Hello,
I am a 3D artist on 3dsmax but I have the chance to teach Blender 2.8 in an architecture school.
After having tested blender 2.8 for a long time, I have some remarks that seem important to me, especially to improve architectural modeling.
Compared to 3dsmax, I find that blender lacks a lot of modifiers. Indeed as a 3d artist dedicated to architecture I usually use the same functions but non-destructively in order to change things in the fastest way. For those who know 3dsmax, you have a list of huge modifiers and it’s extremely convenient to refine your work. That’s what I use all the time:
- _modifier “edit poly” (very useful when you want to decompose modeling so you can easily go back)
- _idem with edit “edit spline”
- _modify “sweep” (to quickly create extrusion profiles (with already some built-in classic profiles) with all the functions of rotation, mirror and offset). Essential tool that must be extremely stable and accurate. This is one of the strong points of 3dsmax for the architecture because it is extremely powerful (much more than the bevel in the curves of blender which is very poor in parameterization)
- _modifier “slice” (bisect in blender). Very useful in architecture because when it is in modifier it is animable very easily and allows to create real cutting plans (not like camera clipping). I do not really understand why bisect is not a modifier because everything becomes more complicated and destructive definitively (I know that we can use the operations booleen masi is for me a mistake for modeling because it generates artifacts and crashes)
- _modifier “bend”, very practical, simple and powerful modifier in 3dsmax that allows you to non-destructively bend polygons!
- _modifier “chamfer” or “bevel” in blender. Very useful in modifying because it again allows to design in a parametric and nondestructive way!
- _modifier “UVWmap”. Extremely practical tool for projecting textures (we can choose a planar mapping, a mapping box, a mapping face, a cylindrical mapping or spherical mapping) and we can return to these projections at any time by changing for example the size of the one this (much faster than editing the unwrap and the uvmapping editor every time!)
This is basically the modifiers that seem essential to me for an architectural modeling workflow efficient and intelligent because non-destructive!
Moreover, it comes to my mind a major disadvantage in the way of modeling in blender is the fact of correlating the size of a mesh on its scale which forces us to be obliged to use the function all the time. CTRL-A for reset rotation and scale (otherwise big problem with the measures and modifiers) and it is really not natural and simple to understand for beginners!
For example in 3dsmax if you create a cube of 2X2X2 meters and you modify its dimensions so that it is 4X4X4 meters (in the basic parameters, not in “edit poly”), its scale will remain at 1,1,1 while in blender, with this transformation the scale will become 2,2,2! it’s very annoying because it distorts all the modifiers’ actions if we do not always think about doing CTRL-A (scale …)
Here I am sorry for this long message but I consider that blender still lacks some functions (especially modifiers) to override the 3dsmax workflow for architectural modeling.
Apart from all this, Blender is an extraordinary software that thanks to this new version will upset the 3D market. Blender is starting to become a real alternative to the 3D heavyweights that are MAYA, 3DS MAX and C4D!
Thank you for your attention but I am also the reporter of the remarks of my students in architecture school who find that they still lack certain functions and still find the interface and the workflow quite complex!
Damien LAurens