Check out that classic hot-rod flame job in the thumbnail. Coming out of the back of my head. Burninating me like a common peasant. Or thatched roof cottage.
I am honestly super impressed with Doodle3D. I guess technically it’s Doodle3D Transform. Like Tinkercad before it, this is a took that seems like it should be for children, but it has considerably more potential than that. Unlike, Tinkercad, however, that potential is largely unrealized at this time. While it does a great job of teaching the 2D sketch to 3D object workflow that is common in modern CAD programs. Well, technically MDA process, but that’s a bit of a touchy subject. It makes the process of making a 3D model as easy as drawing a picture. And then transforming that picture in 3D.
However, it doesn’t do enough to realize it’s potential, yet, and I outline a few changes I’d like to see in the video. They include:
- Ability to edit the measurements, even if only for a moment after the object is created (kinda like Blender does)
- Ability to combine sketches in a 3D space, possibly involving a different interface
- “Hole” objects
- Ability to control how thick the single thickness lines will be when exported
I don’t think I explained these very well in the video.
When I say, the ability to edit measurements, I recognize that the problem is that as soon as an object in Doodle3D is created, it is turned into a line that can then be erased or filled in. Blender has a similar problem. As soon as an object is created it turns into vertices, lines, and faces that can be changed in edit mode. However, for a moment after an object is created, before any other operation is started, there is a menu where you can manually type in dimensions and settings for those 3D objects. I’d like something like that for this. If you create an object it shows you the dimensions, so why not just leave those up for a second, let us edit them if we want, and then bake the object into the scene when we start to do anything else? There are obviously some considerations, like the star and n-gon shape that needs multiple edit objects that just aren’t there yet, but there’s got to be a way.
When talking about combining sketches in a 3D space, a join tool as it were. Imagine after you create the simplest of 3D objects, being able to go to a screen where that object can be manipulated in 3D, rotated and placed anywhere. Obviously without a second sketch for the placement to be relative to, placement is meaningless. However, in this menu you can create a second sketch, and begin working on it. You define it’s shape, then pop back into the 3D join tool, and align this new object to the first. Combine as many discrete parts as you want to create the final object.
Hole objects I think are pretty self explanatory. It could be as simple as another color in the color picker, kind of how Tinkercad does it.
I didn’t mention this last one in the video at all. By default Doodle3D exports the single line objects as 2mm thick walls. In an email to me they explained “We have experimented with the thickness of the walls and this is what we thought was best.” I understand the sentiment and even agree with the conclusion they reached, generally. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want control of this aspect of the design process. A simple options in a properties menu, per object or per my account, would be enough for me.
Overall, I’m super excited by the potential of
Doodle3D Transform and I hope you’ll check it out.
