Blender vs. Vectorworks Fundamentals

Blender is an excellent tool for everything from simple to complex 3D animations, the creation of 3D images, etc. It performs excellently in all of these areas. In the realm of 3D modelling, animation and rendering, there is very little that Blender is not suited for.

Incentivized

It is perfectly suited for residential work, and work where the project requires integrated 2d and 3d. It is terrible for integrated energy modeling. This needs to be fixed immediately.

Incentivized

• Creating complex polygonal geometries is very easy in Blender.
• Edit Mode and Sculpt Mode helps in creating non uniform surfaces for objects like rocks, surfaces, terrains etc.
• Blender can use various external plugins to make it work in more smoother way. For example to import any 3d object one can use sketchfab plugin and easily import the free assets from web after logging in.
• Blender has a better rendering engine known as Cycles, it is far more better than any other stock rendering engine which can generate realistic lightning, shadows and reflections.
• The animations can easily be generated with blender animation toolbar and also it incorporate any other animations made in any other software.
• The bone generation and its behavior of animations can be achieved easily in blender.

Incentivized

• We really like the wall tool, as it is extremely customizable. Additionally, it has many smart elements that work with BIM.
• We like the parametric functions that allow for rapid customization of various building elements, such as windows and doors.
• The terrain modeler is very good, too. We are able to analyze cut and fill calculations in real time with it.

Incentivized

• It would be great to see a render queue added. This would increase my productivity significantly. Currently I don't have budget for a render farm. Meaning I have to do my renders overnight, however some renders only take a few hours. A render queue would allow me to make the most of the 12+ hours I'm out of the office.
• UV editing, in particular unwrapping or projecting can produce varied results.

Incentivized

• We wish more US-based BIM users were trained in Vectorworks - however, it's very easy to get up to speed.
• AR tools are in their infancy on mobile devices - however great improvements in recent releases. Very accessible and impressive tools for use with clients.

Incentivized

Because while it's a pretty good piece of software, the default built-in commands, the interface layout, and certain functions aren't as logical in their way of being arranged and executed. This, of course, doesn't diminish its use or effectiveness in your field of work, but it is quite awkward at first. A big advantage is that Blender lets you customize the interface however you want as well as keyboard shortcuts and several general program parameters.

Incentivized

Well, in fact, I haven't used any of that software, but there is one thing I know: Blender is free. That's huge for small business owners like me; it is the difference between having the tool and not having it. I have heard other people saying that the Autodesk offerings have some other tools Blender doesn't have and are better for animation, especially Maya, but no small-engineering business owner cares for that. Now, from the animation and artistic point of view, even if my business was making animated movies indie, I'd used Blender simply by its cost.

Incentivized

• As it is a beginner-friendly software with increasing demand in the animation sector again, it positively impacts the business.
• Except in some specific cases, no one will use Blender on their own at a professional level.
• When I was a beginner, it took me a lot of time to learn, consequently designing the creation. But if we want to learn to master Blender, we can do it. As long as we have time and a lot of willpower, since, we repeat, it is not a simple program and hides thousands of tools and possibilities.

Incentivized

• Subscription model ensures we always have the latest versions - per-seat license is very affordable.
• Training costs are low (i.e. new hires get up to speed quickly).

Incentivized