I have been using 3ds max for 10years and i have had my issues with switching to blender completely but i have to say your addon has really improved my transition to blender, i cannot imagine using blender without your tools. absolutely brilliant. a must have
@@StefanoVerugi Thanks! It's great to hear that. You can log in to Blender Market or Gumroad (depending on what platform you used to purchase) and the latest version will be there for you to download. If there are any problems you can contact me directly through my website and I can send you a copy direct.
I tested a different tool with similar if not the same goal, couldn't figure out the rotation I wanted for half a day. Tested this instead and decided it was worth the price in under a minute. Good Job.
Came to say the same basically, gives me a more "SketchUp" feel to Blender, which I’ve been having trouble coming to grips with. Blender that is. Nice work.
This addon is awesome. Having used AutoCAD and 3DS Max quite a bit, and now having used Construction Lines for Blender, I find that I prefer latter. At least in my case, it does everything I need it to, and it's just dead-handy to work with. And the fact that there're no commercially-priced subscriptions, makes the choice all-to obvious. Thank you for this fantastic tool! I can't recommend it highly enough.
Just purchased this today. Excellent tutorial and addon too. This addon should delight SketchUp users and allow those recalcitrant to Blender to take their first steps without too much stress.
incredible! thank you so much for taking the time to make and share this tool! I do woodworking and have used sketchup for years. I learned blender a few years ago, and missed the CAD elements for drawing layouts in the way I was used to in Sketchup. This add on is a huge help for me in my work - Thank you!
Great tutorial, this really helps me continuing with Blender after picking up FreeCad for precise modelling. Many many thanks. And yes it's a great tool absolutely worth buying.
Regarding the tape measure: I would like it very much if given distances can be entered and altered and adapting the size of the object accordingly, and the other way round, and I'd love to be able to set the distance indicator off of the edge measured. I hope you get what I am trying to say.
Thanks! I'm really pleased to hear that you like it. Regarding your second comment, allowing the dimensions to be altered and affect the model is on my development list, so should be in a version soon. I'm working on a tool at the moment to produce scaled drawings from models and have implemented dimensions with leaders so that you you can drag dimensions away from an edge. I'll try to migrate that to CL too.
I bought this a while ago and I really want to like this addon. The functionlaty is really great and gives you finally precision tools in Blender. But: It's flawed. I would say I am a power user, I know how to work with HardOps, Boxcutter and so on. And I really invested some time to get into this tool. But it works very unreliable and I had to deactivate some other addons so I can work with it somehow. It's more a software in a software than an addition to the Blender functionality, cause so many things which are working in normal Blender are whether not possible or different in "Construction Lines" mode. Please, please make this better and more reliable in the future, cause I desperately want to work with it properly!
Thanks for the comment and I take your points. I'm working hard on the next version at the moment which has some big reliability improvements. I've also completely rewritten the extruding code so that it no longer relies on Blender's boolean modifiers (which are quite buggy). In the most recently released version (0.9.65) I allow a lot more of Blender's functionality to work whilst using CL (if you don't have it, definitely upgrade). This will increase with the upcoming versions. I initially limited what could be done as often Blender's action would mess up the internal access I had to objects and cause crashes but I'm working around these problems all the time. My main focus at the moment is getting things more stable and improving performance.
I would be very interested in learning you methods for rendering setup and molding setup as well i think you are a good teacher, easy to understand and follow!! thanks a million
First I want to thank you for developing a really great add-on. I have learned to use Sketchup in Windows for a lot of my 3D printer modeling. But I don't like Windows & have upgraded to Linux Mint DE. Of course Sketchup doesn't function in Linux so I've had to stick with Windows to do my modeling by dual booting my computer. I've been learning Blender & have been trying to figure out how to do things that I could do in Sketchup. Then I found your add-on & had to have it. It makes it so much easier to use Blender for 3d printer modeling. Your add-on is definitely a must have for Blender. Thank you.
Thanks very much for your comment. I'm really pleased to hear that Construction Lines is proving useful for you. I'm working hard on my other add-on for producing scaled drawings, then I'd love to switch to Linux too!
It looks great, especially the guide lines, but I really think you need to add construction planes. I’d like to be able to draw 2D sketches on planes that are created in line with any chosen object face (with an optional offset), edge + orientation (or another point), or group of three points. The plane intersections are very useful, too, such as for identifying the peaks of sloped roof sections. I’m a Fusion 360 user and I can’t imagine CAD in Blender without them.(Please forgive me if I’ve missed something as I’m a Blender noob.)
The most needed feature in blender that i need is the resize tool, to get the model in to the right size, like a for plane imported, if i need to make all the model in the right size, in sketchup i could mesure one of the walls and time the right dimension, and it will change the model proportional to tat wall for example.
Great tool. After configuring it I tried to follow the given tutorial and lost some hours trying to figure out what went wrong with my setup. In the end I found it - I had set up Blender with millimeter precision. The room here is 5000x4000mm, my horizontal guide length was set to 1.0 so every line it created as a parallel construction line was so miniscule I couldn't see it. Maybe this is something for the FAQ or the manual (which I DID read 🙂).
Unfortunately for many the time has come to abandon Sketchup, this is a really great addon!! It seems to me that only one fundamental thing is missing, the OFFSET command.
@@dndrawings hi, I try to install the latest construction add on, on my other device, and it runs normally. I guess my main laptop run in conflict to other add on so there is the bug. it clears now. thanks. I request the next update of construction line add on, = snapping detection on intersection between two objects, just like in SketchUp. thanks, before.
A great add-on for blender. I want a better way to do precise measurements while using Blender. Even though I am trying to construct something completely different then construction items it seems this add on can help. I am working with digital plotted points on my object using XYZ axis points. It seems I could use your construction line grid to help me snap and locate those digitized points on my object. Since I am dealing with irregular surfaces I can then smooth out my render between my digitized points. Also rumour has it that you are going to work with lines and angles together so I can move to the point I need without using a reference grid.
Trimble want about £100 for Sketchup pro 🤣they are in dreamland, and Blender free! Been using SU for about 10 years, then I started on Blender a year ago, I thought the Carver tool in Blender was good but this is EXACTLY what I've been looking for as a retired Carpenter & Joiner selling training videos, I can show people joints and mouldings etc. 'virtually' now. 😁
Although I am reasonably proficient with Sketchup, Blender was a whole new experience for me. After checking out Blender a couple of years ago I put it all on hold. I found the most irritating feature to be the preference for using hot keys in most tutorials instead of the built-in toolsets. You can learn to use built-in tools using trial and error, but that doesn't really apply to hot keys!
Thanks. It's not possible with Construction Lines but I'm currently working on a new add-on that is designed to do this. I'll post a video here once I have a working version.
It looks like this tool does not snap to any curves? Is this correct? My installation certainly doesn't. It only snaps to mesh objects. This is kind of a bummer considering the way we build professionally is from CAD files consisting of curves. I guess we can just convert everything in order to use it.
hello we seem to have issue with size input values for 1000mm rectangle it is putting 1mm for some reason please advise ? also how to snap to grid.. TIA
Have you set your unit scale to something other than 1.0? If so, you can either change it to 1.0 or if you require it to be at a particular scale there is an "Override Unit Scale" in the add-no preferences under Construction Lines.
Hi, American here. i know the metric system is better but just thought I'd let you know your snap to grid sub divs function is misaligned for imperial measurements, that aside i'm loving this plugin so far
Hi, Thanks for the comment. Someone pointed this out the other day. I'm working on a fix at the moment along with better handling of imperial input. Will make it into the next release. Cheers.
i would Kill for a guide, to transfer egger laminate sheet textures into blender, this guide is amaizing, and yes please. please please please make a guide on rendering. =]
I can't type in a value using number keys, they seems to have other function. Just can't figure it out. When typing as in video line to be 2000 mm it just changes orientation
You can use both the number row and numpad to input numbers, however, if you use the numpad you must press Enter first. This allows the numpad to still be used for navigation. There is currently a known bug (fix coming very soon) with pressing Enter for the numpad no registering, so if you prefer this way of entering numbers, go to Edit->Preferences->Construction Lines and uncheck the Direct Input. You can also uncheck the Numpad For Navigation preference and this will mean you can enter numbers with both the numpad or number row, without pressing enter first but you won't be able to use the numpad for navigation.
Question to Dan: Could one use this tool to design an interior and render result onto Blender's timeline with alternating cam angles, zoom ins and outs? (Forgive me, not well experienced with Blender yet, but it seems a pretty powerful app).
HI DND !, I was thinking of giving BLENDER a test drive for my Architectural works sometime ago, I currently use DataCAD & sometimes SketchUP & also learning ArchLine-XP. In its plain form, I was surprised BLENDER doesn't have basic tools for CAD type design/modelling, so a non-starter for me. However, with your CONSTRUCTION LINES add-on, I will consider looking at BLENDER again, including the other Architectural add-ons.
I'd like to get it, however, Blender 4.0-stable version has just released. Is this already operational with the new version of Blender or should I wait till you do some update work?
I've had to fix a few drawing issues with Blender 4.0 as the API has been updated. This is in testing at the moment (to make sure it's going to be backwards compatible) and should be released very soon. I'll reply to your comment here once I put a release out.
Does anyone know why the extrude function takes off the entire back side of the cube when you extrude through it? Is there something I m doing wrong? I just bought it, so I am a newbie.😊
You're not doing anything wrong. This is a known bug (regressive) and has now been fixed. I'm testing at the moment and will be putting out a fix release soon.
I bought and installed your addon for blender 3.4 then 3.6 but wanting to stay current with blender 4.0 and I see from your website that it's not there yet. Looking forward to the update since something seems to be broke (for lack of a better word) Thanks again for having a great alternative to sketchup
Hi Wayne, I'll be releasing an update this week (hopfully in the next couple of days) which will fully support Blender 4.0 (and will be backwards compatible).
why tool doesnt allow the regular short cuts. i am very used to working like; G > (XYZ) > 10 like similar combinations. move tool is nice but why I cant use my shortcuts like I am used to. is there way to disable this behavior ? i want to use this tool but I want to use my regular shortcuts too. you are probably very used to working like this because you work a lot cad but for regular blender user like me this shortcuts so important. and tool ignores the disable selection set too. i sometimes make flat canvas to see what I am working and I lock it and disable selection. this tool ignoring that and selecting and moving.
Hi, I just purchased this but I'm having issues due to the way I have my units set up in blender. Since I model for 3D printing I have units set to mm but with the units scaled to 0.001 - this makes exported objects match between blender and the slicing software correctly (i.e, 10mm in blender is 10mm in the slicer) without the need to manually resize the objects after. I ticked the override option in the settings and set it to 1, this seems to have fixed an issue where the lines/shapes were being created far too small despite typing in correct mm values. But the grid snapping seems to be snapping to a 0.001 sized version of the grid that is actually being displayed, making the snapping increments so small they may as well not be there. Is there a way I can correct this? Thanks.
Hi, I have purchased your add-on but I have problem on the numerical input. Example: when I create a line of 600mm (numerical input 600) it will display create a line of 0.6mm. How to fix this?
@@zmarbz There is an option in the preferences to override the unit scale (check box under Construction Lines). This should help. Contact me through my website if you still have any issues with it.
Love this ... having trouble with guides ... the color! Yours is white in the video mine is black maki8ng it very hard to see ... How can I change that?
Thanks for the comment! You can change the guide colour in the preferences Edit->Preferences->Add-ons->Construction Lines. There's a section for interface colours at the bottom. If you're using a M1+ Mac, you may also need to uncheck "allow dashed line drawing" to see the guides properly.
That did the trick, unchecked allow dashed lines ... only drawe back is the lines are solid and not dashed but at least I can see them now thank you @@dndrawings
@@MBStudiosArt I'm glad that worked! It's a really tough problem for me to solve at the moment as I don't have an M1-3 Mac so I can't test a solution. If you know of any good Mac in the cloud type services, please let me know. I paid for one recently but it was slow, it was effectively unusable. I may end up having to buy a mac for testing but I'd rather rent one if I can.
Hello Dan. Like you work, but is your extension available for the latest versions of Blender and/or Bforartists, and if so, can you use the same plugin for both apps. Cheers mate!
Hello Mike, Thanks for the comment. Yes CL runs on the latest version of Blender. I've not tested on any of the Blender forks like Bforartists but once you've purchased CL you can use/try on any version of Blender or fork of Blender (you'renot limited to one install), though I only support the ones listed on my product page. Cheers.
Bought the plugin and tried to simply follow what you do in this video but I find the plugin (0.9.67) very buggy . It's just not working on latest blender like it does on the video. :(
A couple bugs I immediately encountered: - Extruding multiple faces at once is not working even though it works on the video. It will just extrude one of the selected faces (not necessarily the one you clicked on to activate the extrude tool). - The bottom area of the viewport does not register any actions. For example when trying to draw a line near the CL toolbar or next to the tip box the action is never registered (seems like the input does not work there). - When you CTRL+Z on an action that grows the bounding box (the grey box around the object you're editing), it will move the whole objects position. Its very easy to demonstrate, just draw multiple lines that increase the objects bounds (and the grey box), as you CTRL+Z all those line draws the grey box gets smaller as it should, but the whole object also moves its location. This makes most actions destructive as you cannot get back to the previous situation anymore.
This looks wonderful. Web site says up to Blender 3.3 supported. Would I get a refund if it doesn't work in 3.4? I'm reluctantly moving away from SketchUP as the free version is gone and the paid version is far beyond my means.
Hi Mike, Thanks for the comment. Construction Lines works on Blender 3.4 (although it doesn't show as supported on the product page yet). I'm working on an update at the moment which will be released soon and will also have support for the new Blender 3.5
@@CraftyOldGit Cheers Mike. If you have any issues let me know. I'll always respond (my workload is through the roof at the moment so may take me a day or two but I'll always get back to you).
That's strange. Is it sluggish on the default Blender scene? Can you send me a message through www.dndrawings.com/feedback with your specs and CL version etc. And I'll take a look. Thanks.
Ich komme von AutoCad und Sketchup und suche nach einer Möglichkeit Zeichnungen wie in AutoCad oder Sketchup in Blender anzufertigen. Dachte dieses Addon wäre das was ich suche. Hatte ich es vor dem Kauf ausprobieren können, ich hätte es nicht gekauft. Suche geht weiter!
Thanks for the comment! I'm working on an add-on for creating documents from models at the moment. Current functionality includes: drawings scaled to paper size, snapped dimensions, section cuts, multiple pages with multiple views per page, text blocks, output to .svg, edges coloured by collection. I'll be uploading a preview video soon to show progress. There's a lot of work still to be done but it's coming along well.
@@KabayanNow This will be a separate add-on. It's a way bigger project than I initially expected it to be and is just beginning to be in a usable state now. I'm hoping to be in Alpha early in the new year and then Beta soon after that. I'll post update videos on this channel.
When you move an object press Ctrl and it will make a duplicate. Click to position the duplicate and then you can type a number to add more duplicates.
If you mean after using the extrude function, then yes, it's been completely re-written for the next version. I was using Blender's boolean functions to extrude but there are a lot of issues with it. The latest version is in testing at the moment and will be released soon.
If you're finding it laggy on a basic scene there are a couple of things to check: 1. Check the console to see if any errors are being thrown (email me if they are) 2. disable any other 3rd party add-ons. There are some known conflicts with KitOps (free version) which I'm working to fix at the moment. If you're having issues with more complex scenes, you can try unchecking some of the snaps in the tool menu, hiding the more dense parts of the mesh and or reducing the snap radius in the add-on preferences.
@@r0naldhuber578 I'm glad that worked! It's a real strange one. I've spoken to Chipp who makes the add-on and hopefully we can come up with a fix between us.
many things are not working accurately on mac monterrey blender 3.4.1. shapes put on 3d models arent going on face, typing units for lines don't work, pressing tab doesn't work
Hi John. I've not had an oportunity try test this on a MacOS. All is working fine on a Windows and Linux but definitely sounds like some issues. Have you tried removing and rei-installing with a restart of Blender? Sometimes after first installing (especially on Macs) there have been some very strange errors being thrown. If you're still having issues, contact me through my website form (dndrawings.com) and I'll support this directly with you.
Nice to see a recent tutorial, and it seems there are many improvements since I last tried to use this. Is it still not possible to use the number pad to enter dimensions? The number keys across the top of the keyboard work fine. I seem to remember this was a restriction caused by the internal working of Blender and difficult to get around.
@@DenisRoyIsFree thanks for the fast reply. In my case, I am more likely to miss the numeric keypad for view selection than for numeric input, so will just get use to using the number keys at the top of the keyboard. It’s odd because Blender can use the numpad for both view selection and input - it senses the context. Still a very useful addon indeed.
@@DenisRoyIsFree I cannot get the draw tool to accept a typed in number. I am using blender 3.0. I tried doing what you suggested but it made things worse. The typed in distance shows up in the top left hand corner of the scene but I assume I hit enter but no cigar. Also it will not except a change of units, don't see any millimetres. Any help would be appreciated.
@@croccustom - how did you solve this? I just started using the add-on and when I try to enter a dimension for a rectangle, it just creates 2 vertices at the corners.
@@jlauzon2 I admit it had been a while so I am racking my brain on what I was trying to do let alone how I solved the issue. I usually write down notes when I find the answer. At the time I was digitally plotting an object by using the Construction line package since Blender was lacking the tools. I have been jumping around in Blender working my way around different situations. But I have been caught up in my different worlds suck as Animation, VRX, film editing so my mind is fried from all the knowledge. But if you are that frustrated I can look back to refresh my memory. I know how important it is to rely on others other than the tutorials.
@@dndrawings Thanks for responding. I use Construction Lines 2.93 in Blender 4.0, all default snaps are on, but perpendicular shaping doesn't work in both edit and object modes.
@@hlavatskyioleksandr1410 The current version is 0.9.69 so you'll need to download the latest version from Blender Market/Gumroad. If you're still having issues, contact me through my website feedback form and I can get some more details from you.
Thanks! If you drag the measure/guide tool, the line tool or move from an an edge, CL will auto snap to perpendicular directions. The same from a vert, will snap to edge continuations. This is in addition to the global axes.
@@ChristianConsoli I hadn't thought of this. CL won't highlight perp directions this way around (point to edge). I've added it to my dev list. In the meantime, depending on your model, you might be able to achieve the same thing with horizontal guides.
This is great, I have had this plugin for a while but not looked at it until now (my sketchup licence up for renewal!). What do you use for technical scale drawings? It would be great if this could be included!
Thanks for the comment! Glad you like CL. I'm working on a technical scale drawing add-on at the moment. I've had to move away from it for a couple of months as I've been working on a big update for CL but I'll be back on it soon. I'm planning to put out an Alpha fairly soon. I'll post a video to show how it's going to work.
@@dndrawings Sounds good. Hopefully there will be something like Layout (SketchUp) or AutoCAD 2D with line weights, annotations, hatches, shadows etc (zero or minimal use of inkscape) for plot ready scale drawings at some point for Blender! Stephen Leger got quite close but the output looked pretty basic compared to cad. It may be user error but I found the CT add-on move tool accidentally selecting the wrong object quite often (after selecting the object and when choosing where to move it from), it would be handy if these tools 'locked onto the object' you're working on. Similar issue with the line tool if there's anything else nearby. Thanks!
@@dndrawings It would be great if it can work with Archipack and hombuilder, those don't have a decent 2D output so far, only SVG (not for pro use) or DXF export to CAD but really, scale drawing with a few line weights should be possible from Blender.
@@johans7119 I'm aiming to make it add-on independent, so that it doesn't rely on anything but blender geometry. I'm currently at a stage where I can produced scaled drawings at a particular paper size, with annotations and measurements that are attached to the geometry (they will change as the geometry is updated). It also allows for multiple views which can be laid out on pages. It will be similar to Layout. I'll take a look into the above issues you noted. If I can reproduce them, I'll fix for the upcoming release.
@@dndrawingssounds good. I would be happy to buy a "pro" version if it could replace layout. I've noticed a couple of minor bugs/improvements that could be made. Do you have a discord for CL or something similar? cheers
A few tips: try unchecking the different snap taps in the CL tool menu and see if there is anything particular that is affecting performance. For high poly meshes you can reduce ethe size of the selection area in the CL preferences (Edit->Preferences->Add-on->Construction Lines alss you can select an object and hit '/' to work just on that object. If you're getting performance issues with just the defaultlt blender scene then that would be another issue and you can contact me about that through my website form.
is it optimized for blender 3.1.2 already? I experienzed a variety of Bugs until Blender crashed... I can't even split a face with the draw tool like you did in the beginning. I was so looking forward to using this :((((((((
When you're trying to split a face, are you working in Edit mode? Can you send a bug report through (www.dndrawings.com/feedback) and I'll take a look into what's going on. Thanks
1# OMG, this is so frustrating, Selecting, is a nightmare in or out of edit mode. #2 Numpad will only be a nav, NO input values regardless of Enter or NumLock toggle or Pref Direct Input/Numpad For Nav. #3 X (delete) will not fully delete. #4 move anything in smaller scales is jumpy regardless of Unit setup. # I want to like this, but OMFG is this frustrating.
For what it's worth, if you change Blender's transform pivot point to Active Element, you can get basically the same behavior as your addon when it's using a selected element as the pivot point. Just make sure the element you want to be the pivot is the last thing selected so that it is the active element. And that has been in vanilla Blender pretty much forever, but a lot of folks overlook it, I use it a ton though.
I think I mentioned in a previous video that the rotation tool isn't adding any new behaviour, it just makes life a lot easier. Especially if you want to use a particular point on the geometry where you want your pivot point to be (or another object's geometry). It reduces what can be a multi-stage process to a couple of clicks.
It may be that you are using the number pad to enter values. If so, you will need to press Enter before entering a value. This is to allow for the numpad to be used for navigation during operations. Using the number row doesn't require you to press Enter first. This behaviour can be changed in the add-on preferences.
