Glad it was helpful! We did a 5 part series spending a bit more time on some basic modeling if you are looking for some more. ru-vid.com/group/PLBDfGh8A8kXVIrO1aizPFmRBy-A-G9svk
I had never seen this software until now and coming from a Blender, Fusion and Maya background, this seems to be a polished Blender, in the areas they overlap of course. Some of the options you showed could be added to Blender too, like the CAD Transforms addon for the Grab -> Freestyle kind of stuff. But I didn't really see a whole lot in here (in this limited quick overview) that would make me want to pay the $300 USD for it over a free Blender. Especially considering Blender has decent sculpting and rendering tools, not to mention everything else it can do. I'm curious as too what your thoughts are of Plasticity. Would you actually recommend it over Blender for just modelling? Love your content by the way, thanks for this video, I've learnt about a cool new program!
Hey There, yeah Plasticity is meant to be a companion to Blender and not replace it. It is built on the Parasolid Kernel and is a BREP/NURBS modeler. So you aren't dealing with a mesh, but a true "solid" or "surface". Unlike things like Cad Sketcher for Blender that try to mimic CAD operations, this is a CAD program meant to ease in the Hard Surface type models that often take some care and creativity with edge loops and modifiers. I would say check out this video on Blender Bridge ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rzcp4jBEYMk.html Which has a real time link between Plasticity and Blender. If you are a good Hard Surface modeler in Blender with your Add-ons and you like that workflow you probably won't get much more out of Plasticity. But if you like a CAD workflow for direct modeling and then bringing those models over to blender or things like surface painter for doing materials, textures, rendering/animation then its worth a look :)
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thanks for that explanation. If they could bring the parametric history to Plasticity, that would intrigue me a lot as that is one of the primary features I enjoy from Fusion. Or yes, if CAD Sketcher eventually gets to a point where it works flawlessly, then I could just go with Blender. If you know of software that has the history and precision modelling of Fusion but is somehow still a mesh modeller, please tell me, as this would be perfect! Again though, thanks for making all of this content, I have learnt a lot from you over the months. Your teaching style is so easy to follow along with.
@@manleyg4907 I think history might be on the plasticity road map BUT its a low priority I am sure. They are adding Xnurbs and bumping up surfacing capabilites and i think will have some mesh based design tools like pulling a curve to a mesh. I don't know of of a history based modeler but still mesh. Fusion Forms is probably close but its direct modeling. IF you use that to start a design you can right click on the form body and export the control cage as an OBJ and bring that into blender. I did a video awhile back on that.
Hello! I have one question regarding Polygons Definiiton while converting to FBX or STL. Is it possible to increase the mesh density for FBX/STL exprt?
there currently is no FBX export but with stl and obj you do have the ability to pick the topology (tris/quads/ngons) and you have control over loads of options like density.
was your selection filter in the upper left of the modeling area set to edges? If you have all (5 or tab on the keyboard) or set it to faces (3 on the keyboard) that will let you select those closed profiles. The only reason it shouldnt is if you don't have the face selection on.
I have a CNC plasma cutter. I’ve been using the free version of Fusion 360 and Sheetcam. Does Plasticity export DXF files that I can post process on Sheetcam?
Sadly no there is no DXF export. Your best bet is to export a 2d sketch from Fusion, a 2d drawing, or sheet metal flat pattern. I don't know of a dxf export on the horizon for plasticity as generally the workflow wouldn't go to 2d but rather into more 3d for things like rendering/animation.
It isn't really meant as a replacement but a companion in my mind. There is a Blender Bridge( i have a few videos on it) that is a live connection between them so you can take your solid models from Plasticity into Blender. If you are ok with hard surface modeling in Blender, and using booleans and a modifier stack then you are probably ok not using Plasticity. But it does give you the ability to make Solid and Surface models, not mesh models.
Sorry to hear that but thank you for the feedback! As this was an update to an older getting started video that was longer I only pulled out the common workflow info.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I did get a lot from the video, and definitely intended my comment to be constructive. I would really like to see a tutorial that is easier to follow, and one that uses precise measurements rather than freehanded. Thanks again.
@@tracybrown6004 This video I released when 1.4 came out with the dimensions which might help understand how Dims work (and how they don't work), but it wasn't meant to be an intro/beginner video into Plasticity. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kATCRYZKE7U.html
OK So 13 min in I am lost as you're assuming that we all have numpads. When you start and say, "Hit 7", and your display changes -- I can't follow along and make mine look like that. I googled it and it says there should be a preference setting for keypad -- there is no setting in my plasticity for a keypad. I am not going to continue and be lost because you're doing things I can't do. So this is where I abandon your video. I am already frustrated because you're not taking into account I have ZERO experiance with this software. You're blowing through fundamentals or moving to fast through them because you're forgetting we don't know how to do this. Show by example not by just clicking fast and making a cube wiggle.
I am sorry the process isn't working! I don't use Plasticity on a laptop, but i think i do mention in the beginning about the UI overview that you can click on X, Y, and Z in the view cube up in the right to get to the default planes. Very rarely am I called out for going to fast in videos ;) If anything people tell me to get to the point quicker :) This video is an update that combined several other videos that were done in v1.1. There are some changes but I do have longer videos in this playlist that cover the UI a bit slower if it helps. If you are using a mouse with a middle mouse wheel you can try holding down ALT, then hold down the middle mouse wheel and moving the mouse to the left/right/up/down. This will snap to the next closest ortho view like Front, Right, Top etc. As for setting your shortcuts. Hit F on the keyboard to bring up the command search tool. Look for Viewport, you should see them listed like "Viewport: navigate to back" and it will say "CTRL+Numpad1" for example. If you right click on that you should see some options to assign shortcuts. Hopefully that helps. Coming to Plasticity can be very tough since its a shortcut heavy program. Users coming from Blender usually have a better time than users coming from anything else.
It looks handy, but the only thing that keeps me from getting it is the fact that it costs money. And that means they can reject my purchase at any point for any reason. Not future proof at all, and highly exploitative.
Not sure I understand your comment. what do you mean they can reject your purchase at any point? This is a perpetual license software, not a subscription based software. When you buy you get updates for a set period but you own that version of the software. You can choose to upgrade to newer versions ( i think that pricing structure is still under discussion), but you are not required to. So not sure how you mean its not future proof and highly exploitative.
Not currently. I think there are features in the works that will let you work by snapping to a mesh, but currently you can import them as reference and that is about it.
How do you effectively work at mm level? My printer has base plate of 200mm by 250mm I set grid to this. but it makes the grid microscopic. I was able to zoom in a ton and shrink the objects I was working with. But if I pan at all the camera moves a metric mile away from what I'm working on.
If you take a look at the latest video i did here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FUH8IvXmodE.html we start by setting up the grid and i mention setting it up to your build plate size. that helps me at least.
Yeah some things are just easier on BREP solid bodies! There are features that let you start/stop a fillet or bevel/chamfer along an edge too which would be impossible on a mesh with a modifier. Plasticity has a "Blender Bridge" which is a live connection between Plasticity and Blender (one way) to bring your models into Blender. We have a video or two on the process.
Thanks for this. Definitely looking for more Plasticity content. It seems to fit a lot of what I need, a straight up modeler that isn't trying to be everything to everyone, where I can build what I need quickly and not break the bank, and mathmatically based so that I dont have to become some sort of mental contortionist to effectively and easily perform simple functions, like chamfers, fillets and booleans without destroying the geo. It's been on my to-do list to get better at using this for a while now, and I know a current project would have benefitted if I had had the time to do so. It's a lot more powerful than people give it credit for, and perfectly fills a need if you don't need a parametric modeler (how often do I really use that functionality in practice for my purposes?) or need to create drawings and such. Just a few more improvements here and there, and I have a feeling it'll be a must-have or go-to for most of my modeling needs. I just need to get more comfortable with it. It seems like every other day, I'll notice some function and say, "damn, i should have just used Plasticity for this."
awesome to hear and agree! Nick is trying to listen to what everyone wants in the software, which is great, but I think the direction it is going will still be the core "hard surface" modeler going to blender after the model is done, but with the capability to be good for users making 3d prints or just having fun.
I create things for my 3d printer. A lot of times i need to make minor adjustments, for instance shrink a cylinder by 1mm. Are minir adjustments like this easy in plasticity?
Yes and no . So you can go in and select the face of a cylinder and offset it by 1mm (or .5mm for the radius) for your offsets. But there isn't a sketch you can go back to and make that changed. I have a few videos on doing things like Print in Place models, hinges, and threads on the channel. We have some new features in the latest release that lets us add dimensions to features and edit them with the move command. this helps with hole positions for example.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I'll check your videos, thanks! I feel like I would like this better than fusion but I worry about not being able to easily change constraints (yeah I understand they don't exist, it's just how I think of *changeable" dimensions. 😀).
At 23:30 into the video, where he was creating that cutout on the side was very confusing. Maybe it was because I couldn't see or tell where his cursor was or was being clicked on, or maybe he was using shortcut keys, but it was impossible to follow. I kept getting Boolean errors. For some reason, I couldn't close up the hand-drawn panel on the side either.
at 23:20 we hit O on the keyboard to offset the selected face. This tools is a bit tricky because the cursor location often makes it tough to get it to work. you can manually enter a value when you hit O. Try a negative small number and see if that gives you the offset you want. When we move to using the line tapping the shift key enables some relationships so you can get virtual snaps for things to be parallel or intersect. For closing up the hand draw section try selecting the point you want to move, hitting G to start the move command. Once the move command is active look in the bottom right corner for the options. the Freestyle option lets you pick the starting point and the ending point. the starting point is the current location of the vert you want to move, and the ending point is the one you want it to move to. Hopefully that works.
Sadly no. I would suggest going to Autodesk Fusion if you need to make drawings with dimensions. I have some videos on making custom scripts to bring in cabinet sizes in csv format and configure them. and fusion now has configurations so you could make one cabinet, configure it and automate some of the drawing tasks.
Perhaps this was done on purpose as there were numerous Blender parallels stated in the tutorial, but there is not enough emphasis on precision modeling. The only part of the process that included a precise measurement was the size of the original square. I understand that this is "CAD for artists" but some "artists" (read: designers) need the precision inputs for one reason or another, whether it's making parts to be engineered, 3D printed, a meticulous workflow, or to appease one's OCD. After watching this and not seeing any precision makes this software look like a Blender, Maya, or C4D substitute, which is nothing new in the world of 3D modeling. However, this is still piquing my interest, and I'll look for other tutorials to see if precision takes a front seat in the modeling process for designing things that will eventually be created in the real-world.
100% get what you are saying. It is not really intended for that kind of dimension driven modeling. You can make things a certain size when you create them. Add certain sized features, pattern at specific spacing etc. But I wouldn't use Plasticity and the term "Engineered" in the same sense of the word. I did a video talking about the dimensions/measurements portion of plasticity a little bit ago here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kATCRYZKE7U.html The main reason Plasticity exists is to model BREP/NURBS type geometry that is generally tricky to do in Poly modeling like Blender. Here you are modeling solids and surfaces like you would in a CAD program, but with more freedom around that workflow. For concepting "hard surface" models Plasticity is a great tool. If you are designing something that requires 3deg draft pulled in a certain direction it could be done in Plasticity, but you are better off sticking with a parametric cad program where you can define those values, link them and drive/change them later.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thanks for the reply. In your experience, how does the program fare in larger, multi-part models/scenes? Full transparency, I'm a designer in the retail/tradeshow sector so I'm modeling more than just single "thing" but rather many parts of a whole. I work exclusively in Rhino, and I'm not really looking to jump ship as this workflow suits me well, but learning new programs are always a plus for the resume.
@@mjroberts725 Honestly I would say it probably isn't a good fit. The only place I could see it make sense is to put together concepts quickly. Like you could put something together, export the BREP solid as a STEP and bring it into Rhino. Are you using Rhino 8 currently? I have been waiting to try that since the SubD stuff in 7 was still pretty bad. Was hoping 8 and updated edge weighting would help out. Personally i think if Rhino had more than one person doing the UI/UX it would be a great program. Tons of power/functionality but the workflow really hinders it in my opinion. What do you use now for render/viz stuff? that might make a check in the Pro column for Plasticity as going to Blender is super simple. But if you go to something like Keyshot that is a different story.
You own it for life. Plasticity is not a subscription model BUT when you buy you will be locked into certain upgrades. generally 12mo with major releases. There are options to upgrade your license as well. www.plasticity.xyz/#pricing At the top check out Renew if you want to see the upgrade structure.
Sadly no. Plasticity doesn't have drawings and honestly I doubt that it ever will. it is meant to be a CAD program to help with rapid concept development for mainly downstream work like rendering/animation. It can be used for 3d printing and other manufacturing but its not a history based parametric CAD program.
Pan should be the Right mouse button. Do you have a left/right button with your trackpad? What did you do for your navigation preset. there is "touchpad" which i believe if you use both fingers you can pan.
It comes from Blender :) Why G? who knows(well someone probably does). I think because most of the shortcut keys should be left hand accessible. G/R/S are kind of how the hand falls. Either way you can change it in Plasticity if you want to. Bring up the search (F) for tools, search for move, then right-click and change the shortcut for it.
I'm disabled and use a tracker ball and can't seem to move the model around. Please can you help. It's a 3 button tracker ball. So, I don't want to buy the app if I can't use it.
Hmm, that is one i haven't heard before. I would have assumed the tracker ball style mouse would work the same as any other mouse in the system. In your user preferences what is the setup for navigation? You could try a different navigation preset and see if that makes any difference. Was there anything special you had to do in your system to use that tracker ball in other applications?
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Hi. No, the trackerball works find in all my 3D design apps like TinkerCad and all my CAD app, or am I doing something wrong? I can move the work space up and down and side to side not round same with the model. | can send you a screen video if you got a email.
@@DisabledGuy support@caducator.com you are welcome to send me something but since i don't have a trackball I will be guessing at solutions. With plasticity rotating is typically done with the middle mouse button and moving the mouse. So whatever your middle mouse button is I would assume you would have to press that down and roll the track ball. Right mouse button and track ball should pan. At least with the default settings.
Glad it was helpful! I am working on a modeling series on my site that will be available soon but there are a few playlists on this channel. A basic modeling one, car modeling and a general plasticity playlist.
You will need to configure a shortcut or use the Perspective/ortho button in the upper right. It looks like a grid. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gwFMhYKQF4c.html That video i talk about using a laptop (windows) but the process of configuring the shortcuts will be the same.
If you don't need the parametric CAD side of things to change dimensions, freeform modeling, or any of the extra stuff like CAM, simulation , sheet metal etc, you can't go wrong with Plasticity.
I have some "absolute beginner" content on my site www.learneverythingaboutdesign.com for Fusion. I use solidworks and used to use Autocad so feel free to ask questions. I actually did an entire series for Autodesks RU-vid on coming from Solidworks to Fusion, but not sure if its "live" yet.
I just got plasticity, I'm pretty happy with it so far, but the camera keeps doing this really strange thing of snapping at set angles, it's just bizarre and i haven't found any way of disabling that behavior.
That is strange. Does this happen when you just free rotate the part? If you hold down ALT, and the middle mouse button then drag a direction it will snap to the nearest plane. but just holding down the MMB shouldn't do that.
Yeah! Hey! I learned how to mangle an object in Plasticity and believe-you-me, I like using it to make shapes a hell of a lot more than Blender. Day one of my 30-day, but I am strongly tempted to buy this with your discount code!
We have a 5 part modeling series coming out next week on basic modeling approaches. 4 parts on modeling tools needed to do most anything, and a 5th episode where we walk through a design. Stay tuned!
Im leaving fusion 360 my biggest thing before i know this will my main playeform. Is 3d scanning something into mesh then being able to design off that
Not currently with Plasticity no. You can import an OBJ mesh but its basically just a reference. you can't model on it or snap to it. So if you are looking for a scan to design workflow I do suggest you stick with Fusion. It is the best right now in terms of what you get for the price.
"Traditional" CAD such as Siemens NX & Solid Edge, IronCAD and Spaceclaim do all that direct modeling together with parametric modelling at the same time.
That is true, but they aren't as good at it and most of those are a lot more expensive too. IronCAD is the only one that is under $1000 in that list. NX i think is well over $10k. Solid Edge is very bad from a UI/UX perspective and is $2000. Spaceclaim, woof :) I don't even think they list their prices online. What i mean by they don't do direct modeling as well, programs like Solidworks for example made a "Direct modeling" toolbar and just stuck tools that have existed in it for a long time. But when push comes to shove and you try to move faces around for example, or add fillets to complex shapes it chokes. I have taken several models from Solidworks, Fusion and others that would not fillet or shell, and plasticity has no issues with it. Even though its build on the Parasolid Kernel it is a bit more flexible. But yes traditional CAD in nearly all flavors have direct editing. Honestly the closest one for me is Fusion. Turning off history and still being able to create detailed sketches but not capture history is the next quickest thing to Plasticity for me, but its not the right tool for everyone.
The design is solid to start, but if you want to shell it there is a tool call Hollow you can use which will. You can also offset faces. If you have a surface (sheet) you can thicken it.
For the most part yes the workflow and whats in the video is still the same. I did a Whats New video for version 24.1.1 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jmpmb5M2h34.html The description of that video has a comprehensive list of what has changed including minor/major enhancements Here is a short list of what you may notice. Offset Face now has dependency which means it can terminate at another face which you could do with "Match Face" in v 1.4 Pipe gizmo has changed a bit to make it easier to use. The right-click to confirm is now a 1 click thing vs in 1.4 it was 2 clicks. Other than those 3 things, the workflow in the video should be accurate.
@@rcguy2175 The UI hasn't really changed at all so it should be relevant. I do have a 5 part beginner series on modeling workflows in plasticity. ru-vid.com/group/PLBDfGh8A8kXVIrO1aizPFmRBy-A-G9svk The main ui difference between 1.4 and 24.x.x is that your right mouse click to confirm is only one click now where it used to be two clicks. The beginner series doesn't have a basic UI overview but we go pretty slow through concepts and feel free to ask questions.
Sadly I am not sure. that is the first I have heard of this. In the bottom right of the screen "freestyle" just isn't there? what happens if you hit F and select a start (from) and end (to) point on the screen?
Yeah i hear that from laptop users. you can do custom keyboard shortcuts and key binding. that might help? doc.plasticity.xyz/plasticity-essentials/command-palette
They are very different. Plasticity models with BREP solids and NURBS surfaces. these are actual solids and surfaces and can be used a step files. Blender only creates mesh models. Mesh modeling can't produce a cylinder, and adding details requires edge loops and/or the use of a lot of booleans in a modifier stack. Plasticity lets you model hard surface type models faster and more accurate. If you want to use them in Blender there is a blender bridge which is a live direct connection allowing you to bring the model in to blender, retopo it if you need. pull edges/seams etc. and if you edit in plasticity it will update in Blender.
@@TheShift1313 It's dead slow and bugged on macos, keeping all projects in cloud is annoying, only 10 projects editable allowed in free version. It's intuitive and easy to use but being forced to use cloud is disqualifying. I can already see that plasticity also has some serious performance issues on M2 mac's like 100% gpu usage all the time.
Thanks! If you are just getting started we also have more beginner and advanced content. Here is a beginner playlist for basic modeling strategies. ru-vid.com/group/PLBDfGh8A8kXVIrO1aizPFmRBy-A-G9svk
Yes, but history even in Blender (not only CAD) is EVERYTHING. Its non-destructive! In Blender this is achieved by modifiers and Geo Nodes. Without history, you cannot adjust a project easily later. You have to do ALL the work AGAIN! This is a NO go for me. This is a great program, but it needs to have history or geonodes or modifiers added. This is a must if a client needs to modify the design in the later process!
Thanks for sharing! I think it "depends". I come from CAD and would agree that history based is key to a lot of designs. but direct modeling is pretty powerful. I guess it comes down to what types of models you make and what changes are needed. Plasticity may see History in the future FYI. It has been discussed on the beta discord channel.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign that’s good to know they will do it. I will definitely keep a big eye on this software. With history would be a true game changer!
I agree. History and the ability to modify is a huge part functionality. A workaround for lack of history is to "save as" as you develop a model, especially before adding a key element. Another option is to develop seperate files as parts then combine them. This prevents you from having to start over from scratch.
@@dchurch911 You can also duplicate the bodies you are working on and save a version of it. Similar to how you work in multi-body parts where you derive something out, except here its independent. I do this in Fusion Forms all the time. Make a clean base shape and dupicate it before adding details. When i get to a point where i want to explore something ill duplicate it again leaving an untouched version in case i need to take a step back (even though Fusion saves a version each time).
It is worth noting that although there isn't a timeline option, plasticity makes it very intuitive to delete bevels, champhers, close a hole and remove other executions instead of going back. Only exceptions I can think of are loft sweep and arrays. I found it fairly non destructive overall.
way too fast....and you are explaining and SHOWING what to do to do what you are doing, you are just madly moving the model without explaining how you are doing it...fail
Sorry to hear that tim. This video was an update and i tried to put a lot into. If you go back to the older videos in this series they are a bit slower but note the software version has updated and some things are slightly different. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZhD4uVRuNnY.htmlsi=4jHe7b4qlWDIJDsV What would your ideal setup/tutorial be? maybe we can accomodate.
