New awesome 3d modelling software: Plasticity
Hi,
Check out this new 3d modelling software called Plasticity. It's currently in beta but looks already really promesing for concept modeling! It's free during beta, and will be 25 dollar when it gets released. Download: https://github.com/nkallen/plasticity/releases
Comments
What does this mean? "Plasticity is Open Source but NOT free. It is free during the BETA only. It will cost $25 for version 1.0 (no subscription)." It's LGPL-3.0 Licensed
@Meetlat can you chat with the devs and find out what's going on? We just need to check they understand what they're saying and they understand they can't restrict use of the software to paying customers.
... I added two issues suggesting IFC, DXF & DWG import/export with links to our list of software libraries.
Already sent a mail about something else. Will follow up his response with your question. Right now I think it will be similar formula as QCAD. So a free 'lite' version and perhaps a 'pro' version for a small amount.
LGPL is a very weak license, why do people still use it? Even FSF says don't use it - and they wrote it. I think it falls into the category of what Stallmann calls "doormat" licenses.
After watching the video, and regardless of License debates I feel like this is a spiritual child of Blender and Sketchup. I assume it's done intentionally since the person in the video (I think a developer of the soft ?) directly refers to Blender and anyone who has used it will instantly recognize some key pieces of UI that are its (sometimes infamous) hallmarks.
The UI / UX looks like Blender's, but stripped down. Not a bad thing in on itself, it's like if all the things but the 3D modelling workspaces were removed from Blender. Also it looks like the visual feedback is interesting, with gizmos in each operation.
However, all the modeling operations seem to be destructive which is one of the things some people complain about in the traditional 3D modelling workflow in Blender, that's slowly but surely being resolved with Geometry Nodes. Also, it seems it takes the Sketchup approach in terms of topology, that is to say totally abstract the user from it. All the faces are N-gons and it always looks good in the viewport. I think while for some modelling workflows it's not a problem, it's really not ideal in all situations. Namely for animation, for exporting to other softwares and subdivision workflow it's a nightmare.
All in all I really don't see myself paying $25 for it when Blender has all the features I saw in the video and more (minus some of the gizmos), and is truly FOSS.
However seeing the current discussion on Application Templates in Blender to restrict UI to specific workflows, I can see this being used by non-power users to achieve specific modelling goals, like early stage design of hard surface models.
Hi Gorgious, Yeah the video is from the developer. For now it's a destructive modeler. But it's build upon the C3D engine, so in theory it's possible to build a non-destructive modeler. But in one of the comments/video's he said he is more aiming at designers, for quick 3d (concept) model making. And for now he is not planning to implant all the features of the C3D engine. He's only been developing since last September, I think. And by the looks of his discord (https://discord.gg/PzaegZDz) he is improving the software daily with new features. So who knows where this might grow into. Always good to keep an eye on.
Regarding the price and it being not completely FOSS. Yeah well, 25 dollar is nothing compared to all the plugins you need to buy to make Blender more CAD-like. Although that might change when some genius devs use the Application Templates you mentioned to make a strip down CAD-like version of blender. I'm looking forward to that.