Design and CAD
Blender
Free modelling and digital sculpting software under the GNU GPL. It is not CAD, but it is the tool for organic figures and resin-bound models.
Blender is released under the GNU General Public License; code developed at blender.org is by default licensed as GPL version 2 or later, and binary distributions are licensed under GPL version 3 or later. The foundation puts it plainly: free to use for any purpose, free to distribute, to study and to modify, and free to sell the work you make with it. In 3D printing its place is organic modelling — figures, miniatures, characters, terrain — and mesh fixing, not designing dimensioned parts. If you are going to print in resin, you will probably end up in Blender before you end up in a parametric CAD.
Best for
- Figures, miniatures and organic modelling for resin
- Digital sculpting and retopology
- Repairing and editing downloaded meshes
- Rendering the part before printing it
Limitations
- It is not CAD: working to exact dimensions and tolerances is awkward
- A very steep learning curve
- It is easy to produce non-watertight meshes that the slicer rejects
- It is fairly demanding on graphics hardware
Sources
- [1]License — blender.orgBlender Foundation · Manufacturer · accessed July 27, 2026