STEM Blender
I think it would be amazing to have a version of Blender that was as optimized as possible for STEM. Initially I was imagining a completely separate install or version but it probably wouldn't need to be. Maybe even an option in preferences to switch to STEM mode or something.
One thing I think would be huge would be having everything default to mm as well as a single place you can select from options for distance and weight like mm gram, cm gram, meter kg, inch pound etc, that change all settings everywhere in Blender. Then if you wanted you could go change a specific thing as it currently is.
Maybe a couple new "new file" templates and or workspaces for 3D scan work, reverse engineering, 3D printing, simulations, physics, etc. For years I have wanted to see Blender expand to having a proper CAD workspace and with all the new NURBS capability and other stuff it doesn't seem like it should be that far off but I don't know enough to know and that is probably a whole other conversation. I have a ton of other ideas I think Blender could probably do amazingly well like 3D scan alignment, scan to CAD deviation inspection, and things like that.
These are quick thoughts but I suspect suggestions would start to come pouring in once people started seeing a framework coming together and also if it became just a little more accessible and more people started seeing it as not only a viable tool but an easy to use one for things like this.
I actually think a few relatively small things like scale converting from mm to meters on import and or export, and not having the patience to figure out how to fix it is the kind of stuff that pushes a lot of people away from using it for 3D printing, 3d Scanning, Reverse engineering, kind of work.
3 Comments
Most of this is already covered - Blender has metric settings that can be saved as default, and there's a Cad_Dimensions extension for the more technical workflows. A lot of the initial friction tends to go away once you get past the basics, which admittedly takes some time with Blender.
Point 1 is that it is a lot of work to get it set up in the way you want, and then if you install Blender on another computer or a fresh install you have to do it all over again.
A lot more people would be drawn to Blender for this kind of work if it didn't take a bunch of time and learning how to set it up before they can even start using it for that kind of work.
Point 2. There is so much more potential that could be easily tapped in Blender that I think isn't because of point 1.
Just one example I was looking at a couple days ago. There are a couple plugins and some okay workflows to try to use Blender to make something like a sewing pattern but with all the capability of cloth sim, and other tools I imagine it would probably be pretty easy to make something that was at least competitive with if not better than expensive options like exactflat. I think the biggest issue is that your average person in those kinds of industries doesn't even think of Blender or understand the potential of it in areas where they might support or participate in development if they did.
There is so much that goes so far beyond the couple things you mentioned it makes me wonder if you even do related work in Blender or if you can't see the value to it because it has no value to you.
Blender project cannot add and support all possible configurations inside the core project. It adds overhead during tests, documentation, and confuse users. It is best (and is done before) that specific community organize themself and build their own configuration. They know what works best for them. Blender developers are not experts in how different communities use the tool and would quickly become unmaintained. Something that we and you wouldn't want.
Of course we have thought about this and added features that would help communities to do exactly this.
Related projects :
The STEM community is large enough that they should be able to organize it.