Custom Shapes for Boxcutter Addon

October 23, 2020June 20, 2021 New Media Supply 0 Comments Assets, Boxcutter

The Custom Shapes for Boxcutter Addon is a free addon that provides a library of custom shapes for Boxcutter. So the user of the Boxcutter addon have always some custom shapes at hand. For now, the library just contains a few shapes and the addon is very simple, but functional. Because the addon is a free addon and available on Github, everyone can contribute. And meanwhile other users can build a library of assets and give them away or sell them.

How to download and install the addon?

Download the .zip file on github: https://github.com/NewMediaSupply/NMS_BCs and install as any other addon in Blender. That is: go to Edit > Preferences > Addons. Click on the button called Install (right-top), and navigate to the .zip file you just downloaded. That is the folder called NMS_BCs-main.zip. (Nowadays I have to scroll my mousewheel a bit, and then I see the addon in the list). Next is to enable the addon by clicking the checkbox, save preferences. It’s my habit to click Refresh as well, but could be it’s no need (doesn’t harm anyway). Then you will find the addon in the N-Panel. If for some reason this doesn’t work for you, let me know at what step it goes differently than described here.

How to use the addon?

Enable Boxcutter wilt Alt+W. In Boxcutter, choose custom shape and best is to snap to center of face, edge and vertex, and draw origin at center. Switch over to NMS_BCs in the N-Panel and select a shape (custom shape). Select your object you want to cut and drag the mouscursor while pressing Ctrl. It’s simple as that.

Roadmap of the Custom Shapes for Boxcutter Addon

While the addon is functional and kinda fun already, there is still a lot to do, like:

Create categories. For example: O, T, U, L, S shapes. So that is a dropbox and then you see another set of thumbnails.
More assets ofcourse. There are just a few at the moment.
Keep the object selected / active when you choose another custom shape.
Delete appended object once Boxcutter owns it.
Clear Orphans if that is a good idea.

Why I started this project

Initially I thought I develop a paid addon, but the idea to share it as free addon looks more exciting. I think everyone will benefit from this:

Users of boxcutter will have a library always at hand for free. (If they want they can also buy libraries).
Even more interest in Boxcutter, so the developers of Boxcutter will benefit a bit.
One can build assets and give them away of sell them.

And besides that I have already quite some other products and want to work on them as well. So the idea is: the Custom Shapes for Boxcutter Addon will always be free. Assets could be free, but could also be a paid library. Everyone happy with it? If not, let me know.

For Developers: How to contribute

The idea is that other addon-developers can contribute and the addon will stay free. Though, others can build libraries of shapes and give them away or sell them. It’s my first time I have a project like this on Github, but I understand developers can fork (clone) the repository, adjust it, and do a pull request.