Why is blender so poorly designed and hard to use?

[B@z]

i dont know, i pretty like blender
first, i started blender with a depth scanning in the options. there u could change the ugly tilting camera to a normal one, selecting with left click, etc.
the shortcuts are bit absurd, but if u get used to it, its pretty handy. (i kept pressing A in metasequoia, and wtf why doesnt it remove the selection!)

and the interface, thats what i pretty like in blender. u can change whatever you like. also, im always using the "animation" preset, thats quite easy to use.

oh and im using the old blender, i dont like the new one

[lazerblade]

I once broke my entire mesh in blender with two keyboard shortcuts.
The first to select all, and a second for delete.
But then, I found the all mighty UNDO BUTTON.
My life has been changed ever since...

Honestly though, everyone knows that is an forum about open-source stuff.
People are probably going to defend the most popular open-source programs.

It looks like you get a choice, things can be done easily, or they can be done well.
I prefer to get things done well, that's why I stuck with Irrlicht.

When argumenting, please don't point to projects made by people that have spent 7+ months re-learning from the ground up just to get basic usability out of Blender.

So you seriously aren't willing to take the time to learn?
I might be pretty knew to 3d game creation, but I know one thing.
If you want to accomplish anything you have to be willing to take the time to learn how.

And FYI, it only took me like a month to get basic usability out of blender.
And I didn't start with any prior knowledge.

[Virion]

another good thing about blender is its very easy to bake for example ambient occlusion or normal map. the button can be found on the toolbar, which normally its much complicated to do that on commercial softwares.

[omaremad]

Blender is quite competitve since it does so many functions you would have to buy 3rd party tools/extensions for if you are using the other suites. (great uv mapping scripts, physical simulators, game engine, texture painting on objects, free scripts from community etc....)

Go ahead buy the expensive suites, but then you would come back with the complaint they dont have a "make great art button"

Blender has state changes too... there is even presets for animating texturing scripting etc.... which you can modifiy bc blender is so flexible. The newer blender even has a scearch function so you dont need to look for buttons or short cut keys.

How to cure your problem? watch a few video tutorials on what you want to do in blender, or rtfm.

Its fine to choose your own suit, work in an environment you are comfortable with... but dont degradea great project just because you cant use it (it has tons of documenation, and IS user friendly bc you customise the interface)

[xDan]

The exporters/importers are the problem of the people that wrote them, not the software itself... A lot of them are indeed useless or tricky to get to work. If you are trying to use blender for conversion abilities I would abandon that idea and write an exporter for whatever software you do like.

Since learning Blender and its shortcut keys I find other software to be unintuitive...

[cobra]

Blender is great software, and a godsend for developers on a budget.

I've not had many problems with it. I even wrote scripts for object and scenery editors for my simulator, and it works quite well. You just have to find the right mesh exporters and importers, be a little creative, and make sure you don't do wrong things while editing them.

[chronos1981]

Amazing I have been using blender since it went open source in 2002. I agree it was a hell of a learning curve. It took me along time to get accustomed to using the space bar to access the menu. Over the years it has gotten alot better. and like one post said 2.5 is looking great, they have changed many things. Also there are many tutorial videos on youtube. Good luck at Blending.

[macron12388]

I've been using Blender for several years now. I haven't had any problems with importing/exporting, the only time I do is when I make an error on my part. The interface is wonderful for me, I don't use it do do much programming nowadays, but the modeling system is WAY better to me.

Blender has a steep learning curve, probably why a lot of people are turned down by it. I have access to Maya but it's interface is just a mess, I mean buttons EVERYWHERE.

Maya users, do you seriously like having to work at a slow pace? Having to click your mouse so much :/ I prefer Blenders quick shortcuts, I can get 10 times as much modeling work done in Blender as opposed to Maya, and it looks better too.

I LOVE BLENDER
And yes I have tried and have access to Maya, and several other high end tools, through school programs and such.

[ultramedia]

I teach 3DS Max at university but I still prefer to use Blender for my personal projects, I find modelling faster and more fluid in Blender =P

[REDDemon]

sure blender is great. The new version is more organized as interface and more solid for third part scripts and plugins.

I personally prefer the old blender interface with "all possible in few clicks".

I take few minutes for a medium UV unwrapping with the old one

and a quarter of hour with the new version.

Lots of people prefer the new blender...

BUT no exporters are available for now in the new blender. Old exporters are pretty good if you find those one are not tricked.

[jibblesmgee]

Because you have to be cool to use it. It has a powerful python script that detects how cool you are, and if your not cool it will do the opposite of what you want, and make any two shortcut keys turn your model into a 3 dimensional turd, and then disable the Ctrl Z shortcut.

[ent1ty]

Ah, so that is why your Rockman sucks so much!

Just kidding

[serengeor]

Ah, so that is why your Rockman sucks so much!

Just kidding

Good one

[jibblesmgee]

I'm pretty sure it would have been just as bad if i used 3DSmax or maya. I'm good at admitting when something is my fault.

[ent1ty]

Did the small size of the text prevent you from perceiving? Sorry...

Just kidding