Geometry node booleon material Hi any idea to insert color from other booleon object in geometry node.

you just assign a material as you did before like this:

result:


How to change UVMap index? I need to change indexes for UVMaps.
Here the screenshot:

I tried like this, according to ths page https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2493920/how-to-switch-position-of-two-items-in-a-python-list :

import bpy

cubeObject = bpy.context.scene.objects[0]
cubeObject.data.uv_textures[0], cubeObject.data.uv_textures[1] = cubeObject.data.uv_textures[1], cubeObject.data.uv_textures[0]

But I got this Exception:

read blend: /home/mifth/Desktop/2223/uvs.blend
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/mifth/Desktop/2223/uvs.blend/Text", line 4, in <module>
IndexError: bpy_prop_collection[index] = value: failed assignment (unknown reason)

This is very important for exporting models to game engines like Unity, Unreal, jMonkey, Ogre3D...

Thanks.

According to the blender 2.69 python API reference, uv_textures is a bpy_prop_collection of MeshTexturePolyLayer and it is read only. It would appear to be accessed in Python as a dictionary of key/value pairs (try bpy.context.active_object.data.uv_textures.items() in Blender's Python console). This would be why the array re-ordering techniques fail to work.

I'm not sure that this is the best way but it appears to work. Test to see if it fixes the export order.

import bpy

mesh = bpy.context.active_object.data

mesh.uv_textures.active_index = 0
tmpuvmap = mesh.uv_textures.active
tmpuvmap_name = tmpuvmap.name

newuvmap = mesh.uv_textures.new()
mesh.uv_textures.remove(tmpuvmap)
newuvmap.name = tmpuvmap_name

By setting active_index = 0, the call to new() duplicates the first UVMap, putting a duplicate of it at the end before deleting the first item.

This appears to give the same result as manually selecting the first item, clicking + to create a new UVMap then deleting the first item within blender.


Transformation Constraint with Animation nodes? Is it possible to do Transformation Constraints with Animation Nodes?
I would like control an object rotation over another object location/translation.

Yes, this is possible.
You can read an object's transform values with the Object Transforms Input node and set them on another object with the Object Transforms Output node.

If you'd like to read an object's absolute location in world space as it might be the child of some other object, you could use the Object Matrix Input node.


How to rotate multiple faces in the same direction I'd like to know how to select multiple faces and rotate them along the z-axis (or along any other axis) in the same direction? I know this may be a pretty simple question and has been answered somewhere, but I just don't know what to google.

Of course you could rotate every single face individually, but that would be really time consuming. The effect I'm looking for is something like in this picture:

Change pivot point to Individual Origins and rotate on Z axis, or instead of rotate you can Shear the faces from top view, with Median Point Pivot using Shift+CTRL+ALT+S and drag the mouse until you get the angle that you need.


materials.alpha not working Not seeing anything different on the screen when setting the alpha property.
Any clues?

def color(name, diffuse, specular, alpha):
    mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name)
    mat.diffuse_color = diffuse
    mat.diffuse_intensity = 1.0
    mat.specular_color = specular
    mat.alpha = alpha
    bpy.context.object.active_material = mat

act.color('Red', (1,0,0), (1,1,1), 1)
# tried 0.5, 0.25, 0.001 etc..

This solved my issue:

    mat.transparency_method = 'Z_TRANSPARENCY'
    # need the following 2 lines for alpha to work
    mat.use_transparency = True
    bpy.context.object.show_transparent = True


Using texture painting on an existing node material blender newbie here. For a school project I'm trying to create sort of a promo image of a table with a pattern laser etched into it. My first plan was to create a wood material using nodes and then using texture painting overlay the pattern on parts of the model where I need it, but I'm struggling with this. Can texture painting and node materials even be combined? If not, what would the approach to doing something like this be? Also for the texture painting, is it possible to use an image with a transparent background as some sort of a stamp, or am I stuck retracing the pattern by hand?
Thanks a lot for all answers!
I'm using Blender 2.92, rendering through Cycles
--Edit--
Example of the effect I'm going for. Image or a pattern etched/engraved (not sure which to use, sorry, English is not my first language) into wood. I don't need to deform the mesh of the object, having the image just stuck to the surface would be more than enough.

Yes it can be done. Here is a very crude example:

Here's the node tree:

To paint with an image stencil, create a new Brush and set the type to "Image or Movie" and then select the pattern image as the image in the Image settings.


Rendering from Blender Game I made a physics simulation in the Blender Game engine. Is there a way to somehow render it as an animation as I normally would with keyframes in Blender internal engine? Or is there a way to convert the positions and rotations of the objects to keyframes?

In the Info Area select Game - Record Animation. Then start the game engine. This will keyframe all rigid bodies and you can render the scene in BI or cycles.


How can curves be converted to meshes? Is is possible to remove the curves and only have the mesh of a tree that was created with the saplings add-on?

I'd like to apply a decimate modifier to have a few low-poly trees, but this doesn't work because of the curves. I get this message: "Cannot apply constructive modifiers on a curve."

The reason you can't use a "constructive modifier" on a curve is because a curve has to be defined by mathematical control points instead of free-floating vertices. You can visualize the decimate modifier in the viewport or render, but if you were to actually apply it you might create a shape that can't be represented by the control point equations, and then you would have broken mathematics.

The way to fix this is to convert your curve to a mesh. Select the tree and use AltC:

Here's the result:

Then any mesh-based modifiers will work fine.


How do I create a particle system with an object that already has a particle system I am working on a project and used a particle system to create the branches of a tree. I am now trying to make take that tree and create another particle system in order to create a forest with many of these trees. The problem is when I create the second particle system the trees show up without the branches of the tree or the first particle system. Lmk what I can do to solve this problem or if there is any other information you need to answer.

In the modifier tab on the source object, apply the particle system modifier. This will turn the branches of the tree into individual objects. Then, select all of the branches as well as the tree trunk as the active object and join them together. This will give you one object that can then be used as the object when rendering the forest particle system.


Blender crashing on start I started blender up today and it crashes on launch. I uninstalled, and re-installed to no avail. I tried debugging and the following information is available:

Unhandled exception at 0x00007FFBC58BC2A0 (Wacom_Tablet.dll) in blender.exe: Stack cookie instrumentation code detected a stack-based buffer overrun.

As the error refers to a "Wacom_tablet.dll", I have been using the tablet with blender with no issue until today.

Any advice on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated.

I resolved this by uninstalling all blender software, and all wacom drivers and software. Thereafter I re-installed the respective drivers and software.

Note: This issue seems to have arose at random as I have been using the wacom tablet with that specific driver version for a number of weeks. It should be noted that this error was presented itself in blender vers. 2.77 and 2.79.


Using one baked texture uv map for other objects of the same overall geometry I have multiple objects that are walls, all using the same texture, do l have to bake a separate UV map for each or can l reuse the first map, and then apply it to each other wall, there is a link object function, tried it, but only transferred the material not the t baked texture.
regards

Answer:
1. -name all textures
2. -select object you want material assigned to
3. switch to edit mode on the selected object.
4. go to the materials subsection on the tools bar
5. select material you want on the object
6. press assign - and the material is assigned to the selected object -

material is assigned to the object, and can be viewed in the texture view..
repeat as many times as required.
QED


How to delete keyframes in the armature some keyframes are undeletable in dope sheet.

But, they can be deleted one by one in 3D view in object mode.....
This is annoying... How to delete all the keyframes at once?

The file is attached below:

untitle.blend

As you see on my screenshot, some bones have been assigned to some invisible layers, so, even if you can see that there are some active keyframes on the top horizontal tracks of your Dopesheet, you can't see what bones, nor delete those keyframes.

So you can either:

Enable these layers to display those bones (in the 3D view) and their keyframes (in the Dopesheet)
Click on the button Include Channels From Objects/Bones That Are Not Visible (phantom icon) on the horizontal menu on the bottom of your Dopesheet window to display these hidden keyframes in the Dopesheet


how to get character textures to flow? I'm very new to the whole material/texturing pipeline, and i've been having trouble figuring out how people get their materials to follow the form nicely. Like if I have a material for a scale texture, how do i get it to follow the flow of the creature's body?

I know I could go in and use a texture brush to sculpt in the details on multiresolution, then bake that into a normalmap, but is that really the best way to go about this?

The key is how you UV Unwrap your mesh. A good way to check Your UV maps is to apply a checker pattern to your mesh. There are many videos and tutorials out there that are great for becoming better at the anatomy of Unwrapping, but the best way to learn is to practice yourself. Starting with simple objects like a can, and moving on to more complex objects like a creature.


Shrinkwraps Not Following Head - Pupil Shrinkwrap Not Staying On Eyes When Rotated This past week I've learned (sort of) how to set up an eye rig for non-spherical eyes using this incredible advice: pupil constrained to a surface

Basically, I have the Eye object.
I have an empty object located inside the eye.
I have the pupil geometry parented to the empty object.

The Pupil has a Shrinkwrap Modifier applied, with the Eye as the target, giving the result in #1 in the picture.

The Empty object inside the eye has been given a Shrinkwrap Constraint, so it moves along the surface of the Eye. The Pupil object is parented to the Empty object with Keep Offset applied as the parent type, so the pupil doesn't deform as the pupil rotates around the eye.

The Empty object has a Track To Constraint applied to it, with a bone as the Target, see #2 in the picture.

When I rotate the head back, it looks like #3 and #4 in the picture.

I've tried parenting the pupil mesh to keep offset with the eye, parenting the empty to keep offset with the eye, and other random stuff that I can't exactly remember (because I wake up at 4:00AM to do this stuff before I go to work...).

What are your ideas and solutions?

If I'm going about it all wrong (this will eventually be going into Unity, so Lattice deformers are out of question, as Unity doesn't support Lattice deformation) then I'm willing to try a new approach. But right now, I can't turn or move the head from the default position without the eyes screwing up. If it stayed in this pose, it would work fine...

and here is the texture file

Here is the Link to explain what I would change

These are the primary things I felt I would change if this were my own.

I would use an Empty for the focal point (instead of a bone) and parent it to the armature.

I would get rid of the two empties at each pupil.

I would tell each pupil to track (constraint) to the "NEW" focal point empty.

I would tell each pupil to pivot (constraint) to the "Head" bone.

Here is the result of doing these four things.


Change UV Map Image Without UV Map Scaling I spent A few hours working on a UV map, then I needed to change the resolution of the texture to be a power of 2. I would like to be able to change this in blender without changing the UV map. How would I do this?

The first image size is 60x123, and the second is 128x128.

Before:

After:

First select the UVs in the UV/Image editor, make sure the X and Y cursor location is 0, switch Pivot point to 2D Cursor and scale the UVs using S button, hit X to limit the scale on X axis, input 0.5 and hit Enter


How to precisely resize an edge or face? Say I have a pipe and it's diameter is 23 cm, but I want it to be 10, how would I scale it so that I could type in "10" and it'd then scale to be 10cm in diameter?

if that's not possible then for separate edges if I wanted one to be 10cm could I just type 10 into the numpad and it'll become 10cm? when I've tried this it seems to just scale up by a magnitude. And I can't seem to find a panel that'll let me change the dimensions of an edge or face.

Use the Dimensions sliders in the 3D view properties panel. Press N in the 3D view, or go to View -> Properties. To use the units you want, go to the Properties panel -> Scene -> Units panel. In your case, select "Metric". Then change the dimensions as needed. You type in the number followed by the units (you don't need a space between the number and units). In the screenshot below, I set the X and Y axes to 10cm so the cylinder ends are a circle with diameter 10cm.

For separate edges, you can't directly make an edge 10cm. For some edges, you can use vertex snapping to get what you what. In the example below, I used a plane instead of a single edge because it's easier to see.

So for a face in edit mode, you'd have to consider it as edges you have to resize and change your select mode to Edge Select.

Other notes about Dimensions:

Note that 1 Blender unit ["None"] is equal to 1 meter. (Interestingly enough, this may not be right when 3D printing. When I tried it for the first time at my university, I found out that the machine I wanted to use read 1 Blender unit = 1 mm, so when I was using "Metric", 15 cm = 0.15 m = .15 Blender units = 0.15 mm, which is like microscopic. Got a good laugh out of that.)
You can't type unit abbreviations when the units are set to "None".
You can type imperial unit abbreviations even when you select "Metric", and vice versa. This can be handy when you need to convert units.
Dimensions represent the bounding box of an object. So if you rotate an object in edit mode, the Dimensions won't reflect the object's actual dimensions.
Dimensions are independent of scale, whether you Ctrl + A to Apply Scale or not.
Dimensions are relative to Local axes. This can make things confusing, like if the cylinder in the first image was rotated 90 degrees in on the y axis, changing the X dimensions would make it seem like it's being scaled along the z-axis. Change the Transform orientation in the 3D view to "Local" if you need to.

See also this and this.


Make labels for mathematical plot face always the camera In a mathematical plot, the labels (the numers on the tick-marks) for the coordinate axes usually always face the camera like in this plot

I've learned that in Blender, you can achieve this by setting Track To constraints on the text.

Three questions:

Is this the best way to do it for text?
The docu for Track To is rather short. What is the correct setting to make the text face the camera and why?
Is anyone aware of a script that possibly creates such a box, the ticks, and the labels automatically? Maybe this was already done for plotting mathematical surfaces.

I think it's the best way ; unless a script exists that allows billboard rendering for text object, but I don't know any.
Displaying the Axis of the text object helps a lot!

"To" is the axis that points to the target ; for a text object, it's Z.
"Up" is the axis that point upwards ; for a text object, it's Y.


How do I get this bright colored yet plastic like reflective material I have this object I want to make but
 when I try to mimic this texture with a shader in cycles , it just looks darker, no shine or reflectiveness, and does not have the same kind of almost plastic look to it. I am kinda new to blender 2.8 (used it for years a while back) so I am not sure if there is some kind of new techniques I am missing out on or anything.

Use the Principled BSDF shader.

Play with the Roughness  and Specular settings.

Low roughness will make the surface "shinier" "mirror like", sharp or blurry reflections.

The specular control Specifies facing (along normal) reflectivity. In other  determine how the reflected lights seem to "expand" or "spread" on the surface, so that highlights will be reflected as large surfaces or dots or points.

Note that when it comes to reflective surfaces the shader doesn't do all the job, the type of lights and their placement on the scene need to be thought out as well.

Related reading: Why does an object with a glossy shader render in black?


Splitting Sections off an Object I'm trying to make a simple 3D house with doors, roof, and stairs, I made all of it from the same cube so it would all line up perfectly-ish.

My trouble is I have no idea how to remove sections of it from the block so I can set the material and textures how I'd like.

So for instance, I want to make the doors out of wood, and not have the entire house look like a door.

Thank you.

I'm not sure if you're asking how to assign multiple Materials to the same Mesh or how to split one Object into two.

If you just want to Split a Mesh into two, the easiest way is to select all faces you need, hit "P" and then click "By Selection".

To create a 2. Material go to the Materials Tab and hit the "+" icon. Select all  the faces you want to share this Material and then hit "Assign" in the Materials Tab.


edit mode grab tool doesn't work as expected I thought this would have been a common problem to encounter but I hasn't seen any questions about it being asked.
It may have been me clicking the wrong shortcut but my grab tool doesn't work as expected anymore. Grabbing now extends new edges and forms new vertices. I want the grab tool to work in a way where the very same edges gets extended, whilst displacing the selected vertices. photo included in what I meant. I am able to fix it to make it work as desired, but I kept bumping into the same problem, and I am not sure whether you guys have any advice so I can stop myself from doing it, and waste my time fixing it before moving on with my project :) Thanks for reading!
I believe what happened is that I've been clicking a shortcut accidentally that creates new vertex and edge. But I am still not sure which keyboard button that is
Undesirable effect

Desired effect

Your vertices and edges have been inadvertently set to be split automatically. Find the Options pulldown in the very top-right of the 3D View. Inside of it is the checkbox.

NOTE: If you don't see the Options pulldown at the top right of your screen, it may be that your Tool Settings bar has been disabled. To re-enable it, float your cursor just to the outer edge of any  one of the clickable buttons at the top of your 3D view (such as the buttons for View, Select, Add, etc.), but without your cursor actually touching those buttons. When your cursor changes from a cross to an arrow, right click, and you will get the option to turn on the Tool Settings. Then you will see the Options pulldown. From there you can turn off Split Edges & Faces.


Smoke simulator temperature decay I know that I can control the colour of smoke with its temperature, but the temperature of the smoke keeps decreasing over time. I want it to remain constant, so that the only changes in smoke temp is when smoke from two different temperature emitters mix together. Is there away to control that?

I assume that you use cycles render in blender.
If you used the quick smoke effect by adding Object/quick effects/ quick smoke you can try to set the color of the flame by:

selecting the Smoke Domain of the fire emitting object
open the node editor
change the color of the flame in the ColorRamp settings.

Using more than one Smoke Domain means that you can have several color settings and combine then in your scene.


Rendering Backwards in Cycles There was already a similar question asked, but I want to render the scene backwards for a different reason: render speed.

I want to split the animation rendering between two PCs, so the first PC would start rendering at frame 0 and going up to 5000 and the second would start at the frame 5000 and going down to frame 0.

They would eventually meet at some point, let's say first PC would render 3000 frames and the second one 2000 frames = finished animation.

Is there a way in Blender Cycles to render a scene backwards instead of forward? I mean, you can go backwards on the timeline and everything works just fine so this should be possible, right?

This Python script will step through your frames in reverse and render them one-by-one. Save as render-backward.py:

import bpy

for frame in range(bpy.context.scene.frame_end, 1, -1):
    bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame)
    bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

Run it like so:

blender yourfile.blend -b -P render-backward.py


How can I uninstall an Add-on? I asked a question yesterday about how to bring filled polylines in from AutoCAD without them coming in as joined filled shapes.  I was directed to a download site to get a new dxf importer.  I installed it as directed but now I have two dxf converters installed in Blender and they conflict so that I can't bring dxf files in at all.  How can I uninstall the old one?

I suppose I could uninstall Blender and then reinstall it, but then I would have the same question.  Can I bring in polylines from AutoCAD without them linking to each other and creating a maze of linked filled shapes?

You need to delete the .py file. To do this on windows, go to C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\[version]\scripts, and find the scripts location. Then delete the files.

Here in the screenshot of the user preferences (Which can be accessed via Ctrl-Alt-U>Scripts) you can see the location of the script files that need to be removed.


Possible Python Automation With This Particular Material I just had a quick question.  I am starting to get a bit more adequate with Blender in terms of getting to photorealism.  In the picture below is a model that I got online and I am wanting to edit the material for the keys to make them look more photoreal.  My question, is if there is a way of automating the material so that after I have one photoreal material on one key it will do it for the rest of the keys?  I know that I can make one material, assign that for all of the keys, and go in and change the images for each one but I feel like there is a way to automate this with python.  Any thoughts?

I would use two UV maps for each key. One is shared between all keys and maps to the key texture without letter. The second is a different UV map for each object, with one big texture containing all the key letters; having a different UV map for each key, each gets their own letter. No need to worry about the material itself then.

You can even use the UV Project modifier to project the letters on each object; no need to manually make all those UV maps.


why is the render image not the same as camera image I made some cog-wheels that rotate when I run them in the timeline. But when I try to render the images, the images shows all the cogs and everything is att frame 1 (even if I'm trying to render another frame).
I have tried both with cycles and Evee (since I thought Evee would simply give me what's on the screen from the camera-view), but no difference.
I have done animations before and never had this problem.
Any help is appreciated :)

In the Properties panel > Output > Post Processing, disable the Sequencer option, otherwise you'll render what you see in the Video Sequencer.


Blender 2.8 cycles on GPU compute just shows pink and purple noise? Any idea what's causing this? I'm set to render cycles with gpu compute. I have 2 geforce rtx 2080 ti's. All I'm getting is this pink and purple garbled mess..

Two things;

1: You used textures that you didn't pack into the file. That shade of magenta means the texture is missing. Find the textures and reload them.

2: You're going to need WAY more than 32 samples to get something usable. Start with 100, move up from there to get a more clear image.


Mitsuba Installation Path On Linux Mint Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela 64-bit MATE 1.10.2

Blender 2.76b

I have no idea where the required Mitsuba installation path actually is?

I've tried using /usr/share/mitsuba/ but upon rendering with F12, was given a short warning saying "no module named 'numpy'" and a blank render result. As I haven't found anyone else talking about this, I'm pretty sure I am the only person in the world confused by this and I'm sorry for being stumped by what is probably an obvious solution!

Apparently the pathway for me was /usr/bin/!

But also the "no module 'numpy'" warning was part of the problem. While I had "python-numpy" installed I didn't have "python3-numpy" installed. Once I installed it, I could finally render!


how to create a flat glowing eyes in blender Can anyone please help me to create eyes for my model and i didn't  need a normal human eye,like i wanted  a type of wizard eyes.for ex-

And this is my model.

You can just add a "Emission" Node and turn the color to pink and then apply the material to the eyes.

Then apply the material to the eyes.

Add another material to the rest of the mesh and behold! Your wizzard/witch looks cool!


Having trouble rendering fire+smoke with transparency I'm trying to add fire+smoke to a video by rendering out the simulation as a PNG sequence with transparency. It looks fine in the render window and in the compositor but when I drag in the final PNG and view it, it looks half transparent and grainy. I'm only rendering it on 15 samples with NLM de-noising on so that could be it, but otherwise I'm not sure what's going on! here are some screenshots:

Use denoise node in compositing instead of the one you are using. It is better for viewports only.
To use denoise node,go into the compositing tab and SHIFT+A to add denoise node. Now add color,normal and albedo in their respective channel.
To get better results,enable denoising data from the layer settings.
Disable the denoiser you are using and it will give better results


Better Rendering with focus one position? At the moment, I do not have a powerful GPU to be even doing extensive 3D modeling, but oh well, I downloaded Blender and started making something anyway.

The problem is that Blender (with Cycles render engine) simultaneously renders two or three blocks. I thought maybe I can limit the block to just one, so that the internal graphics GPU can render that specific block to the specified sample value.

I am not sure why you would want this, as the end result will always be the same, but if it is just that you can see one part of the shot fully rendered than have a look at this:

Tiles
Under Performance you choose your tile-size which is the size of one block (in pixels). You can set it to start from whichever part of the image you like (where it says centre), so if you have something in your shot which you want to see first rendered to the fullest make sure you set it to start, wherever the item of interest is.

Threads
You can also set a fixed number of threads and put it to one this way you will always have one tile processing at a time (but that just doesn't use the full capacity of your machine, so i suggest leave it at auto).

Progressive Refinement
What, I assume, you don't want is the progressive refinement box ticked, that will cause it to use another algorithm, which will show you the whole picture very quickly, and as the name suggests will refine it progressively over time. So make sure this is un-ticked, for achieving what you want.


Why does my blender crash when I open a file? So I have an i5 8th gen mobile processor, a nvidia mx110, and 8gb of ram. I know the specs are laughable, but I used to be able to run blender without any problems a few days ago. Now when ever I launch a file that previously worked flawlessly my blender crashes. I've noticed it happens when loading the material textures in the material preview mode (not render mode, sorry I don't know the proper terms.) When I launch a file I can see the basic shape with no textures but when I see the "shaders compilation" loading in the bottom right of the screen it always crashes and says blender isn't responding.
Additional information is that I'm using the latest version of blender and I also have the latest drivers for my laptop. Please someone help me I'm really new to blender, but it's something I really want to get the hang of.

I think I can answer your question because the same thing happened to me when I was a beginner(I had intel i5 3rd gen with 12gb ram and integrated graphics). This can happen due to any of the following reasons:

If you were in material preview mode during last save. It happens because sometimes evee(renderer for material preview mode) can run out of processing power or memory if you have a heavy blender file(or materials).
Blender file is too heavy for your computer.

You can fix this by doing the following:

Make sure you are in solid mode or cycles rendering mode during your last save.
Get a better computer


Lock leaf particles to specific axis? My goal is to make a weeping willow tree, so I'm using a particle system for the leaves, which are long strands hanging towards the ground. I want to make it so the rotation in the z axis is random with little to no rotation on the x and y axis, so they always appear to be hanging. How can I achieve this? My settings and results are shown below.

Okay, my original answer was wrong. Try experimenting with Orientation Axis and Randomize Phase


Can't do subtraction with Boolean modifier I'm trying to get my hands into Blender after months using Sketchup and facing the limitations of that last one (subtracting shapes is limited to PRO and even in pro, it is still quite limited).

I first tried to export a collada file but then I read that maybe my objects are not plain.

So I did what I usually do when I check my stl files for 3d printing, I repaired them, and then re-exported them through collada and Imported then into Blender.

Unfortunately, I still can't do the subtraction.

Surely somebody here will tell me what's wrong? Maybe the whole approach?

I attached the blend file (2.6 version) so some charitable person could have a quick look and spare me light years of trial and error?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByBlKzf_FnbIaEdKaUhrZk11Nlk/view?usp=sharing

Resolved. Thanks to @Mr Zak for his help! (See second comment)

Your mesh has to be non-manifold. I had troubles with this as well. Removing doubles it typically a good way to start achieving non-manifoldness. There are enough tutorials out there and somewhere in the documentation there's a hint, that your volume has to be non-manifold for the boolean stuff to work properly.


Trouble controlling where to add Faces on my model Problem:
I have a curved edged wire model that I have developed that needs to have a Face applied to it, whilst keeping other "holes" within the model "Face-free". It's like a wire mesh but the wires are much thicker and flat.

How I created it:
I initially used curves to create the model as can be seen below then converted it to a mesh. Then I selected all the edges and pressed "F" to create a face. I hoped that the long flat curved wires would get faces, leaving the middle "holes" empty. Unfortunately only the middle "holes" became Faces and the flat wire sections were left, albeit somehow linked to the middle Hole faces.

My only other option is to individually select each face in straight groups before pressing "F" but this would take days as the model is pretty large.

Any help would be appreciated.

Image 1: Pre-Face. I want the thinner parts to have Faces and centre "holes" to be empty.

Image 2: After adding Faces this is the outcome with Faces where I don't want them.

Image 3: After selecting the Hole Face and deleting it the Face icon (the black dot) disappears but there still seems to some form of Face present that is no longer clickable.

The problem is that you're creating one big ngon with that mesh. Blender doesn't work well with ngons and wants tris (three-sided faces) or more preferably, quads (four-sided faces).

Break your mesh down into smaller segments that accommodate Blender's needs. If I were you, I'd just make one big plane and then subdivide it enough that you can form the same mesh by angling rows and columns of vertices to get your desired pattern, and then delete the faces that you don't want. Your mesh pattern is repetitive, so you only really need to create one section of it and then duplicate it as much as you need and merge them all together into a larger mesh.

Here's an example I threw together for you. You can bevel the angled edges to make them more rounded before you duplicate and merge the meshes together into a larger mesh.

http://www.pasteall.org/blend/42020


Piping cream through a piping tip I would like to simulate piping of a cream through a piping tip. I modeled the piping tip as you can see.  I added a soft body to the cylinder, and then I set the piping to collision.  But for some reason it doesn't go through instead it stops midway. I would like to render an image of the cream after deformation.

Do you have any idea how to create such an effect?

Flip Fluid addon [$]

create star (you can use Extra Objects addon) and animate movement
under Physics Properties enable Flip Fluid > type Inflow
add Cube object and scale it to Domain dimension
under Physics Properties enable Flip Fluid type Domain
under FLIP Fluid World enable Viscosity
Bake

Credits for Cup-Cake model goes to MrSorbias.

Mantaflow
in general same system (domain / inflow). I just wasnt able to setup enough viscosity without strange behaviour of particles. This area doesn't seems to be covered in Mantaflow solver. You can find a parameters in Physics Properties editor under Diffusion, but from what I saw on net, most thick liquid is still too far from cream with ability to keep a form.
For more details check this intro


How to delete concave edges automatically? How can I delete every concave edges from this geometry:

To get this result automatically with only convex edges:

Convex Hull operator

There is an operator in the Vertices sub menu (under Mesh) called Convex Hull that

  Enclose selected vertice in a convex polygon.

For the proposed mesh the result could be something like this:


How to make trilateral (3-fold) symmetry? I know how to use the Mirror Modifier to make an object mirror over an axis, but I don't know how to do trilateral symmetry, like this:

Is there a way to configure the Mirror Modifier to do this, or will I just have to model one part, duplicate it twice and rotate the copies 120 degrees?

You can use an array modifier to duplicate your object three times, and an empty rotated 120° for the offset.

The empty needs to be in the same place as the object origin for the rotation to be correct.

Now, when you edit one object, the other two will also change.


How can I make a screenshot in the BGE (numpy of pixel values) without saving to disk? I'm doing a computer vision simulation in blender game engine, so I need to make screenshots that will give me an array/numpy of pixels to do image processing on at each frame. Saving it as PNG through bge.render.makeScreenshot(path) and then reading values through there won't work since that will be very slow for this task.

you might try something like this:

import bge

source = texture.ImageRender(world,sensorView_Cam)

source.capsize = [640,480]

imageArray = texture.imageToArray(source, 'RGB')

charArray = imageArray.to_list()

works ok for me (Although, i dont know if it is fast enough for you and if there are faster ways)


Out of ideas - Is there a way to roll a string on a spool? I can't find any answers or solutions that match what I need.
Think of a roll of toilet paper - and as it's rolling, the spool fills up. I need that, but it needs to be string, so it would fill left to right, and look organic, with the string rolling from the bottom.
Are there ANY ways to do this?

I will warn you. If you are attempting to make a very long string and have it be a self colliding object, you will need a very strong computer. I would start with a "noodle." By this I mean just one curve straight curve and then slowly add more and more vertices.
To start setting up your scene just add a plane and scale it up 10. This is just a preference for the size, but you should have something that it can fall on. Next, you will need the "spool" but you could easily just use a cylinder to test how your computer runs it. Next is adding your actual string. Add a curve path and put it above so that it can fall on your cylinder. I would subdivide this curve at least twice.
Make the plane and cylinder to collision in the physics body editor. Set the curve to "soft body" and uncheck "Goal." You might want to increase the thickness of the curve, go to the  "Object data properties" panel and under the geometry tab, increase the bevel depth to something like".01" or ".02". You can play around and see what you like
If all of this has worked for you so far, you can start to increase the complexity of your scene and the complexity of your path. Subdivide stretch and shape your string. And that should be enough to get you going in the right direction.


Is it possible to dictate a UV map instead of pulling one? I have experience making textures for items that already have a UV map, but this is my first try making one myself. I apologize for not being able to more precisely describe what I want to do; I suspect that not knowing the terms is hampering my google searches in an attempt to find the answer on my own.

I have this model, made in SketchUp, shown with textures:
https://gyazo.com/f6585ce8948666f694c8abd05701e609

When I unwrapped it or otherwise had Blender make the UV map, it created a lot of non-overlapping rectangles, one for each face. However, I liberally re-used textures when making the lantern, so that was not at all an efficient use of the available space. So, I made a texture map by hand that is much more optimized The problem is, I am not seeing a way to tell Blender which areas to use on which faces of the model, and all the tutorials and the like I am finding are trying to help people with more conventional starter tasks, like upholstering a chair or making a shirt, where what I want to do would be insanely fiddly.

Is there a way that I am missing to tell Blender the intersections for the UV map, or am I doomed to having it tell me? I am aware that in many situations this is precisely backwards, but for this project, it would be a great boon to my final file weight and texture quality. I am willing to use programs other than Blender if it turns out this is a thing you need Program X for.

In Edit mode, select the face you want to manually set the UV map for and select Mesh/UV Unwrap.../Reset from them menu (or press U and select Reset). This will reset that face to cover the whole UV space. Then in the UV Editor window (while the face is still selected in the 3D viee) you can manipulate the UV mapping as desired (select the vertices (or A for all) and use G, R, S for Grab, Rotate, Scale, etc


Eevee material specular Blender 2.8 ,Eevee, this glossy effect on models keeps moving around as i look around/move the camera. Any way of keeping this effect but making it "static"? (i only know how to desable it)

I do not know much of blender,my question may seem weird.
I only know it's bound to the tab material --> Specular

Reflexions depend on your point of view. If you want them not do do so, the best solution, for now, is not to use them, and rather fake their appearance.

One way to do this in 2.8 is to use the "Shader to RGB" node:

The principle is quite simple: from a diffuse shader, you get the shadow information created by the scene's lighting. And you convert that information to RGB data which you can then modify that data as you wish.

Of course, you can use other data as inputs, like the specularity of a glossy shader, an absolute ramp of a normal node, ... And you can combine them as you wish, as well as mix them with textures, ...

It's the basics of "NPR" (Non-Photorealistic Rendering, you can google those letters and find quite some examples of what people did.


What is a good way to turn straight edges to curves? Another question I want to ask is how do you extrude to both directions on the same axis?

USING PROPORTIONAL EDITING

Add some edge loops (Ctrl+R) in the middle of the object to devide the object evenly. Select the face loop in the middle (Alt+RMB) and snap the cursor to it (Shift+S-->Cursor to Selected). Enable proportional editing, then press S,Shift+Z to scale along X and Y axes only.

USING SIMPLE DEFORM MODIFIER (STRETCH)

Give the object a Simple Deform modifier, change its mode to Stretch and adjust the deform factor as you like.

USING LATTICE MODIFIER

Add a Lattice, scale it to fit the object's size and subdivide it a few times. Select the object and give it a Lattice Modifier. Select the points around the middle subdivision of the lattice, then scale them with S.
NOTE: Adding more subdivision to the lattice allows you to better control the shape of the object (you can make it more uneven/realistic).


Track / gpu animation on a map Can someone help me to understand how such a route animation is realized or can direct me to an existing tutorial for this - THX in advance.
Video: My first animation of one of my bike rides - using "Blender"

This is only a brief description of how to track a path on a simple map/image. If you want to use GPX tracks/GPS/GIS data you need to dig deeper: blender-osm can import GPX-tracks and project them on the terrain.
Manual Tracking a Path On a Map

create a plane with a map image. A convenient way to do this is the use of the "Import-Export: Import Images as Planes" add-on that is shipped with Blender. Activate it in the preference settings.
position the camera vertically above the image
to animate the camera keyframe the Location
to zoom in and out keyframe the Scale of the image
create a Nurbs Path (add Object: Curve > Path)

in Edit mode, use menu Curve > Set Spline Type to Poly
create waypoints by extruding (E) the control points along streets, etc

create a marker (red dot, it's actually a sphere)

add a Follow Path object constraint
use the "Animate the Path" for quick animation, use the graph editor for more control, e.g. add stops, control speed, etc.

create a waypoint object. This will create the red line

add an Array modifier and a Curve modifier to make it follow along the path
move x position to a negative value, so the marker starts at the beginning of the curve/path. I've bent it down along the z-axis to hide the beginning. Not sure if this is the best way to do so
animate the x position with a driver to make it "mark" (move along) the path/curve.
formula for the driver of the x position looks like min(-2.50753 + (2.50753 * (frame-1) / 180), 0). This makes the marker follow the curve for 180 frames and then stop. The -2.5073 is the start value to set the marker at the beginning of the curve. It depends on the length of the curve/path. Just pull it along the x-axis by eye.

Zooming Effects

you can zoom in and out if you scale up/down the image in front of the camera
if you want to do a zoom effect that exceeds the details of the map image you can use multiple images with different levels of detail.
stack the images, increase the Scale of the image to match the level of details of the next image. Adjust the transparency (Alpha value) of the image for an overview and to match the scale.
keyframe the Scale of the image. At the frame where the level of details match, turn off the render visibility

Result


Cycle Combined bake only adds lighting on side of mesh so when I try baking something using combined, it only works on the side of the mesh. What i mean is that my only light source is above my mesh, like so :

Yet the final result has zero reflection on the top parts, as you can see here

Surface of object that the sun is lighting up:

And it's pretty easy to see the ring has zero reflection on it (Is mostly comprised of highly reflective metallic pieces)

What do I do? Mind I'm fairly new to baking on blender, so if possible please  be as concise as possible.

Found the reason, it was that since it was an empty scene it could only bake unto itself. The surface at the top was facing nothing, whilst the surface on the sides could reflect off of eachother.

That means if you want to have a light source also show up in a picture, that light source needs to be inside of some sort of object, such as a sphere or whatnot.


Unity model is distorting when animation is running I'm developing a game with animated models, like 'Ethan'. I'm getting new 3D Modes and replace with ethan in Blender. But when I start animation in Unity, model is distorting.

Model in Blender:

Distorting Example:

Weight painting defines how much a mesh follows each bone. With a weight of 1.0 the mesh follows the bone exactly, with a value of 0.5 the mesh will move half as much as the bone.

To me it looks like the hand has a weight of 1.0 but the sleeve has a weight of maybe 0.8 so it doesn't move with the bone the same amount as the hand.

With the shoulders this is a similar problem, due to having a disconnected mesh this tears the pieces apart. The edges of the two meshes that meet at the shoulder need to have matching weights so that they move the same amount. But then you shouldn't need to have a disconnected mesh in the middle of an asset that should be considered one object.

In blender, you can view the weights for selected vertices in the properties region (press N) while the models list of vertex groups is available in the mesh data properties.


How to superimpose a lot of textures in one material in the BGE? For my game I realized that blender doesn't allow us to superimpose different textures on one mesh. I'm forced to create only one texture for each material.

What I would like to is being able to let the choice to the players to chose between different "skins", and different complexions on the "skins" like some spots, scars, tattoos, etc.

So I need to be able to superimpose different textures on one material.

after experimenting different things, I've finally find out how to do it !
To superimpose different textures on one material, you need to go to the very end of the texture panel, in the influence tab you will find the blend option. For the background texture you let this option to "mix" and for your others textures put this option to "add" and it will mix yours textures. (you won't see it in your "texture" viewport shading but you will see it in rendering). If you let the blend option to "mix" for the others textures you need to put them under the bacground texture. This last option won't mix your textures but it will put your last textures on the previous textures. So if you want to see the background texture under the others textures, yours others textures need to have some transparent (alpha) in their images. With these two option you can change the opacity
of your textures with the difuse:color option of the influence tab.


Scale Vertices - to a common center how does blender would know how to scale the vertices by the common center[?]
[SOLUTION][]
Inset Faces - Blender Manual
docs.blender.org/manual/es/dev/modeling/meshes/editing/duplicating/inset.html
is the other way around focused on using faces to accomplish this result;

A person who designs type calls the width of the individual bits of a character design a "stroke". I know of two ways to deal with the problem you are trying to solve, that is changing the width of the stroke. The first is to use a different font. If you are wanting the general shape of the characters of the font with a different width stroke, you can sometimes find a different font designed like that from the outset. There are different words used as modifiers to font names to indicate variations from standard font design. The words "light" and "medium" are two of the terms used in a font name to indicate the font has the same sized characters with a thinner stroke, and these terms are sometimes modified further by "ultra" or "extra". On the opposite end of the spectrum, the words "heavy" and "bold" are used to denote fonts where the characters are the same size, but have thicker strokes. While it is not germane to the question originally posed, for sake of completeness of the answer, "light", "medium", "heavy" and "bold" refer to the width of the stroke, and the width of the overall character itself is generally relatively constant. There are fonts where the stroke size is relatively unchanged, but the overall width of the character is changed. When the width is smaller, the word "condensed" is used, and when the width is larger, the word "extended" is used, and "ultra" or "extra" may be applied to these as well. So "Helvetica light" is a font with narrower stroke sizes in the character; "Helvetica extra bold extended" is a font with wider characters, and a wider stroke. It should be noted that in use of type, the overall height, as measured from the bottom of a descender (like lower case p, j, q, or y) to the top of an ascender (like lower case l, b, and d") is more or less constant across all fonts, although certain dimensions within the font, such as "x height" may a vary from one font to the next.

So, if you want a font with a narrower stroke, the best bet is to determine this in advance, and obtain a light version of the font you wish to use, if it is available. That would be my default choice.

But, if for some reason I wanted to change the stroke width of a character, the way I would proceed is to do each character by subsections. In the case of the "e", what I would do first is to select all of the vertices forming the inside of the curve of the character, and with setting the pivot point at "median", scale these vertices outward by the desired amount. Next, I would select the vertices forming the top of the bar of the e, and instead of scaling the bar, I would move the upper part of the cross bar so that the bar is proportional to the relationship between the bar and the circular part of the letter before you started changing it. Assuming that you are using the Text facility in Blender, if the changes you want to make will result in a different overall height of the font, I would achieve this by changing the font size using the "size" entry bar in the Font panel of the Font object data editor of the Properties editor.

Note that in nearly all fonts, the horizontal bits of the font, like the crossbar of the e, the cross of the t, &c. are uniform, but vertical and diagonal strokes making up characters are not uniform; The upper case "M" "W" and "X" almost always have two different widths of strokes. This difference in stroke widths forms an essential part of the identity of the font, so the "X" may need to be done in two steps.


Blender 2.83.0 suddenly begins crashing on startup with call to libc.8.so Blender version 2.83.0 has been running nicely on my system for several
months.  Suddenly a couple of days ago, it started crashing on startup just after a call to libc.so.6. I suspected an out of memory problem since all other versions of blender (various 2.7x versions) also quit working at the same time, and so I closed everything else running on my system. This action did not fix the problem for any version of Blender, so I suspected memory fragmentation, since my system stays up for a long time without being rebooted. After I rebooted all other versions of blender worked, only 2.83.0 kept failing. I haven't found a solution to this problem online other than the usual install new graphics drivers, etc. which don't seem to address my problem since the program had been running just fine.  I've looked for munged configuration or cache files but have not found any likely candidates. Moving the config files aside as one poster suggests did not fix the problem.  Any help would be appreciated.
System is an HP Pavilion A6109n;
graphics: VGA compatible controller:
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV710 [Radeon HD 4350/4550];
OS is Fedora 31.
Blender is being run from the command line without any options
crash log:
# Blender 2.83.0, Commit date: 1970-01-01 00:00, Hash unknown

# backtrace
blender(BLI_system_backtrace+0x37) [0x55d78fa6ea27]
blender(+0xcff2ba) [0x55d78d7042ba]
/lib64/libc.so.6(+0x3c6b0) [0x7f74bb93a6b0]
blender(GPU_draw_list_command_add+0x5f) [0x55d78f94891f]
blender(+0x10bcb2d) [0x55d78dac1b2d]
blender(+0x10be0b7) [0x55d78dac30b7]
blender(+0x10e8264) [0x55d78daed264]
blender(+0x10b5b3e) [0x55d78dabab3e]
blender(DRW_draw_render_loop_ex+0x2f0) [0x55d78dabae60]
blender(view3d_main_region_draw+0x93) [0x55d78e14af63]
blender(ED_region_do_draw+0x851) [0x55d78dd22221]
blender(wm_draw_update+0x4ba) [0x55d78d9d4c3a]
blender(WM_main+0x30) [0x55d78d9d2b90]
blender(main+0x321) [0x55d78d6d6821]
/lib64/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf3) [0x7f74bb9251a3]
blender(_start+0x2e) [0x55d78d7006ae]
```

This problem has been resolved by verion 2.83.1


How to enable openCL rendering in Blender 2.75 rc2 I'm using Linux Mint and I was trying to enable GPU rendering, but I still have only CPU option in user preferences...

Linux Mint 17.1 x64
Radeon HD 7850
Blender 2.75 rc2
amd-catalyst 15.5

solved by myself

I have found solution to my problem. To enable openCl on Linux Mint 17.1 with ATI radeon video card just install ocl-icd-libopencl1 package for 64 bit system, or ocl-icd-libopencl1:i386 for 32 bit system. No need to run Blender as root or set up environment variable.


Installing pip for Blender and GDAL I'm trying to configure gdal within blender using the information here: https://github.com/domlysz/BlenderGIS/wiki/How-to-install-GDAL. I already have blender totally configured and the correct gdal .whl file downloaded but, when I try to install pip (python.exe -m ensurepip) using the command window, I get the following error.

I check that \2.79\python\Lib\site-packages\easy_install.py' but there isn't that "easy_install.py" file there.
I tried to reinstall blender but still the same result.

Any idea to configure gdal for blender solving or jumping this step ?

Try to use Command Prompt as an administrator  to ensurepip?

You may need to change your directory by cd "the/folder/blender/python"

It seems like the system block out the process during I/O writing to the Blender installed folder.

And be careful, Blender uses its own Python in the installed folder as the default executable Python. You may want to bind that python for installing thing through pip install.


How to limit VRAM usage for Blender? I have a computer at home with a GTX 1060, and an i5-4460. I use this computer for most of my rendering and 3D modelling. My school issues Chromebooks, which obviously I can't use Blender on. My solution is to use a VNC server on my main computer that I can access from my school Chromebook, so I can work on Blender projects during school. One problem I have is when rendering with GPU, sometimes my VNC server will crash, and I have to physically restart my computer for it to work again. I believe this is because Blender is using too many resources. Is there a way to limit the amount of VRAM blender uses?

Q: Is there a way to limit the amount of VRAM blender uses?

A: NO

Example: if your scene need 2GB of VRAM, Blender need 2GB VRAM for render this scene. No other way. Imagine, you want to pour 2l water into 1.5l bottle.

Also there are no direct evidence the problem is amount of VRAM.
I don't thing VNC need VRAM for running. This doesn't make sense:-)


Blender crashes on startup windows 10 I installed the blender after a fresh installation of windows 10. I have all the drivers installed. I have GTX 1060 graphics card. After running the blender, the console blinks and the program does not run. I text In the console blender.exe -d I have such error:

 found bundled python: C: \ Program Files \ Blender Foundation \ Blender \ 2.79 \
 pythonError: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION.

I'm trying install 2.79a version but 2.79 dosnt run too. Any ideas?

Set this Environment Variable on Windows:
Variable: CYCLES_OPENCL_TEST
Value: NONE

On your Desktop, right click on the This PC icon and select Properties
Select Advanced system settings from the list on the left
Select Environmental Variables at the bottom
Under System Variables, click New...
Variable Name: CYCLES_OPENCL_TEST
Value: NONE
Click Ok several times to set the variable and close the settings windows
Start Blender without error


Lot of small holes in a sphere / round shape for game I need to model sth like this

but with like 3-4x holes. Will be used in an VR app, so I have to take a look at the poly count.

I was wondering if there is a more effective way of doing this than just cutting every hole in tha sphere (which is crazy difficult for a newbie like me?).

Can I cut the holes maybe in the texture or use some modifier to accelerate the process?

I've found this, which create a crazy amount of polygons.

And this, but here can't find the way to make a closed sphere instead of a tube

Just use textures. Unless the player is going to be interacting with the holes in some meaningful way, they are just decoration and do not need to be modelled.

The texture could either use transparency, or just set the color to black and specularity to zero.


How to extract render info from a .blend file without launching Blender? Is there a way to get render info (frame start/end, output path, etc.) from a .blend file without actually running Blender?

I know it's possible to launch Blender and run a Python expression to extract information. However, this requires additional processing (grep, sed, etc... see here for reference) and could be a bit heavy and time consuming for large .blend files.

There are 2 ways to do this, both of these scripts are distributed with Blender, but can be used outside of Blender, and involve reading the file using Python.

Using blend_render_info.py

Extract information from the header, Blender writes the: Scene name, start-frame, end-frame into the file header in a way that can be extracted without reading the entire file.

You can test this from within Blender, assuming you have a file loaded:

import blend_render_info

import bpy
filepath = bpy.data.filepath

data = blend_render_info.read_blend_rend_chunk(filepath)
for frame_start, frame_end, scene_name in data:
    print(frame_start, frame_end, scene_name)

The module blend_render_info.py comes with Blender (included under 2.77/scripts/modules/blend_render_info.py). And is a single-file Python module that can also be run directly, eg:

eg:

python 2.77/scripts/modules/blend_render_info.py /path/to/test.blend

Outputs for example:

1 250 Scene

Using blendfile.py

This is a single-file Python module which implements a full blend file reader/writer.
This means you can do access any information you like, however doing so is more involved, as well as being slower since its needs to read the blend file - not just the header (although it will still be much faster then loading Blender, then the file).

This is an example of a script that prints scene frame, name and unlike the previous example, the output path.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
This takes a blend file argument and prints out some of its details, eg:

  blend_info.py /path/to/test.blend
"""
import blendfile
import sys

filepath = sys.argv[-1]
with blendfile.open_blend(filepath) as blend:
    scenes = [b for b in blend.blocks if b.code == b'SC']
    for scene in scenes:
        name =          scene[b'id', b'name'][2:].decode('utf-8')
        path =          scene[b'r', b'pic'].decode('utf-8')
        frame_start =   scene[b'r', b'sfra']
        frame_end =     scene[b'r', b'efra']

        print(frame_start, frame_end, repr(name), repr(path))

Example output:

1 250 'Scene' '//'

Note: if you want to extract other info, you can use the Python interactive prompt, and call block.keys() to see which members are available. All keys are bytes, not strings, so take care not to mix this up.
This API is currently not documented, but the script is not so huge, for now you have to read the code to see whats possible.


Applying material to a face I selected a single face in the object (car wheel, see picture) to be given a particular material (rubber, red color). However, when I press "assign" in the material tab, the whole object (wheel) is painted in the material. How can I limit this to the face?

The assign material button only works when there is more then one material.

When there is only one material the material is always on the entire model. To be able to use the assign button, just add another material.


Knife project not cutting through I have a simple rounded edge prism. I created a circle to use as the "knife" because I want to cut 2 holes through the prism.

I first select the circle, then select the prism, go into ortho view, click tools -> knife project, to cut it:

Nothing happens after cutting it except making an extra edge in the shape of a circle:

What am I doing wrong? Why is nothing getting but? What do I need to do to cut THROUGH the cube?

Thanks.

After using a Knife Project tool check the Cut Trough checkbox in the Tool Shelf (T).

If you place the cutting object on the 'clean' face it'll make the hole. If the cutting object is placed so it's overlaping the edges of the cuted object it'll create a geometry (edges) on it (as @lemon mentioned in his comment).


Can the Operator Panel in 2.8+ be moved? I'm not liking how far the new Operator Panel encroaches into the working area of the Viewport. Is there a way to move it?

The ability to truly minimize it now is a huge help. I'm just wondering if it can be repositioned too.

I have since realized that since I rely on shortcuts and don't use any of the buttons on the T panel, I can just collapse it (T) and save my Startup File that way.
Then the Operator panel slides over to the left corner and has a nice place where it can stay collapsed until I need to tweak params. Then I can click it to expand it and do that. It all works out.
Reference:

(Pretty obvious, actually. But as I've just jumped from 2.79 to 2.9 I'm still getting adjusted to the new UI.)
I'm still welcoming answers with regard to customizing the placement of the T Panel and Operator Panel in 2.8+, in case anyone else has something to add. Maybe a customization tip or trick that isn't so obvious?


Can you easily make an edge loop go through a triangle? Is there any way to do something similar to Maya's insert edge loop tool, where the edge loop wraps around the triangle? (Using Ctrl + R makes the edge loop stop before the triangle)

In wireframe mode you can select easily all the edges what you want to cut at once.
To create the new loop on them select Edge>>Subdivide.
Now you can adjust the number of cuts on the bottom-left.
If you want to move them, select a loop and double hit "G".
To create more loops after the move, select a loop and choose
Edge>>Bevel Edges.


Blender animation different when imported to Unity Animation in Blender: http://gph.is/2aCbBB4
Animation in Unity: http://gph.is/2affwlR

Anyone know why the entire model moves in unity but only the vertex group i created moves in blender? Thanks

Solved: the solution was to animate the rotation of the bone instead of the location


Can I move the items that I have already copied in Array? I would like to do some barrels and in the top more. I use Array.

My problem is that I can't move the last barrel on the top. How can I do it?

you might apply the array, so it becomes one large object, then separate object in edit mode press P loose parts, now you can re-position all separated objects.


Cancel a bake that freezes UI with black box percentage counter Sometimes, when you bake, you see a small black box that counts up to 100 showing the progress of the bake.  For example, while baking a cloth simulation.

Is it possible to cancel the bake?

Just press the Esc key on the keyboard to cancel the bake.

Some bakes have a progress bar in the 'Info' header, these can be cancelled by pressing the small X next to the progress bar or by pressing Esc.


2.81: Align objects by specified point I have several arbitrary objects. I need to align them along a line by specified points. I have tried to do it with Origin point, but no success.

Any suggestions?

EDIT 1

"Oscurart Tools" solves the problem but partly. It distributes objects along the straight line only. See the image below :|

One way would be to use the Oscurart Tools addon.
It can align origin points between multiple objects.

Enable the addon ✓ in Preferences > Add-ons

Select your objects (order matters) and RMB > Oscurart Tools > Distribute

Each cone has origin point in it's tip. After aligning, all the origin points are in line.
(The blue line is just for illustration)


What's an easy way to round out this castle wall? I'm really new to Blender, and I was trying to build a castle wall. The only way that I could figure out how to do that was with a bunch of cubes. I've built the castle, figured out how to animate the drawbridge, and added some not great color. Now I'm trying to figure out how to round out everything so that this tower thing looks more like a tower and less like a stack of cubes, and the window things to be kind of arched at the top, not just cubes. What's the best way to do that?

You don´t need to do that. Just use a cylinder for the tower. Select the upper face and extruded out to extend it a little and then extrude it up to give heigh.Make two loop cuts one outside and one inside the extruded faces to create a division for the up and down wall ( i don´t know the exact name of that part) Then jus select the faces you need to make the upper part of the tower and erase them. After that select the edges of the adjacent face and click on keyboard F to fill it with a face.


How to make a simple plane slightly transparent? I've got the following Octant Cube and would like to make the planes slightly transparent so that I can see what's behind them.

I've gone to Plane > Plane > Color Blue > material section of the Navigation Bar. There, as you can see in the previous image, there's a Surface: Background with a specific color.

Tried in a brute force way changing the Surface to different values other than background and shifting its properties to see if in at least one could get that slight transparency but no success yet.

How to make a simple plane slightly transparent to see the other planes behind?

As per Frederik Steinmetz's suggestion, I've created a new material called Transparent and assigned but can't see any difference.

As per Emir's feedback, I've gone to View > Area > Select Vertical Split. On the new new Viewport, went to Editor Type and selected Shader editor. Inside the Shader Editor Press Shift + A then S and Type "Transparent BSDF". Shift + A Then S again and now type Mix Shader. ConnectED the Transparent Node to the mixer and also  connected the Principled BSDF, making sure alpha has 0.750. Connected that Mix Shader Node to de output.

Just did gone through the same process again and still didn't get anything transparent

In order to see if the problem was due to me joining the planes before, created them again and follow the procedure mentioned by Emir but still no success in making it transparent.

Just to be on the safe side: Create a new material, assign it to one of your planes. in the  Shader editor you get:

Adjust the alpha to your likings.
You should be able to see the same options in the material properties, when you clicked use nodes. You need to be in rendered view to preview any transparency effects. Make sure to check 'use nodes'.
[Big EDIT]
If you want to see the effect in preview:
This way you can't set the transparency per object, just for all.
You will soon be able to use these settings for individual objects in solid view:


How to set object dimension Is there a way to set absolute dimensions of an object. Once I've created a cylinder for example, how can I go back and change the length? I know I can scale it, but I want to set an absolute length and cannot find any panels, tools, etc., to show / edit this data.

In Object mode :

Press N to show the properties panel
Select your object
You can set the dimension from the panel

Note :

These are the dimensions of the bounding box and not the height, width and depth of the cube
You can't set the diameter height as you did when creating the object


Normal orientation does not show dot In a forum somebody showed how the normal orientation looks for him:

However for me it looks like this:

I don't have this yellow dot at the end (or is it the start???) of the normal, so I think I can not say whether the normal direction is correct, or can I?

Thank you.

The face indicator "dot" is displayed in Wireframe Shading or Solid Viewport Shading while Textured Solid is disabled in Properties panel Shading section.


Images as Planes leaving white areas of images looking gray Need some help here, guys.  Pretty new to Blender; I've created a scene (set in a rather gloomy looking tunnel) with warning signs attached to the walls.  The signs were added as images as planes; kept it as simple as possible.  But any part of the images that are supposed to be white look a nasty gray.  Help!

Edit: I've added an image of the light node set-up.  Thanks!

Edit #2: May have inadvertently solved this one myself!  Playing with the ambient occlusion settings is allowing me to bring out the white of the images!  Now to just get the settings right so my tunnel scene doesn't look too bright!

[![Material nodes][1]][1]

Colors are directly relative to light, your "white" value is determined by the color of the texture but by the light too (colors are just parts of light spectrum not absorbed).
For the diffuse part, RGB of 0.8 means that the surface diffuse 80% of the light it recieved.
For exemple pure red means (in RGB values) that green and blue are absorbed R=1 G=0 B=0.
Just to let you know there isn't any materials that returns 100% of the light it recieved.

3D rendering needs knowledge about light and photographie, I recommande you to read about this two topics.
There is a good doc about physically based rendering by Allegorithmic that you can read too.

Edit your question to add pictures if you can, I don't remember if you have the right when you start here.


Armature not working when trying to rotate using the mouse? When I am trying to rotate the bone on the armature, I am getting the arrows to rotate the bone but the bone is not actually rotating.

I have tried parenting the armature to a character and it is still doing the same thing, the bone will not rotate with the mouse but it will rotate when using the XYZ rotation values.

Blendfile

That's because you enabled Manipulate center points in the header. Click that icon to toggle it off, or press Alt, (comma).


How to selectively render part of an ocean which is inside a round object? Once you see the image of the problem I'm having, it makes it much more sense what my problem is.

How do I make it so the ocean doesn't render outside of the cup object? You can see it towards the bottom left of the image

Try using a boolean modifier:

Create a cylinder the same size of the inside of your cup:

Add a boolean modifier and an edge-split modifier to the ocean object, with the cylinder object set as the target:

Make sure the cylinder is set to be hidden in the render, so it doesn't get in the way:


why the mesh moves from its position with curve modifier When i add a curve modifier stairs moves from its position. How it works can u explain in detail.How to set correct position from where i have the exact position i have set. Rotation scale and position are all 0,0,1 of stairs and curve. In some cases why we have to move and adjust. Any suggestion or help. Thanks

You can solve this problem by following the steps:

Set the origin of the curve and the stairs to the geometry
Move the stairs downward on the x-axis to where the arrow is
Rotate it on the y-axis to be parallel to the arrow (Do it in the front orthographic view
move it along the x and the z axis repeatedly to find the best fit.
Which will give you this:

For getting a much more refined curve I added in another nurbs curve and did a lot of tweaking. Added in plane.Modeled it into a stair added in an array modifier and a curve modifier.And finally this is what I got:
Here is the .blend file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nvo0X5z172oPs1BdGVXNDQF2nUX20u_j/view?usp=sharing


Problem overriding the context I'm trying to override the context, in order to run this Delaunay Triangulation add-on. I'm using the approach suggested in this answer:

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
        override = bpy.context.copy()
        override['area'] = area
        bpy.ops.delaunay.triangulation(override)
        break

However the add-on still fails when it tries to create a mesh, due to incorrect context:

Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File    "/Applications/Blender/blender.app/Contents/Resources/2.74/scripts/addons/delaunay_voronoi/delaunayVoronoiBlender.py", line 97, in execute
    bpy.ops.view3d.snap_cursor_to_selected()#move 3d-cursor
  File "/Applications/Blender/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/../Resources/2.74/scripts/modules/bpy/ops.py", line 189, in __call__
    ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.view3d.snap_cursor_to_selected.poll() failed, context is incorrect

The same error message appears four or five times, but always relating to line 97 of the add-on's script (bpy.ops.view3d.snap_cursor_to_selected()).

Am I overriding the context correctly? Is there anything else I could try?

The simplest remedy is to make the script not depend on the 3d cursor at all. The add-on in this case seems to use the 3d cursor somewhat arbitrarily to store the location of the selected object.

# replace these two lines
bpy.ops.view3d.snap_cursor_to_selected() # move 3d-cursor
tinObj.location = bpy.context.scene.cursor_location #position object at 3d-cursor

# with this line
tinObj.location = obj.location.copy()

it will do the triangulation as desired.

>>> bpy.ops.delaunay.triangulation()
0 duplicates points ignored
0 z colinear points excluded
Triangulate 6 points...
4 triangles
Create mesh...
Info: Mesh created (4 triangles)
{'FINISHED'}


Update parent and pivot of multiple children So I have multiple cubes to which I try to add empties as children. These empties copy/instantiate other geometry. As I try to duplicate and reparent the empties I encountered a strange behavior. My steps are:

Select all children
Shift+D
Escape (to keep the relative position)
Shift-Click the new parent to select it too
Object Context Menu\Parent\Object

This does not update the position of the children.

What does update the position is this:

Select all children
Shift+D
Escape (to keep the relative position)
Under Properties\Object Context\Relations change the parent to the new parent
Repeat for every child

Now the second approach works but is very tedious, that's why i tried the first method.
I also made a video of me trying both methods: https://youtu.be/jdKWM_cLef4

Any advice would be appreciated. Maybe even an explanation why the results of both methods differ.

Possibly, when parenting, what you're looking for is CtrlP > Object (Without Inverse), or, after parenting , with the children selected, Object menu > Clear > Origin. It is odd, IMO, that the Object menu > Parent item doesn't offer the first of these options.

The manual advertises (as in 2.79) the keyboard shortcuts CtrlShiftP for parenting this way, and AltO for clearing the origin. However, in my build, these shortcuts seem to have been removed. Having checked for conflicts, I've put them back without appearing to do any harm.


How can I make 3D Text in Russian? I've seen a similar question on BSE about entering foreign languages into 3D Text, but it doesn't help. I've tried using two different fonts (both of which support Russian). I've tried enabling International Fonts in Blender's User Preferences, but it doesn't work as well. It either types English text with Greek letters or displays empty vertical rectangles.

If anyone has been able to add text in any foreign language, please let me know.

I actually found out that it can be easily done through Text Editor, which would be probably the best way for me since I would prefer to paste my text. Can anyone perhaps guide me through?

Select your text object and under it's data change the font to use:

Use a Unicode font file or a file that has all the symbols you need. On windows machine you can find fonts in:

/Windows/Fonts/        (Fonts folder may be hidden)

and on linux machine in:

/usr/share/fonts
/usr/local/share/fonts
/home/<username>/.fonts       (.fonts is a hidden folder)

There are also many font sources in internet. For example Dafont is a free one.

You can copy-paste the content into the text object, you don't have to use text editor for this.

There should be no problem with russian symbols:

Or any other symbols:


Where is the colour management option? I'm looking for this colour management option:

However, I can't find it. Where is it? I am currently looking at this:

I cannot see anywhere how I can go into a "colour management" option like the one shown in the above screenshot.

I'm fairly new to blender, so screenshots would be appreciated.

You can find 'Color Management' in the 'Scene' tab of the 'Properties' area (the tall column on the right with the icons at the top).
You are currently on the 'Modifiers' tab (highlighted in orange, which is displaying the 'Displace' modifier), you need to click on the 'Scene' icon (highlighted in red):

In the 'Scene' tab is where the 'Color Management' options reside.


Same distance between two objects? I am trying to add couple objects in blender and make the same distance between them without using the array modifier. Here is the picture where I want the same distance between objects. And I would also like to align the edges on the side with other objects.

Well, if you really don't want or can't use arrays, you could use a "spacer shape", of fixed width, to help you to snap adjacent objects (even if different in shapes), like this:

here I snap a third red shape keeping the same distance by snapping to the same, duplicated (or moved) blue spacer


Camera and Object tracking I want to track one particle in a video and have some questions:

What data files are compatible with the program?
What data (position, Velocity of the particle,…) will be obtain?
Is the software for free or are there some costs?

The software is 100% free

here is a list of supported video formats

https://www.blender.org/manual/data_system/files/video_formats.html

But as far as motion tracking it depends if the camera is moving or not.

If the camera is moving, you can find out how it was moved by tracking things in the scene that dont move.

But if the camera is stationary, and you simply want to track a moving target.
Then you can do some simple math by finding out at what frame rate the video was recorded,
then checking how much the particle moved over how many frames.


how to assign different thicknesses to different lines/strokes within same GP objects When I create let´s say a face with one stroke for nose and another for mouth.
I would like to set different thicknesses to those strokes.
how to assign different thicknesses to lines within same GP objects.

One solution would be to create a layer and assign a value for the stroke thickness (let's say 50) and then create a new layer with a different value (300 for exemple).
the strokes in the first layer will be thinner than those in the second layer.


Is there any way to turn off pop-up UI windows (dialogues)? One of the UI changes in Blender 2.8 (I'm on 2.83.5) vs. 2.7 seems to be that, apparently, the one-window (no pop-up/ dialogue window) policy in the UI design seems to have been abandoned.
To give an example: previously, bringing up the save dialog with CTRL+W (now CTRL+S) would show the save view, which would simply replace the contents of the entire Blender Window. Doing this now, Blender will spawn an additional window for the save dialogue, with the main window remaining in the background.
Is there any way to turn this pop-up window behavior off and essentially revert to the 2.7 behavior?

I've found how to do this for the Render and File Browser (applies to the save dialogue) windows: Edit > Preferences > Interface > Editors > Temporary Windows.
However, this does not prevent the preferences window itself from opening up as a new window, so this doesn't fully answer the question.


Mesh text individual letters change colors Is it possible once you change a single text object to mesh, change each word a different colors within the key frames. I thought you could just select the word change the colors within the key frame. Unfortunately, this changes the entire text no matter which word I choose. Any help is appreciated. Using Blender 8.1

Speaking from Vers 2.77 here but 2.8+ should be the same or very similar...
Once you've changed your text to mesh you should be able to do that at least two ways -
1:
In edit mode select only those faces on the word(s) you wish to re-colour.
Assign them a new material slot and change it's colour.
2:
In edit mode, select the vertices in only the word(s) you wish to re-colour,
Part them from the mesh with "P".
Return to Object mode and select the words as a separate mesh and give it a new material slot if it hasn't got one already.  Colour it as required.
Parent the new mesh to the main text body if it's to be moved.
Colours can be changed with keyframes as with any other animation.


Does anybody actually use "scenes"? if so, what are some good/typical use cases? What can I use them for? Some concrete examples. I feel like I might be missing out on something.

Not sure how much help this will be but I'll share my experience anyway. A usage that has worked well for me is as follows -
I been using Blender in place of an architectural CAD package to design a small summerhouse. I have a main scene in which all the elements are drawn (slab, landscape, sole plate, studs etc.) and these are all placed into collections in that scene to help organise them and manage visibility.
If I now want a drawing of a particular subset of these elements, I can now create a scene for it and link in the elements I want to show on that particular scene. The linkage can be by collections but it is also possible to link in individual elements from the master scene. I can now create a new collection in that scene for the elements that are to be present only in that scene; into this local collection I place a camera and possibly lights and adjust the scene settings to use this camera for renders. I also set the camera to be isometric to get a plan view, use freestyle to render the line edges and add dimension text to the scene local collection and use material override to render all objects in a plain grey material. I can now render this out and effectively get a plan view line drawing.
This now means that I can return to the main scene and continue to add elements to it and, as long as I'm carful about keeping things in the right collections, these new elements will also be visible in the other drawing scene (if that scene links that collection). The main scene still has its own camera and renders from this scene will be in perspective and with materials rendered.
This workflow loosely recreates the feature in CAD packages where you can have a number of drawings with different views and subsets of the main model. In my workflow, each scene is a drawing.
This is possibly not what the scenes feature was primarily designed for but I do find it it useful in this case.


Why blender is not saving used Images I was wondering if someone could explain me why blender is not saving images when I save the project?

I know that this is treated as external data and it's not really big deal to save it manually but consider case where you don't know the program well.
Normally like in all other programs, when you save a project you expect that it's going to look exact the same when you load it again but in blender you could have a Big surprise especially when you spent few hours on it.
And even if you are experienced user you could forget to save it and little mistake can lead to waste much of your time.

I'm aware of this topic Auto save images along with .blend

But I'm asking why is Blender behaving in such way. It don't seem hard to program such thing so it must be a matter of choice which i can't understand but even a simple warning will be very helpfull.

In order to reduce the size of the .blend file. Blender to a Maximum extent save only relative references. If you want to Shift your project to some other machine.You have to pack all the project files.

To save all the images to the .blend file Checkout File-> External data section


BGE and MakeHuman:Why the mesh is not displayed correctly? Why the mesh is not displayed correctly in BGE, with or without clothes? Please see the picture and the blend file:
Blend file

Actually the file is in great shape. All you had to do is set the Shading mode to GLSL. It's currently set to Multitexture, which is an older, and less powerful system.

As an aside, the purple texture you see is the normal map on the character, which isn't supported in Multitexture mode.


How can I fix this "relpath" error I'm trying to use node wrangler for image textures and when I tried to use it I got this error. I have the textures on my main drive and the save file of the project on a different file if that helps explain anything. How can I fix this error?
I tried moving everything to the same drive and that didn't fix it.

It looks like you are using relative paths but the files are in different drives and not in the folder where the project file is. Move all the files to a common directory, along with the project file, or disable relative paths, so that the files are in a fixed location.
From the blender manual:

Relative Paths
Many blend-files reference external images or other linked blend-files. A path tells Blender where to look for these files. If the external files are moved, the blend-file that references them will not look right.
When you specify one of these external files, the default option is to make the path relative. Blender stores a partial path evaluated relative to the directory location of the referencing blend-file. This choice helps when you need to reorganize folders or move your files.
With a relative path, you can move the blend-file to a new location provided the externally linked files are moved along with it. For example, you could send someone a folder that contains a blend-file and a sub-folder of external images that it references.
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.


add vertex to an edge in edit mode When I want to add a vertex to an edge in Edit Mode at first it works, but when I want to add two other vertices it messes it up.
The following images will make you understand more

Click each edge to which you want to add vertices and simply click "Subdivide" in the right-click menu.
To move the vertices to where you want them, hit [G,G], which will let you slide the vertexes along the edge.


How to post a new entry to the help menu with python I am making an updater for blender and I want add "Update Blender" entry to the Help menu. How I do that ?

I know about the menu template , I know how to make the menu, my question is how I inject it to the bottom of the Help menu.

You need to make a custom menu drawing function, accepting two arguments: the parent Menu object and context access object.

def draw_help_item(self, context):
    self.layout.operator('wm.new_help_item', text = "New Help Item")

Then either append or prepend the function to the menu's class upon registering the new class, and remove it when unregistering:

def register():
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_add.append(draw_help_item)
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

def unregister():
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_add.remove(draw_help_item)
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)

The appropriate class' name, in this case bpy.types.INFO_MT_add, can be searched in Python shell assisted by autocompletion. It's usually prefixed with the area type, then either _MT for menu or _HT for header, and is fairly easy to deduce which UI element it corresponds with.


Trying to make the earth - don't see the Mapping sub-menu In the "Realistic Earth" Blender Guru video by @andrewprice there is a handy submenu in Texture called "Mapping". It has "Sphere Projection" which allows an image to map to a UV sphere "automatically" without UV unwrapping. I'd like to try but don't see it in my Texture menu. 2.74, tried both Cycles and Blender render setting.

what can I do to get that "magic button"?
is there a better way (without UV unwrapping)? - although it's a classic, the video is almost
4 years old.

I'll treat UV unwrapping separately.

IMAGES:

Left: from YouTube (How to Create a Realistic Earth in Blender, Blender Guru),

Right: my screenshot

Following the advice of @bortran I started watching Blender 2.7 Tutorial #12 : Image Textures & Bump Maps #b3d and within minutes I made the earth.

Generated coordinates and just select Sphere in the Image Texture.


Blender 2.82 Mantaflow on a small scale I am able to input liquid into the scene from a flow object set as geometry and the liquid falls into a flask that is set as a collision effector.
But when I scale down the flask to its actual size (about 8cm diameter), the fluid particles either disappear altogether, or they appear for the first frame only and then disappear. Plus, the particles are extremely big and are larger than the flask itself.
Can anyone explain how I can work with such a small scale and still get the same results as I would from a larger scale scene? What factors or settings can be adjusted and what is each of their significance? Does adjusting the grid size do anything?
I saw this post: https://blenderartists.org/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-too-small-of-a-scale-for-mantaflow-flip-fluids-particles-too-big/1208348 but I am still confused. I try changing the particle size and don't see any difference.
My geometry-set flow object is a 0.025x0.025x0.01 cube (see image). Thanks for your help!
UPDATE: Here is the link to the blender file if you want to take a look https://spaces.hightail.com/space/4kpJQiVAFl

Blender currently cannot handle simulations when they are that small.
Rigid body needs all object to be at least 1 m at smallest in dimensions.
Same with fluid and most other solvers within blender.

As of now I would suggest increasing it to 10x the size.


How to make plain(cut) shape? I'm sure the question was asked a lot, but i cannot formulate it for google.
I have this quadrangle
When look at it from side, it's not plane
While zero smooth it's two triangles with different shades, I would make it into one quadrangle with single shade. Any easy way?

This is called non-planar geometry.
Shading issues are typical for such faces.

To make it planar, just scale it along it's Normal to zero.


How to open an independant window using the same file I download some blend file online when I open it open like this
it have different window but still 1 file opened,
i think if i know how to make like that it will make more easy when use blender
thank you

In the window menu you can choose "New window".
Every portion of a window can contain any number and kind of Blender editors, you can select them with the dropdown menu.


Shadows in plain surface I'm a beginner in Blender - i have a problem with mysterious shades in flat surface. Model comes from SketchUp (exported to OBJ / imported to Blender).

Model is composed of blocks, shades are near block's edges (but only on some of them). My idea was Sketchup model have some smooth edges, but it haven't...

Any idea what is the problem??

Thank you very much in advance!

EDIT
full resolution preview: http://lukex.name/temp/preview.png

Thank you very much for your comments.
Later i was solving how to import model by separate floors and it gives me a spoiler to solve this.

The problem causes import options and complicacy of model:

In Blender OBJ import options unchecking Smooth Groups and no Split by helped (in case of shadows on simple blocks //Groups in SketchUp had one surface identical and Smooth Groups in blender causes this problems).

Next - SketchUp allows making very complicated surfaces (many edge lines, only one surface [i used it for floor // it isn't showed in pictures]). But OBJ exporter probably has problem to divide it to triangles. It causes overcasting triangles and same shadows in flat surface. Dividing very complicated surfaces (in Sketchup by line tool) helped.

Good luck in rendering ;-)


Edges "twisted" by the subsurf modifier I am learning modeling on Blender and I have some difficulties with the subsurf modifier.

Here is my mesh with the modifier display off :

And here it is with the display on :

Some edges are twisted and I don't understand why.
I tried to :

removes doubles
recalc normals
delete the vertices and make a new one (makes it even worst)

Could someone, please, explain me why it is happening and how can I correct it?

Thank you,

It looks to me like there are vertices in your mesh that are not attached.  See the video below.

Double check all of the vertices around your twisted area and merge those that aren't connected by press Alt+M on the keyboard.


Is there hidden data in this .blend file? Trying to minimize the file size I have this .blend file of a beard, and I'm trying to minimize the file size. I reduced the number of vertices from 30,718 to 88, but the file size only went from ~18MB to ~10MB. I can't figure out what the other data might be.

I have other files with more vertices/objects/materials that are only about 1MB, so it sure seems like something is hidden (at least from my inadequate eyes).

The file:

Yes. There are three packed jpg files.

Go to UV editor, select the first one, then click on the X button near its name, while holding the shift key.

Repeat this for the second and the third one, then save this file again.

A "0" will appear near the deleted images.


Culling Objects Using a Culling Object Today my question might be a bit complex, but I hope that Blender has an easy solution for this. So, let's say I have a scene with several objects in it and I have a background. The background is image/video which has some objects on it. Some of them are supposed to be closer to camera than my 3D models. I have a representative 3D model made for those objects, but texturing it would be real complex. Instead what I inted to do is to use it as a culler - wherever the object is, render the background(cull the other objects). Is this possible to do? Also, a solution for both - Blender Internal and Blender Cycles is needed.
Thanks! ;)

Using Renderlayers
Position your masking objects on a separate layer. (In my case layer 2.)

Go to the Properties > Renderlayers Tab. Set the Mask Layer to the layer, which contains the mask objects. Note that you have to have the layers switched on in the scene for them to be included in the render.

Rendering this setup results in the following. The mask object renders as transparent.

If you do not wish the object to have a shadow, set it to a transparent material or turn off cast shadows.
Using the Material Setup
Cycles
Set the material to holdout.

Internal
Check Transparent, use Mask mode and set Alpha to 0.0. Disable Cast Shadows.


Randomize location of multiple objects Does anyone know if there's a modifier or any other way to "randomize" the location of a number of objects? What I have is about 20 objects positioned next to each other and I want to randomize their Z value, but it's for a still, not for animation. I'd like to know if I can do this other than manually because I may have a lot more objects than just 20...

Thanks!!

EDIT: I've found a way. With all objects selected, I just need to run this script:

import bpy
from random import *

for ob in bpy.context.selected_objects:
  ob.location.z = ob.location.z + random() * 2

I wonder, however, is there's a more "visual" solution to this, other than scripting...

You can use the Randomize Transform operator with all objects selected in Object mode.
Press the Spacebar (or F3 with default 2.8 keymap)and then begin typing Randomize until the option appears, and adjust the desired axis for location/ rotation/ scale  in the operator panel, or by pressing F6.
You can also access the operator from the menus via Object>Transform>Randomize transform to do the same thing.


How to exit from the camera view? With this code fragment, I can enter the camera view correctly, but I'd like to be able to get out.

 for a in bpy.context.screen.areas:
        if a.type == 'VIEW_3D':
            for r in a.regions:
                if r.type == 'WINDOW':
                    override = {'window': bpy.context.window,
                                'area': a,
                                'region': r,
                                'scene': bpy.context.scene,
                                'active_object': camera}
                    bpy.ops.view3d.object_as_camera(override)

You can use the view3d.viewnumpad operation.
Pass on the override context, just like in your example code. This snippet can also be used to enter the active camera's view.

bpy.ops.view3d.viewnumpad(override, type='CAMERA')