What is Blender?

Blender is a 3D graphics, animation, and modeling program. It is free, open source, and in my opinion, one of the most successful and inspiring open source applications out there. For our purposes, it is simply the platform upon which the “Dental Design Tools” add-on operates. For a more detailed explanation of what Blender is and does, check out these links…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software)
http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/features/

What is the “DDT” Add-On?

An Add-On is a script which is written to take advantage of the Blender API. Simply put, it is a way of streamlining, extending or modifying the existing functionality of Blender. Everything about Blender is customizable right down to the interface. The Dental Design Tools Add-On is just a collection of scripts which takes advantage of currently existing tools within Blender as well as adding some novel functions of it’s own. At the moment, it is capable of designing individual crowns and onlays based on digital models in .STL, .OBJ or .PLY formats.