Blender + Bonsai Tutorials

These video tutorials are designed to help beginners learn both Blender and Bonsai, starting from the basics--all the way to more advanced uses. It's geared toward AEC professionals.

BonsaiBIM is a free & open source BIM/CAD platform built on Blender.

With over (122) videos and counting, each averaging around 4.5 minutes, you’ll go from creating a simple cube in Blender all the way through assembling a basic construction drawing set in Bonsai--a pocket neighborhood in Wisconsin. (a project that is open source, as well--free to be redeveloped again on another site)

The videos are tightly edited to avoid repetition and filler. You won’t be watching us model the same thing over and over—just the essential steps, clearly explained.

The tutorials series also covers integrating, an always evolving, open source set of libraries and templates for materials, entourage, drawing standards and modeling--so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. I already went through the pain. :)

Best of all, of course: We will contribute 20% of all revenue to the Bonsai / IfcOpenShell development fund, to support ongoing growth of the platform.

About the Creator(s)

• Ryan Schultz is the founder of OpeningDesign, a radically transparent, open source architecture studio. He’s been practicing architecture for nearly 30 years, is a long-time contributor to the OSArch community, and has been actively using Bonsai, in practice, for over 3 years.

To unlock the encrypted videos, see the following four ways to purchase...

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1	2	3	4
Sync the tutorials via the hub.openingdesign.com platform. This method requires a bit more setup but offers the most integrated experience. Go here for setup.	Prefer a quick download instead? Get direct access to all the videos with a simple download link via email.	Need guidance on your own project? Consult directly with OpeningDesign while modeling in Bonsai. Email ryan@openingdesign.com if you're interested.	Is free for students. Connect with me via Linkedin and send me an email (ryan@openingdesign.com) from your school's email account. Go here for setup instructions.
$50.00 Pay	$100.00 Pay	T.B.D. Email Me to Discuss	Free Connect via Linkedin & Email Me

We are using OpenCollective to manage payments/contributions.

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Testimonials

A few kind words about the tutorial series...

• "Simply the best practical, pragmatic approach to get started fast and efficiently in Bonsai with Blender." Vicente Reiriz

• "Watching these tutorials and finding out the countless tips hidden all the way through them, you can feel and benefit from the passion of a knowledgeable architect that masters both Blender and Bonsai."
  Davide Tonelli

• "... you'll get a great overview of what Bonsai is already capable of. You can learn tons of insider tricks and practice by completing the delivered file" Zoomer

• "Extremely helpful, it obviously took a lot of effort to put all this together. Well done. Excellent piece of work, easy to consume in small bites or large, and also easy to navigate to areas of interest." Michael Hund

• "videos are very easy to follow and make it simple to start getting real value from the material right away." Luis Enrique Torres Ruiz

• "This is really the best resource I've come across after weeks of searching" Doug Scoular

Full testimonials can be found here: https://community.osarch.org/discussion/comment/26449/#Comment_26449

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Example Videos

If you want to get a sense of the content, I shared a few of these videos on the OSArch forum and Github.

• https://community.osarch.org/discussion/comment/24914/#Comment_24914
• https://community.osarch.org/discussion/comment/24988#Comment_24988
• https://community.osarch.org/discussion/comment/25507/#Comment_25507
• https://community.osarch.org/discussion/comment/26275/#Comment_26275
• https://community.osarch.org/discussion/comment/26420/#Comment_26420
• https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/issues/7070#issuecomment-3238134343
• https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/discussions/7002#discussioncomment-14024574

Want to Contribute?

We're looking to build a collaborative, evolving library of Blender + Bonsai workflows — grounded in a real-world project and shared openly with the AEC community.

If you're interested in contributing your own tutorials (e.g. 4D, MEP, clash detection, prefab workflows) or helping shape a fair revenue-sharing model, join the conversation here: https://community.osarch.org/discussion/3032/blender-bonsai-tutorial-series-launched-looking-for-contributors

Your knowledge can help improve the model, the methods — and in turn, create a valuable feedback loop to support the continued development of Bonsai and openBIM workflows more broadly.

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The attached video shows the evolution of the model throughout the tutorial series, as well as the final drawings.

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License

All content (except for the encrypted videos) is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.
That means it’s free to use, adapt, and share—as long as you credit the source and share your work under the same terms.