to do. Followed instructions step by step several times.
Just got this Addon and have it installed. Followed your video, Johnny Mathews video and the online instructions. I select two vertices on a simple cube, go back to Object mode and select the bounding box. at this point all the options for adding a measurement are grayed out. I've tried this on my desk top as well as my laptop with the same results. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you very much
way to cumbersome, after using solidworks, catia and fusion for many years I would never find this useful unless you're coming from tinkercad, besides I just model whatever I need then import into blender
Feel free to head on over to the maker tales discord and see if the Dev can help you out in the measurable channel I would suggest checking your blender version and this only works on the latest verysion.
Amazing collab this would be amazing if this could be integrated to BlenderBim that take IFC Specifications Database into account to exploit the data extensively.
hi there. good work. do you have to join all your objects to dimension them in the same container? does this addon only work well for small objects? what about complex assemblies or architecture?
This looks like what I've been waiting for! I work with mechanical drawings in my job but I only have a limited knowledge of CADD. I love Blender and have been building 3D models and environments for years, but never really had much use for such technical accuracy. However, with this new addon, I believe I'll be much more efficient in generating and maintaining those much needed drawings for my company! Thanks so much for the tutorials and insights!! Quick question: How easy would it be to render to an alpha background and set up a Freestyle overlay in order to have the line drawings. I've done this with previous renders of other objects but this seems like it would be very easy to achieve. Thanks again!!
I saw the title and got excited until I realized it only adds text to the model/view. Show me an add-on where u can select the 36.69mm dimension, change it too 42.00mm and it updates the model. I guess I'm looking for parametric modeling within Blender. Maybe one day. If I were only a programmer. Heck, I struggle with "Hello World" :-( Kudos to Mr Matthew's tho. If we didn't have smart programmers like him, we'd still be drawing with T-squares and 30/60 and 45/90 triangle. (Sad that about 2% of the views know what those are) ;-)
blender does the dimension stuff natively. to use millimeters you just need set correctly the needed measurement system you want. you can also save a base file to starts everytime with that settings
i have problems: i can add the container and also add directly a measurment, but when i edit again the object, to select anonther edge or whatever and go back to object mode and select the container, all measurments are greyed out... i can not add another measurment... blender 3.4.1
So, I'm a hobbyist and not a professional. Would this work for Hobby cad esk needs? Would it have enough precision to be reliable or should I stick with learning a programing like fusion 360?
Blender is plenty for hobby needs. About the only thing a "real" cad program does that Blender doesn't is simulation-level stuff. Do you need to know how much of a load that part will carry? Is it strong enough for you to stand on? Use CAD for that. If you just want the shapes, Blender is plenty.
For me is reliable is you have a solid knowledge on modeling and Blender itself. I have found that has no accuracy issues when it comes to creating 3d models for manufacturing, but Blender also lacks an interface geared towards it like Fusion360 or other CAD softwares. I would suggest you learn a bit of both in the meantime addons like for example CadSketcher or Measurable solve that. Also the previous answer is totally right about the simulation stuff and loads analysis.
I was just about to export a blender file to Sketchup, then to Layout to get some dimension drawings. Doing this instead. (EDIT) This needs a lot of work. So I have played around with this for about 2 hrs and just trying to get 3 basic point to point measurements in a front ortho view. Wow, very time consuming. Many issues. Like yes the text aligns to the camera, but the dimension lines and extensions don't. Very buggy, can't see which dimension is active (they are all highlighted.) Can't find or see all the empties. What if I just want X axis width or Z heigh? Unless those two points are directly in line on a Z axis, it won't give me the ortho measurement (Z height). Have to select the empty and manually move it . . . but can't find or see the empty. Every single dim needs to be massaged quite a bit to get it to look right. Just very slow and fiddly.
Honestly it would be quicker to pull a line dwg into Inkscape and create dims that way and it would look more like a formal dwg. I mean, this should potentially be better than MeasureIt because MeasureIt annotations don't render because they aren't real 3D objects. These are. However, MeasureIt just works far better in the adding dimensions department.
Blender is for sure one of the most powerful modeling tool, but quite frank that many options can be overwhelming... "It is so easy, you just have to click Crtl+Alt+F6+F+A+P+Tab, enter those 5 different sub-menus and you can customize the angle of the curvature for the letter D in the text :)
Are you kidding? Have you tried a version pre-2.80? Current blender is 100x easier to learn than 2.79. :-)
@@darrennew8211 I think he is talking about Measureit addon, not Blender in general
nah, blender its really easy, you dont need to know all the shortcuts
Hi MakerTales ! are you plan to Update this addon ? (I just buy it and it seems he doesn't work properly with Blender 4.2) Thank's for all your work, you're helping users in so many different cases.
Hello! A machinist and fabricator here. This addon is exactly what I was waiting for!! Great job!! I'm looking foward to see how it evolves, and why not I'm also dreaming with sort of addon where CadSketcher, Measurable and Cad Transform all live nicely integrated and happy.
For what is "Cad Transform"?
This is the kind of functionality Blender needs. It would be amazing if you could do an updated video on CAD Transform, CAD Sketcher as well as this new addon! I've been trying to learn Blender for 3D printing but I just cannot function in this software without the ability to move objects around and edit them relatively easily which is why I'm still using Fusion 360.
Getting there slowly but surely...
As for your request lets see... I don't think CAD Trasforms has had any updates from what i'm aware of.
CAD Sketcher is get VERY close to 1.0.0 probably by the middle of the year with a bit of luck and a great updates is coming soon too.
and I'm sorry to hear you've been struggling with blender. Rememeber i have a full free extensive course here on youtube that is 99% still upto date plus I have a paid could that is learning blender for 3d printing and making things as you learn. Hope that helps.
@@Keep-Making Do you find that scaling or rotating in CAD Transforms doesn't work reliably? I sometimes have to exit blender and restart it to get snapping in CAD Transform to work. Do you find the same, or am I doing something wrong?
@@darrennew8211 rotating in CADtransforms seems hit or miss. I spend 10 minutes trying snap rotate to a custom axis and end up giving up and using native blender. The transform seems pretty solid as does the scale ( the limited times I’ve used scale) Blender default scale snap works for 90% of what I need and is way more intuitive.
@@ironmikeharrington Yeah, I agree. My main problem is sometimes after working for a bit I can't get the snap circles to show up for CAD Transforms. It invariably works if I exit blender and start it up again. I think the Scale would be more handy if you could pick a scale point, then the distance over which to scale; like, scale around the center of the circle, then scale the *diameter* to some number without moving the center.
But 99% of my stuff is transforms, and for the rest I can use MeasureIt and just carefully adjust scales well enough. :-) I look forward to his next update, if any.
This is great and will work great with or compliment cad sketcher. as my drawing are getting more complicated I have to keep going back into other sketches to check my measurements. I'll now be able to set this up on my model. my question is if I change a dimension will measurable update a measurement ?
Your kidding right? Way too complicated.
😅 If only.... Take a look at the default if you think this is complicated ua-cam.com/video/g1WdWiqUaqs/v-deo.html
I could probably make the same video now in 20 minutes, not an 1 hour and bit.
But oh well it's all in blender and I can do it to any mesh model so I'm happy.
Watching this in September 2024 and the addon does not work on Blender 4.2, any plans on updating it?
Sometimes I need to measure the total length of several edges. To do this, I duplicate them. Then I turn it into a bezier curve. And I'm using CurveTools to measure the length of this curve. It would be nice if there was an easier way to do this.🙂😉
I love that there’s a measuring alternative, and adjusted my scale units to 0.001 for my, but now cannot figure out the camera. The cube is 2mm. Everything’s too small. Please any advice. Apologies is there is a video. I haven’t found it yet.
having a printable tech drawing is the main reason i don't use blender. i'll have to try this out
This doesn't function properly with imperial units below 1 inch. It simply doesn't display the measurement numbers. Scale at .001. Decimals increased. No luck.
Can a 2 point measurement be tied to empties? Reason I ask is in measureit I have had to do real world measurements of an edges with opposite bevels….ie not in the same plane. I usually make a helper vertices is snapped to the same plane as one of the bevels, this is required for an overall length, but makes the mesh a bit sloppy as there are random vertices floating about. I didn’t see a two point measurement demonstrated but if it uses empties that can be adjusted this would solve my problem.
That being said do these measurements scale with the object mesh changes?
I am working on a real world project right now that I find is requiring all of the above mentioned.
By scaling I of course mean is the measurement empties tied to mesh points so that a change in point position will update the measurement. Also how does this handle topology changes? I find in measureit adding an extra loop or cut in the middle of the object explodes my measurements, likely due to point order changes.
Very interested
I just don’t get it. What is the purpose of this add on? If it is to very slowly annotate an object then I guess it’s ok. What happens if you go in and amend the object?
Does it also work for the Imperial system?
Yup
Hi, thanks for the video. I am interested in buying the addon, but you don't have configured paypal, only Credit Card, which is unusally here in Germany. Any other way to get the addon?
Yours is the channel I recommend to *everyone* to learn all the technical details of Blender. Always a pleasure to see something new.
I'm so glad your enjoying it darrennew8211
Too much work and complication for a single measure. I don't like FreeCad but, I prefer use it in this situations.
Awesome work! Will you be implementing spline/bezier lengths? Not requesting the feature, just wondering if its in the pipeline. :)
Can you measure distance between different objects?
I only get Python errors. Geo Nodes Input errors and stuff like that.
Wonderful start! This and Cad Sketcher begin making up a really nice cad suite for Blender. Don't stop!
Thanks very much for sharing this information in a clear and concise video. The add on looks well designed and implemented. I look forward to trying it out.
Sorry bud. Bought it but it's not working. It keeps on throwing a measurement in the center of everything, measuring 0.000. No idea what to do. Followed instructions step by step several times.
I have found the issue and it was as easy as updating blender to 3.4
Measurable Totally Sucks!!!!
What happened to Cad Sketcher?
Oh that's still 100% in the pipe line! Some great things are coming soon but that is not an addon to make tech drawings it's for tech modeling.
Do you think cad sketcher will keep getting updates ? This is a great add on too
was just thinking this. Is CADSketcher still a thing?
Just got this Addon and have it installed. Followed your video, Johnny Mathews video and the online instructions. I select two vertices on a simple cube, go back to Object mode and select the bounding box. at this point all the options for adding a measurement are grayed out. I've tried this on my desk top as well as my laptop with the same results.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you very much
Is that export to svg
way to cumbersome, after using solidworks, catia and fusion for many years I would never find this useful unless you're coming from tinkercad, besides I just model whatever I need then import into blender
Does this pair with CAD Sketcher or can you dimension within CAD Sketcher too? (aside from the source drawing constraints, etc.)
Can you make a video with an architectural exemple like a floor plan, please? How can we came the technical drawing sheets?
why do I not get the measurement container box?
Feel free to head on over to the maker tales discord and see if the Dev can help you out in the measurable channel
I would suggest checking your blender version and this only works on the latest verysion.
Amazing collab this would be amazing if this could be integrated to BlenderBim that take IFC Specifications Database into account to exploit the data extensively.
hi there. good work. do you have to join all your objects to dimension them in the same container? does this addon only work well for small objects? what about complex assemblies or architecture?
This looks like what I've been waiting for! I work with mechanical drawings in my job but I only have a limited knowledge of CADD. I love Blender and have been building 3D models and environments for years, but never really had much use for such technical accuracy. However, with this new addon, I believe I'll be much more efficient in generating and maintaining those much needed drawings for my company! Thanks so much for the tutorials and insights!! Quick question: How easy would it be to render to an alpha background and set up a Freestyle overlay in order to have the line drawings. I've done this with previous renders of other objects but this seems like it would be very easy to achieve. Thanks again!!
what should i use this or CAD Sketcher? which ones makes blender better for CAD ?
Can Measurable generate circumference and volume information for sculpted objects?
Great add-on. This is really helpful. Thank you!
Is Cad sketcher dead as development ? The discord is completely silent
Wow. I am really blown away. This will make 3D printing so much easier.
love this addon so much! very easy to learn!! Thank you so much!
really great to see you working with Johnny, he does cool stuff
ohh
What a beast! I’ll be diving in to this one for certain!
I saw the title and got excited until I realized it only adds text to the model/view. Show me an add-on where u can select the 36.69mm dimension, change it too 42.00mm and it updates the model.
I guess I'm looking for parametric modeling within Blender. Maybe one day. If I were only a programmer. Heck, I struggle with "Hello World" :-(
Kudos to Mr Matthew's tho. If we didn't have smart programmers like him, we'd still be drawing with T-squares and 30/60 and 45/90 triangle. (Sad that about 2% of the views know what those are) ;-)
blender does the dimension stuff natively. to use millimeters you just need set correctly the needed measurement system you want. you can also save a base file to starts everytime with that settings
I'll need to take a closer look at CAD Sketcher
i have problems: i can add the container and also add directly a measurment, but when i edit again the object, to select anonther edge or whatever and go back to object mode and select the container, all measurments are greyed out... i can not add another measurment... blender 3.4.1
Feel free to head on over to the maker tales discord and see if the Dev can help you out in the measurable channel
So, I'm a hobbyist and not a professional. Would this work for Hobby cad esk needs? Would it have enough precision to be reliable or should I stick with learning a programing like fusion 360?
Blender is plenty for hobby needs. About the only thing a "real" cad program does that Blender doesn't is simulation-level stuff. Do you need to know how much of a load that part will carry? Is it strong enough for you to stand on? Use CAD for that. If you just want the shapes, Blender is plenty.
For me is reliable is you have a solid knowledge on modeling and Blender itself. I have found that has no accuracy issues when it comes to creating 3d models for manufacturing, but Blender also lacks an interface geared towards it like Fusion360 or other CAD softwares. I would suggest you learn a bit of both in the meantime addons like for example CadSketcher or Measurable solve that.
Also the previous answer is totally right about the simulation stuff and loads analysis.
@@charlymaracas1212 Right on! Thank you :)
Love it.
what happened to your love affair with CAD Sketcher :D