[thomastjeffery]

This is precisely why Adobe, Microsoft, and Autodesk give colleges and universities free licenses for their products.

The entire industry of digital tools has hung itself on these magic words: "industry standard".

All the while, free software like Krita, Linux, and Blender have become viable, if not substantially better, alternatives to their proprietary incumbent counterparts. Practically every need that the industry has can be met using free tools. The hardest part is simply convincing people to use them.

[IYasha]

I don't think it's the issue here. Products like PS, 3DS MAX are VERY intuitive to learn and use "right now because I need to get this done ASAP". Try Blender - you'll feel like on some alien spaceship.

[thomastjeffery]

I'm calling BS. Tools like Photoshop and 3DS Max have always been an overwhelming menu of tools, usually with just an arbitrary picture instead of a word! That's as alien as it gets.

The only way to use any of these tools is to learn why. Until you understand what things like "extrude" and "flip normals" mean, you are ultimately fumbling around an alien menu: the best you can do is order everything on it one at a time. You most certainly are not going to, "get this done ASAP."

Blender's UI/UX intentionally avoided this nonsense. Instead, you had to learn the basics. And once you did, it was easy to expand that knowledge; because every tool was well documented and placed into a coherent UX context. The recent UI/UX overhaul only expanded this by adding the "friendly" buttons you are looking for.

[IYasha]

I didn't say a complete outsider could use and be proficient with any of these. I was fairly good with 3D overall to begin with.

Actually, I had to repeat the experiment 2 days ago - after not using 3DS for decade. It's almost like a new program. But better. It took me 10 minutes to import a model, take it apart, do basic operations and try to optimize it (unsuccessfully). With no help, no internet, in a hurry and half-asleep. It's just logical. Anyway, the "Getting started" button is right there.

Blender is just freaking scary. But I'm giving it a try once a decade. :)

[xigoi]

Also applies to Matlab.