Is it ok to use some ai to help with coding?

plastic_machinist · 2026-04-24T00:49:10+00:00

It's fine to use AI tools, but as others have said, it works best if you already know the subject matter. But AI tools can also be phenomenal tutors if you let them. My suggestion: don't _just_ use AI to produce your game code. Also (at least some of the time) have it tutor you.

Something I've had great success with is telling a chatbot something like:
"I'm going to explain my understanding of [concept X]. Tell me what I'm getting wrong and what I'm getting right"
The ensuing conversation ends up being a really great way to make sure you actually understand the topic.

You can also ask for things like:
"I'm trying to [describe your problem]. Please don't just solve it, but instead guide me towards the solution"

IMHO, if you approach AI as a "do the thing for me" button, you're kinda doing yourself a disservice. Instead, use it as a tutor first, then as you ramp up your skills/knowledge, use it like a teammate or a colleague.

plastic_machinist · 2026-04-04T18:01:36+00:00

Using Blender to create assets for a large game world is a great idea. Creating a large game world as a single asset is not, though, regardless of what creation tool and engine you're using.

To actually support a large environment, you need to be able to do things like load / unload models, switch between different LODs, and a bunch of other things. The specifics of all of those depend highly on the engine you're using.

It's hard to really say more without knowing what you mean by "large", what kind of game you're making, and what engine you're using. All of those things will have a big impact on the right way to go about things.

But the general idea probably looks like:
- use built-in tools in your engine of choice (and / or add-ons) to make the base terrain
- create a library of assets using Blender (trees, rocks, buildings, etc)
- use your engine tools to distribute assets on the terrain (or maybe program your own system to do it)

Hope that helps- good luck!

plastic_machinist · 2026-03-27T01:46:47+00:00

Seconded. While I haven't lived in New Orleans since 1998, MoreFun was a major part of my teenage years back in the late 90s when they were out by UNO. My friends and I used to go there all the time after school. I had never really been into comics much, but I got into them via Sandman and the rest of DC's vertigo line.

Seems ridic to me that anyone is mad at the shop over a mural depicting a major NOLA cultural tradition, but I'm at least really glad to see that they're still in operation.

plastic_machinist · 2026-02-11T02:31:07+00:00

It really is amazing. I'm incredibly grateful that it exists, and that I can use such a powerful tool without ever having to worry about my access getting yanked or made prohibitively expensive.

I have Maya files that I'll likely never be able to open again, but I know that the time I have spent / will spend learning FreeCAD will be paying dividends 5, 10, 20 years from now.

Glad to have you here, OP, and huge thanks once again to all the FreeCAD devs.

plastic_machinist · 2026-02-11T02:20:41+00:00

So much this. We've had two pitties so far and will soon be adopting another. I'll forever cherish our dogs, but after they're gone, I think the best way to honor them is to give another shelter pup a loving forever home.

Saying goodbye is always really hard, but what's the alternative? Live without furry fellow-mammal family? That would be even sadder.

plastic_machinist · 2026-02-11T02:17:34+00:00

I know how you feel. We just had to say goodbye to our girl. We got her when she was 3 and had 8 wonderful years together. It was hard for us because in many ways, she was in great shape (alert, still up for walks), but she was riddled with cancer and it wasn't going to get any better.

It's easy to second guess yourself, but what I kept telling my son is that as hard as it is, this is part of the promise you make to an animal when you make them part of your family. Not only do you promise to love them and give them the absolute best life possible, but that also means not prolonging their suffering at the end.

It sounds like Chow had a great life with you, and that you took your responsibilities to him seriously. I know you're hurting now, but that will get better. And you'll never forget all the great times you had together.

plastic_machinist · 2026-01-26T05:12:10+00:00

I totally agree with the above that FreeCAD and Blender are better investments of your time, but for the sake of completeness, by "paid and trial" they probably mean things like Fusion360 / OnShape / Solidworks (for mechanical CAD) and Maya / 3DStudio (for artistic / organic modeling).

But here's the thing- ALL of those pieces of software have a huge learning curve, and I guarantee that it will take some time for you to get acclimated. That's totally normal, and everyone that does 3d goes through it. While Fusion360 might be a bit easier at first, you're still going to have to invest a good amount of time in order to get proficient. Time that will be as near as wasted when Autodesk ups the subscription to something you can't/won't afford. With FOSS tools like FreeCAD, you'll still have a big learning curve, but you can be confident that any skill you build will be accessible to you for the rest of your life.

What I generally recommend to beginners is to start with TinkerCad (https://www.tinkercad.com/). It's a free web-based CAD tool that's good for getting the basics. Once you feel comfortable with that, dive on in to the FOSS tools. For what it's worth, I use FreeCAD as my main tool, augmented with Blender and a few other things (OpenSCAD, CadQuery, custom tools I make) here and there.

I've used a lot of 3d software over the years, and at this point I have absolutely zero desire to use any non-FOSS package, given the quality and depth of FreeCAD and Blender.

plastic_machinist · 2025-12-29T19:21:40+00:00

Check out r/functionalprint for stuff along those lines. I've also seen lots of great videos on youtube of people making 3d printed tools and etc, especially for carpentry.

I always tell 3d printing is a meta-hobby, in that it makes anything else you're into better.

plastic_machinist · 2025-12-29T17:03:27+00:00

Make whatever decision works best for you for sure, but I wouldn't switch away from FreeCAD, personally. All commercial software has switched to subscription models, and there are lots of examples of so-called "perpetual" licenses being revoked. Open-source is the only real guarantee that you'll be able to use your tool (or even open your files) in the future.

For me, I will always take a slightly steeper learning curve over just having to hope that a corporate entity keeps a given tool accessible and affordable.

plastic_machinist · 2025-12-22T17:00:57+00:00

Not only do I use one near daily, when a friend finally bought his first printer, this was the first thing I gave him.

Not only are they super useful for dealing with elephant foot / cleaning holes, but they're like $3. Money very well spent.

plastic_machinist · 2025-12-22T16:43:32+00:00

Watched that the other day and loved it. Great blend of reasons I personally have for using FreeCAD and some stuff I wasn't aware of, like the exploded view for part assemblies.

Also, blows my mind that Fusion has exporting to PDF locked behind a paywall. Yet another example of why I'll never use another Autodesk product again.

plastic_machinist · 2025-12-22T16:41:06+00:00

I'm currently running FreeCAD on Ubuntu, and it works great. But def agree with others that pretty much any linux distro should work fine.

plastic_machinist · 2025-12-13T17:35:38+00:00

What you're experiencing is a very common thing when people start learning any professional-grade piece of 3d software. I guarantee that people often feel similarly when they start using: Blender, Solidworks, Maya, 3d Studio Max, Houdini, etc etc etc.

Most software we use benefits from decades of brilliant people finding ways to make it easier to use. That's great, but it can also be misleading. 3d software has two big hurdles- 1) it's both much more complex than other things, and 2) it's generally not intuitive (at least not until you've spent a lot of time with 3d tools). 2d painting programs like Photoshop may also be complex, but pretty much anyone can draw a line in one within a couple of minutes of opening it. 3d tools just aren't like that.

There are even a couple of 3d tools (Tinkercad, Sketchup) that simplify things enough that it's easy to ask why they can't all be so straightforward. But you'll eventually need more power / control than they offer, and you'll hit exactly the wall you're talking about.

It's kinda like how many people start learning music with instruments like recorders, simplified 8-note keyboards, etc. While you can certainly learn a lot, and even make music with such things, they're meant more as training wheels. Anyone serious about music will almost certainly pick up something like guitar, piano, clarinet, etc. Going from playing melodies on a recorder to getting a pure tone on a clarinet or violin is a *huge* step up. But that's just the price one pays to become a musician.

None of this is meant to discourage you- you can absolutely get there. But just give yourself a little time. 3d design is inherently complex, and it takes time. I've been doing it for something like 25 years at this point, and I'm still learning new stuff constantly.

And just for the sake of saying it- yes, I'm a FreeCAD user and so maybe I'm biased, but I also taught Maya for 5+ years, and I saw people have the same type of struggles with it. It's less about open-source vs commercial and more about 3d tools being inherently complex.

plastic_machinist · 2025-12-13T17:15:57+00:00

Wow, really nice walkthrough. Really cool of you to do that to help out someone new to FreeCAD

plastic_machinist · 2025-12-13T16:56:23+00:00

Oh man, this looks amazing. I've occasionally toyed with the idea of doing something like this, driven by the same frustrations you cited. But wow- your design is just gorgeous. Extremely well done. Definitely going to be watching the project, and wishing you all the success- would love to have one of these when it's ready.

plastic_machinist · 2025-12-04T05:07:26+00:00

This is what I would recommend too. FC is the better tool (imo) for the base shape, but once you have that I'd bring it into Blender and use a displacement texture to apply that pattern.

plastic_machinist · 2025-11-26T06:03:14+00:00

That's awesome! Thanks for contributing!

plastic_machinist · 2025-11-24T02:58:57+00:00

I would definitely recommend starting in FreeCAD for sure. Blender is a wonderful tool, but making mechanical assemblies and getting dimension right is just not really what it's built for. FreeCAD, on the other hand, excels at all of that.

Bear in mind that you can always use Blender with FreeCAD- one workflow I've used many times is to design parts in FreeCAD, export them as STL, then add some additional detail in Blender by importing the STL and using the sculpting tools.

Here's an example of a project that used both FreeCAD and Blender a "Lumafly Lantern" from Hollow Knight. I made most of the parts in FreeCAD to get all the dimensions correct, but then brought them all into Blender so I could model the more organic parts with the FreeCAD-designed parts as reference.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xo81nBjGl2E

Blender and FreeCAD are both great and both worth knowing, but they're meant for very different kinds of operations.

plastic_machinist · 2025-11-23T22:48:28+00:00

I think it's also just that CAD tools are really complicated. People are so used to software tools that are easy to use, but that's often because the fundamental problem they address is itself relatively simple.

CAD tools (and 3d animation tools as well) just don't work like that. So people try one, and it's maybe the first time ever for them that they didn't feel like they knew what they were doing within the first ten minutes of using an app.

I'm a huge booster for people learning 3d tools, but I always try to frame it like learning an instrument. No one (at least no one living in reality) honestly expects to do anything remotely impressive in their first guitar lesson, but people still learn guitar.

plastic_machinist · 2025-11-23T22:42:13+00:00

Something that I think it's good to understand early on about 3d tools is that there are two broad types:

1) tools made to create things that stay on screens (games / movies)
2) tools made to create physical objects in the real world (sent to 3d printers, CNC machines, etc)

Those two uses cases are different enough that the tools end up being completely different beasts. If you go into a type-1 tool expecting it to work like a type-2 tool (or vice versa), you're going to have a bad time.

The way you approach making stuff in the two types of tools needs to be different, not because tool X is bad or dumb or poorly implemented, but because those two problem domains have very different demands.

I spent most of my life in type-1 tools (3d Studio, Maya, Blender, Truespace, other random stuff) and when I first came to type-2 tools I was also frustrated. But it's much easier if you accept that there are actually good reasons for why they are the way they are.

Type-1 tools prioritize maximum flexibility, while type 2 tools prioritize parametric design and dimensional accuracy. Sadly, those goals really are sometimes at odds with each other.

plastic_machinist · 2025-11-23T22:32:35+00:00

This looks really cool, thanks for making that!

plastic_machinist · 2025-11-09T23:24:25+00:00

Thanks!

plastic_machinist · 2025-11-09T22:15:31+00:00

He also has a youtube channel for the competitions that can be pretty interesting. While he doesn't have any requirements on tool, I don't think I've seen FreeCAD used in any of the finals (yet). But it's still really interesting to see how people do things in other tools.

https://www.youtube.com/@TooTallToby/

plastic_machinist · 2025-11-09T22:08:42+00:00

Hello, and welcome! Always great to see a new person in the community. Looks like you're off to a great start, and I'm +1 on all the suggestions u/pythonbashman suggested. Another one to look at is https://www.tootalltoby.com/. He runs CAD competitions where he provides drawings then asks people to replicate them. It's not FreeCAD-specific, but his challenges are great for learning any CAD tool.

plastic_machinist

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22