Check it out!

http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-257/

I hope B-Mesh will make it into one of those bimonthly updates...

Does anyone tested if FBX animated models export, import well on MED ?

Well again it lacks as always some layers and line draw , ellipse draw, shape draw, etc ... on texture painting mode !
Hope it will appear in a future version ?

Anyway, i use Blender from lot of years to do basic real time 3D stuff , and really the look is lot lot better
But the main lines of Blender are still the same when
you have to switch between 3D View, UV Map etc ...
And if you use the menu like : Edgs -> Mark UV Semas
In that case you find the traditionnal Blender

Caus i searched "mark UV Seams" on the new menus and windows
and i finded really nothing and had to do it in the old simple
way.
I'll have to check if we can define our own Keys for each functiosn like in Silo ?

Anyway good thing this FREE great modeling/animating tool
is going forward and really great

Hiya.

Cool..but, uh...is there any "GUI Add-On" to make Blender feel like one of the big-name apps? In particular, XSI or Lightwave? I know they have a 'Maya' switcheroo in it, but it still looked like Blender to me...meaning that the core tools were still all at the bottom...not the top 'shelf style' like Maya, for example.

You may call me an old curmudgeon, but I learned my 3D "back in the day" (roughly '89 or '90), so I've grown up with certain standards. For example, LMB to select, RMB to bring up a context menu dealing with the current selection/tool. Or having 3 keys in a row (WER, ASD, XCV, etc.) be the hot keys for Move/Rotate/Scale.

Has anyone did a full gui-switchover for any of the standard 3d packages mentioned above? If not...I'll keep waiting, thanks.

Sorry, but i think Blender will remain Blender,
The basic gizmos, windows selection (3D, VU) etc ... are the SAME.

They just added windows, stack of operations or visible operation buttons : Blender remains the same for the most part
you must choose the same icons as before !

--------

For your questions, go ot "user preferences" you can choose
mouse control like in "Maya" !

Just played with it , lot of 3D format export are lacking !
Even FBX i've tested was buggy and the model after import
in MED was screwed up !

I had to use BLender 2.49 to export FBX for MED !

So be carefull with thi release

But WELL it's great for :
- UV
- animations
- standard modeling
And it's FREE !!

It`s (nearly) all there. You just need to dig a bit in the User Preferences.

User Preferences, Input, select with: Left

And give the 3D cursor a +alt, so that you don`t always drag it around accidentally. That one is Input/3D View/3D View (Global)/ Set 3D Cursor

Ticking Release Confirms in the Editing Tab is also a good idea.

I`ve even managed that i don`t need any hotkey for navigation. RMB for move, MMB for rotation, and the scrollwheel for zoom. But that`s a bit more complicated because then you have already the first conflicts with hotkeys. I can`t remember which one, but in one of the not so often used modes there is a rare action that uses RMB only too. Crazy and wasted ...

What`s really disturbing though is that Blender is still not able to handle N-Gons. Means modeling is very limited compared to a modeler that can handle N-Gons. Try to redirect an edgeloop and you will find out what i mean.

Besides modeling, Blender is really a neat little 3D app

great news... brecht is back:

Amazing!

So we will see some new things in blender soon.....

http://code.blender.org/index.php/2011/04/google-summer-of-code-2011-blender-summer-of-polish-2/

17 summer of code projects got accepted this year!