Blender: Sculpting Organic Shapes

WHAT BLENDER IS:
  Free, open-source 3D creation suite.
  Mesh-based (vertex/edge/face manipulation).
  Used in: animation, sculpting, game assets, 3D printing.

WHY MESH-BASED CHALLENGES FDM 3D PRINTING:
  Meshes are polygons (triangles).
  A 'cube' is 12 triangles; a 'sphere' is 1000+ triangles.
  Resizing distorts the mesh; precision is approximate.

  For 3D printing, mesh tools are fine for organic shapes (figurines, characters),
  but problematic for engineering (gears, brackets, things needing exact dimensions).

CORE FEATURES FOR 3D PRINTING:

SCULPTING:
  Brush-based: push, pull, smooth, mask, paint.
  Subdivide as needed for detail.
  Best for: figurines, characters, props, organic shapes.

MODIFIERS:
  Subdivision surface: smooth a low-poly mesh
  Boolean: union/difference/intersect with another object
  Mirror: symmetric design (apply to half; mirror produces the other half)
  Array: repeat a pattern N times
  Decimate: reduce polygon count (useful before slicing)

  Many modifiers stack; apply them in order.

CHECK MODELS:
  - 3D Print Toolbox (built-in addon): checks for non-manifold mesh,
                                        intersecting faces, etc.
  - Validates the model is printable before export.

EXPORT:
  Save as STL or OBJ.
  Check polygon count: large models can be 100k+ triangles.
                       Slicers may take longer to process.

USE CASES:
  - Figurines and game pieces
  - Custom cosplay armor (organic curves)
  - Display pieces with smooth curves
  - Decorative items (vases, sculptural pieces)
  - Texturing existing models

WHEN NOT TO USE BLENDER:
  - Engineering parts (use Fusion or OnShape)
  - Mechanical assemblies (no parametric thinking)
  - Anything requiring tight tolerances
  - Anything you'd need to maintain over time (mesh edits are destructive)

LEARNING CURVE:
  Blender is famous for steep learning. The 'donut tutorial' (BlenderGuru, 2018-2024)
  is the gold standard intro: 6 hours of YouTube, but you'll know Blender after.

INTEGRATION WITH OTHER TOOLS:
  Blender → STL → slicer: standard workflow.
  Blender to Fusion: import STL, then convert to mesh body in Fusion (limited;
                     better to design in Fusion if it's going to be a mechanical part).

WHEN BLENDER WINS:
  - Sculpting figurines for tabletop games (D&D minis)
  - Designing creature props for cosplay
  - Smooth curves that B-rep CAD struggles with
  - Free, open-source environment

WHEN BLENDER LOSES:
  - Engineering parts
  - Anything needing exact dimensions
  - Repeatable parametric designs (need to redo work for variants)

ADJACENT TOOLS:
  ZBrush: industry-standard sculpting; expensive, but premium quality
  Sculptris: free, simpler version of ZBrush
  Meshmixer: free, less polished but useful for mesh repairs and minor edits