The Blender 3D is the best 3D modelling software on Linux. I use Linux for work, and I need to process the 3D models made by my colleagues. Hence I have to learn to use Blender.

Scenario

There are 2 constraints in my situation, which are quite common I guess:

1. models are made in SolidWorks 2018
2. colleagues do not have any knowledge of Linux, open-source 3D model formats or any other thing that a non-IT worker is not assumed to know.

Problems

In this section, I will record all the important issues solved during my work.

Multi-language

The working environment of my colleagues is in Chinese. So inevitably they export files with non-English characters.

Blender's default setting disables the multi-language support. In order to display non-English characters on the UI, one has to check the box next to the Translation tab in the Preferences>Interface dialogue.

File Format

The biggest challenge is to move the models from SolidWorks to Blender. Thankfully they both support a wide range of file formats for import/export. Hence the quickest solution is to find a format to which SolidWorks can export, and from which Blender can import.

The best open source format in my mind is GLTF. Unfortunately, SolidWorks only began to support GLTF since ver. 2019.

After a quick search, 2 formats were found to suit my needs:

• STL
• WRL

WRL file exported from SolidWorks cannot be properly imported to Blender. Nothing on the canvas is shown after the import finishes. The scene collection does not show any change either.

So STL is the only choice left. The bad thing about it is that SolidWorks exports many different files, each responsible for one component. But this is not a major bug which prevents using it.

View Clipping

This problem is not collaboration related but general for any usage of Blender.

If you know the basics of the camera parameters in 3D modelling, viewing frustum should not be too alienated. Basically in a virtual world composed of 3D models, you are only presented with a finite volume. This constraint is to prevent infinity. The farthest plane orthogonal to your viewing vector is one of the constraints. Anything beyond that plane is not rendered. This parameter defaults to a quite small value. I had to change it as the model imported is very large. Press "N" key to open the following dialogue and change the Clip Start and End value.