Cloth Simulation deforming strangely Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NJgEU3oITAyUqQu0f6W2y9treeCZ2Fhb/view?usp=sharing
I'm trying to make a parasol (outside umbrella thing) in blender, so I decided to use a cloth sim for the bit on top so that it would rest nicely on the top of the frame. The video shows you what is wrong.
I created a plane and then used the knife tool to create 2 diagonal edges across the plane, and to create a vertex in the middle. I then moved the 4 outside vertices down. I set that plane to a cloth sim in the physics tab and the frame to a collision.
Quality steps: 20
Quality (collisions): 20
Enabled self collision.
Frame start and end 1 to 30.

Sorry for the low quality screen video.
Thanks for your time.

Firstly, 'Apply Scale' to each of your objects - this is important for any simulation.
Secondly, in your particular case you don't need to enable self-collision since the cloth isn't looking to be at risk of hitting itself. The self-collision will slow down the simulation and can cause its own problems if its parameters aren't appropriate.
Thirdly, 'Apply Scale' on your 'frame' objects and check the direct of the normals - you need to ensure they're pointing 'out' of the faces, not 'in' (otherwise the collision will be in the wrong direction). In your case the bars of the frame are quite thin - reduce the 'Inner' setting in the Soft Body And Cloth collision settings - you currently have it set to 0.200 and this is quite large for a "thin" structure such as this as it can result in the 'back face' affecting cloth at the opposite side of the bar.
Fourthly, ensure there are no overlapping meshes at the start of the simulation as this can cause significant problems as the simulation attempts to eject the vertices out of the collision mesh.
Don't forget to clear any baked simulation and re-run it to see if this helps. If this helps you can then start tweaking the simulation by re-enabling self collision (if needed) and potentially increase the 'Inner' and/or simulation quality. If this doesn't fix the problem, please post a video of the new behaviour.


Can Blender's bundled "bfont" be used for commercially? Blender, which I use to create my video intros, comes bundled with a bfont by default so the question is:

Is this font is free for commercial use and what type of license does this "bfont" font have?

The bfont is actually a modified DejaVu (which in turn is a modified Bitstream Vera).

You are free to use it commercially but:

If you modify it, it has to be under a new name (it can't be called "bfont")
You can't sell it by itself
You have to include the copyright notice (found in release/datafiles/LICENSE-bfont-ttf.txt)

Check the license notice for more info.


Need help rigging a latch I'’ve tried rigging this case latch but I’m having issues with it. Would appreciate if someone can help me out with it. Blend file will be provided.

It's really important to set the origins to the rigth place, where the parts are rotates. Then set the lock part (the wire) as a child of the latch and add a Track to constraint to it, which points the objetc's y axis to an empty. So when you rotate the latch, the lock's end will stay down. After you rise the latch, you have to move the empty above the model, to rise up the lock. You can just move the empty manually, or set it as a child of an other empty and rotate it.

https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/A08G7S9e


How do I simulate only part of a object as cloth? Is it possible to make just part of an object cloth? So for example, I've modeled a trench coat, but I only want the loose bottom half of it to be a cloth simulation. Can I do that?

Yes. Use the Pinning vertex group in cloth settings. Any vertices with full weight of 1 will not be affected by the simulation. Partial weight will be partially effected. It is common to use a slight weight gradient for it to work smoothly.


How do I use 'Dynamic mesh preview' in Blender 2.81? A new feature called the dynamic mesh preview was added in blender 2.81 for the sculpt mode, but, I can't see a way of using it. I was trying to try it out but I don't know how to toggle this on or off. Any guide would be really helpful.

EDIT: It seems the preview doesn't work with multires and works with subdiv surf modifier instead.

It's a bit counter intuitive because there's nothing saying, dynamic mesh preview, instead this feature seems to only work with the grab brush, when you tick the grab active vertex checkbox in the brush settings:


is there a way to make blender look for textures in the current directory? I constantly move folders around and every time all texture files are pointing in the wrong directory and are missing

You can store paths relative.

Save your file first. When importing an image, make sure the checkbox Relative Path is checked. (Lower left of the open image dialog.)

Examining the image in the image editor will reveal, that it's path starts with two slahes  //.

  When relative paths are supported, the File Browser provides a Relative Path checkbox, when entering the path into a text field, use a double slash prefix (//) to make it so.

  Relative paths are the default but this can be changed in the File tab of the User Preferences Editor.

So make sure, that relative paths are used by default by checking the box.

Now all paths relativ. Moving the .blend file and all image (etc) files, preserving their relativ location in the file structure, will not break the link in the .blend file.

However, if the relativ path changed (e.g. you renamed the images folder to textures), the links will be broken. You can restore them by searching for missing files. Go to File > External Data > Find Missing Files. Choose the directory containing the missing files and Blender will try to reconnect them.

Also next to this menu entry is the useful "Make all paths relative".


Changing camera background image proxy for easier viewing In the camera settings under background images, there is a setting to change the video proxy to a smaller size to make it run faster. I'm using 4K footage and it's too slow to be useful. I tried changing it from full render to 25% but it makes the camera background image pink instead of just changing the resolution. Should I just create a low resolution image or is there something I'm forgetting to change?

Are you using Blender 2.83?
I would say you are luckier than me because when I change the proxy resolution I don't have any change at all in the 3D viewport :/
I am not sure if a manual reload of the clip is required - or a full project file reload maybe?
In any cases a pink image means the expected media is not found at the current time. This can be due to:

The current time your scene is using is out of the media range (it can be after of before, even if there is a strange behavior for before in the way that after some time jog the first frame of the media is displayed instead of the pink fill). By moving the current time you should be able to reach the media range (which should not have changed btw).
Or the proxy has not been generated, for some reason...

This is not really an answer but...
At this point I am wondering if this property is working correctly on this version...


Export grease pencil blender to Unity Currently, I am working on a student project with the grease pencil blender.
I'm trying to export the GP to create an interactive scene on Unity. But I can't find any way to export the GP to Unity because it looks like Blender.
I tried to convince the GP to mesh and extrude, but it doesn't look like what I want and can't find anything on exporting from GP to Unity.
I have try this :

Convert To Path > Convert To Polygons
Convert To Path > Extrude
Convert To Polygons Cuves > Convert To Mesh

Anyone know if there is something to switch Gp to Unity (or some other rendering engine) without losing the "graphics channel" of Gp ?

this thread could help you: https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/ji7ok9/blender_grease_pencil/
I haven't had time to try it out yet, but it seems a proper way.
There is also this:
https://github.com/PierreMervaillie/GreasePencilToUnity


Problem in generating multiple metarigs Whenever i generate a rig a character using rigify and generate it, the generated rig works fine but when i rig and generate the another model in the same file. The selected rig does not generates but the first one does. How to solve this problem. Help will be appreciated.

After you generate a rig, rename it. The armature generated is given the name rig, when you click generate on the second metarig the first rig is updated because of it's name.

This only applies up until 2.78, the about to be released blender 2.79 includes an updated rigify addon that makes this easier. The new version has options to overwrite or create a new rig, as well as choosing which rig to overwrite.


Hexagons and Pentagons UV map How I can create UV map with pentagons in center and hexagons around? But without gap between hexagons and pentagons.

Thanks, now, how can I make all the hexagons have all the pages be equal?

Open a UV workspace and..

On the 3D side, select a pentagonal face, and ShiftG Select Similar > Polygon sides
CtrlNumpad + expand the selection to include surrounding Hexagons
Edge Mode, Header Select Menu > Loops > Select Boundary Loops and ..
Right-click, > Mark Seams

With those faces selected, U unwrap. This will unwrap the pentagons and their surrounding hexes to separate, identical islands. If you want them all overlapped, those can be snapped together, or ShiftS to the  cursor.. but I must say, haven't figured out a way to do them all simultaneously.

This leaves a ribbon of hexes between the islands, so I (CtrlI, by inverse) selected them, and U > Reset those.. it all depends what you want.


Making Vertical Gradient, then make top half transparent So, I would like to make this texture to where I have the gradient going from top to bottom, instead of side to side like in the picture. After that, I would like to make the top half, lets just say, the purple, transparent. I am using cycles renderer in blender v2.76.

Thanks in advance!
Danny

You need two things: texture coordinates and a way to control them. The Vector Mapping will allow you to place the gradient texture where you need it. Then you can use multiple color ramps to mix color and a transparent shader.

Blend File


How to pass an bpy.data.objects bpt.data.materials etc to an operator, from layout? I would like to understand how to pass an object of type bpy.data to an operator, but I don't understand how to do it.
I can pass a string, which will then retrieve what I am looking for, in this example I show how I pass a string to the operator, this string will retrieve the object. But I don't like it that way. And I don't know how to pass a bpy.data to the operator directly.
I want to clarify that it is not a question related to how to have the context.object, but I am interested in any type of object, so this is just an example to better define my question.
import bpy
from bpy.props import StringProperty

class SimpleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):

    bl_idname = "object.simple_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Object Operator"

    object_name: StringProperty()

    #How to:
    #object: <---------------------

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.active_object is not None

    def execute(self, context):

        #I can find the object like this:
        ob = bpy.data.objects[self.object_name]

        #But i want:
        # ob = self.object <---------------------

        return {'FINISHED'}

class HelloWorldPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_label = "Hello World Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_hello"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "object"

    def draw(self, context):
        ob = context.object

        layout = self.layout

        op = layout.operator("object.simple_operator",text="Test")
        op.object_name = ob.name
        op.object = ob

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(SimpleOperator)
    bpy.utils.register_class(HelloWorldPanel)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(SimpleOperator)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(HelloWorldPanel)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Add  context members for your op to use.
Would assume you tried
    object: PointerProperty(type=bpy.types.Object)

only to get the error message saying you can't assign datablock pointers to an operator.... possibly explains why you never see this used in any operator. The idea is to use the operator / context paradigm and use context to reference objects
UILayout.context_pointer_set
Consider using context for this. Instead of passing it as an operator variable set a context member, in this case "foo" and use that in your operator.
Simple example that adds a row with button for each scene object. Each row has the context pointer "foo" set to respective object.
import bpy
from bpy.props import StringProperty, PointerProperty

class SimpleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):

    bl_idname = "object.simple_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Object Operator"

    # This throws an error, because cannot save datablock ref to operator.
    #object: PointerProperty(type=bpy.types.Object)

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return getattr(context, "foo", False)

    def execute(self, context):

        #I can find the object like this:
        ob = context.foo
        print(ob)

        return {'FINISHED'}

class HelloWorldPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_label = "Hello World Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_hello"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "object"

    def draw(self, context):
        ob = context.object

        layout = self.layout
        for ob in context.scene.objects:
            row = layout.row()
            row.context_pointer_set(name="foo", data=ob)
            row.operator("object.simple_operator", text=ob.name)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(SimpleOperator)
    bpy.utils.register_class(HelloWorldPanel)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(SimpleOperator)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(HelloWorldPanel)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Have used context.foo by way of example, because it is not a standard context member would recommend using
ob = getattr(context, "foo", None)

to give a null value when not set. have polled against it to disable operator if "foo" is not set.


Animate Extending a Curve How can I animate a curve extending? I'd like the animation to look like a circle extruding along the path.

I've found lots of tutorials like this, using the taper/bevel objects in the curve settings, but I'm trying to do to it without the funky taper off the front of the extrusion.

You can do this by using a Bézier extrusion with animated start/end values, which was added in Blender 2.65. You'll need two curve objects: the path and the circle (if you don't have a circle curve, just add a Curve → Bezier Circle).

First, select the path, and set its Bezier Object (under the curve options tab) to the circle. This will take care of the extrusion portion. To avoid the "funky taper," just don't set the taper object.

Then, animate the End Bevel Factor value. To do this, go to frame 1, and set the End Bevel Factor value to 0. Hover over it and press I, or RMB → Insert Keyframe to insert a keyframe. Then, go to the frame where you want the transition to end, set the factor to 1, and insert a keyframe again.

This image demonstrates the two key things to set:

NB Using the circle as a curve object allows you to have a more flexible swept object. If all you need really is a circle with no endcaps, just set the Bevel Depth to a higher value than zero and set the Fill to Full instead of Half.


How do I bring the cursor and X/Y intersection to the centre of the screen? How do I bring the cursor and X/Y intersection to the centre of the screen. I asked the question earlier and thanks to D. Dean it only bring the cursor and intersection together but still on the top left corner. Please how do I bring them to the centre of the screen in the object?

With shift + MiddleMouseButton you can drag the the x- and y-axis + the cursor to the center of your screen. Afterwards your circle and image will still be to the bottom left. Now you can re-center the image as you did before. To center the donout, rightclick on it, click on the + sign in the top right and set the location to x: 0, y:0, z:0


How can I make an object appear or emerge from a flat surface? I want to have an object come out of a surface as if the surface is a portal or something similar, like Mary Poppins' bag.

How can I accomplish this. My method was to surround the object with a boolean difference box and animate it moving out of the box. However, this has some rendering glitches when I try to animate it.

If both objects are manifold and don't have any self-intersections, the boolean method should work.
However, booleans are sometimes finicky for no reason, so here's another approach:

Move the object you want to appear to a empty layer (e.g. layer 2), keeping the rest of the scene on layer 1

Make a bounding cube as if you were going to use a boolean modifier, but instead give it a holdout material which is only visible to the camera (so that it doesn't cast a shadow):

Create a new renderlayer and set it to only layer 2. Also change the existing renderlayer to only layer 1:

Enable Transparent in Render settings > Film

Set up the composite nodes

Result:

The shadow is an obvious limitation, but I can't think of a good workaround aside from just removing the shadow completely..


Horizontally rotate the Viewport in 180 degrees to see the back side? Is there an easy way to rotate the view horizontally to see the backside, as from the first picture to the second picture?

I was following a phone modelling tutorial, and the guy jumped form the front side of the phone to the back side of the phone, but I couldn't find a way to do that. I have tried clicking combinations of the "X", "Y", "Z" circles on the top-right, but none of them resulted in the backside as the second picture. I can manually rotated the view using the middle mouse drag to end up as the second picture, but the axes are not perfectly aligned with the screen as the first picture, which was achieved by simply clicking the "Z" circle.

Numpad 7 is the shortcut for top view, Ctrl+Numpad 7 is the shortcut for bottom view.

Same for Numpad 1/Ctrl+Numpad 1 (front/back), Numpad 3/Ctrl+Numpad 3 (right/left)


Python rendering animation saves frame twice So I have a fairly simple method in my blender python script that either renders and saves an individual frame or renders an animation given a frame range. Now the former option works perfectly, the frame lands where it should be in the newly created folder and everything is fine. The latter, not so much:
For some reason, Blender saves the animation frames twice, once in the newly created folder with the name specified by output_path as it should and once, for some damn reason, in the parent folder above WITHOUT the frame name (just the usual 000X.exr). I should mention that I have just one output node with multi-layered OpenEXR that has an Image channel and a depth channel. I've tried different combinations for the parameters of bpy.ops.render.render and also confirmed it is only this line causing this since it doesn't render or save anything if I comment it out. Obviously I call this method with animation=True when this problem occurs.

I'd appreciate it if you could explain to me why it does that or where the source code for this damn function is.

def render_frame_and_save(output_name, animation=False, start=0,end=240):
    #Determine incremental output path
    i = 0
    while os.path.exists(output_path + '{:03d}'.format(i)):
        i +=1
    path = output_path + '{:03d}'.format(i)
    os.makedirs(path )

    bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = path + "/" + output_name
    if animation:
        bpy.context.scene.frame_start = start
        bpy.context.scene.frame_end = end
        bpy.ops.render.render(animation=True)
    else:
        bpy.ops.render.render(write_still = True)

    #Dump config
    cfg_file = open(path + '/samples.cfg', 'w')
    cfg_file.write('time: ' + datetime_str) #TODO Add config
    cfg_file.close()

So if anyone stumbles over this: I did find out what caused it

A bit unintuitively, Blender automatically saves animation but not single frames. I assumed that after I removed the default composite node (after activation nodes) in the Composition View, Blender would not save anything out of my designated output nodes. But well, it still does (but again, only when you render animations).

Edit (27-03-2020): To make it a bit clearer, the problem is that while you can choose not to save the output when rendering frames, Blender WILL saved rendered animations regardless of your dedicated output nodes. The option not to save this animation output (in addition to your output nodes) seems to be missing.

There also doesn't seem an obvious way of preventing Blender from doing so which is quite annoying.


GPU rendering via CLI not working in 2.81 Blender 2.81 seems to have broken CLI headless rendering with CUDA GPU.

Here's the Py script people often use: Rendering on command-line with GPU?

blender -b *.blend -a -E CYCLES -P script.py
Blend file has CUDA enabled on another machine
Shows line that says Activating GTX 1080 Ti
nvidia-smi shows 0% usage, CPUs are 100%

Any ideas on a fix?

Blender's command line interface executes the argument in the order they are given, as documented in the manual. Therefore your command renders the animation (-a, --render-anim) before executing the Python script (-P, --python). Hence the GPU is enabled after the rendering is already done.

If you put the -a argument last, it should properly render the animation on the GPU.


Making collections unselectable at the same time Is it possible to make all selected collections unselectable at the same time ? I mean, without clicking on each single arrow of each collection ? I would like that at the end all the collections except the unselected one turn out as unselectable.

You can CTRL + Left Click on the mouse icon to make all but the clicked collection selectable.
If you want to restore the clickability to all collections, CTRL  + Left Click on the "isolated" collection.


Can I control hair thickness with weight values? Can I adjust the thickness of my hair using alpha texture or weight values in Blender? This is a must for natural hairdressing.

There is a way to add Alpha to the tips of the hairs, using a Hair Info Node. This will require you to use Cycles.
I just pulled this here straight out of the Cycles Encyclopedia by Blender Guru.
https://www.blenderguru.com/articles/cycles-input-encyclopedia

You can also use the Strand Settings to scale all hair equally.

I am checking to see whether you can feed in a texture or a vertex map to drive the render attributes, so you could paint in the width of the scale of the individual strands. Can't tell you off the cuff if that is possible, but I would find it useful, too.


Simple rotation... impossible? I'm feeling crazy, why is it so hard to just rotate objects predictably in blender?
No matter what setting I use, I cant get things to rotate how I want to.
Watch these two webms. Imagine the front beveled face is the face of a human and I want him to look up = rotate his head back a bit.
It would stand to reason that blender has some kind of internal object rotation right? Well that setting doesnt work either. Nothing works for me.

Pathetic attempts to make it work but I cant:

http://webm.land/media/reS6.webm

http://webm.land/media/9cqn.webm

It looks from your video as if you are rotating on the Global (World) axes, where what you would like is a rotation of the cube about one of its own local axes. If you haven't reoriented the cube in Edit Mode since it was created, its local axes will still run from the cube's center through the centers of its faces.

In that case, as you have, you can just set the Transform Orientation (in the header at the bottom of the 3D View)  to 'Local'. Set the pvot point to the center of rotation you want ..(e.g. 'Individual Origin(s))

The primary, default, orientation for transformations is always Global. To reach the secondary orientation ( the one in the header ), you have to hit the constraint key(s) twice. So hitting RXX, RYY or RZZ  will let you rotate the cube around its local axes.

(If you rotate all or part of an object's mesh in Edit Mode, that's all you have rotated. The object's local axes remain where they were before the edit.)


How to mirror an animation I have an animation of my character holding a lamp with the right hand. I want to mirror this animation to get my character holding a lamp with the left hand. For each frame I can copy pose and paste it x-flipped. However, I've got many frames and it will take a long time to perform such operation for each frame. Is there any way to do it faster?

So after some googling and reading API I came up with a little script to automate the process:

import bpy

scn = bpy.context.scene

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='POSE')
bpy.ops.pose.select_all(action='SELECT')

initial_keyframe = scn.frame_current

scn.frame_set(0)

while True:
    bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_insert()

    if 'FINISHED' not in bpy.ops.screen.keyframe_jump(next=True):
        break
    else:
        # A hook to update bone positions after jump.
        # See http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/8534/14703
        scn.frame_set(scn.frame_current)

scn.frame_set(0)

while True:
    bpy.ops.pose.copy()
    bpy.ops.pose.paste(flipped=True)
    bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_insert()

    if 'FINISHED' not in bpy.ops.screen.keyframe_jump(next=True):
        break
    else:
        scn.frame_set(scn.frame_current)

scn.frame_set(initial_keyframe)

Running this will x-flip all frames in the animation.
Unfortunately copying and pasting pose creates unwanted keyframes so you may want to clean up the result manually.


How to select Hierarchy from 3d view Im working in full view. I do not want to see the outliner window so working in the full view. I have parented some mesh with the empty. With the empty i can move the mesh. To select the Hierarchy i have added in the quick favorites, by selecting the select Hierarchy and added to quick favorites to access soon. Its not shown in the 3d window view when press Q key.  Other favorites are seen. When i click on again select Hierarchy to confirm that is added or not it say remove from quick favorites means its added. Why its not seen or how to access or select the complete Hierarchy with empty and mesh. When i select the empty of the parented and press ] bracket the parent mesh are selected but the empty is not selected. Any other way or shortcut to select the Hierarchy . Any suggestion or help. Thanks

Adding "Select Hierarchy" from the outliner to the Quick menu will add it to the Quick Menu of the outliner.
Instead you may use the following solution:
Press F3 in the 3d window to search for a function and type "Select Hierarchy" (without quotation marks). It will even show up, if you type "hie" instead. Then press Return.


Material colors are showing only after render in Blender 2.8 I'm new to blender and started to create something using tutorials. I created an object and added some colors to it then render the object and everything worked fine then I saved it.

But when I opened the saved blender file again it is not showing any of colors but when I render it shows the same object as I saves with colors.

Not sure if something changed in the settings.

The rendered Image:

By default blender viewport solid mode does not show material colors, you can see 4 viewport shading modes in the upper right corner

Those are in order, left to right: wireframe, solid, material preview and rendered. By default material

By default solid shading will not show materials, but material preview and rendered will.


Cannot select vertices from different object while in edit mode Whenever I enter edit mode, with 2 separate meshes (cubes), I can only select vertices/edges/faces of 1 mesh.

Example (the screen shot did not include the mouse cursor):

Also, when I enter edit mode with both meshes selected, one of the meshes has a red border and cannot be selected (it also has this border in Object mode):

In order to make the both meshes editable at the same time you need to join the objects in object mode while they are selected using CTRL+J, then both meshes will be available in edit mode.

Another way is to install MultiEdit addon that will allow to edit selected objects simultaneously.


Carve Hole in A metal water bottle model I am making a 3D model out of my stainless steel water bottle but I can't get right the carved part on the bottom of the bottle

I tried using the boolean modifier coupled with a bevel and a subdivision modifier but still not what I wanted

I used a Triangle made from a plane and a solidify modifier and bevel the sharp top edge to make the boolean. Here are what it looks on my blender file

And here is the reference image for the bottom part of the water bottle taken by me

Also since I can't make the edge correct for the bottom part I was worried on how to make the Curved Hole on the bottle Cap (I haven't started the bottle cap so I'm just asking for advice on how to do it)

Here is the reference image for the top and front of the bottle cap

I have no idea on how to make this correctly and I would like some help. Thanks for the future advice and help

For the bottom of your bottle you can model it, use a Mirror modifier as it is symmetrical, give it enough topology as it will need to be bent, duplicate with an Array, then at last use a Simple Deform / Bend mode to make it turn around 360°. Apply the Array and Simple Deform and remove the doubles.

For the bottle cap it seems a bit more complicated as the cut shape doesn't deform to the center. So what you could do is create a cylinder, only keep a segment, bevel it:

Cut a hole, for example with a Boolean modifier or just some vertices displacements. Extrude downwards, fill the faces.

Create an empty at the center of the cylinder object. Give the cylinder an Array modifier > Object Offset, with the empty as Object. Rotate the empty so that it recreates a cylinder.

Give your object a Subdivision Surface modifier, bring some corrections to the topology in order to sharp the edges etc.


Why is my image sequence appearing darker in the VSE than in the render output window? I'm having a weird problem with the VSE in Blender 2.90. I am rendering a night time scene using the physical atmosphere addon, with a very bright emissive object that passes through the sky. When I try to use the rendered image sequence in the VSE though, it appears much darker than it does in the viewport or when I replay the animation with ctrl+F11. I simply opened up a preset "video editing" workspace, then used shift+a to add the image sequence. I am experiencing the same problem with both cycles and EEVEE renders. Render format is the default PNG.
What might cause this behavior?

You'll need to set View Transform to Standard(and not Filmic).

If you use the Video Editing template at start-up or through File - New - Video Editing it'll be set to Standard from the beginning.


How do I switch to Cycles render engine? I just downloaded blender and it says at the top that I am in blender render. I want to make it on cycles render. How can change this?

To switch render engines, click the drop down on the header of the info menu at the top of the screen where it currently says Blender Render. You will be presented with 3 options. Blender Render, Blender Game, and Cycles Render. Choose the desired option from there.


How do I have a procedural texture follow the surface of a mesh? I am trying to texture a high poly sculpted model, making UV unwrapping impractical. The object is a spiral horn. The texture has rows of color that I want to follow the spiral. Is This possible? I've tried changing to polar coordinates, like in this example How do I make a procedural swirl texture?
But I can't seem to get that to work.

It seems to work fine if you unwrap your object with the Follow Active Quads option (select all your faces in Edit mode, then one last face then U), now your unwrap is completely square and your texture will follow along. Then create this nodes chain: Texture Coordinate (UV output) > Mapping (play with the Rotation angle) > Texture > etc.


LOD in particle systems I've already checked this two questions but neither solve this problem:

Level of Detail of Particles System?

How to access data related to individual particles?

Both posts derive to use animation nodes, which would be great, but AN still can't handle LOD with particles, maybe in the future.

Another option would be to use this addon from the blender market, but I'm still waiting for the developers answer on how it handles this issue and its limitations before buying:

https://www.blendermarket.com/products/particle-instantiator

So... Is there anyone who knows if its posible to control LOD of each particle? I know particles are indexed but I'm not sure if they are forced to share properties from the system, which is strange because I also know I can edit its color using a shader.

Any ideas, thoughts, solutions or conclusions would be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance

EDIT

I forgot to mention one critical point which makes @Omar Ahmad solution insufficient. In my case I'm creating an object with multiple polygons from which I'm instantiating particles, the polygons are needed because I need to paste a rotation value which I get from the normal of each polygon, therefore instanciate objects using AN is insufficient as particles wont have rotations.

gif showing the problem

Instance a number of empty objects on the locations of particles and copy the mesh data from an object list composed of LOD objects sampled based on the distance from the active camera:

In most of the cases, the distance have to be remapped, I simply divided by 4, but other remapping procedures can be done, even non linear ones like evaluating the distance at an interpolation:


How can I control the texturing of the pieces created by cell fracture? I am trying to make a simple box explode to some extent. I have chosen to try out cell fracture and it works fine but how would I fix the inside of my object looking so weird? Is there a different approach required?

Here is object before explosion:

Box after explosion, the pieces look weird, I was hoping to see just wood textures on the inside, would this require me to redo the UV map after I applied the cell fracture?

I removed doubles which there was 512 and then did the cell fracturing with source limit of 6 and got desired results


why boolean not work on solidfy modifier I have a normal plane and a cube. I have given little thickness to the plane. and i want just cut a hole in that plane. I have to model in the file.
to my right hand what i want to achieve. The problem is that with the normal boolean tool its not working. I have install the booltron addon and go the result. to the left hand is the sample to experiment. I have acheive what i want to from booltron but the problem is that the solidfy modifier apply automatically with that. Is there any option or other way i can cut the hole in that plane without apply the solidify modifier.   blend file here https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwiTD4qoMzsZT1FxOTdoX0drQVk

boolean did not work with the steps

Select the Plane
Add a boolean modifier.
Set the Object property to the Cube.
Set the Operation property to Difference.


Eevee - Light inside a bulb lamp not passing through glass Using Eevee, I'm trying to simulate a light bulb.
I have a sphere with glass material and inside it, I have a Point light.
But the light is not passing through the glass:

However, if I disable the sphere object, the light is working:

How to make the light inside a bulb lamp pass through glass (using Eevee)?
Here my test project:

Changing shadow mode from opaque to None will allow your light to pass through. And changing blend mode from alpha clip to alpha hashed will give you a more realistic looking glass. Enable screen space reflection too in render tab
Also, change your shader material to this:


Blender C, Object struct name I try to get my name object from Object struct, but it seem that name doesn't exist in this struct. Where is name of Object. ?

Thanks a lot.

Ok, After some dumb research, I find ID property who hold basic property like name.

Object *obj;
printf("%s", obj.ID.name);


Triangulate square mesh randomly I am using blender to triangulate a mesh that I want to use for a physics simulation (outside blender). For that, I want to randomly remesh it. The triangulate modifier is not enough, as there is a preferent edge direction, which I want to avoid.

Ideally, adding random vertices inside the quad and force a remeshing algorithm to use this points would work, but I have no idea how to do it or if it is even possible in blender.

Create a new shapekey for your plane.  Enter edit mode on that shapekey.

Use transform->randomize operation.

Use a triangulate faces operation.  In operator panel, specify "shortest diagonal."

Leave edit mode and delete your shapekey.


How to make cave pieces modular so they are seamless? Am trying to reduce the amount of cave models by trying to make them modular, but am not sure how to do the in between of them so they look seamless.

I have 2 cave objects (of many) in this image, I want to somehow make them modular so that I can reuse them.

These caves pieces will be low poly and UV texturing isn't important as they will likely just be a single color.  These will be used in a game engine.

You need the vertices at each connection pint to be perfect matches for each other, and you need them to have the same uv coordinates. These are nontrivial tasks, but I do have a few recommendations:

First, consider working without a subsurf. That way you can have all cave entrances and exits be exact copies of each other.

Second, uv unwrap a cave segment with the maximum number of exits intended first, then make all subsequent caves start as duplicates. Unwrap these but pin the verts of the exits when doing so.

Finally, make sure you have exact coordinates and angles for all exits relative to each other so that your game engine can get them into place.

I have never done this, but it sounds plausible!


Blender distorting objects when using move tool When I try to move any object it either gets distorted or the centre point of the object moves. Has anyone experienced this before?

Here is the link to the blender file
[2]:

You have Affect Only > Origins enabled in your Viewport Options. On some it just moves the origin point but maybe on others with modifiers that work in relation to the origin it can distort objects. Disable it.


Save 3D view in rendered shading in HQ Is it possible to save the 3D view in the Rendered shading (or render preview) in HQ (defined resolution)? Because when I do Render preview I like the way looks, I like to save it directly, instead of to click the Render button (or F12), since else I must wait again for the same picture.

This question How to save print-quality screenshots of the 3D view? only works for Solid, Texture, Material, Wireframe and Bounding Box, but not for Rendered. Thanks :)

For example (the rendered preview):

After clicking the 3D view render button:

I think the best thing you can do is to take a screenshot, either using external software or via Window> Save Screenshot:

The downside is that you will have to crop out the rest of the interface afterwards as that will also be captured.


Python: Convert a point into camera-space (BGE) For a particular object and a particular camera, I wish to convert each vertex into camera space, perform some maths on it and convert it back.

Specifically I need to convert the vertex first into world space, and then into camera space.

Something like:

v_world = obj.matrix_world * v.co
v_cam = cam.matrix_world.invert() * v_world

Which I could tidy up by doing:

# first create matrix that goes from object-space to camera-space
ob_to_cam = obj.matrix_world * cam.matrix_world.invert()

for v in ob.vertices:
    v_cam = ob_to_cam * v.co
    v_cam_out = my_maths_processing(v_cam)

    v.co = ob_to_cam.invert() * v_cam_out

Is this correct?  Is there a tidier way?

This link http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-246525.html gives:

M1 = Cam.worldTransform # camera 4x4 transform matrix
M2 = Obj.worldTransform # object matrix
M = M1.inverted()*M2 # conventions valid for blender 2.62

There is another suggestion on the same page, to use:

bge.types.KX_Camera
bge.types.KX_Camera.world_to_camera

http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_62_0/bge.types.html#bge.types.KX_Camera

http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_62_0/bge.types.html#bge.types.KX_Camera.world_to_camera

But I'm unfamiliar with 'bge' -- blender game object. Should I be using this object?

The camera_to_world and its inverse world_to_camera transform matrices provide the simplest way to convert between camera and world space. However, the more difficult part is accessing the vertices in the game engine.

Getting vertices in the game engine requires three nested loops. First, loop through a game object's meshes, then loop through each mesh's materials, and finally get a VertexProxy for each index in the material. With the XYZ property on the proxy, we can multiply the world to camera transformational matrix by the vertex position to get the vertex in camera space coordinates.

After processing the vertex, multiple the camera to world matrix by the vertex and assign it to the XYZ property on the proxy.

import bge

scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()

camera = scene.cameras["Camera"]
cube = scene.objects["Cube"]

for mesh in cube.meshes:
    for material in mesh.materials:
        for i in range(mesh.getVertexArrayLength(material.material_index)):
            proxy = mesh.getVertex(material.material_index, i)
            vertex = camera.world_to_camera * proxy.XYZ

            #process vertex in camera space

            proxy.XYZ = camera.camera_to_world * vertex


Bsurfaces addon not working correctly I am trying to retopolize my mesh using the grease pencil and the Bsurfaces addon, but I keep getting this error.

the retopology is not setting correctly.

Instead of getting a ring of square, I get two highly subdivided loops instead. How can I make grease pencil retopolgy work correctly on a sculpted icosphere?

Oh and I keep getting a message (image below).

When I follow this method an new object is created as well called 'SUFSKIO' (image below). How can I fix this?

I just tested the Bsurfaces addon (version 1.5) with blender version 2.75a and it is completely functional (with a bug that disables Global Undo).

However there are a few things you need to be sure of to get it to work.

Set the grease pencil source to Object (this is your problem)

The tool tip even says that it is needed for Bsurfaces to work.

For best results draw the strokes in Object mode.
However if you drew in edit mode and it looks like this:

You can click on the Enable Editing button in the Grease Pencil tab of the tool shelf.
Or you can click the Edit Strokes button. It is in the Tools tab of the tool shelf.

I prefer the latter because you can simple delete the bad points, and not bother with trying to reposition them.
Save often, as in before you start Bsurfaces and after you create every piece you are happy with. You will still find bugs.

Last I would refer you to my answer on resources for Bsurfaces, there is a great PDF, that is still very useful.


How can I create many objects quickly? In my application I have to create up to some 1000 tetraders (objects with 4 vertices, 4 faces, 6 edges). As input I get only the absolute vertex coordinates for each tetraeder. From the mathematical background I know that all tetraeders are identical but have a different location and rotation which I do not know.

The following code works (Tetra is some class providing the vertex coordinates of an tetraeder and some other informations which is not relevant here):

# object creation
def draw_Tetra(Tetra, Faces):

    bm = bmesh.new()
    V1 = bm.verts.new(Tetra.Vertices[0])
    V2 = bm.verts.new(Tetra.Vertices[1])
    V3 = bm.verts.new(Tetra.Vertices[2])
    V4 = bm.verts.new(Tetra.Vertices[3])

    if Faces == True:
        bm.faces.new((V1, V2, V3))
        bm.faces.new((V1, V2, V4))
        bm.faces.new((V1, V3, V4))
        bm.faces.new((V2, V3, V4))
    else:
        bm.edges.new((V1, V2))
        bm.edges.new((V1, V3))
        bm.edges.new((V2, V3))
        bm.edges.new((V1, V4))
        bm.edges.new((V2, V4))
        bm.edges.new((V3, V4))

name = "T_" + Tetra.Type + "_" + Tetra.pedigree
me = bpy.data.meshes.new(name)
bm.to_mesh(me)
bm.free
obj = bpy.data.objects.new(name,me)
scene = bpy.context.scene
scene.objects.link(obj)

However the script is extremely slow, e.g. to create 5000 tetraeders takes many hours. I think that I have the same problem as discussed here:

Python performance with Blender operators

The problem is that I do not know how to use "low level code" in this special situation. Can someone give me a tip?

Could also look at using from_pydata ? The following runs in 11 seconds on my Athlon pussbox.  Creating and freeing a bmesh for each new mesh seems a little overkill.

import bpy
import time

class Tetra():

    def object(self, scene):
        obj = bpy.data.objects.new("Tetra", self.mesh_from_pydata())
        scene.objects.link(obj)
        return obj

    def mesh_from_pydata(self):
        me = bpy.data.meshes.new("some_name")
        me.from_pydata(self.Verts, [], self.Faces)
        return me

    def __init__(self, verts):
        self.Verts = verts
        faces = []
        for i in range(4):
            faces.append([j for j in range(4) if j != i])
        self.Faces = faces

        pass

# test drive
context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
start = time.time()
for x in range(5000):
    if not x % 100:
       print("Creating Object", x)
    tet = Tetra([(0.5,  0.5,  0.0), (0.5, -0.50, 0.0), (-0.5, 0.5,  0.0), (0.0,  0.0,  1.0)])
    obj = tet.object(scene)

end = time.time()
print("Done in %d seconds" % (end - start) )


Emission shader that glows on the center of the object and is dark on the edges I was wondering how to make an emitting material that glows on the inside and has the edges darkened.

So far I've only achieved an inverted version of what I want by mixing Emission shader and Fresnel.

The disconnected Shader socket on the Mix node will be providing what is effectively a ‘black’ material. The Mix mixes between what is on the’top’ input with what is on the ‘bottom’ socket based on the Factor - with 0.0 and less giving the ‘top’ one on the output, 1.0 and above givinn the ‘bottom’ one on the output and values between 0.0 and 1.0 giving a mix between them. Therefore, to ‘invert’ your result you could either manipulate the Factor (eg, mathematically subtract it from one) or, alternatively, just swap te Shader inputs - so the emission is connected to the bottom one and the top one is unconnected.

Another option here is to add a Color Ramp between te Fresnel and Factor and you can then manipulate the ramp to change the effect.

EDIT : For a more controllable transition you could use vector maths and a Color Ramp as follows :


Animation Nodes : Use Previous output of a Loop in calculation of the next iteration What i am trying to achieve :

Random floating floors (square plane)
floating stairs connecting to each of them (Line generator with steps)
all floating floors have another floor which is parallel to it so the stairs are straight and  only going up or down

What i have achieved so far

Object instances get vertical elevation from index of loop
Random number to either or X or Y axis by using boolean switch

The problem :

all the planes are shifted from origin rather than using the location of the previous plane as starting point

So, is there a a way for the loop to get the location of the previous plane and offset the next plane in X or Y ?

For the stairs I'm planning to use line generator in start/end/step mode in loop to generate locations for the stair instances

You can do this by using 'reassign'.

This is an option accessible from the 'loop subprogram' and which allow to obtain a node from which you can reassign an input parameter from some calculated result inside the subprogram.

Select the subprogram.
Go into the properties on the right, in the node tab, then click 'reassign' for the input you want.
That generates a reassign node, place it in the grid.

Now you can connect its input from the calculation you want (here probably the loop result).


How can I fix this mesh rotation issue? I have been crafting a 3D model of Mickey Mouse. I joined all of the meshes together and added armature. Everything seems to be correct, but when i rotate the head, the eyes and tongue don't rotate. Is there something I'm missing or something I'm doing wrong?

You have to assign weights to meshes you want to move with a bone.

(After selecting your mesh and armature and parenting using automatic weights)

Select your armature and press ctrltab to enter
pose mode
Select your mesh and press ctrltab and then you can assign weights to parts to want to move with the bone


How do I round an edge of a rectangle? I've been wondering how to do this for a while but I couldn't find anything that gave me answers. I'm trying to make a realistic-ish model but I don't know how to round the edges.

You can use the Bevel tool.

In Edit mode, select all the edges you want to be rounded.
Hit Ctrl+Shift+B to initiate the tool.
Adjust the offset (radius) of the rounded corners by sliding your mouse.
Adjust the number of segments (subdivisions) you want with the mouse wheel. The more there is, the smoother the corner will be.
Validate the operation with a mouse click or by pressing Enter.

You can adjust those parameters, and many others, by expanding the "Last Operator" panel (bottom left of the Viewport; it should be labelled "Bevel"):

I assume you want to round edges of a rectangle, a planar surface; if you want to round the edges of a volume, you should use Ctrl+B instead.


Unable to select individual parts of the mesh I've been having issues when attempting to select parts of models. Due to the software I work in, I cannot export models as an entire part due to a poly limit. Whenever I attempt to select individual parts of the mesh, it selects the entire thing, rather than the body, headlights, etc, stuff I can pick out individually in Sketchup. I am importing into Blender .obj files and exporting in .obj files. I know I can go in and individually group faces, but that's a massive hassle for models that can be into the tens of thousands of faces.

If your model consists of multiple meshes, you can

Select all other faces of the mesh using Select > Select Linked > Linked, Ctrl + L
Then separate the selected faces through Mesh > Separate > Selection, P
Or make each mesh into a separate object through Mesh > Separate > By Loose Parts, P


How can I bevel an object gradually? How would I go about making a bevel but making the bevel weight larger as its transitions from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4. As you can see below the bevel is only one weight. I need it to gradually and evenly get more weight as it goes from 1 to 4

It is hard to do it accurately in Blender, but you could approximate the result using the help of Proportional Edit

Just bevel regularly like you already did, but make sure you leave the 3D Cursor at the exact position of the original unbeveled corner vertex on 1.

If you already beveled you can place a loose vertex there and use the Shift+S menu then Cursor to Selected to snap it there.

Afterwards hide all geometry of your object by selecting it and pressing H (so it doesn't get unintentionally deformed), except for the beveled edges only.

Turn on Proportional Edit (O key by default), set Falloff Type to Linear then selecting only the tip vertex at 1 scale down as desired. Press Shift+X (Y or Z depending on the orientation of your model) to exclude the desired axis from scaling and prevent distortions, then adjust the influence radius with Mousewheel as desired.

In the end Alt+H to unhide hidden geometry


How to get a clip's source media starting and ending frame numbers? I've used the Blender VSE (2.77a) to edit 7 original source media files which are each about 20 mins in length.  I have been unable to get a usable render of the edited video project out of Blender so I need to transition the project to plan B.

My backup plan is to use a different piece of software to recut the original source media using my blender clips as a reference.

Ideally, Blender could spit out an Edit Decision List (EDL) sequential list of every clip in sequencer that looked like this:

'#'; SourceMediaFileName; VseStartFrame; VseEndFrame; SourceMediaStartFrame; SourceMediaEndFrame

I can't find any feature for this type of export in Blender so my other option would be to manually build this list.  My problem is that I'm having trouble locating the SourceMediaStartFrame and SourceMediaEndFrame (those are just random aliases) values.

When I select one of the clips in the Sequencer, the Edit Strip window shows the following relevant data:
Start Frame
Length
Final Length
Playhead
Frame Offset

Each of the original source media was about 77000 frames.  So what pieces of the Edit Strip data would tell me the start frame and end frame from the original source media for each clip?

If it can't be found here, where else would I look?  Is there any easier way to build an EDL of all of the clips in my Sequencer and their start/end frames in relation to the source media?

Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

-Caleb

Here is a script that prints strip details to the system console.  Note how the python property names are shown when you mouse over the field in the Properties Panel of the VSE. If this answer is heading in the right direction, give me a heads up and can edit to format the output more specifically to suit your needs.

import bpy

context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
vse = scene.sequence_editor

for strip in vse.sequences_all:
    # Edit Strip Panel
    print("-" * 72)
    print(strip.name)
    print(strip.type)
    # extend for other strip types.
    if strip.type in ['MOVIE']:
        print(strip.filepath)
    elif strip.type in ['SOUND']:
        print(strip.sound.filepath)
    print(strip.channel)
    print(strip.frame_start)
    print(strip.frame_final_duration)
    # Trim Duration (soft)
    print(strip.frame_offset_start)
    print(strip.frame_offset_end)


Rotate object or move object to certain position by clicking custom UI button I'm hoping to 3D print a simple robot controlled by an Arduino microcontroller, but first I am prototyping the design in Blender — I'm experimenting with controls, movements, actions etc. How do I move/rotate part of the robot in Blender — let's say "Robot_Arm_Lower" — to a predefined position? It only needs to be a simple button somewhere that just executes a basic command along the lines of "on button press move 'Robot_Arm_Lower' by rotating xyz and moving to location xyz". I'm guessing I need a simple Python script but I'm not sure where to start.

Hope that makes sense? Thank you.

I put together a small addon for you:

bl_info = {
    "name": "Move & rotate",
    "blender": (2, 80, 0),
    "location": "VIEW_3D > Tools > Move and rotate"
    }

import bpy
from bpy.types import (Panel,Operator,AddonPreferences,PropertyGroup)

xyz_rot = (0,0,0)
xyz_loc = (1,1,1)

class MYADDON_OT_rotate_obj(bpy.types.Operator):
    """rotate the obj"""
    bl_idname = "myops.rotate_obj"
    bl_label = "rotate_obj"

    def execute(self, context):
        #convert degrees to radians
        x = xyz_rot[0]*pi/180
        y = xyz_rot[1]*pi/180
        z = xyz_rot[2]*pi/180
        xyz_rot = (x,y,z)

        #Rotates all the selected objects: if you know the name of the obj you want to rotate use
        #bpy.data.objects["Robot_Arm_Lower"].rotation_euler = xyz_rot
        for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
            obj.rotation_euler = xyz_rot
        return {'FINISHED'}

class MYADDON_OT_move_obj(bpy.types.Operator):
    """move the obj"""
    bl_idname = "myops.move_obj"
    bl_label = "move_obj"

    def execute(self, context):
        #moves all the selected objects: if you know the name of the obj you want to move use
        #bpy.data.objects["Robot_Arm_Lower"].location = xyz_loc
        for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
            obj.location = xyz_loc
        return {'FINISHED'}
#-------------------UI-----------------------------------------------------

class MYOPS_PT_move_obj(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Tool tab"""
    bl_label = "Rotate & Move"
    bl_idname = "MYOPS_PT_move_obj_ui"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'
    bl_category = "Rotate & move"
    bl_context = "objectmode"

    @classmethod
    def poll(self,context):
        return True

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

        #Label
        layout.operator("myops.rotate_obj", text = "Rotate")
        layout.operator("myops.move_obj", text = "Move")

#-------------REGISTRATION--------------------
classes = (
    MYADDON_OT_rotate_obj,
    MYADDON_OT_move_obj,
    ROTATE_MOVE_PT_tool,
)

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()
    #Sometimes i get some registration errors when debugging an addon. If you get the same error try uncommenting the following lines
    #unregister()
    #register()

you may want to modify it to fit your needs: for example you may want to create 2 sliders to control the xyz_rot and xyz_loc from the UI without having to re-run the addon (btw, you don't need to install it from the user preferences like normal addons, you can just use it like a script if you want).

the addon/script creates a panel in the tool tab, but feel free to move it where you want

EDIT

As you mention in the comment you are running Blender 2.79b and you don't know how to use python, so you could try to use the following script:

import bpy
from math import pi

#change your parameters here
move = True          #If "True" the objects move: write "False" to disable it
rotate = True        #If "True" the objects rotate: write "False" to disable it
xyz_rot = (0,0,0)    #What rotation you want your objects to have (in degrees)
xyz_loc = (1,1,1)    #What position you want your objects to have
objName = ""         #The name of the object you want to move/rotate, if you need to move one object only.
#                     If you leave it as "" the script will move/rotate all the selected objects. (Recommended)

# ------------- CODE ----------------
#Rotates all the selected objects (or the desired object if objName is not "")
if rotate:
    #convert degrees to radians
    x = xyz_rot[0]*pi/180
    y = xyz_rot[1]*pi/180
    z = xyz_rot[2]*pi/180
    xyz_rot = (x,y,z)

    if objName == "":
        for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
            obj.rotation_euler = xyz_rot
    else:
        bpy.data.objects[objName].rotation_euler = xyz_rot

#Moves all the selected objects (or the desired object if objName is not "")
if move:
    if objName == "":
        for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
            obj.location = xyz_loc
    else:
        bpy.data.objects[objName].location = xyz_loc

To run it, just paste it in the text editor, play with the parameters at the top and hit the "run script" button.

Every time you run it the selected objects (or the object you put in objName) will rotate and/or move based on the two flags ("move" and "rotate") and the two "xyz_loc" and "xyz_rot".

This should work both in 2.79 and 2.80, but you don't get the fancy panel and buttons of the precedent code


Weight paint, I can't subtract but can draw I can draw in weight paint mode, but can't substract. Brush weight/strength are both 1.

With weight painting, you aren't actually painting any colour, you are just using painting tools to get a less technical approach to assigning values to each vertex. The colours you see are a visual indication of the value assigned, blender uses a colour ramp to indicate the value assigned, which is a range from 0.0 to 1.0.

The weight setting is the weight value you are assigning to each vertex, the strength will determine how many brush strokes it takes to get there. To remove the weight from a vertex, set it's weight to 0.0.


World background that is not reflected by Glossy objects I have a glossy object with a sky texture as world background. What I need is for the glossy object to not reflect the background and for the background to still be visible.

I tried this setup: Get glossy shading but no reflections (Cycles)
but this makes the bakground go black.

My setup screenshot:

To make the world background not affect Glossy surfaces you can simply disable the 'Glossy' Ray Visibility for the background :

Here the background has been made invisible for Glossy rays (so there is no reflection in the Glossy cube) but the background is still visible to the camera and still used to illuminate Suzanne (who is also shown reflected in the surface of the cube).


How to restrict vertex weights to no more than N number of Bones? I have a program that can animated a mesh using OpenGL but problematically it can only work and not crash when each vertex weight is affected as per the title to a maximum of four bones. The tutorial code I acquired used a simple model from some Morrowind inspired game where all it did was turn its head; in blender supposedly I can select each vertex individually and remove weights associated from unimportant bones but this seems tedious.

Is there a way to do this conveniently?

In weight paint mode, select the Weight Tools panel in the toolbar, and run Limit Total, This removes vertex groups with lowest weights.

This defaults to 4 which is a common limit for game-engines.

You can also choose which vertex groups are effected when using an armature (Only selected bones for example).

And if you want to only apply this to specific vertices, You can use vertex-select (VKey).


Why shrinkwrap not working on my mesh I added a normal cube and subdivided and added sub sub modifier. I want to shrinkwrap on the mesh but its not working on my object. I tried project in that all options but fails to shrinkwrap.

Whats I am doing wrong that I cannot achieve shrinkwrap on the mesh.

Any suggestion or help? Thanks

scaling to x axis mesh getting distrub

Apply scale (Ctrl+A -> Scale) for target model:


Using a Blender textured 3d model in PowerPoint I have created a 3D model and added texture to it in Blended.

How do I save the file in a way that it keeps the texture so I can use it in PowerPoint 365.

Seem to always lose the colour and end up with just the model shape.

Thanks,

Export GLB file with it's textures and import it to PowerPoint.

how to set up the glb textures properly is shown here:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/addons/io_scene_gltf2.html

Edit:
This is the setup for the textures

and then import from file


I have accidentally toggled something to show some weird dotted lines I have just accidentally toggled on some weird dotted lines. Any idea how to turn these off. P.S. the model was imported from Fusion 360.

These are relationship lines which display the relationship between parented objects. You can disable this in the viewport overlay settings.


How to make loop perimeter using Control Bevel operation I have selected a loop area on my object and I'm doing the control bevel operation to divide up the mesh. But its creating a loop which goes within the mesh on its -Z direction making like bevelled edge. What I;m trying to achieve is like the sample C. Is saw a tutorial with a Blender user having Hard OPS add-on, and he got what I have in Sample C, (which I did in photoshop just for the purpose of showing what result I'd like to achieve).

You can do this with the Face Inset tool.
Select the outer faces. Press I to activate Inset.
Un-check Boundary
Set the tool to Offset Even
To select the newly created faces use Select Outer
Then just adjust the thickness.

To keep the object flat keep the depth at Zero.


How add dimensions[0] of selected objects? I need to add all the x axis dimension of the selected objects in my scene.

I try with

for i in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    dim = i.dimensions[0]
    dimX = sum(dim[:])

The sum command don't work, dim isn't a list.
How can i do that please ?

You overwrite dim and dimX in every iteration of your loop, you do not add something to a list.

If you need a list of all dimensions you can use

dim = []
for i in bpy.context.selected_objects :
    dim.append(i.dimensions[0])
dimX = sum(dim[:])

dim will then contain all dimensions and dimX will contain the sum. dim is initialized as an empty list and the loop appends the dimensions to it. Note the indentation of the last line: dimX needs to be on the same height as for, otherwise python will think that it belongs to the for loop and execute it in every iteration.

If you just want the sum of the x dimensions you can add them up into a variable that you initialized with 0 first:

dimX = 0
for i in bpy.context.selected_objects :
    dimX += i.dimensions[0]


How to limit a bone between other two bones, for scale and position I have this situation:

I want the bone "A" to always be between the other two bones, extension included. This bone receives user movement, grab and scale, using any number of extra bones.

I already tried to give bone "A" constraints like Floor and that worked nice, but it doesn't work for the other handle of the bone.

This second image show an auto adjustment making this effect, using Floor and  Stretch, but the interaction bone (the selected one) lacks for limits in it's extreme, making it imprecise.

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but I'll take a guess:

If you want A's base to be at B's base and A's tip to be at C's base, you might benefit from drivers.

Unfortunately, the expressions to map from B and C to the proper pose for A would not be trivial.

Also, blender has some shortcomings in its dependency system that prevents intra-armature drivers from being calculated correctly in some circumstances.


Mesh has invisible parts after exporting This is my mesh in Blender:

And this my mesh when placed in UDK:

As you can see it doesn't have the human head/chest part, parts of the hood are invisible, and it has some white lines. Why?

It looks like:

The human mesh's normals are flipped. You can correct that by selecting all of it in edit mode (A) and then pressing CtrlN
The hood/robe mesh has no thickness, so parts of it will disappear due to backface culling. You can fix this by adding some thickness with the Solidify modifier.


Render an animation with 2 different cameras but at the same time I have two different cameras covering my animation. Is there any way that I can make them both render at the same time so that I don't have to render each view out manually?

Copy your scene and render both scenes. To do so go to the top of your window and click the + next to your scene and choose Link Objects.

Next select the inactive camera and make it active.

Then go to compositing and check Use Nodes. Now delete the Composite node and add another Render Layer node (Add > Input > Render Layer).

Select the newly created scene in the new Render Layer node.

Now add two File Output nodes (Add > Output > File Output), and input each of the renderlayer nodes into an output node.

Lastly, in each of the output nodes, navigate to the paths that you want each camera location to be saved to. But be careful not to choose the same path for both nodes, because one output will overwrite the other.

All that's left is to hit render animation and watch the magic happen.


Texture on a flat plane without duplication I want to add a texture on a flat plane without the texture repeating again and again on the same plane. I have confirmed that the type of texture is "image or movie." I have already selected and loaded the image. I want to use the internal rendering engine. What am I doing wrong?

There is an internal add-on called "Add Images As Planes" This will allow you to import images as a plane with the proper scaling for X and Y. I find it very helpful.


Adapt dimension axis of an object to viewport i run into following problem: i try to make a wheel out of a cylinder. after creating the cylinder i rotate it 90° on x-axis. now i want to adapte the width of the wheel. unfortunately the object dimension axis is now not the same anymore like the viewport axis. when i reduce the width by changing the values in the dimension tab i have to change z instead of y (like it is in the viewport) to control the width. how can i change the dimension axis of the object (so that it aligns with the viewport again?).

Try Object->Apply->Rotation. This should make the object's current orientation the 'real' orientation.


How to simulate falling small pieces of paper to the ground? It's like when someone wins a prize at a party on TV. Small colored pieces of paper fall from the ceiling. That's what I'm trying to simulate. I managed to do everything using a particle system except the final part of physics. When the particles (planes) touch the ground (a scaled cube), they don't go back to their horizontal position. Their final positions give the feeling as if they are darted to the ground.

How to make them adjust their rotation to the horizontal position when they touch or collide with the ground?

Thank you,

If you want the pieces to collide with the floor, convert particles to mesh and apply rigid body. Make the floor passive rigid body and the pieces active one.


Use MeasureIt value in driver Do values from the MeasureIt add-on have a data path we can point to when using drivers ?
I've scrolled through the code but couldn't figure it out.

I just discovered custom functions which are a way to expand driver functions using python. This way I can use any complex geometrical calculation in a driver with the help of numpy and math.


Rotated array modifier around constant origin? I'm trying to use an array modifier with a rotated empty to expand and contract six sectors of a circle. When I move the actual mesh, I want the five copies to move directly away from the origin. However, when I move the actual wedge, the copies are offset by the position of the empty, not just the rotation, so they don't move directly away from the origin. The second, expanded, picture is how I want it to look, but for the picture I had to move the wedge, then set its origin back to the center. Is there an easy way to do this without changing the origin each time?

Contracted:

Expanded:

You can add a Copy Location modifier to the Empty, from Word Space to Local Space.

Notice that this will create a dependency cycle that will result in a delay in the updates.


Reversed Inset a face of a mesh I'm not a pro at 3d modeling, but i can do more and more everyday. There is one thing I do hate is when i need to make like a window or door frame out of a hole in a cube mesh and having to reface everything so no face overlapping.
Is there a way to inset a face of a mesh outside of the bounderies of that face and do not overlay new faces with faces next to the inseted face?
I would like something like that with the red line.

The red line you want would create n-gons.
But if you build the frame differently, you can simply add a loopcut.


Mesh does not move with the Rig As a summery I used a preexisting model removed it's rig as it does'nt satisfy the requirements, and used a basic human rig in rigify and generated the version as in file.But right now i am stuck in moving the model as my mesh isn't moving with the joint motions.Anyone have idea of where I might have gone wrong?

Blender File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NT1oiu2R7IW5UBJFVDuPxx07A88AaQoR/view?usp=sharing

Well fixed the error,the mesh wasn't selected with the joints, if anyone else come to this point,

After generating the rig as above follow the following steps,
Hide up the additional rigging stuff by H
select the bone structure, you can find it in the layers in the display menu
Ctrl + Z to get wireframe of the model
select the mesh then the joint structure (Use shift)
Then apply automatic weights (setting joint structure as the parent)

For more info follow this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYiAd_08-0k


how can I render Smoke&fire in Cycles 2.79? I`m attaching 2 screenshots to illustrate my problem, I made a generic explosion simulation which looks fine in Material\Object mode, and the next screenshot demonstrates what I actually get when trying to render it.
Tried to bake it, changed to CPU, nothing works. Would be glad to know how to solve it]1

Firstly. Your nodes:

This setup is by no means perfect but it should work. Attach it to your smoke simulation domain.

If that doesn't work, try placing down a single circle, filled. Go to:

Objects --> Quick Effects --> Quick Smoke.

Play animation...

If you render and it works, then there is something wrong with your nodes/object. I recommend trying to recreate your previous attempt.
As annoying as it may seem, you should have a better idea on how to recreate it and will replicate it faster.

If it doesn't work there may be something you have changed in your render settings. Try doing the Quick Smoke method on a new document and see if it works. I still have much learn about blender myself so I can't help you there, sorry.
There shouldn't be any issues with GPU rendering in 2.79.

Good luck, Hope I helped,

BFB


How does snapping work for Scale tool? When I try using snapping for scale it works only with Increment type (when Snap button is turned off and I keep Ctrl key pressed, with Snap button turned on snapping for Scale tool doesn't work at all). My question is: is there a way of snapping to vertex, face and edge while scaling in Object or Edit mode. Why does snapping work for Move tool and doesn't work for scaling? I don't believe that it can be so.

Changes have been made to improve the way snapping works.
You can now choose which type of snap affects transformations.

In the snap popover towards the bottom activate Scale to use vertex snapping while scaling objects.


Viewport clipping noise(?) with a huge object I'm trying to work with a really large object (XYZ approx. 8,000x7,000x8,000 meters) and the viewport seems to have trouble showing just the things facing me at the corners. It's like things become partially transparent at this scale when they're "near" each other (see animated gif, it's hard to describe). Is there any way to fix this and get a clean display? I want to work at 1:1 scale, should I not at this size?

When dealing with very large or very small objects it is likely that you run into problems with lack of precision in the depth buffer. 3d engines cannot precisely determine which objects are in front of others, creating z-figthing. The fix is to adjust the Clip Range so that it encompasses your scene, no more, no less.
Select the camera, then in the camera section of the properties window set clip start and clip end.

To visualize the clip range, enable Viewport Display > Show > Limits


Is it possible to create image data and save to a file from a script I'm currently trying to extract textures from a binary file, and ideally I'd like to save each texture to a file or embed in the .blend file. However, before saving an image, I need to be able to create an image in memory from an array of pixel data.

The PIL library contains the kinds of functions I need to use, but it is not included with Blender. Is there anything similar to PIL in Blender? bpy.ops.image seems to be close to what I need, but lacks necessary pixel set/manipulation functions.

Yes its possible, heres an example

size = 640, 480

import bpy
# blank image
image = bpy.data.images.new("MyImage", width=size[0], height=size[1])

## For white image
# pixels = [1.0] * (4 * size[0] * size[1])

pixels = [None] * size[0] * size[1]
for x in range(size[0]):
    for y in range(size[1]):
        # assign RGBA to something useful
        r = x / size[0]
        g = y / size[1]
        b = (1 - r) * g
        a = 1.0

        pixels[(y * size[0]) + x] = [r, g, b, a]

# flatten list
pixels = [chan for px in pixels for chan in px]

# assign pixels
image.pixels = pixels

# write image
image.filepath_raw = "/tmp/temp.png"
image.file_format = 'PNG'
image.save()


Why are some of my command line arguments being ignored? I am trying to render an animation of gears. In the GUI I have set the options shown in the picture below and when I press Ctrl+F12 the animation renders and saves each frame as a '.jpg' file to the /tmp/ directory.

However, when I try running from the command line using
blender.exe -b .\gear_colored_last.blend -f 1 --render-format PNG --render-output //render_ --debug-all

I get the following output:

As you can see, it tries to save '.jpg' files under /tmp/. The only argument it took was the frame number -f. All other arguments were ignored in favour of those saved in the GUI. How do I overwrite the GUI settings from the command line?
I am using Windows 10 and blender 2.83.

Blender doesn't get to read any of the arguments after -f 1, as per the manual:

Note
Arguments are executed in the order they are given!
The following command will not work, since the output and extension are set after Blender is told to render:
blender -b file.blend -a -x 1 -o //render
The following command will behave as expected:
blender -b file.blend -x 1 -o //render -a
Always position -f or -a as the last arguments.


How do I add a downloaded texture to an object in 'simple' mode Firstly I just want to add a downloaded texture image to an object in Blender 2.92 to ALL surfaces, I do not want to apply a different texture/materials to each face.  I have watched a video tutorial which uses version 2.80 which I can follow using 2.80 but in 2.92 I have come to a 'wall'. I select my object, open the material panel, select NEW, click on the small o next to Base Color to select an image instead of a color which in 2.82 opens a window to select a texture type. This does not happen in 2.92 and I can't work out what to do. Help.

Just to provide a quick gif, if anything changed in 2.92.

Click Base Color > Image Texture
Select Open (it will open a new window)
Navigate to your texture

(to have textures visible on your model, you need to be in Material preview)


Is there a way to delete objects without confirmation? I'm a beginner in Blender. I started using it and found that in order to delete something I gotta confirm the action.

Can it be disabled?

From Blender 2.8 onwards you can delete without confirmation by pressing Delete.
Though deleting with X by default asks for a confirmation, you can opt out of this by changing the keymap for Object Mode> Delete as commented by @sambler.


Best way to make fillets I'm trying to model a casted water pump and need the edges to be blended (fillets?) as shown in the photo. I have tried creating the parts and joining them together via Boolean union. But the edges will not bevel. Is there a better way to achieve this?

It would help if you showed your current topology, but if I had to do it from the beginning I would do it this way: extrude the mesh from the torus, as it will preserve a coherent mesh, it will simplify the creation of the bevel.


Align vertex to another edge I have a mesh where the faces should connect at the center in a single vertex, but the top is cut off at the moment (like a pyramid without its top). I want to add this top now, but I don't know how to correctly align it.
Here is an illustration of what I want to achieve:

And a second question:
How would I know resize this pyramid-like shape? I mean, the base should stay the size it is, but the rest should go higher or lower. It is obviously easy if every side of the pyramid is only a single face, but since my sides contain multiple faces, I don't know how to preserve the angles.
Again an image, since I'm really bad at describing.

Thank you.

Use aligning viewport to selected mesh elements (in this case, edge of the pyramid). This is faster than creating custom transform orientation, however you should keep track of viewport angle.

Select one of pyramid's edges. Set Selection mode to Edge.
Press Shift+Numpad 3 to enter Side Ortho view for selected edge.
Enable Snap during transform, set Type of element to snap to Vertex.
Select vertex to be aligned to the top. Press Alt+Space and select View to set transform orientation to View and to move selection along it.
Grab vertex while choosing for tranform only X or Y axes. Depending on the view press Y or X twice for that. Hover mouse over vertices of pyramid's edges to align selection to them.

(Addition - if the pyramid doesn't have perpendicular side edges)

Set transform orientation to Normal. Set Pivot Point to Active Element. With the top vertex still selected, select one more, which was hovered over while aligning in the step 5.
S to scale based on location of the last selected vertex. Lock normal X axis by pressing Shift+X twice. Hover mouse over top vertex of the side edge of the pyramid which is seen in the middle of the pyramid (in Side Ortho view).

While this method is a bit more complex, it provides exact aligning of the top vertex making all the side edges of the same length; thus no faces will be splitted in the middle of the pyramid and the shading will be better. You can preview the gif for simple case in the version history.

See also How do I align the viewport to a face normal?


Change objects in sculpt mode? In zbrush I can select other objects in my scene by alt clicking the object or selecting the object in its layer section. From what I've tried with sculpting in 2.8, If I want something similar I have to enter layout mode, select the new object, then go back into sculpt mode. Selecting a different object in the collections tab, while already in sculpt mode, does not switch to a different object, but is possible in other modes like edit mode. Is there some shortcut I'm missing or is leaving sculpt mode and selecting the another object the only way to change sculptable objects? Is it not possible to do while already in sculpt mode?

1.- You have to disable "lock object mode", which is in the Edit menu
(if "lock object mode" is enabled you can not select another object besides the active one without leave sculpt mode)

2.- You have to select every object and enter sculpt mode in every one of them

Supplementary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXNZIIDZC48


Donut tutorial: Source Objects used for sprinkle particles is showing up in render. How do I hide them? Did I mess up my collections? Blender 2.92.0
Part 2 level 2 of the tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ5ungDgFNc
Already looking at this it seems I've messed up the collections of the sprinkles somehow? I see double of sprinkles in the Outliner, one set at the very bottom in no collection and one in a collection (they are all still linked together) - I don't know how I managed that. In the tutorial he only had the whole set of sprinkle objects in one collection - is this related to my render problem and if so how do I go on about making it look the same again without messing up the materials I have set up and such?
Main issue is I need help hiding the source objects of the sprinkles so they don't end up in the final render - I do recall there was some setting or hotkeys on how to change the visibility of the objects for the viewport and renders respectively but I can't find how to easily toggle it.
Thank you in advance!
My settings:
My render:

If you uncheck the checkbox next to your sprinkles collection circled in red, it will hide the objects in the collection, while still showing the particles on the donut.


How to fill an .obj and stich edges together? I recently Created a 3D model with sculptris using sheets indead of the solid sphere normally provided (in hindsight not the best idea) but a lot of the edges don't touch leaving gaps in the mesh and the model is hollow. i was wondering if there is any way to "stitch" the edges together and make the object solid?

Thank you.

If you want to "stitch" the open gaps together, try going into edit mode, selecting some vertices you want to stitch and press "F", which will connect the vertices together and create a face. Mess around with that for awhile and you should get the hang of it.


How to make fire flow from one point of an object to another I have a simple fire scene:
As you can see, it's a ring with fire flowing up from it. How can I make the fire animation start with a small flame that grows, and eventually sets the entire ring on fire.

Quickest way I could work out:
Use a 'screw' modifier on a circle, with an animated angle (and an empty to rotate the circle around), then use this as the emitter. You'd probably want to put it inside your torus object and make it not render.
This works in Blender 2.81a (old smoke sim) and Mantaflow (November 26th 2019 build).
here's what it looks like- https://youtu.be/7h7JBEYuu1Q

And here's the .blend file (old 2.81a smoke sim) to pull apart- https://www.dropbox.com/s/zfctf8g5x31j9iu/FireReveal01.blend?dl=0

I tried using a simple wipe white-over-black image sequence as a UV mapped texture on the emitter/flow object, but both the old smoke sim and Mantaflow ignored it (just got a quarter of the torus on fire that didn't move) so don't waste your time with that!


How can I apply a ripple effect on the screen/camera (not on puddles or rivers) I want to find a way to do this. And all I found was about rivers and other stuff. I've recently played sonic generations and every time I boost/speed up there's a ripple effect on the screen I want to do a similar thing in my animations. Any suggestions ??

You can also use dynamic paint to obtain many ripple effects in a more flexible way than using the compositor uniquely :

The usage may be different from the one you could obtain with the compositor, but this approach can interest you.

Here is the settings :

A plane, with a subsurface modifier (set to 'simple' in order to keep it angular)
And a dynamic paint modifier

In the physics panel of the plane, set the dynamic paint to canvas, then to wave and eventually adjust the parameters :

Make another mesh (or several, here I used a sphere) and add it also a dynamic paint modifier, but this time set it to brush :

And you are done : simply move the brush object into the canvas surface and it makes ripples during the animation (you need to run the animation to obtain it).

You can mix it with your animation, using for instance a glass shader, or putting it in another layer and merge it with the compositor.


About Hair Animation I'm sorry if this question  already exists but I couldn't find it.

I know that there is an option for modifiers to extend the animation to more than 250 frames, but I cant find this option for the hair, so when making a video that is more than 250 the character keep moving but the hair stop moving.

How can I extend the hair animation to more than 250 frames?

You have to bake the hair dynamics. Sometimes the Blender bakes something automatically, sometimes not. The surething is the Bake button.


How to add a game object to another scene at a specific position? Here is some code for getting a object and adding it to another scene:

import bge
# to load the scene
bge.logic.addScene('Scene.001')

#find the scene and object

scenes = bge.logic.getSceneList()
for scene in scenes :
    if scene.name == 'Scene.001':
        player= scene.objects['player']

scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()
ob =bge.logic.getCurrentController().owner
ob1=scene.addObject("player",ob)

When I play it seem that the "player" from the other scene is added in the camera's position of the current scene.

The add object function works by adding the new object (the first parameter) at the location of another game object (the second parameter).

With these two lines you are specifying that it adds the player the at location of the object your script is on (probably your camera).

ob =bge.logic.getCurrentController().owner
ob1=scene.addObject("player",ob)

Here is how to fix it.

Add a new empty, parent it to your camera if you need the player always spawning relative to the camera. If you want the player to always spawn in one spot, then do not parent the empty.

Now use the new empty as the location for where you add the player.

empty = scene.objects['Empty']
ob1 = scene.addObject(player, empty)


Gradually flatten overlapping vertices on XY-Plane I would like to connect plane with ocean modifier to a flat plane.

I m thinking to keep an x-distance overalapping and i would like to apply a weighted-average that will start moving gradually all vertices of ocean plane to the flat plane.
Does anyone know how that can be achieved?
In link below I have attached the blender file.
https://files.fm/u/rty9tnrz3
Thank you all in advance!
P.S I would like to use this technique for animation purposes

You could select all vertices along the rightmost edge of the ocean, activate proportional editing with a sufficiently large radius and scale to zero in Z-direction.
(Will try to post screenshots later, if necessary!)
In case you want to keep the ocean modifier, you might be interested in using the lattice modifier
With the lattice vertices scaled to zero height at the right side, the ocean will gradually lose amplitude towards the right. Use the "linear" interpolation to get it totally flat on that side.


How do I get constraints to work in game engine? In the game engine, my object needs to point at a target. How can I get it to aim at something that is constantly moving in unpredictable patterns?
The constraints actuator does not have a "track to" that I can see however the 'track to' is exactly the effect I want.
I'm using v. 2.71.

Ok. got i figured out.
i just needed to use the "edit object" actuator and change it to track.

I was trying to create a gun that aimed at a moving object, which, in my case was cross-hairs that moved with my mouse. The problem I encountered was that when I added a 'Track To' object constraint to my gun, it would work in object or edit mode. However, when the game went into run-time, the object would stay immobile rather than tracking to my cursor as it had before.

The solution was removing the object constraint under the properties panel, and adding an 'Edit Object' actuator to the gun, changing the type to 'Track To'and selecting the cross-hairs as the target object.

Afterword, enabling '3D' tracking allowed my weapon to follow the cursor even above the 2-dimensional plane it was on.


Importing OBJ File to the center with correct orientation I'm trying to work with blender and having a hard time with this program. I would like to import a obj-file as quoted in the title but have finally only managed to see it at least somewhere on my screen. What steps do I need to take to import obj-files properly?

This ist what I see after import. I have marked the file in the object list:

And this is what I see when I go to View > View selected:

Can this be to small?

If the object is already in the scene, select it. In the 3D viewport, open the transform panel (little cross on the right). You will see the location. Click on X, Y and Z and change their values to 0, this should put the object at the center of the scene.

Here is a picture where you can see which fields you need to change. You can then change the Rotation to give it the desired orientation.

For the orientation, you can also choose it when you import the OBJ file. When you do File -> Import -> Wavefront, you will be given the choice for the forward and up axes of the object :


Colors in baked texture I'm trying to bake a procedurally generated texture. Everything seems to work except the colors seem to be off from what I expect. To narrow things down, I've removed everything from my shader except an emit shader with an rgb color (255, 0, 0) and intensity 1. If I just render the object using cycles, the colors shows up as a red (255,0,0). However, when I bake this into a texture and save it to a file, the red colour is now (206,0,0).
I'm a bit lost as to where the problem could be! Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

The solution was the color management. Setting it to raw gave me what I expected.


Lock a background image from being easily deleted? The hide/show background image button is just a few pixels to the left of the delete background image button.

When I need to toggle hiding and showing the image (my eyes go off the hide/show button and watch the image alignment with my model), I sometimes hit the delete because my mouse will creep a few pixels to the right. Then I have to load, align, resize, move and rotate the image all over again every time this happens!

Is there an image lock add on, feature or any workaround to stop or prevent this?

There is a way if you are willing to edit Python files in the Blender installation... Go to to the directory Blender/2.78/scripts/startup/bl_ui and edit the file space_view3d.py in a text editor (after you made a backup)

Search for the line

row.operator("view3d.background_image_remove", text="", emboss=False, icon='X').index = i

This is the code that adds the delete button. Add the following line in the front of it:

row.label(text="  ")

This line adds an (invisible) text consisting of two spaces between the eye icon and the delete button. You can change the number of spaces as you like. Result:

And in the future when you upgrade your Blender version, repeat the procedure. Not very convenient, I know :)


linux+cycles+cuda: nvcc fatal: Value 'sm_52' is not defined for option 'gpu-architecture' I'm getting the error in the title. This has some of the same problems from here. Apparently this is an issue with an earlier version of the CUDA 6.5 toolkit, as discussed here.

However, even after installing the CUDA 7.0 toolkit, I'm still getting the following error:

"/usr/local/cuda-6.0/bin/nvcc" -arch=sm_52 -m64 --cubin "/usr/share/blender/2.74/scripts/addons/cycles/kernel/kernel.cu" -o "/home/jozxyqk/.config/blender/2.74/cache/cycles_kernel_sm52_680206C327F9D352594B0E249634D211.cubin" --ptxas-options="-v" --use_fast_math -I"/usr/share/blender/2.74/scripts/addons/cycles/kernel" -DNVCC -D__KERNEL_CUDA_VERSION__=60
nvcc fatal   : Value 'sm_52' is not defined for option 'gpu-architecture'
CUDA kernel compilation failed, see console for details.

Why is this happening?

Two reasons:

The cuda-7.0 toolkit installer failed to properly set permissions, so blender can't see the nvcc from the proper location.
When blender can't read using the symlink cuda in /usr/local/cuda/bin/nvcc it seems to search for nvcc using cuda-<version>/ instead. But it does it in the wrong order, also without reporting the permission issue.

Without others-readable permissions on /usr/local/cuda-7.0/, the symlink /usr/local/cuda fails and blender tries /usr/local/cuda-6.0/bin/nvcc even though a newer /usr/local/cuda-6.5/bin/nvcc exists.

The solution:

sudo chmod -R o+rX /usr/local/cuda-7.0/

Had no other toolkits been installed the error would have been:

which: no nvcc in ($PATH)
CUDA nvcc compiler not found. Install CUDA toolkit in default location.


How to make a precise bolt hole in a simpler way? I'm new to blender and using it to create 3d objects for my printer.
Part of this is "cutting" holes for bolts very precisely which I managed to do but my way is so long/tedious I must be missing something.

Here are my steps which I am illustrating with an imaginary use case I created for proper step-by-step exposure of my method.

My bold head is 0.8m radius (1.6m diameter) and 0.5m height.The thread of the bold is 0.6 radius (1.2m diameter) and infinite lenght. I'm cutting this hole in the center of the "top" face of the default 2m cube.

So here are my steps:

I am creating two curve>circle in object mode with respective radius of 0.8 and 0.6 for the bolt head/thread. I precisely position them where I want (here, at the center 0,0)

I then select both circles and the cube, go in edit mode and mesh>knife project (cut through).

I delete the "top" round faces and extrude the bottom Annulus (apparently that's how it's called) 1.5 meter (since 0.5m is my bold head height).

Since I extruded it, the "bottom face" has gone up and it's missing in bottom position.

So I select every edge as shown below and "bride edge loop" them.

Now I need to create the faces for the bolt head housing so I do a similar operation (select every edge as shown below and "bride edge loop" them).

Then I check with the 3D printing extension and I have 96 Non-Manifold edges.

Thanks to What is non-manifold geometry? I realize it's because of internal faces so I tediously delete all the edges constituting the internal faces.

I then get the result below but checking again with the "Check all" 3D printing extension I have 96 bad contig. edges.

But this time the "Make Manifold" auto-resolve is working for me so it's finally good.

At this point, I've spend a lot of time for what I would expect to be a simple task, how would you do it in a faster/simpler way ?

I'd do it almost your way, just skipping a couple of steps..

As you did, knife Project and cut through
Deselect the bottom faces, and E extrude the top faces downard, numerically entering the depth of 0.5 in the 'last operator' panel
Select the top and bottom inner faces, and..
...'Bridge Edge Loops' (you don't need to delete)

However, if your topology is simple enough to stand it, and you wouldn't need to do too much tidying afterwards.. you could just make and duplicate the bolts in the correct dimensions, and cut them all out in a single boolean operation.


A graphics card and driver with support for OpenGL 3.3 or higher is required error I can't execute newest Blender 2.80, it says that I need a graphics card that supports OpenGL 3.3 or higher
ERROR: A graphics card and driver with support for OpenGL 3.3 or higher is required

Processor: AMD A6-3670 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics, 2695MHz
BIOS Version: HPQOEM - 1072009
Dedicated GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6530D Graphics

This is a very old PC, but when I search online it seems that theoretically Blender 2.8 should run since my openGL is 4.4

Unfortunately your graphics card doesn't fulfill the minimum requirements of Blender 2.8. The Radeon HD 6530D has the old Terascale 2 architecture and GCN first generation or newer is required. You won't be able to run Blender 2.8 on your hardware.