I’m sure I’m not the only one that watches other artists timelapses etc. You never know when you’ll see a technique that you never thought of.
However, whenever I see a boolean used (and more so when it’s not just a stepping stone to a retop) I cringe.
Am I the only modeller that will find a way to build it avoiding booles at all costs? I’d much rather control the geometry than take the easier, messy option.
Surely it’s not just me?
i agree. i never use booleans. there is always some way around it
Booleans dont have to be messy… They can give you a decent mesh that you can work with and build a nice topology on… lotta Js and edge dissolving lol
I love to boolaens for organic and nonorganic modeling especially with all the addons.
With tools like inset, knife, bevel, connect, ect… the clean boolean operations that the new Bmesh algorithm does is enough to simplify the modeling process in a lot of areas (and besides that, booleans are a practical necessity when merging in very complex pieces of geometry).
Well all depend the workflow, case, and results… If i use booleans, i will anyway rework the topology ( thanks to knife, merge etc ).
It is too a question of speed, if boolean is not faster than create the geometry, or if it is faster (including the retopo work ) ( arrays, repetitive “insert” )
If you need to do non destructive modelisation, modifiers as booleans is the only solution. ( i come too from Solidworks, Inventor, Autocad ( who are nearly even a metric on them own, as you nearly only use Booleans )
Remember this work from cgstrive ? Astro monkeys https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?390354-Blender-Astromonkey
Booleans are very quick and can be used as a starting point. Instead of box modeling from start to finish, you quickly make the model with booleans and retopo after.
Booleans on a flat or non-deforming surface are just about always fine by me. Bools, where topology is important, can avoid problems if the future topology is planned for. These days, though, I rarely use the Boolean modifier and opt for the intersect operators instead. I find it easier to control the direction I’m going that way.
also
there’s a way you can mix a bit of the Remesh modifier and corrective smooth modifier to get an instant clean model
Really
Tris aren’t always bad
I wouldn’t even think of booleans for that. I’d box model it from start to finish. Well, maybe a couple of extruded curves as well, but no booles.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I find that booleans are a great tool for making a 3D printable mesh…
I use them all the time for my meshes that I print.
That’s exactly my point, I generally only use Blender for making 3D printable models. I use the Boolean modifier every single day in my workflow. To me it’s a digital sculpting method, one that works very well if you understand the process.
They are just static meshes you can lay around a movie set or games. No need for retopo. 
Booleans are fine so long as you factor in a certain amount of mesh tweaking afterwards. There is a video demostrating the HardOps addon which show this realyl well and how a bit of work can produce really solid results.
I avoid them, but not at all costs. When the cost is spending much more time working than is necessary for the final result, for example:p
It is just a tool indeed, I rarely use them, but I have been using them a lot for 3D printing lately, since topology doesn’t matter so much as for realtime game for example. I end up still having to clean stuff up in the end making sure its nonmanifold etc, but in the end im pretty sure I save hours and hours or work than If I had to model every single bump by hand instead.
It completely depends on the project and situation.
Stop cringing, use whatever gets the job done the quickest 
The price of entry to this thread should be for people to post their most complex hard surface models before commenting so that people can easily and clearly see if they have the authority to wax lyrically about modelling techniques…
This kind of thread gets up butt almost as much as seeing people go on about face topology yet the have never done one face rig in their lives and wouldn’t know what a shapekey was if it danced naked in front of them.
So I wanna see some insane guns and space ships with those crazy angular panels and cut lines before I start taking anything anyone is saying here seriously.
Working with booleans is good for subdiv and no subdiv.
If you use the good workflow, you gain a lot of time because and your wire is clean.
In fact this is really fast to clean a wire with booleans and not fast to create everything by hands.
I use speedflow for that and we added automatic tools when you apply a boolean to gain more time to clean the mesh.
People think booleans are bad, but thx to blender this is the oposite.
