Unable to select a vertex by clicking I can select vertices by using "b" for Box Select, but I'm unable to click a single vertex by a right-click or left-click.

When I right-click a vertex, the mouse pointer switches to another location instead.

When I left-click a vertex, nothing happens at all.

UV-Sculpt is disabled.

I wanted to select a single vertex in order to select an edge loop.

The mesh has been created by adding a cylinder, then assign "Nothing" and then using the Solidify modifier.

Thank you.

I'm not sure what exactely was wrong.
I clicked "Load Factory Settings", and it worked again.


Rigify not attaching to mesh I'm trying to rig specifically just a character face (Floating head situation, no need for body rig.) I tried the newer rigify that generates a face bone structure, but when I generate the rig, the bones don't deform and if I try to pair with automatic weight, the mesh doesn't move at all. What are some of the reasons rigify won't work?

Rigify doesn't work that way. In order to use it correctly, here are the steps :

Add Rigify rig from the add menu, which creates a "metarig". The "metarig" is a simplified rig without any interesting feature, his goal is only to be a temporary rig used for placing correctly the full-featured rig. He should not be used as a deforming rig.
In edit mode, place the metarig's bones correctly on your model. (You can find a bone positioning guide here) Do not delete nor add bones in the metarig.
When it's done, go in the Metarig's Armature Tab and click the "Generate Rig" button under the "Rigify buttons" Pannel.

This will generate a full featured rig according to how you placed the metarig's bones.

Now if you want, you can delete all the unwanted parts (and the "metarig").
It's time to bind your rig to your object. First, in the Armature Tab, you need to switch to the layer containing the deform bones, which should be that one :

All the bones in that layer should have a "DEF" prefix, meaning they are "DEForming" bones. If not, try the other two next layers.
Then you select your objects to bind, then your armature, and you hit Ctrl P → Set Parent to Armature With Automatic Weights.

This should be enough to get your face rigged and skinned. It may not be perfect tho, so I encourage you to do some deforming tests, as well as some facial expressions in order to quickly identify deforming issues and being able to fix them via weight paint mode.

I hope I helped.


When rendering, my FFmpeg video is fine, but it outputs a black video I USE BLENDER 2.90.0
THIS HAPPENS ACROSS ALL WORKSPACES
Ok, so I'm rendering a simple video with some hue changes (In the VFX tab using masks), and when I was done I tried to render it out, and it goes black in the video. To try and remedy this, since rendering images was working, I rendered as an image sequence and that worked. So I went into the Video Editing workspace (on a new blender file) and imported my image sequence with my audio and the same problem occurred with my FFMPEG output. It looked absolutely fine on the tab where it was rendering, so I have no idea what causes it. I checked compositing because that was my last mistake but nothing there because I never tampered with it.
Images (I blacked some stuff out for privacy reasons)

I've tried to fix this but I can't, and a possible fix would be to re-install if all else fails.
Hope you people can do your blender magic because I don't have any...

I re-installed just in-case but I think what did it was instead of 'Lossless', I tried 'Perceptually Lossless'. I don't know how this fixed my problem but I'm glad it is fixed.


Blue line in the Image Strip not showing When I click and drag the little arrow; the blue line showing the real lenght of frames dones't appear. It does with all tutos I watched but with me! Why?

In the Video Sequence Editor:
View > Show offsets


New mesh seems to move unrelated mesh I have created a character's head in 2.8, and I wanted to add a cube. I did so, but when I move the cube down the z axis, it also moves the character's head, even if the only thing I've selected is the cube.
Before:

After:

I can move the cube by itself in edit mode, but I used to be able to do so in object mode.

I had proportional editing on. I didn't realize that had any effect in object mode!


UV face vectors not showing up on uv/image editor textures as you can see a grew ghost frame shows up in paint mode

but nothing shows up in mask mode

if i hit X on the texture then this shows up. how do i see this with its texture underneath.

found the answer online apparently in cycles uv local view needs to be turned off


How can i divide like triangle? How can I divide an icosphere like that?

The tutorial told to press Alt + P, but it is not working.

The tool you are looking for is called 'Poke Faces'.

If can also be activated from the Mesh menu in edit mode under the Faces submenu (i.e.  Mesh ‣ Faces ‣ Poke Faces).

see https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/editing/faces.html#poke-faces for more info.

In Blender 2.8, the Faces sub menu has been moved out to be its own full menu. It also appears that the alt-p shortcut is not defined, so that is likely to be your problem.
See:


Exporting coordinates of vertices to CSV I have a .3ds file which I import into Blender.

Now what I'm trying to do is to export the coordinates of vertices into a .ply file. When I export these vertices into a .ply file they are not correct. It seems that it only exports the coordinates of the single face which you can see in the picture. How can I export those vertices correctly?

EDIT
The .csv structure:

1;2;3\n

4;5;6\n

...
Each column is separated by a semicolon and each row by a new line.


Procedural Vue-like materials with Cycles Is there a way to make procedural materials like the ones here in Cycles for rocks, sand, landscapes, etc.?

Here's an image of what I'm trying to achieve:

I would say yes.
Here is an example I made in a few minutes entirely with material nodes:

Node setup:

Note that the color ramp near the bottom of the screenshot is going from 0 to 3 (to make the displacement stronger). To make colors darker or lighter than 1 or 0 you must type the values in directly.
Also note that the above image is rendered with Cycles experimental displacement.
To enable this you must enable experimental features in Properties > Render settings > Render > Feature Set:

This enables the Displacement settings in Properties > Object Data.


Is it possible to make hair particles avoid each other? I have a scene in which I have two Hair type particle systems. I am having an issue with them intersecting each other, even with different seed values. Is there a way to change this behavior?

Also, would using the Emitter particle type make any difference? Also, can this be done with a script?

More screenshots available as requested.

as you need hairs, using emitter type is not a good idea. try to use 2 different particle systems : 1 for the grass, another for the flowers. Use a vertex group at least for one of them to control where your particles will pop.

you can also use translucency in your materials (petals and grass) to make it less visible.

Or edit the flower particle system (less flowers than grass), uncheck the keep root option to be allowed to move the entire hair.

move the hairs with comb brush and place them where you need, or cut where you don't want them, add where you want some


Is there a way to add a dynamic amount of points to a point counter? What I'm trying to do is find a way to add a dynamic amount of 'points' from a timer to a point counter, for example if you finished the level with 86 seconds left, how could I add 86 points to the counter? I am currently using logic bricks to accomplish the point counter and the timer, below are screenshots of how I've set up the logic bricks for both the timer and the point counter.

  Timer Logic

  Point Counter Logic

Let the Property Actuator add the value from property counter to the value of property points:


How to find a mesh loops and rings I'm trying to find a clear, safe, simple explanation to the ring and loop madness. I select an edge:

Then I run this script:

import bpy
import bmesh

# Walk rings from currently selected edges.
# Run this in edit mode!

def find_edge_loops(loop,max_loops=1000):
    i=0
    first_loop=loop
    while i<max_loops:
        # Jump to adjacent face and walk two edges forward
        loop = loop.link_loop_next.link_loop_radial_next.link_loop_next
        loop.edge.select = True
        i += 1
        # If radial loop links back here, we're boundary, thus done
        if loop == first_loop:
            break

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(bpy.context.object.data)
selected_edges = [ e for e in bm.edges if e.select ]

for edge in selected_edges:
    # Get rings from "forward" loop
    find_edge_loops(edge.link_loops[0])
    # Get rings from "backward" loop
    # rings(edge.link_loops[1])

bm.select_flush_mode()
bpy.context.object.data.update()

(It's equivalent to select edge loops in select menu)
And I get, correctly:

Then, again, I select the starting edge, and I run this other script:

import bpy
import bmesh

# Walk rings from currently selected edges.
# Run this in edit mode!

def find_edge_rings(loop,max_loops=1000):
    i=0
    first_loop=loop
    while i<max_loops:
        # Jump to adjacent face and walk two edges forward
        loop = loop.link_loop_radial_next.link_loop_next.link_loop_next
        loop.edge.select = True
        i += 1
        # If radial loop links back here, we're boundary, thus done
        if loop == first_loop:
            break

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(bpy.context.object.data)
selected_edges = [ e for e in bm.edges if e.select ]

for edge in selected_edges:
    # Get rings from "forward" loop
    find_edge_rings(edge.link_loops[0])
    # Get rings from "backward" loop
    # rings(edge.link_loops[1])

bm.select_flush_mode()
bpy.context.object.data.update()

(It's equivalent to select edge rings in select menu) and I get:

I summarized those scripts from sources here and there, and I see they work. But, for the life of me, I can't understand the precise relation which stems from:

loop.link_loop_next.link_loop_radial_next.link_loop_next (change loop)
loop.link_loop_radial_next.link_loop_next.link_loop_next (change ring)

Can someone clarify the way loops and rings are traversed, possibly with a picture? The api is obscure, I didn't find any official code examples, and I'd like to have a much clearer idea of what's suggested in the vague bmesh design documents

The image below will be used as a reference. For clarity's sake, only the normal for face 12 is displayed. The normal is the arrow pointing away from the face, the other two arrows indicate the first edge/vertex (the starting point) and the "spin" (order) of the vertices and edges. For example, this is the vertex and edge ordering (from first to last) for the selected face (12) in the image below:

vert order: 17, 24, 25, 18
edge order: 58, 24, 59, 17

base_edge.link_loops[base_loop].etc

link loop = a loop representing all edges that are part of a face. these edges are sorted counter clockwise around the face normal
link_loops = every "link loop" an edge is part of (edge 24 has 2 loops, edge 67 has 1)
link_loop_next = the next edge in a loop (if face 12's loop was the base, the next edge after 24 would be 59)
link_loop_radial_next = another "link loop" an edge is part of. (if the base loop was for face 12, calling radial next on edge 24 would return the loop for face 19). this returns the same value that is stored in the next loop of an edge's link_loops property (if link_loops[0] was for face 12, link_loops[1] would be for 19).


Rotate object on axis between two points I have an object and two points I need to rotate the entire object around. I created two empties for the rotation points and I need to rotate it around an axis formed by the line between the two empties. I tried adding object constraints to no avail. In the image below I need to rotate the triangle around the axis of the red line.

We have several transform orientations available within the 3D view that determine which way an object moves along a given axis.

When these options don't fit the task you can define a custom orientation. This option is available in the properties sidebar N

To put it simply, if you add an object and rotate it 23.6 degrees on the z axis and then use it to define a custom orientation, you can then use that orientation to move, rotate or scale another object along the same x and y axis which will be at 23.6 degrees from the world x and y axis.

To use this when you have two empties in place -

Select one empty and press ShiftS and select Cursor to Selected.
Add a plane and scale to zero on the x axis (SX0Enter).
Enable snapping to vertex  in the 3D Header.
Ensure the view is aligned to a preset (left, top, front...) that is looking straight at the two empties so that the only angle between the two is the angle you want to define. If you wish to define an orientation that alters more than one axis you can repeat the next step several times from three views to get the alignment right.
Begin rotating the plane R and move the cursor over the second empty. When a circle is shown around the centre of the empty showing that it is snapping to it, accept the rotation. The rotation of the plane will now match the angle between the two empties.
Show the properties sidebar and find the Transform Orientations panel, create a new orientation by clicking the .

The plane can now be deleted and the new transform orientation can be used to move or rotate other objects along an axis running parallel to a line between the two empties.

When a custom orientation is selected the XX, YY and ZZ shortcuts normally used to move on the local axis will use the custom axis instead of the local axis.


Curve Bevel function, scale? Is there a way to scale up the bevel object on one end of a curve, a little bit over each point?

I notice the vertex "weight" slider will tweak how much influence each vertex has on the others, is there something like this that can scale the bevel object up a little bit?

Preferably with the option to constrain X,Y,Z independently

You can use a combination of seven non mutually-exclusive techniques to control bevel radius and sizes either globally or on a per-point basis.

For simple tubular bevels with a circular section, not using any Bevel Objects, you can directly use the global Bevel Depth radius property, from the Curve tab in the Properties Window to control uniform bevel depth cross all splines.

For curves using Bevel Objects:

Scale a Bevel Object in Object Mode for uniform scaling across the whole curve. If scaled in Object Mode you can share the same bevel geometry across multiple curves, but each at independent sizes. You can scale independently for each axis.

Scale the Bevel Object in Edit Mode to affect all curves using a bevel objects sharing that Object Data geometry. It also remains with applied and uniform scale in Object Mode. You can scale independently for each axis.

Control the Curve Weight on a per vertex basis for precise size control over each point in the curve. In Edit Mode press Alt+S to adjust radius of selected vertex or use the Radius tool. This acts as a percentage factor over all above scaling methods, multiplying its value over the result of Bevel Depth, Bevel Object scale and Taper Object.

See Radius on beveled curve incorrect for more details.

Turn on Proportional Editing by pressing O key while in EditMode to control the vertex weight smoothly along the spline length.

Use Taper Objects to have another curve object parametrically and non destructively define the radius of the bevel object along the curve. The Taper Object is mapped lengthwise along the X axis of the "tappared curve", using the $Y$ axis coordinates of each vertex on Local Space as multiplication factor for bevel radius.

Adjust bevel easing progression along vertex from the Radius Interpolation property on a per spline basis. You can choose from several fallof types to affect smoothing, like Linear, Cardinal, BSpline or Ease.

All above methods are multiplied to calculate a final combined scaling factor.
You cannot however control different scales independently on each axis on a per vertex basis. Non uniform bevels scales are only possible by scaling a whole Bevel Object so they are by definition always consistent across the whole curve.
If you require varying non uniform scale you may have to convert (a copy of) your curve object into a mesh and do that destructively afterwards.
Alternatively if you only require a simple tube with circular section, you may also use a mesh object with a Skin Modifier which allows different factors for each axis.


After applying the normal map texture, the meshes in rendered view look WEIRD The mesh is ported through a game. So the faces are triangles instead of quads. It comes with 4 textures. The diffuse, the normal map, the specular map and the subsurface scattering map. When I apply only the diffuse texture, it looks fine. After I apply the normal map as well, It becomes what the pics show. The back of the mesh is black. And the triangles pop out of nowhere. It happens too when it comes to the nude body. But the armor/clothes are fine.

BTW, should I apply the specular map and the subsurface scattering map as well? Since the principled shader already did so well, I try applying the specular map and it looks no different. And I don't know where should I apply the subsurface scattering map.

Try to change tangent space to different one and see if that'll work. Its always better to apply the specular map and the subsurface scattering map if they have details in them. Try connecting subsurface map to sss color input of bsdf shader (havent used sss maps yet so cant say for sure)?


How to make a wake behind a boat The advanced students in my class are about to animate the dual paddle wheel steamboat 3D model that I gave them.  I'm wondering if it is possible to attach a 'V' shaped wake behind it, perhaps on a different layer, and animate it across the water that they created. I want to be able to position the camera on the stern of the ship and look aft in the animation and also to be able to see the ship from a distance with the wake behind it.

Any help would be appreciated. The photo seen here is a screen capture showing the Planter Steamship on the ocean. It was rendered by one of my best students. Of course this is a preliminary phase.

this effect can be achieved using the dynamic paint as in the following setup :

select the boat and add dynamic_paint in properties->physics and click add brush  ( you may want to use a simple invisible cube instead of the real boat )

select the sea and add dynamic paint  and click add canvas with the following settings :

this the modifiers used for the sea :

bake the simulation ,
this is the result :


Getting rid of seam that exists when mirroring after sculpting Welp, I screwed up. First time seriously sculpting. I sculpted it thinking it would be easy to mirror it afterwards. Now I don't know what to do about the seam, it is very important that I fix this soon. Any ideas? Blend file below

BLEND FILE

You may have internal faces there.

Select the face and remove it with X.

Also, this answer may be helpful: How can I make the mirror modifier work right?


Image textures 'wiggling' when the mesh moves? I'm making a short animated video in blender, and I have a model of a TV with an image texture on the screen. When the TV moves, the image texture does not move very smoothly, and wiggles.
here is a shot from the video demonstrating this.
EDIT:
EDIT2:
Rendering with updated shader
Edit3: .blend file of just the tv

ISSUE
Problem is TV screen topology (not Material or assigned Armature). Screen is ngon that doesnt have enough geometry in surface.
You have curved edges, but there is not an information how to model surface. So blender generates some :)
In viewport it looks flat ...

... but for rendering are ngons triangulated. What Happens with surface when rendered you can see when in edit mode search for Triangulate Faces

QUICK FIX
Simplify corners, delete screen face, select border with active vertex (white) in corner

and search for Grid Fill, set Span to 16 in my case.

To make screen edge sharp after Shade Smooth, select it and search for Mark Sharp

Easy check surface with some Matcap view type

Or you can try to model screen like here.


Can I add to a pre-made rig? Is it possible to add to a pre-existing rig? I'd like to add a facial rig to either the Unreal Mannequin or the Mixamo rig. But when I set it up and parent the new bones to the mesh the rig stays put and the mesh scales up by 100. Is there something simple I'm missing or is this just not possible to do this?

To answer my own question...when selecting the parent instead of "With Empty Groups" or "With Automatic Weights", Set Parent To "Object (Keep Transform)". Then in Pose Mode under the Bone Properties (little green bone) at the top you can see what the new bones are called. When weight painting you'll just have to add your own vertex groups named what each of the new bones are called. Then do manual weight painting. Kinda tedious but it gets the job done :)


Shift + wheel and Ctrl + wheel doesn't work anymore in Blender 2.8? In 2.7.x it's usefull to pan only in horizontal or vertical, which I use a lot. I searched everywhere and didn't figure out, it doesn't work anymore? This page here https://developer.blender.org/T55194 says just "NO REPLACEMENT".

I solved the problem manually add key map item in the preferences.
User preferences - Input - 3D View - 3D View Global - Add new - in field "Identifier operator to call on input event" type view3d.view_pan - then choose your key and action Pan left or right \ up or down.
This is not solved by Import key configuration from blender 2.79.

On Blender 2.83.4:

Click Edit > Preferences.
Click the Keymap tab.
Expand 3D View.
Expand 3D View (Global).
Scroll to Pan View Direction.

At this point, you can change the options to suit your preferences.


Viewer Node doesn't show up So I am watching a tutorial and I am supposed to create a viewer node to connect it with a fresnel. I searched through the internet and everyone is saying that I only have to press Shift + Ctrl + LMB  but no matter how often I try to press those buttons, nothing happens.

It should pop up, right? I don't know what to do anymore. Cause apparently this is important for the next steps I have to do.

You need the Node Wrangler addon.

Just enable it in preferences, and you're done.
Preferences->Addons and click the checkmark.

Remember to Save Preferences.
Restart Blender.
Done.


How can I export an animation to be viewed in 3D I'm working on an animation in blender and I want it to be viewed in 3D on a television using a SamsungSSG-5150GB 3D-Active Glass. How can I export the animation in 3D.

In the Properties Panel > Scene Context > Views Tab activate Views and Stereo 3D

Select your camera and in the Properties Panel > Camera Context > Stereoscopy Tab select Off-Axis. Set Convergence Plane Distance to the distance the viewer is seated from the Television. Set Interocular Distance to the space between the viewers pupils, usually 7 - 10 cm.

Go to the Properties Tab of the 3D Viewport and find the Stereoscopy section. Select 3D, and check Cameras, Plane and Volume to see the layout of the 3D camera in the viewport.

Make sure your animated and still objects are behind the (Convergence) Plane in general. If they're supposed to come in front of the TV, they have to come in front of the convergence plane. This effect does rarely work well on most television sets and should be avoided. You may need to adjust the scaling of your scene. Since the Interocular Distance is set in centimetres in the Viewport, the 3D props should have the correct scale.

Render your scene. Two image sequences will be created. One with the left camera suffix "_L" and one with the right camera suffix "_R". To separate them, so Blender can read them easier, open up the directory with the sequences. Filter search by "_L". Select the left image sequence files and move them to another directory.

To join both sequences into one movie, there can be many layouts, I will describe the side by side layout.

Set the scenes width to twice the width of your image sequences.

Open the Video Sequence Editor and add the left image sequence. In the VSE, check Image Offset under Strip Input.
Add the right image sequence above the left strip. Check Image Offset under Strip Input and set the X values to the width of your images. Set the Blend mode to Alpha Over.

You will have both sequences side by side next to each other. Render as a movie format accepted by your television.
Playback the movie file on your television set. Press the 3D button on your remote and cycle through the modes untill you reach 3D side by side with both images next to each other. The television will then adjust the image automatically.


How to UV-Map for a OpenGL Game I hope to find some answers here to my problem.

For an OpenGl Game, i want to have some "good" textures, that are equal in display size.

We designed a building, whereas in the picture above, you can see the floor and its resulting UV-Mapping with "Smart UV Project". Moving along the in the game, the texture quality on the different floor sections should not should not change of course.

Any good advices on that?

Thanks :)

You can pretty much follow any UV unwrapping tutorial on the internet for that. Modeling assets is pretty much the same for all the 3D real-time engines out there.

However, I would highly suggest, that you learn how to unwrap properly as soon as possible. "Smart UV Project" doesn't necessarily give the best result and as soon as your modeling skills go beyond the primitives (cubes, cylinders and the like) you want to have more advanced texture maps.

Besides that, I'd highly suggest that you also start with proper material setups and thus with node materials (maybe also with cycles) as soon as possible. You can then bake your materials to texture maps and use them for your game assets. The big advantage here is that you don't need to adjust your UV map to the "direction" your texture takes (e.g. bricks are arranged into a specific direction).

The biggest pitfall when creating 3D game assets is the use of too many materials. Every material needs to be loaded and processed, thus generating CPU and GPU load. Do this many, many times and the FPS of the game will drop. So in the case of a building, it would be advisable to have only one texture map for the walls and the roof. This is also where baking and maybe even the Texture Atlas add-on come in.


Triangularization problem in symmetric objects If I create a symmetric object without the mirror modifier, the triangularizations of the mesh aren't symmetric during rendering.

Is this a feature or bug ?

First of all, why do you care? It shouldn't affect the shading at all, since the triangles will still be coplanar.

And I would say it's neither a feature nor a bug, since it probably wasn't planned but doesn't really matter one way or the other. (Of course, if it must be triangulated a certain way, you can always triangulate it yourself.)


How can I control the number of sub-panel instances from an IntProperty? I'm learning how to create UI panels in Blender. I have an IntProperty that I want to specify a certain number of sub-panels for. So far I here:
import bpy, sys, imp
from bpy.types import Operator, Panel, PropertyGroup, Menu
from bpy.props import *
from bpy.utils import register_class, unregister_class

class OBJECTTOOL_Settings(PropertyGroup):

    count: IntProperty(
        name = "Count",
        description="Number of objects to create",
        default = 1,
        min = 1,
        max = 6
        )

class OBJECTTOOL_PT_main_panel(Panel):
    bl_label = "Object Tools"
    bl_idname = "OBJECTTOOL_PT_main_panel"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_category = "Object Tools"
    bl_context = "objectmode"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        scene = context.scene
        objecttools = scene.objecttools
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(objecttools, "count")

class OBJECTTOOL_PT_sub_panel(Panel):
    bl_label = "Sub Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECTTOOL_PT_sub_panel"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_category = "Object Tools"
    bl_context = "objectmode"
    bl_parent_id = "OBJECTTOOL_PT_main_panel"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout

classes = (
    OBJECTTOOL_Settings,
    OBJECTTOOL_PT_main_panel,
    OBJECTTOOL_PT_sub_panel
)

def register():
    from bpy.utils import register_class
    for cls in classes:
        register_class(cls)

    bpy.types.Scene.objecttools = PointerProperty(type=OBJECTTOOL_Settings)

def unregister():
    from bpy.utils import unregister_class
    for cls in reversed(classes):
        unregister_class(cls)
    del bpy.types.Scene.objecttools

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

So of course the panel is being added by registering it, and it's being made a child by using the bl_parent_id tag.
How can I evaluate the value of the count: IntProperty I have setup, and have the same number of child panels created? I also want it to update the panels whenever the number changes.
(Eventually the plan is to have a menu in the sub panel that offers a menu of objects to create, then I can choose different objects in each panel, set parameters within the panel for that object, and then have a button at the top to create all objects according to the sub-panel selections.)

Dynamically register with python type
Can create a class using the type method.  Code below makes a class name, makes a class with that name and sets the bl_idname class attribute to it as well.  Note can pass draw methods et all in dictionary.
    id = f"OBJECTTOOL_PT_subx{n}"
    panel = type(id,
        (OBJECTTOOL_PT_sub_panel, Panel, ),
        {"bl_idname" : id}
        )

Hence with a dynamic update on int property can register or unregister a subpanel classes on the fly.  Used to be my go to method. It has since been my experience that quick scrubbing of a property can befuddle the registering and unregistering internals and start to fail and report missing RNA errors.
Getting the value of the scene property during restricted context when addons register is an issue if dynamically registering on fly with an update method.
Polling on the number

Instead for multi subpanels these days I go for a register them all (or in chunks as need be) approach and use a class property to poll against.  The parent class poll will take care of any outside polling needs.
Add a class attribute number to each on creations, register them all and poll based on the number.
Another bonus is if the file is saved with 4 as the count prop, it will show 4 panels (when next run)
import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator, Panel, PropertyGroup, Menu
from bpy.props import IntProperty, PointerProperty
from bpy.utils import register_class, unregister_class

class OBJECTTOOL_PT_main_panel(Panel):
    bl_label = "Object Tools"
    bl_idname = "OBJECTTOOL_PT_main_panel"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_category = "Object Tools"
    bl_context = "objectmode"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        scene = context.scene
        objecttools = scene.objecttools
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(objecttools, "count")

class OBJECTTOOL_PT_sub_panel(Panel):
    bl_label = "Sub Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECTTOOL_PT_sub_panel"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_category = "Object Tools"
    bl_context = "objectmode"
    bl_parent_id = "OBJECTTOOL_PT_main_panel"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        ot = context.scene.objecttools
        return cls.count < ot.count

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.label(text="SUBBY")

class OBJECTTOOL_Settings(PropertyGroup):

    count: IntProperty(
        name = "Count",
        description="Number of objects to create",
        default = 1,
        min = 1,
        max = 6,
        )

classes = [
    OBJECTTOOL_Settings,
    OBJECTTOOL_PT_main_panel,
]

for i in range(5):
    id = f"OBJECTTOOL_PT_subx{i}"
    panel = type(id,
        (OBJECTTOOL_PT_sub_panel, Panel, ),
        {"bl_idname" : id,
         "count" : i}
        )
    classes.append(panel)

def register():
    from bpy.utils import register_class
    for cls in classes:
        register_class(cls)

    bpy.types.Scene.objecttools = PointerProperty(type=OBJECTTOOL_Settings)

def unregister():
    from bpy.utils import unregister_class
    for cls in reversed(classes):
        unregister_class(cls)
    del bpy.types.Scene.objecttools

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Related
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/179031/15543
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/135374/15543


Part of sculpture is low poly As you can see the head of the sculpture is high poly. But the lower part is low poly. I tried smoothing it out but it stays like this.
Does anyone know what I can do about it?

This, if it was an imported model, could have been sculpted with dyntopia sculpting. It may have also been modeled in edit mode, instead of sculpting. In this case, the best way to achieve a nice-looking result would be to subdivide, or to save memory, subdivide those faces.


Making a single node using multiple nodes Is there a way to reduce a set of nodes to a single customized node. I am needing to put some mathematical expression and when I do it using the node editor (in animation node) the whole tree looks quite clumsy and it becomes quite unreadable.

This is quite simple. All you have to do is to create a group from the nodes.

Simple example:

Say you have some fancy node setup:

To group these nodes, select those you want to group (press B to border select ). Then in the nodes menu select Node > Make Group (or press Ctrl+G):

After having created the group, connect the input sockets you want to have as input (here the color to diffuse shader):

To get out of your group click on the little up arrow at the bottom:

(Or press the Tab key)

Et voilà, you have a fancy shader:

Hope that helps


Mirror certain part of a mesh How can i mirror a certain part of a mesh?

I want to mirror the fingers

Symmetrize or Mirror

While in edit mode, you have two main options:

1) run the Symmetrize operator:

  The Symmetrize tool is a quick way to make a mesh symmetrical. Symmetrize works by cutting the mesh at the pivot point of the object, and mirroring over the geometry in the specified axis, and merges the two halves together (if they are connected)

2) or the Mirror operator:

  The mirror tool mirrors a selection across a selected axis. [..]
  The mirror tool in Edit mode is similar to Mirroring in Object mode. It is exactly equivalent to scaling by -1 vertices, edges or faces around one chosen pivot point and in the direction of one chosen axis, only it is faster/handier.

Both quotes comes from the manual.

The difference between the two methods, apart from the little differences in the usage, is that while Symmetrize wil keep your original selection in place, Mirror will instead "move" that selection on the other side.

Note: you'll probably need to recalculate normals (Crtl+N) after a mirroring operation.


How do I make shadows through glass and liquid more transparent and less opaque? Andrew's glass:
My glass:
Light paths settings: None of these seem to change the shadow (or rather the cup's?) see through
What settings can I possibly fiddle with? the more the merrier! :)

I made a little progress, turning off Filter Glossy to 0 under Caustics seem to have worked. I played around with the other Light Paths after and this is what I got so far:  and lamp setting:
I will continue the tutorial now, maybe he will mention his Light paths settings at some point.


Why has my solid view shading gone really dark? I just noticed that the shading in my solid view is really dark. I can't find how to change it back.


Weird "Shadow" from 100% Transparent object in Cycles on low bounces? I have the following Setup:

I disabled the Shadows for the Emission and Transparent Objects here

and set all bounces to 0.

Now I'm getting this weird artifact on the ground:

which is really suddle here but it has become a lot more noticeable in a more complex scene of mine.

If i set the Diffuse-Bounces up to 1 it is gone.
I tested the same thing with a Glossy Ground, here i have to set the Glossy Bounces to 1.

Why is this happening and is there a way to avoid it without having to increase the bounces?

Disabling also the Diffuse ray visibility on the transparent object removes the shadow without increasing the bounces.

The effect is also reduced (without disabling Diffuse) when the World is completely dark, but not if the emissive object is larger than the transparent one.


Weird lighting artifact in render Tried turning up maximum bounces to 12, still there but less.

You might want to try changing the Ray Visibility settings instead.  (Although turning up the maximum bounces might be better in cases where you need these settings turned on)
The two settings that I turn off to help me get rid of these artifacts are Glossy and Transmission.

You would find these settings under Your light source > Object > Cycles Settings.
With both settings on:

With transmission off:

With both transmission and glossy off:

Hopefully this helps you! :D


How can I export a blender model as a sprite sheet? I've got a bunch of models, and I now want to export each of them as a sprite sheet.

Specifically, I want to take multiple viewpoint renders of the models and save them out to a sprite sheet.

The only way I've managed to find to do this is to create an animation where I rotate the camera around the model, render the animation and then manually combine select frames from the animation.

Problematic because:

Sometimes the animation tweening misses certain required frames (eg. cardinal directions), meaning I have to keyframe every frame.
Can't seem to skip frames, so rendering animation takes ages, despite only need 32 frames of the entire thing.
Tweening cameras from control-alt-0 to jump camera to view results occasionally in camera path getting confused, which messes up a few frames as the camera spins (often the frames I actually need).
The model is lit, so multiple copies of the model rendered at once / rotating the model instead of the camera not an option.

It's rather problematic. I've been looking at trying to use a python script to automate this process, but I can't seem to get the render-to-file working as an operation.

Anyone know a better way of doing this?

Here's a possible workaround without using a script:

Add an empty to the center of you scene (or the center of your object, where ever you want the camera to rotate around):

Parent the camera to the empty (CtrlP):

With the empty selected, insert a rotation keyframe for the Z axis on frame 1 by hovering over the value and pressing I or right clicking and selecting Insert Single Keyframe:

On frame 33 (one frame past frame 32), insert another rotation keyframe for the Z axis setting the Z rotation to 360, then set the scene End frame to 32:

Switch to the graph editor:

In the graph editor, press T and select linear to remove the smooth interpolation of the keyframe:

Render

The empty will be rotated to exactly 90° on frame 9, 180° on frame 17, and 270° on frame 25:

Here is an example blendfile.


Modeling on round surfaces without deform So as you can see the bottom is round on cylinder A however on B it is deformed.

How can I get this type of shape cut into the cylinder with a 8 sided sub surfed cylinder whilst avoiding this type of distortion.

Your best bet (depending on your workflow) is to work on the cylinder's round surface 'unwrapped' then wrap it around with a curve and modifier after doing any changes to the geometery.

Looking at the model you've created, you might also have luck with boolean modelling. The concepts of boolean modelling are using many modifiers - boolean, bevel, subsurf. To get this look, create the cylinder, apply a bevel to create the top and bottom edge bevels, apply a subsurf to smooth the surface, then use a boolean to cut out the rectangular piece. Once that is done, you could apply another bevel (limiting the influence based on angle) to create a bevel on the cut-out edges.

By doing this, you retain editability of every step and can go in and make changes as required.


Edit mode object mesh offset? Not sure how to explain this I have used blender for years now, and never seen this happen. It's kinda hard to explain, but I can't directly edit a mesh, because there is another mesh around the object, like a cage. Please see the picture and let me know if you know what is happening. I just want to edit the mesh.

thanks in advance.

It looks to me like you have an un-applied sub-surface (subsurf) modifier assigned to the object. The solid part is the representation of what the object looks like with the subsurf, but since it is not applied, the solid part is not directly editable in edit mode. If you move some of the vertices you can edit, you will find that the solid surface moves, too. An additional clue that this is the case is the normal lines pointing from each face.


Why can't I change the shading of one of my objects from Wireframe to Solid? I have two objects in my scene, a boat and a seat. When I try to change the Viewport shading to Solid, the seat changes but the boat stays in Wireframe. I tried looking for an answer before posting but didn't find one.

It's a common mistake You probably selected all the faces and hit Delete->Only_Faces.  So only the vertices and edges remained on the object.

To check if faces are missing you can go in edit mode and face select mode.
The faces it would look like this:

No faces will be like this:


What would be the best way to UV unwrap this kind of mesh? I'm trying to unwrap my mesh but it's just not the result I'm trying to get. There's stretching but if I use seams it will make those stripes even more misplaced. So does anyone have an idea of how to unwrap this kind of mesh to place stripes on?

UV maps are like present wrapping in reverse. Use Mark Seam to Mark places on the mesh to “cut,” then UV -> Unwrap to create a UV map.
Think of how you would create this mesh if you were making it out of cloth, and then Mark Seam where the seams would be. Then, select all, and Unwrap.


Is there a way to hide all particles in a scene? Pretty straightforward, I am looking for an option or key command to hide all the particle systems in the current scene. Is this possible or do I need to write a script?

Via script it would looks like this:

import bpy
for object in bpy.data.objects:
    if bpy.context.scene in object.users_scene:
        try:
            for modifier in object.modifiers:
                if modifier.type == 'PARTICLE_SYSTEM':
                    modifier.show_viewport = False
        except:
            pass

And to redisplay all particle systems in the scene:

import bpy
for object in bpy.data.objects:
    if bpy.context.scene in object.users_scene:
        try:
            for modifier in object.modifiers:
                if modifier.type == 'PARTICLE_SYSTEM':
                    modifier.show_viewport = True
        except:
            pass


How to slice a disc, and yet keep the pieces locked in together? I have a bit of a complicated challenge

Could some one show how I can slice 22 perfect slices out of disc with the primary diameter line starting at the top like in this image like this

https://www.biblewheel.com//images/BibleWheel_Color_550.gif

The first slice I am referring to is the line between the 1st and 22nd spoke, which then goes through in between the 11th and 12th spokes

I have to cut them, however, keep them altogether so I can move the disc around when needed.

Start blender and delete the default cube.

Press Num Pad 7 for top view. Your scene should look like this:

Now press Shift+A and select Mesh ‣ Single Vert ‣ Add Single Vert

Now press Tab to enter edit mode. Press E then Y then 1 to extrude the vertex up on the "y" axis.

Now set Pivot Point to 3d Cursor.

Now press A until both your vertices are selected, then Alt+R to spin your mesh, and finally F6 to bring up the operator settings. Copy the values below (22 steps and 360 degree angle).

Now press A until until all vertices are selected, then go to Tool Shelf ‣ Tools ‣ Mesh Tools ‣ Remove: and click Remove Doubles.

Press Ctrl+Tab and select "Face"

Now select a face and press Y to separate.

Do that for all the faces and you are done.

I hope this helps you.


View Selected but in UV Editor? Imported a model but the uvs are too big and way far off. Is there a way to like focus on the uv map? right now its all grey in the uv editor.

Most likely the view on the UV window has been moved or zoomed to a point where there is nothing.
Select a face on the object in the 3D viewport
Then move the mouse over to to the UV editor and press numpad0 to center the window on the selected object.
Or press the Home Key to reset the view on the window.


Blender 2.8 How to make the object color in viewport look excatly as it is? So I'm making the models for a game that only uses vertex colors and no textures.

I've noticed that any color in blender 2.8 viewport looks darker that it actually is. I use vertex painting to paint the object in 100% white, I set the "flat" shading but the object is greyish.

Here's the screenshot with windows notepad opened above the blender:

It is obvious that the "white" torus isn't really white.

If I use color picker to pick the color from torus it will tell exactly what my eyes see: the picked color is actually 10% darker than real white. Even worse, If I pick the color and paint with it at the same area, it will paint with that darker color. Thus the color picker become unusable in many situations.

In blender 2.79 I've set the object to "shadeless" and it pretty much solved the problem, but this option isn't really there anymore.

Is there anything I can do to see the real colors in the viewport?

Thanks!

Andrey.

EDIT (NEW SOLUTION):
I was browsing the bug reports and found the answer.
Set your Workbench viewport to Flat - Vertex Color.
In the Overlay Settings set the Vertex Paint opacity to 0,
this way you are going to avoid the darkening effect of your vertex colors (if not they multiply by themselves)

This is an issue I am fighting right now with.
The vertex colors viewport rendering is a mess and the solution I found is to tweak workbench to do the dirty work.

For painting if you want to have 1:1 vertex colors set your Solid view to:

Flat
Single (White)

(Object works too if your object color is set to white, you can then at least have outlines for complex scenes)

To see the whole scene with vertex colors I managed by setting Workbench's Rendered view as:

Flat
Vertex (note if you go in Vertex Coloring mode everything becomes darker)

And in color management

sRGB
Standard

So to work on on a scene with vertex colors you will have to swap between Rendered view and Solid view - It's terrible for color picking. I hope someone will fix this.


Cant apply texture to object because it is missing UV coordinates I have this simulation of rope (made with gravity rope).
when I try to apply complex texture to it via Keyshot- I get the error that the texture can not be applied because there are no UV Coordinates.
It seems like the deformable meshes that are exported are exported without UV coordinates- even though UV is selected when exporting
any advise on how to export the Alembic file with UV coordinates is much appreciated.
here is a link to the file
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r4o7buvql748ps0/rope%20test%205.blend?dl=0
thanks!!

Since Blender 2.8, curves have a UV map all the time.
If using versions before 2.80, as mentioned in this post, you need to enable the Use UV for mapping option in Properties Editor > Object Data Tab > Texture space panel:

Alembic export with UVs enabled in export options should work just fine.
I wasn't able to test on your scene since the curve object was empty. But theoretically it should work.


How can I fix this transparency issue? I'm pretty new to Blender and I'm having some trouble with transparency. I tried searching up for the solution, but I can't seem to understand any of them.

The objects I'm having trouble with are the car, the grates at the back and the face. It appears that they are somewhat transparent.

I can also provide the .blend file.

Right click on them and reset everything. It works in both render engines.


How to make an edge loop that is parallel to one of the sides of the face loop? How to make an edge loop that is parallel to one of the sides of the face loop?

Not this -

But this -

If you need a new loop cut:
In edit mode, press ctrl R to add a new  loop cut. Then during edge slide press E which aligns the new loop to one of the adjacent face loops. F switches between face loops.
If a new edge loop is not needed:
Then select a edge loop alt  RMB. Press ctrl E > Edge Slide to start the edge sliding, then during edge slide press E which aligns the new loop to one of the adjacent face loops. F switches between face loops.
These are the options for edge slide as shown in the 3D view header.


Bevel Not Working On Car Seat Model I am having a problem beveling the inner edges on this seat for a car I am making. The design is odd as three different vertices converge to one point so maybe that is giving me a problem. Does anyone know of any way to achieve the same effect on these edges. Thanks for any help you may provide.

This is likely to be an issue due to clamping, which prevents the bevel from generating non-manifold (i.e. self-intersecting) geometry. Try turning this off in the modifier settings and you should see what's happening. It'll probably be due to some of the very short edges meaning the clamping causes the bevel width to be clamped very small (small enough to make the bevel virtually invisible).


How to Have Selected Faces Emit Smoke I'm working on a very large scale project and I want to try to make an object with Smoke Inflow but only from certain faces. How would I select or define those certain faces in Edit Mode?

Anand mbs is correct about selecting faces, but to use those selected faces in a Smoke Simulation, you need to do some more stuff.

Selecting The Faces

At the bottom of the 3D Viewport and while in Edit Mode, you can click a button that looks the following to switch into Face Select mode.

However, also while in Edit Mode, you can key Ctrl + Tab to open a pop-up menu like the following. You can then either click the bottom option (Face) or key 3 to have Blender automatically select the third option down.

Separating Faces

We're not quite done yet. RMB select the first face and then Shift + RMB select the rest that you want smoke to emit from. Key Shift + D to duplicate the faces. Key P to bring up the SeParation pop-up menu. It looks like the following. Key 1 or click on Selection to separate the faces from the original mesh.

Smoke Simulation

Tab back into Object Mode. Select the mesh that is made up of the separated faces. This will be your Inflow object. It is also probably wise to Parent the faces mesh to the original. Parenting will guarantee that the faces mesh follows the original during transforms. Select the faces mesh, then the original, then key Ctrl + P and either 2 or select Object (Keep Transform) from the resulting pop-up menu.


GPU Rendering on an Intel Iris Pro (Apple Macbook Pro) I was wondering if there now (as of Blender 2.78c) a way to use GPU rendering on an Intel Iris Pro Graphics Card. I tried to get it to work, and successfully got the GPU to show up in the System User preferences, and in the render tab, but when I try to actually render something, the message at the top says LOADING RENDER KERNELS (MAY TAKE A FEW MINUTES THE FIRST TIME). However, it seems to take more than a few minutes. This message never goes away and I need to force quit blender to stop it. Any way to properly do it?

As of 2.78 GPU rendering is only supported under certain NVidia graphics cards that support the correct CUDA version.

Starting with 2.79, GPU rendering will introduce support for AMD graphics cards through OpenCL on feature par with CUDA, since basic support was available since 2.75 (thanks to a bunch of patches contributed by AMD itself).

Under Intel it is considered an experimental feature, and as far as I know, is too slow and offers no benefit over regular CPU rendering. You can enable it by setting a global variable with command line but don't expect it to preform acceptably, not even to work reliably at any point.


search for unknown operator 'BPY_OT_OPS_OT_mesh.dissolve_limited() The menu for this code is in the the video sequencer.  It just brings in an image file into the video sequencer.  It works except that I get search for unknown operator 'BPY_OT_OPS_OT_mesh.dissolve_limited()'.  It gives that error 3 times in a row.  I'm not dealing with meshes at all in the code but Dissolve Limited is something that I just started using recently.  So I tested it on an older version of Blender I have and the error didn't show.  I don't know if I saved a default state after I started using it or its something behind the scenes that is beyond me.  I think the solution is to erase whatever traces in memory it resides in or something.  Anyway to remove this error?

import bpy
import os
import operator

class CustomPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "OpenSource::Classicism XL"
    bl_space_type = "SEQUENCE_EDITOR"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_options = {'DEFAULT_CLOSED'}

    def draw(self, context):
        def add_label():
        row = self.layout.row()
        row.label("Intro Directory")

    def add_import_button():
        col = self.layout.split().column(align = True)
        col.operator("sequencer.add_intro" , text= "Import")

    add_label()
    add_import_button()

class Add_Intro(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "sequencer.add_intro"
    bl_label = "Add Intro"

    def execute(self, context):

        def add_splash_screen():
            bpy.ops.sequencer.image_strip_add(directory="C:\\Users\\....png", "name":"image_file.png"}], frame_start=1, frame_end=26, channel=1)

        add_splash_screen()

    return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

I tried your script and had a few other issues aside from the one you mentioned. I tweaked it to make it work and had no issues. I bet you're getting the search for unknown operator from something else. Try going to File > Load Factory Settings to reset Blender.

import bpy
import os
import operator

class CustomPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "OpenSource::Classicism XL"
    bl_space_type = "SEQUENCE_EDITOR"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_options = {'DEFAULT_CLOSED'}

    def draw(self, context):
        row = self.layout.row()
        row.label("Intro Directory")

        col = self.layout.split().column(align = True)
        col.operator("sequencer.add_intro" , text= "Import")

class Add_Intro(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "sequencer.add_intro"
    bl_label = "Add Intro"

    def execute(self, context):

        def add_splash_screen():
            bpy.ops.sequencer.image_strip_add(directory="/home/doakey/Desktop/image.png", files=[{"name":"image.png"}], frame_start=1, frame_end=26, channel=1)

        add_splash_screen()

        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


PoseBone local rotation values to global with axis changed I think this question has been ask a few times but haven't been able to produce an answer.
So for an addon I'm building I need to send the bone rotations of an armature. Those rotations are expected to be in global coordinates. So after doing to bone rotations that I need, I collect the rotations like so:
        for bone in context.object.pose.bones:

            bone_idx: int = get_bone_index(skeleton_info, bone)

            idx = list(context.object.pose.bones).index(bone)
            m = matrices[idx]
            axis_angle = bone.rotation_quaternion.to_axis_angle()
            v_axis = axis_angle[0]
            result = (bone.id_data.matrix_world.to_3x3().inverted()
                      @ m.inverted()
                      @ v_axis)

            result.normalize()

            result = result * axis_angle[1]
            pose_np[bone_idx*3] = result[0]
            pose_np[bone_idx*3+1] = result[1]
            pose_np[bone_idx*3+2] = result[2]

As you can see I get the quaternion local value, get the axis angle and perform some transformations on the vector representing that axis in order to get to the system of coordinates I want.
The thing is the matrices I expect contain weird values. I don't really understand how to use the matrices inside the PoseBone class to achieve what I want to do... The usage of matrix, matrix_local and matrix_channel confuses me especially to see how each bone accumulates transformations and whether if I need to call the inverse of the parent's object matrix world... Could you please give me some hints on what I might be doing wrong?
Thanks!

Not sure what you need. Try this for rotation between local space and world space
for pbone in context.object.pose.bones:
    # This is the transform from bone local space to world space
    world = context.object.matrix_world @ pbone.matrix

    # If there are non-uniform scalings or shears in `world`, this won't work...
    _loc, rot, _scale = world.decompose()

    print(rot.to_axis_angle())

If you want the relative rotation from the rest pose to the current pose in world space, maybe this
for pbone in context.object.pose.bones:
    world = context.object.matrix_world @ pbone.matrix
    world_rest = context.object.matrix_world @ pbone.bone.matrix_local

    _loc, rot, _scale = world.decompose()
    _loc, rot_rest, _scale = world_rest.decompose()

    print(rot.rotation_difference(rot_rest).to_axis_angle())


Blender to Unity, Animations are exporting 2x My animations are exporting under (armature | animation-name) and (animation-name). This goes for each animation I made so it takes double the space. Is there any way to export them from blender to unity only once?

Okay so the only way I know of doing this is putting al of your animations in the NLA window. Like so.

After that you can export the Armature + Model.

Deselect - All actions

Select - NLA Strips ( in which you put the animations )

That way, when you import it into unity you will only get the animations that were pushed down on the NLA strip.


Blender 2.8 layer grid/palette not showing up in 3D view Where is the layers grid? Mine seems to have vanished in the Blender 2.8 beta. on Mac OSX

I tried numpad/ or Object Mode, View, View Global/Local
but made no difference.

There is no Layer grid in 2.80. It's replaced by Collection system.

Read here about this change: https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.80/Layers


Show addon in Tool Shelf - simple newbie question How do I show an addon tab in my toolshelf? I downloaded a .blend file but it does not show the AddOSC addon tab in my toolshelf. I want to show it. I know that the author of this .blend file was using AddOSC.

You can see that my default startup Blender shows the tab properly.

I have tried turning the addon off, closing and reopening the downloaded .blend file and re-enabling the addon.

I have tried googling for 2 hours on Blenderartists and Youtube but I cannot see how to turn tool shelf tabs on and off for installed addons.

Thanks very much for any help or links to something that explains how to do this simple task.

[Edit:] Using 2.79 on Windows

The screenshot you show with the missing tab is from the node editor, the tab and panel for the addon is only located in the 3dview toolbar.

You need to switch to the 3dview to access the addon.


How to Inset Text/Curve Mesh? I am wondering if there is an easy way to inset mesh that is generated from text/curves? When I convert text to mesh it generates a bunch of uneven triangles that don't inset properly. My only solution is slow and tedious and requires manually removing all but the outline edges and refilling with quads.
More specifically I am trying to create an engraving of text into a mesh, and rather than a straight bool cut I need the engraved text to inset a bit. The result needs to mesh (not through a shader). Any ideas appreciated.

You could try to use "limited Dissolve"
Just select all the vertices, then press X > Limited Dissolve, after that try the inset again.


Having issues exporting FBX Character mesh and rigg into UT4 I'm working on a project and we're making custom models to use in UT4, however when ever we export we're getting an issue with the bones. Saying there is more then one root or it will import with nothing there.   I've followed a few other tutorials and I'm not sure where we're going wrong with this.   Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Update to the latest release candidate, as of now(2.7.2 RC), and it should work much more smoothly. There were some problems with the fbx exporter which have been fixed, such as bones, vertex groups and shape keys, I think.


How to use rigidbody simulation for animation? I want to be able to add rigid body physics to my gun when my animation character dies so the gun will drop smoothly, because it is hard to animate things dropping in small areas.

I am not making a game, therefor I do not need to use the game engine instead of cycles or blender render.

As of Blender 2.66, you can press Rigid Body in Properties > Physics.

To enable and disable control of the rigid body with the animation system, keyframe the Animated checkbox.

See the wiki for documentation.


How do I UV unwrap multiple objects to one UV map? I have created a model in blender consisting of many cubes. Now instead of UV unwrapping every single cube, how can I UV unwrap all cubes together to one UV map?

The best way IMO would be using the Texture Atlas add on as joining meshes is sometimes destructive (think you have different modifier for each object- as in my example pictured below).

Enable the add on in User Preferences (Ctrl+Alt+U).

Select all your objects in Object Mode, go to the Render header-->Texture Atlas panel and press the '+' button, then OK. Next press Start Manual Unwrap button. Enter Edit Mode, go to the UV Editor, select all islands (A) and pack them (Ctrl+P). Now you have all the objects' maps combined in one UV Map. Finally press Finish Manual Unwrap button to separate objects.


Game Engine does not conserve momentum I am trying to setup some physical simulation in the BGE where it would be best if the the total energy of the system is conserved. However, if looks like I can't get the physics engine to keep the energy level even remotely constant.

Things I've done:

Render Settings: Toggled Use framerate
World: Gravity set to 0, played around with the FPS and physics accuracy, sleep disabled.
Dynamics: All Damping set to 0, tried 'rigid body' as well as 'dynamics'
Material: Friction set to 0
Material: Elasticity of Collision set to 1

Here is a test file: Layer 1 and 2 has two separate test scenes. There is a notable increase in the speed of all objects after each collision (as seen in the console window)

Am I missing something? Or am I asking too much from a game-centric physics engine?

I've written a Blender/Bullet simulation of a Newton's Cradle that doesn't conserve energy.  Here's two animations that illustrate the problem:

It's all done with rigid bodies, and the wooden top piece doesn't participate in the physics.  The initial angle of the first ball is an adjustable parameter - 90 degrees in the first animation, 60 degrees in the second.  You can reproduce everything by running this script in Bullet 2.69.  Make sure the Tool Shelf is open to get to the simulation controls.

I suspect that it's all the same problem.


Cycles always renders RGB channels to the same values under sun lamp? I'm rendering a ground surface that "catches" the diffuse reflections from a blue sphere (earth). While I was using a point light, the rendered image is indeed blueish. When I switched to sun lamp, everything looks grayscale.

I've ensured the render output to be RGB, but my rendered image has always the same RGB channels as if it were grayscale.

I figured out why. The reason is that my lamp size is too big, which leads to almost no shadow on the shadow catcher.

So my region of interest is actually illuminated by the white light source (instead of being illuminated by the diffuse reflections). With a grayscale diffuse map, the whole thing renders to grayscale.


Edge of cube poking out Hello I am new to blender and as I was moving the skeleton of a cube I started having this issue where the edge pokes out and doesnt stick to the line of the vertice I make for it when I press z to see just the skeleton it looks like theres a transparent edge poking out is there a fix for this? (Sorry if this sounds confusing just new)

All you need to do to get ride of these edges is simply delete them, and then refill the empty spaces.  Just follow along with the images below:
step 1: in edit mode, select all undesired edges

Step 2: press the "x" key, then click on "edges"

Step 3: your shape should look like this after steps 1 & 2

Step 4: Select all the edges on one side around the spot with a hole

Step 5:  with the edges around one of the holes selected, press the "f" key on your keyboard.  After that, it should fill in the hole, like in the image below:

Step 6:  Repeat steps 4 & 5 on the other 3 holes.  After that.  You should have a mesh that looks something like this:

hope this helped!  If you encounter further problems, let me know :)
(PS, if this answer solved your problem, please mark it as accepted)


Is there any way to get shadow from plane without a gap in Eevee? When I try to get shadow from a plane, I always get some gap between the plane and the shadow. If I disable contact shadows the gap is full:

When I enable contact shadow it seems like I can get rid of this gap, but no. In some view angles I still see the gap.

And even if I set contact shadows values too high, I cannot fully get rid of the gap but also I get many unnecessary artifacts.

This does not happen in Cycles.

So what should I do to get perfect shadow from plane without any gap and artifacts in Eevee?

Adjust Bias and thickness to your needs.
If it's still renders gaps try higher res shadows.
An Example:


How to force console window to show up automatically when Blender starts when I start Blender version 2.66a, the Blender loads, and shows up together with a console window.

Now when I start Blender version 2.77a, the Blender loads without a console window by default. I only can show the console window by clicking Window -> Toggle System Console

How to force the console window to show up together when Blender version 2.77a starts?

Thank you

Append -con to the command line arguments passed to blender.exe.

You can do so by modifying the properties of your favorite Blender shortuct and appending -con in the Target text box.

The console window stays open then.


Font that looks as if made out of ribbons? Can I use blender to create and render something like the text in the image below? If I were to make my name, using this type of ribbon "font". How can I create these letters?

You can use a curve object that uses a second curve as a bevel object, and you can rotate the control points with Ctrl+T and move them in 3d space.


How to deal with Cannot Execute Boolean Some times when using a Boolean modifier, it will return the error "Cannot Execute Boolean Operation".

This will often happen with multiple Boolean modifiers.

Here is an example file.

What causes this? How can I work around this?

My best guess would be the clue that the console window provides upon opening the file:

"...intersecting group is not in or out".

Because you are trying to union a mesh that has already been 'unioned' (cube.002 is the union object on boolean modifiers 1 and 3) there are no intersections that the boolean can detect, the faces of the object you are trying to union (cube.002) are directly on top of faces that are already there (the cube.002 previously 'unioned').

If there are no intersecting faces then there is nothing to join. The faces of the mesh to be 'unioned' are neither inside the current mesh not outside of it, they are directly on top of it.

I openly admit this is just my theory based on the error message so I could be wrong. I would presume, based on the objects included in the blend file that this is a simple mistake of using 'cube.002' twice as 'cube.001' isn't used in any of the booleans.


Does the Principled Shader IOR value effect specular reflection on a transmission material Other render engines have two IOR values - one for refraction, and one for reflection. But in Cycles there is only one and documentation states it only affects refraction.

Yet with transmission set to 1, it does seem to drive reflection as well.

In the picture example below, both planes are using an identical material except on the left IOR is 1.1 and 1.5 on the right.

It certainly looks like IOR is driving reflection as well, despite the description in the documentation.

Just confirming if this is true?

TL;DR:
the specular value controls the IOR for reflection, the IOR value is indeed just used for refraction.

Background info:
The principled BSDF-Shader is based off of disneys principled BRDF.
It's called principled because of these 5 principles:

Intuitive rather than physical parameters should be used.
There should be as few parameters as possible.
Parameters should be zero to one over their plausible range.
Parameters should be allowed to be pushed beyond their plausible range where it makes sense.
All combinations of parameters should be as robust and plausible as
possible.

Because of their first principle (easy instead of scientific) Disney decided to cloak the fresnel-IOR in a specular reflection value. This is of course a more artistic approach.

from the disney docs: specular - incident specular amount. This is in lieu of an explicit index-of-refraction

and from the blender docs: Specular
Amount of dielectric specular reflection. Specifies facing (along normal) reflectivity in the most common 0 - 8% range.

You can use the formula =((−1)/(+1))2/0.08 to create a node group so you can control both IORs with one slider.

Note that the specular value accepts values above 1.


Distorted blender UV face unwraping here i try to unwrap this face and i get faces unwraped randomly.
tried to search for solution but all i found was for versions earlier than 2.77 and as you can see im using 2.77, where some options are in different places and some are not there!

a little tip to use already found solutions. you can easily use as many versions of blender as you need. it doesn't need any installation. just download earlier version in another folder and run it from there. this way you can use solutions for previous versions, save your file and then continue in your favorite one later.
it's not so weird as it sounds, at least for blender. it can do some things better in the very version only.


Why won't Rigify deform my High Poly Mesh? probably sounds like a silly question that has already been answered 1000 times, but I've read through previous forums and none have been able to answer my question.

I recently downloaded a free high poly 3d mesh of an astronaut from a royalty free 3d model site. The file was already saved as a .blend file and I'm intending to use it in a film I am currently working on, rigging isn't my strong point and I followed several simple tutorials using blender rigify and blendrig, however every time I go to connect the mesh to the bones using automatic weights, nothing happens when I go to pose mode, the model remains stiff and does not move. I've tried several different rig setups.

I've joined the seperate meshes together and tried with and without the vertice groups, but no matter what I do the mesh won't deform in the slightest, I was wondering if this is a bug with rigify in Blender 2.79 or because the mesh is so high poly? ANy help is much appreciated. I've included a link to the original file as well as the file I have with a metarig set up.

Thanks again, regards Nathan.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ufss6yyqu4b2usf/ASTRONAUT.rar?dl=0

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15oooEuGrDG6xpSfs68FY8ibhwt9CxBxZ

It's hard to tell what's going wrong if you provide only your mesh without the rig you did.

But certainly, you can't do animation with a raw mesh of 2 billion triangles. It's just unmanageable. Performances will be below ground level, you wont be able to have correct control over the weights and deformations, ...

The common workflow is to work on a low poly mesh with an optimized topology for the needed animation's deformations and let the details be handled by the shader (via normal + height maps) and by some displacements with additional subdivisions when rendering.

As I just want to test your model for rigging, I used a decimate modifier in un-subdivide mode with an even iteration. The suit being a more complex organic part, I used Instant Meshes, it's certainly not the best solution but it a nice last hand option in my case.
Then I tried to use Rigify on it, and it went well. I had to do some weights assignments manually on some parts (especially the pockets and some parts of the helmet), but nothing fancy. So IMO you should work on obtaining animation ready models first.


Edit mode vertices getting dragged? Blender 2.79: I have this problem in edit mode, when I try to move this vertice, it keeps getting dragged away for some reason. I'm trying to create a corrective shape key for this area, the mesh doesn't have any, but with this problem, i can't create it.

I fixed the problem, the issue was that the weight painting of the shoulder and the thorax was intersecting a little bit with the arm weight paint, and caused the vertices to get dragged when posed like that.


Can't export object made with CSV mesh importer to unity So I've used the CSV Mesh importer which is a third party add-on to create an object based on various X,Y,Z values.

However not only I can't render this object, I don't know how to modify it and when I save it as .blend and try to import it to unity, it shows nothing.

This is basically some vertices and edges.

I'm very new to blender so any help would be appreciated.

I like to be able to change the color and thickness and all, but can't.

Your object has no faces. Blender cannot render single edges or vertices. You can try either the skin modifier, or press alt-c and convert to curve and use the bevel option.


How do I limit gloss/reflection to only intense sources such as a light source? Using cycles,

I'm making big cartoon eyes lenses, I want them to have the light shine off them but little else.

Problem: Everything is reflected off the lens making the color of the iris and pupil look washed out in a bright setting or have it set more transparent but the shine gets too faded.

I thought maybe a toon shader for the eye shine connected with a transparent but I'm relatively new to cycles nodes so I can't figure this one out yet.

As far as I know, there is no way to reflect only Lights/Emission shaders but there is a method to prepare your scene and objects to mimic such effect.

For this example I'm using simple scene with two mesh lights, HDRI lightning and simple objects.

Comparison:

Reflective material:

This is simple 'fake PBR' setting, Layer Weight node will allow you to make reflections be harder/softer.

Other objects and World setup:

You will need to disable Glossy Ray Visibility for every object that you don't won't to be visible in your reflective material. So in this case I have disabled Glossy in Cycles Settings of each object and Ray Visibility > Glossy under World settings to 'mute' HDRI map in reflection.


Problem painting multiple textures on same object I am trying to paint textures onto an object in 3D paint in 2.72b that has several textures. The first texture in the list is a color and the second is a bump.

The problem is that texture paint will only paint the first texture in the list. In edit mode I have the correct texture selected, shading is set to GLSL solid textured but Blender is ignoring whatever is selected in edit and only using the first texture.

tex1 - color
tex2 - bump
If I go into edit mode and select the color texture as active and go back to object paint it paints the color map.
If I go into edit mode and select the bump texture as active and go back to object paint it paint the color map.

Is there a setting that I've missed or should I head over to the bug tracker?

It appears to be a bug in 2.72 versions. I created a simple scene of a cube with a bump and a color texture in 2.72b and then downloaded copies of 2.69, 2.70a, 2.71, 2.72, 2.72a, and a standalone zip of 2.72b. Everything works as it should up to 2.71. The problem showed up in 2.72 so I didn't even bother with the a and b versions. I've put in a ticket on the bug tracker at https://developer.blender.org/T42769 so if anyone is having the same issue they can track the issue there.


How to remove this seam effect I am working with a shape which was a primitive cube , made into some geometry , but now the problem is that i have 3 modifiers , Mirror , Subsurf and Bevel in this order but i am getting this type of seam effect Q: How to get rid of this

Bevel will add bevel to all edges if not limited.
So to keep flatter parts untouched, limit it to "angle".


Export FBX options are missing I'm trying to export one of my meshes however the options which I normally would have when exporting my mesh as an FBX are missing. Primarily what I need is to export selected objects only as it's exporting the entire scene.

I am guessing you have a bad UI layout in file.

(They changed the export layout in 2.81. Did you open up the 2.81 beta, save the file, and return to 2.80?)

Try to close blender, Re-open it with default scene, go to File->Open, deselect "Load UI" and open your blender file. Export settings should be back now.

If that does not work, (Or you are also missing the Open Blender File settings), go to File->Defaults->Load Factory Settings, then File->Defaults->Save Factory Settings.

Restart blender and try to deselect "Load UI" again.


After baking indirect light, inside solid meshes is not dark in EEVEE Here is the scene setup which I will explain further:

    ## Heading ##  What you see in the screenshot above:

Lit in yellow is the irradiance volume
You see a circle of lights that can be switched between spot and
point with one button. These lights are in the big box for indirect
light.  You see a small cube on a floor and there are some open walls
around the floor.
The big cube, use for indirect lighting and doesn't have to be
necessarily part of the final render.
Lit in yellow is the irradiance volume.

Scenario

When I set all lights to spot, the walls of the big box are not so much lit, and when I take a look inside the small box, it's pretty dark in there. Just a little or no light leak.

But when I set the lights to spot, the walls of the big box will be fully lit and when I take a look after baking, it is quite lite inside the small box.

Question

Is it normal?  It doesn't look like light leaks but it is quite light in there like ambient light.  Here two screenshots of what you see inside the box.  The first is baked indirect with spotlights, and the second with point lights.

Specifications

Here some specifications of the settings;

bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'BLENDER_EEVEE'
bpy.context.scene.eevee.taa_render_samples = 256
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_gtao = False
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_bloom = False
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_ssr = True
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_ssr_halfres = False
bpy.context.scene.eevee.ssr_quality = 1
bpy.context.scene.eevee.ssr_max_roughness = 0.5
bpy.context.scene.eevee.ssr_thickness = 0.2
bpy.context.scene.eevee.ssr_border_fade = 0.075
bpy.context.scene.eevee.ssr_firefly_fac = 10
bpy.context.scene.eevee.shadow_method = 'VSM'
bpy.context.scene.eevee.shadow_cube_size = '1024'
bpy.context.scene.eevee.shadow_cascade_size = '1024'
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_shadow_high_bitdepth = True
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_soft_shadows = True
bpy.context.scene.eevee.light_threshold = 0.01
bpy.context.scene.eevee.gi_diffuse_bounces = 3
bpy.context.scene.eevee.gi_cubemap_resolution = '512'
bpy.context.scene.eevee.gi_visibility_resolution = '32'
bpy.context.scene.eevee.gi_irradiance_smoothing = 1
bpy.context.scene.eevee.gi_glossy_clamp = 0
bpy.context.scene.eevee.gi_filter_quality = 1
bpy.context.scene.eevee.gi_cubemap_display_size = 0.3
bpy.context.scene.eevee.gi_irradiance_display_size = 0.1
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_overscan = True
bpy.context.scene.view_settings.view_transform = 'Filmic'
bpy.context.scene.view_settings.look = 'Filmic - Base Contrast'
bpy.context.scene.view_settings.exposure = 0
bpy.context.scene.view_settings.gamma = 1

Settings for irradiance volume;

Distance: 2m
Fallof:   0.00
Intensity:0.75
Resolution: all on 4
Clipping Start:  0.01
End:          40m

visibility:
Bias: 1.00
Bleed bias: 0
Blur: 0.2
Visbility collection: N/A

Settings for light:
Shadow: Clip sstart 0.1
Softness: 1.00
Bias:   0.2
Exponent: 2.5
Bleed Bias: 0.5

Contact shadows;
Distance 0.6
Softness: 1.5
Bias:  0.02
Thinkness: 0.2

I found the answer myself.
In the properties panel there is a tab where you can find settings for the Irradiance Volume.

Under Visibility Collection you can exclude a collection.  So In this case we add the cube to a collection (called test here) and when you bake indirect light now, everything will look the same from outside the cube, but inside the cube its now pretty dark.


Rotate object "Like Center Mouse Button" (I don't even know how to articulate this).

Say I start Blender with the default 2d scene - cube and view centered at 0,0,0. I can use the center mouse button to rotate/pan around the cube. Any up/down mouse movement gives me a "pitch" with respect to local view, and any left/right mouse movement "yaws" the cube. The amount of movement is uniform no matter where my cursor is, and no matter how I have rotated the other axis. This is an easy and natural way to pan around an object.

So now I basically want my camera do to the same. The best technique I've seen is to create an empty at 0,0,0, parent the camera to that - view through the camera - and rotate the empty.

That works - but no matter what I do - I can't get the same kind of rotational control with my mouse that I had with the "center mouse button" above. I've tried everything from changing the rotate transform mode (global, local, view), locking one of the axis, and using rr for "trackball" mode.

I can almost do this if I use the gimbal in "view" mode and just move the up/down and left/right rotation handles (individually) - but the mouse behaves very poorly - like it gets too sensitive near the center of the gimbal, and stops working altogether outside of it (giving a very narrow, single-axis control, oddly-proportional control). Nothing like the two-axis control which is completely linear - even if you indefinitely move the mouse in one direction.

Anyone know how to do this?

You can move the camera exactly as your would move the viewport by just enabling "Lock Camera to View" in the view section of the properties panel (n), and then move your viewport: your camera will automatically follow.


Trying to add uv project modifier on eye but eye gets stretched up and down Eye before applying uv project modifier

Eye after applying uv modifier to empty bone.
As you can see, I don't know why but eyes are stretched out from top to bottom...

And when I move the empty slightly to the left, it goes like this...

UV setting is set to like this.
Why is this happening? I'm so confused... Please help me.
Thanks in advance.

The reason the texture isn't projecting right may be due to the lack of Coordinate and Mapping nodes, like so:

With the Texture Coordinate set to UV, the UV Project and UV Warp modifiers should start functioning properly. You can quickly add these nodes in with the built-in Node Wrangler add-on, using Ctrl+T after selecting the image texture node.
Note that in this example, I have the X and Y scale on the Mapping node set to -1, in order to flip the centered texture along those axis. Those properties can be animated as well, but the eye rig should be able to take over from there.


BPy add Path in Textfile from Text-Editor .hi guys i have a problem by set a path in text line.
I put in a picture, maybe you understand what I mean.

i don't know how to implement the code in such a way that the path is included in the text line (see yellow arrows)
and btw. here is my code from the function:
import bpy

myPath = bpy.path.abspath('GameName\Character\Johnny') #path from "Johnny"

#character list with hardcoded Animations, Speed, Name etc. without correct
#path from character
Text = '''
DIRECTORY: \Animation\Torso\Idle_Stand\\
ANIM_NAME: Idle_Stand
ANIM_SPEED: 1.00
FRAME_FILES: Frame01.obj

DIRECTORY: \Animation\Torso\Spot1\\
ANIM_NAME: Spot_01
ANIM_SPEED: 12.50
FRAME_FILES: Frame01.obj, Frame02.obj, Frame03.obj, Frame04.obj

DIRECTORY: \Animation\Legs\Run\\
ANIM_NAME: Run
ANIM_SPEED: 3.135
FRAME_FILES: Frame01.obj, Frame02.obj, Frame03.obj
'''

t = Text

#checks if this textfile name exists
if "JohnnyAnimDoc" not in bpy.data.texts:
    bpy.data.texts.new("JohnnyAnimDoc")
#add "Text" in the textfile
txt = bpy.data.texts['JohnnyAnimDoc']
txt.from_string(t)
txt.current_line_index = 0

I hope there's an answer to my problem.
best regards -DevilSam :)

Couple of ways.

Already pointed out hassle re slosh in comments

To include a string in another block string, could use formatting, I like the old and deprecatious % Checkout the python docs for string formatting str.format(...)

text = '''
%s blah
%s blah
%s blah
''' % (("XXX",) * 3) # all 3 occurences
print(text)

output

XXX blah
XXX blah
XXX blah

or use a unique TOKEN and replace

print(text.replace("XXX", "YYY"))

output

YYY blah
YYY blah
YYY blah

Since the parts are paths strongly recommend you lookup in python docs , os.path.join(...).


"Shadow" showing on vertices of model There's a shadow showing in vertices, how can I make this disappear?

Seems like something is wrong with the model.

In order to display n-gons they need to be triangulated because video cards draw triangles only to simplify calculations. When the n-gon is automatically triangulated it so happens that there is an edge where you see the 'shadow' that's why it is visible there and that is why your solution works - it includes triangulation without any edges going from one side to another.


How do I change my orthographic view? What keys do I need to click to go into user ortho and left ortho?

Note that you need numpad 5, not just the 5 key. If you do not have a numpad, go to user preferences and check the box that says "emulate numpad", so then you can use your number keys.


Is it possible to create color patterns for many objects created from an array? This is the amusement ride "The Zipper" I'm trying to create in blender:

I am working on the lights around the ring here:

I created one light and used a few array modifiers to create this:

MY PROBLEM: I am unable to create the color pattern from the reference image.
I want the lights to be red on the outside and change to yellow and orange around the center.

I searched online everywhere, but couldn't find an answer to this.
Perhaps it isn't possible?
I want to avoid applying the array modifiers to keep my model simple, but that might be the only way.

Any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Or you can use Gradient Texture with an empty to control the center.

Use Texture Coordinate > Object
Put an empty where you want the center, and use it as target for Texture Coordinate
Use Gradient Texture > Spherical and Color Ramp


Change the scale of the viewport I'm building a model that's very small, about a square millimeter, that I intend to have 3d printed. I've figured out the model at normal blender dimensions, with the units set to "None", and then I just set my units to "Metric" and scaled the thing down considerably.

Although I could use this model, I might want to make further changes, but since it's so small, it's difficult to work with since the viewport panning is messed up so closely zoomed.

How do I change the scale of my viewport from "meters" to something smaller, like "milimeters"? I've googled around and only find unrelated information.

Here's a screenshot to illustrate my problem.

Notice how in the top left corner of the viewport it says "User Persp" with "Meters" under it. I suspect that's what has to change.

You can change the scale of the whole scene to metric .001 (one thousandth of a meter=1mm).

Version 2.8X

Version 2.7X

But to be able to work at such small scale you also have to adjust the scale on the viewport as well:

For 2.8X The settings are in the overlay section.

For 2.7X they are in the Numeric Panel (N)

Here's what a 1mm x 1mm x 1mm object looks like in with such scaling:


Make the edge of a model smoother I have a mesh that resulted out of a photogrametrie and that I'm editing in blender. I'm trying to remove the scattered part of the edge at the end of the mesh so that the mesh has a smooth end (as indicated by the red line in the picture). Does anybody know a good way how to achieve this in blender (other than manipulating each and every vertex)

You could draw a curve with grease pencil(d), making sure it would hold the part that needs to be cut away inside if it was closed, convert it to a curve select it and then the object so the object is active and enter edit mode and just use knife project. You don't need to use grease pencil and could create the curve some other way as well.

Grease pencil smoothing functionality might also be useful:


Why does the "skin" modifier not accurately produce 90°corners? My current design is comprised of a single path of vertices, defined by vertical and horizontal edges linked by 90° corners. Applying the skin modifier to this path of vertices creates perfect rectangular segments, but the corners display concave artifacts.

Any suggestions?

I suggest using a combination of Screw + Solidify modifier (your base mesh must be flat for the best result) :

Screw : Along Z, 1 step (If using Blender  < V2.83, the minimum steps is 2. Make sure the angle is 0°), Remove smooth shading

Solidify : Complex mode, offset 0

If you want to have the height centered around 0, simply add a displace with a driver :

Result :

Add custom properties if you don't want to deal with the modifier interface :


Did I destroy my 12 hour render trying to save it? I got up this morning and I went to save my overnight render, I turned on the screen and saw it for a moment, then I went over to Image to save it and at this point I think my mouse accidentally clicked on the "Open Cache Render" button and the whole image turned transparent/black, I didn't close the scene yet but I did move to another layer and did a quick 1 sample test render to confirm that doing this causes the same issue, the entire render is now just a flat transparent nothing.

Is there a way to get my render back?

PS: It's not the end of the world if it's gone, just wondering if there is a way to come back from loading up the "Cache Render", In the future I'm going to try and find a way to save the Render as soon as it's complete like for an Animation so I don't have to worry, although this is the first time I did this after countless renders so I guess it's just a freak accident.

If you didn't specify a place for it to be saved blender automatically places it in a folder on your C drive called tmp. C:\tmp\ you might find it there.


Is it possible to change the opacity of wires in version 2.8? I just downloaded Blender 2.8 and I really like the new interface and many of the new features, but I have run into an issue where I can't really see a reference image behind my mesh, even with wireframe on. It appears that the wires are extremely compact and it has a darker filter over it.
Is it possible to adjust this so I am able to have better visibility of my image behind the mesh?

Go to the Edit menu on the top left of your screen, and select User Preferences. Under the tab that says 'Themes' you will find settings for the Wire and Wire Edit. These are the ones you want to change.


Contradiction in GPL Licensing FAQ The Blender FAQ page (https://www.blender.org/support/faq/) answers these two questions:

  Can my organization use Blender internally without giving up our valuable changes to our competitors?
  Yes. The GNU GPL does allow your organization to use a modified version of Blender internally without offering the source-code as long as you do not distribute it outside your company or organization.

  Can I change Blender and give it to my co-workers or employees?
  Yes, but if you make modifications you must comply with the GPL and if they request the source code you have to distribute that to them as well. You can charge for the version of blender you give to your friends even, but it must be licensed under the GPL, and you may not charge an unreasonable fee for the source code.

Don't these two answers contradict them selves?

Example:
Our developers modify Blender and hand it to our production team to do some work for the company.
Individuals from our production team then may then ask for source code and are allowed to distribute it (under GPL)??

That would definitely be in contradiction with the claim that we can "use a modified version of Blender internally without offering the source-code as long as you do not distribute it outside your company".

Or am I getting this wrong?

(I apologize if this question does not belong here, but I could not find other place to post it.)

Can my organization use Blender internally without giving up our valuable changes to our competitors?

The question starts with Can..? and indeed it's possible. All your coworkers and people who come in contact would have to willingly not distribute it any further and to your competitors.

If anyone decides that he wants the source code and he wants to either build upon it or further distribute it (even to your competition), he has all the rights to do it, because the software is licenced GPL.


How to add "celestial objects" (extremely distant images) that behave correctly I want to add a small moon and a few stars to the background - or at least behind everything, so that it behaves correctly for camera motion.

Camera rotates around its own axis:  moon and stars rotate about center of FOV
Camera pans (rotates around an axis perpendicular to its own axis):  moon and stars translate. (if you turn your head, the stars move)
Camera moves (translates in (x, y, z)):  moon and stars remain fixed. (if you walk, nearby objects move, but the stars don't)

My animation is technical (think satellite in low earth orbit) so it needs to be fairly accurate. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a major hero of mine. I'll use a normal camera, not orthographic, and I'll use cycles and nodes. I may translate up to 10 blender units and the moon and stars shouldn't move by more than a pixel.

I could make a very very big image and put it very very far away, but is there a better way? I can generate the stars algorithmically if necessary, so that when the camera pans they move correctly.

Can we define a background (e.g. a sky) at infinity? Can we paint (uv map) on to the "Celestial Sphere"? There is some work on Blendertarium (also here) but I'm not sure how to adapt that technique to handle a scene with nearby objects as well.

Edit: After reading @PGmath 's comment, I realized I should also mention that the moon appears to move relative to the stars over time - roughly it's own diameter every hour. So the moon's image would move relative to the point-like stars.

You can make a hemisphere or a sphere(depending on what you want). Then, use a particle system on it. Use a material for the stars, and another one for the half dome. Make the half-dome transparent too, so it wont get in the way of the stars.