The Great Year Of Greenskins, Weekly 1-What is Blender?

So if you are just getting interesting in 3D printing, you are probably still working with off the shelf models you have downloaded or purchased.

Once you go deeper into 3D printing, you might decide you want to make some adjustments to the STLs you have, or you might even want to create your own model from scratch.

When looking around at options, you have to find a program that can do complex tasks without paying too much, and that has a good support ecosystem and easily available training.

In my opinion, that program is Blender, for the following reasons

1. It’s free. You can go to blender.org and download the latest version. I highly suggest you donate to support it’s development if you find you are using it regularly, but you can try it without a large outlay or monthly fees.
2. There is a massive community of users and professions who can answer almost any question you have and in many cases provide long, detailed tutorials and discussions showing how to use it’s features.
3. It has a variety of tools you can use to alter STLs, as well as creating new original models. Many other programs focus on one specific aspect of 3D modeling, Blender has many different tools and modes (including many not immediately useful to 3D modeling that you may find yourself interested in learning more about)
4. Constantly being improved and modified. Blender has a very active user base interested in creating new addons and content packs, so if you run into a task you would like easier, there will often be someone developing a newer, easier way to do it.

Need to switch weapons or equipment on a model? Blender can do it. Need to slice a large model into smaller pieces? Blender can do it. Want to repose a model into a different pose? Blender can do it. Found a model that is almost perfect, but has some details you wish weren’t there? Import it into Blender and carve them off or smooth them away. Blender can do it.

I will be adding additional posts about many of the Blender features in detail, particularly ones that will be most useful to 3D modelers.