Mechanical Pencil
A new tool called ‘Mechanical Pencil’ that will allow you to freely draw polylines in 'Edit Mode' that will automatically close (fill) for extrusion either from the projected view or x,y grid. It also has the ability to snap to the grid when using ‘Absolute Grid Snap’. Other options are available such as line, arc, curve, box, and circle as well.
In ‘Edit Mode’, toggle on ‘Snap’ and in the menu on the left just below 'Annotate' click the ‘Mechanical Pencil’ and polyline in the dropdown menu to begin drawing the shape you would like to extrude.
Works similar to ‘2D Animation’, only without the converting and can work directly with the primitives in 'Edit Mode'.
5 Comments
Not only draw, but also edit? We've tried to make such a thing.
youtu.be/8Myfa8jH5nA
Also, Blueprint tool
twitter.com/pablodp606/status/1146753390225088515
developer.blender.org/D5344
* @1d.inciner * I almost forgot the blueprint. The blueprint would be a good start. There might be a chance where you can draw curves and shapes around it.
One other tool that is needed is a more dynamic dimension tool similar to fusion 360. Also a better angle and rotation snapping(15, 30, 45, 90) throughout all functionalities that uses it.
* @1d.inciner * Wow!
I feel you man. From what I see you are somewhat interested in some kind of cad functionality tools.
There has been announcement lately that blender just hired someone to focus on these kind of things but I am not sure if it is still on the works. I myself am not too familiar with deep coding, I just don't have the time and interest in learning it further. From the looks of it, it looks somewhat simple to do. A lot of freeware programs already are implementing it. Maybe this one is not just a priority yet or maybe the number of poeple pushing for it are just a tiny fraction of the community which can be a bummer if you are one of those poeple who are invisioning blender to someday have those basic cad or illustration tools that would make working with shapes and models with precision much faster and fun.
With that said, It is good news that I and some other users are not the only people that are trying to push these kind of functionalities. It is a sign of progress. Not necessarily need for blender to create a highly extensive cad version for themselves. The most important things are only the basic tools like what you are currently proposing. All the other complex task would be handled by blenders existing tools.
blendermarket.com/products/construction-lines : This is a simple tool that allows better technical modeling with vehicles and architecture. This area needed fresh eyes. Technical modelers weren't requesting much, this a start. Dan Norris nailed it. This should be in Blender 2.9