text:
How to get Shape Key box working in Pose Mode
Back again with another add-on in development. The add-on that I am currently working on is a Viewport Sidebar version of the Properties Editor, with various improvements that are just not possible with the Properties Editor, such as reordering the tabs, as well as the benefit of not needing to have the Properties Editor open and taking up valuable screen space.
However, I'm taking things one step further... and it's that one step further that I'm having trouble with.
What I am trying to do currently is get the Shape Key box from Mesh Object Data Properties working in Pose Mode in order to use shape keys for facial expressions or anything else that uses them without having to switch between Object and Pose Mode.
The most obvious one that I’ve tried is the following:
class VIEW_3D_PT_animation_properties_shape_keys (bpy.types.Panel):

    bl_space_type = ‘VIEW_3D”
    bl_region_type = ‘UI’
    bl_category = “Properties”
    bl_label = “Shape Keys”
    bl_parent_id = “view3d.animation_properties”
    bl_options = {“DEFAULT_CLOSED}
    bl_context = “pose_mode”

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

    if context.object.mode == “POSE” and context.object.type == “ARMATURE”:

    row = layout.row (align = True)
            row.template_list ("MESH_UL_shape_keys", "", context.object.data.shape_keys, "key_blocks", context.object, "active_shape_key_index")

However, when I run the script with Alt P, then go into Pose Mode, obviously, the Shape Key Panel doesn’t work as intended.
I get this….

When what I'm really aiming for is this:

Thanks to user SpectralVectors on Blender Artists for making me aware of bl_context. I never would’ve known it was a thing otherwise.
SpectralVectors also gave me the following code block to try out:
data = bpy.data.shape_keys[0]

            box = layout.box()

            for block in data.key_blocks:
                    column = box.column()
                    column.prop (block, "value", text = block.name)

And although it does work for using the shape keys in Pose Mode, it’s not the shape key menu, which is what I’m really after, nor does it take the currently selected mesh object/bound armature into account, although just learning about bl_context is a good enough start.
Sadly, I don’t know of any existing add-ons that take the object data properties context of one mode, and use it for another mode, so I have no clue if it’s even possible to do, but I believe it is since Blender Python can access everything else in Blender, so it’s possible that this is completely new territory, and if so, that means if we can figure out a solution for this to get the Shape Key Menu working in Pose Mode, people can use the solution provided as a template for other context sensitive things in Blender, which would help the overall Blender community.
If someone can find a working solution for the Shape Key Menu, that person will be mentioned in the author field for my addon, along with receiving a non-expiring discount for all products on my Gumroad store, so, please, Blender community, I can’t do this alone anymore.


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Localized shadow below object with shadow catcher in cycles
I am trying to set up a shadow capture for an object with a diffuse yet localized shadow using world lighting and transparent background.
The problem is that the shadow bleeds out too far from the object and creates an undesirable crop line at the edge of the boundary (see red arrow).
By looking at the alpha channel it seems that there are two parts of the shadow: the part right under the cube (which I want to keep) and the more diffuse part, indicated by the green arrow (which I want to remove).

What I want is the following, which I have created using photo editing.

I would like to avoid messing with the compositor or creating any specialty textures. Are there any world, render, material, object (or other) settings that I can adjust to create this effect?
For reference: here are the steps to reproduce the undesirable figure:

Default Blender 4.0.2 configuration
Switch to cycles
Set film to transparent
Remove default lamp
Set color of world to white (#FFFFFF) and transparent. Leave strength at 1.0
Add a plane, make large enough to fill all of camera view, then move slightly below the default cube.
For plane: Object -> Visibility -> Enable Shadow Catcher
For plane: Object -> Shading -> Shadow Terminator -> Shading offset=1.0

The softness of the shadow is given by the diffuse lighting of the white world around it, which is (kind of) infinitively large. The size of the light source determines the size and spread of the shadow. If a gigantic hemisphere around the object creates a too soft shadow, you need another light source of which you can control the size and location and therefore softness and direction of shadow better. Or increase the brightness of the world until the very faint shadows are no longer visible. Or change location or focal length of the camera so it captures everything.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


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When i try to render animation its just black and grey squares
When i try to render an animation it just shows black and grey squares it does work in a picture just not animation how do i fix this.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
What is the workflow for adding details to low poly to bake using normals
I'm attempting to add sort of hard surface modelling details to an existing model in counter strike. So far I have imported the model provided by valve, added the details I want and now need to bake these onto the uv provided by valve.
Here is the topology.

I have tried to bake these details onto the original low poly model provided by valve but I am getting all sorts of errors. I am new to 3d modelling so am I missing something major here. I have a feeling its something to do with the fact that the topology of the original model and my added details are not joined together so its having trouble working out how to bake the normals. I am completely lost so any help would be great cheers.
Here is the original model for reference:


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Is there A Possibility To Add A Shape Key Property With bpy.types.ShapeKey
Recently I tried to add a API Property To ever shape key, like I can with bpy.types.Object.
However when I try to access it, I get the info, that the property is deferred and blender seems to see it as a function, despite the fact that I can access it, I can not show it in my UI or change it. When I try I get the error, that the property is a collection and read only.
Does anybody know how I can access it properly?
This works as expected:
bpy.types.Scene.auxNormalizedVector = StringProperty(
default="[]")

This does not:
bpy.types.ShapeKey.auxShowOptions = BoolProperty(
default = False)


text:
How to cut circles out of the cube?

I am making some quick sketch of the dice. I need to make inner part of the circle leave a trace inside dice and with the outer part completely gone. How to make that?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/305056/rounded-dice-why-do-the-simplest-things-seem-so-difficult https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/107584/creating-a-cleaner-uv-map-for-dice https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/74137/how-to-add-a-face-connecting-two-meshes https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/223607/boolean-is-not-working-correctly-when-trying-to-subtract-a-collection


text:
How to Import Multiple Camera Tracking from Nuke to Blender?
I'm attempting to merge multiple scenes into a single video in Blender using multiple camera tracking. I have about 10 different sequences that I'd like to align seamlessly, as they all share the same 3D object background but were shot from different angles. Is there a method to delay the start of the camera tracking, perhaps by 50 frames or so, just like how image sequences function works? Currently, when I play the video, all imported cameras start moving from frame 1, but I need them to start at different times based on the sequence.
Thank you in advance! I also wish you a wonderful holiday season!


text:
Appended file sped up
I had animated a character in one file and synced it with an audio - when I appended the character file into another one, the whole animation is now sped up, I don't know what to do.

Is the frame rate the same in each file?


text:
Animate Noise Texture W through Simulation Zone
I'm currently testing the Simulation Zone in Geometry Nodes and wanted to animate just the W value of the noise texture through it. My current setup is just displacing the mesh, and the Simulation Zone keeps adding up the same value, which I expected, but I want it to react as if I animated the w value instead. My goal is to have control over those keyframes so I can cache them in RAM with the Simulation Zone.

There is no need in simulation zone in this setup


text:
UV map lost when export to FBX
With Blender 4.0 on a Windows 11 PC.
I did UV maps on my model.

But when I export this model in FBX (and import it in another software or another blender fiel), UV maps and shaders are brocken/lost on multi-shaders parts.
Not on single shader part (hair).

How can I fix this?
Should I split the multi-shader part into several?
Thank you in advance.


text:
Flickering in final render
I'm in desperate need of help. I've been working on this for the past 2 weeks and I got to rendering.
FNAF Movie Pizzeria - Entrance | Render N. 1
As you can see there is clearly a problem. The image does this kind of flicker thing that I do not know how to fix. If you have any suggestions please let me know. I've also attached my render settings. These are the only things I've modified.
It's my first time working on something like this, I've been using Blender for only a month now.

I think this is caused by noise. I suggest to decrease the Noise Threshold and to increase the Max Samples. This should improve the image fed into the Denoiser which will improve the final output as a result. It doesn't seem that all surfaces are suffering from this issue. I think the glossy surfaces need more bounces, but you may need to review the shader for the materials with rendering issues to figure out which bounces need to be increased.


text:
How do I rig a skeleton to another model? I want to make a mod

I have imported the Cavalry night set from Elden ring into Blender as an FBX. I have imported the Aknosom armor from Monster hunter rise into Blender as an RE mesh.
I want to make a Monster hunter rise mod that replaces the Aknosom armor with the Cavalry night armor from Elden ring.
I don't know how to proceed from here. My understanding is I am supposed to rig the skeletons together.
Please provide advice on what to do step by step.


text:
How do I reduce polys in hair to reduce .dff file size without making .txd file buggy? (GTA SA skins)
Trying to use the decimate tool on the hair of a 3D model is fine for reducing the file size of a .dff, but then it makes the accompanying .txd file incompatible. It basically makes the skin turn black. The file sizes for both .dff and .txd need to be under 800kb for a server's custom skin import requirements. Using DragonFF's .dff scripts. Any ideas?
I've tried remeshing and other things, I just don't know exactly what I'm doing, it appears that the wire meshes are parent to each other and this is why the .txd won't apply.
https://imgur.com/TK196YX
https://imgur.com/UBMOdJ5
https://imgur.com/gL2KL2E
https://github.com/Parik27/DragonFF - the scripts for Blender
https://ufile.io/f/4pcb3 - the .dff and .txd files

Hello and welcome. Instead of having users go through links and external sites please use the builtin tools to embed images in your post. See How to upload an image to a post? or GIF


text:
Geometry Nodes - Peeling surface along curve with arbitrary rotation
I am continuing to work on a geometry nodes set up that peels paper up given proximity to the interior of a given target object. Thanks to the great curve rolling tutorial from Cartesian Caramel I have made progress.

Given that in reality is unrealistic for the peeling to happen entirely in parallel I want to randomly rotate the each curve so that each section peeling up at a slight different angle from the others. As it is rotating the peel direction of the curve rotates the entire generated geometry, which is isn't what I want.
Here is the desired effect achieved through an ordinary curve modifier on a single subdivided plane.

However as it is the curve to mesh is creating the final geometry the peeling sections are always created according the normal of the peeling curves. Maybe this is a limitation of doing it in this way: probably the peel geometry should be modified by the curves it is paired with via instance indices rather than created directly from it.
It seems to me that each point in the peeled mesh geometry must be constrained to move only in the z axis and the tangent  of the curve, as this is how it works when you actually peel up paper at an angle. But I'm not sure how to implement this.


text:
brush lag, freeze errors
no matter which version of the blender programme I use, I encounter stuttering and delay errors. especially when working in 2d, the brush tool starts to delay after 3-4 minutes of use. I have installed many lts versions but the error still persists. Likewise, when doing 3d modelling, it starts to slow down after a few minutes of use in the same way, although it is later and less stuttering than 2d animation. in other programs 3d 2d vector etc. I can use it without stuttering, but it surprises me that there are stuttering in blender. please help
device specifications
Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.80GHz
memory 512 gb
Graphics card: intel(R) iris(R) Xe graphics
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (available: 15.8 GB)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch Pen and touch support with 10 touch points


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How do I export this model so that it is is one object using one material?

I downloaded this model from SketchFab
https://skfb.ly/oLsvy
and I want to turn it into a point cloud. However the way I usually do this is by assigning a material with a single image texture on one UV Map (As Shown in the Node tree image).

The model I have is too complicated to do this as it has Multiple Textures, UV Maps etc. I keep watching videos online about baking multiple textures into one but it doesn't seem to work for me. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I wanted to know if there was a way for me to export the model with a single image texture on one UV Map so that I can use the same node tree I have for my point cloud effect. I basically just want to have one object with one material shader that uses one image texture on one UV Map. I thought it would be a very easy thing to do but clearly more convoluted than I thought ://


text:
Help with Resident Evil Animations!
I'm totally new to Blender and I want to create some funny animations with Resident Evil characters, but I'm having trouble with 2 things.
I tried to import rigged characters from this site: (FBX file format)
https://rigmodels.com/index.php?searchkeyword=resident-evil
But they won't show up in Blender...(I'm using 4.0 version)
Then I tried to import in Wavefront Format and the character appeared.
But now I don't know if it's possible to make an animation with an wavefront object file; like rigging it, to begin with...
What do you suggest I do?

To be honest, the first thing you'll need to do is to learn Blender! You won't be able to animate anything if you've never used Blender before. It certainly isn't for complete beginners, especially animation.


text:
Grease Pencil - Convert mesh to grease pencil with color Attributes
I have Converted a mesh with Color Attribute (vertex color) to grease pencil.
It create solid Fill Shaders for each different Color Attribute but all are white ...
Is it possible to keep all color attribute instead to have a fully white result ?
I'm using Blender 4.0
Edit :
Anyone can tell me if :
1- It's a Bug

2- This feature is not implemented

3- I do it wrong

Thanks !


text:
I can't get the image to scale properly
I can't get the image to scale properly visible seems.

Are you sure that the image is seamless and that the unwrap is correct?


text:
Post processing SPH simulation
I’m very new to blender. I just ran a (sph) fluid simulation and want to post-process it in blender to make it look like this:

Does anyone have any information which would help me do this? I used splishsplash:
https://github.com/InteractiveComputerGraphics/SPlisHSPlasH
to run the simulation. A related project called splashsurf:
https://github.com/InteractiveComputerGraphics/splashsurf
allows you to extract the surface of the fluid from an sph simulation. In the splashsurf readme it is said that
“These surface meshes can then be fed into 3D rendering software such as Blender to generate beautiful water animations.”
I could not find any more detail as to how this is accomplished. Thus I am here looking for any advice I can get. Anything to point me in the right direction for learning resources is appreciated. If you need any more info such as the file type(s) produced by splashsurf (which btw is either a series of obj or vtk files) just comment and I’ll edit the question.

I figured it out. In order to import the series of obj or vtk files into blender you can use https://github.com/InteractiveComputerGraphics/blender-sequence-loader which is developed by the same people who made splashsurf and splishsplash. Once the sequence is imported you can render as usual (I’m assuming, I haven’t actually rendered yet).


text:
Sun Light not rendering (Eevee)
So, I made this scene in blender Eevee, it is not complete yet, but I rendered it to see how it was looking so far, and I noticed that on the rendered viewport, the sun light looks normal, but when I actually render it, it is not visible at all.0


text:
Problem with custom armor
Good evening, first of all I am completely new to this BLender so I am a little lost, and the issue is that I am trying to create an armor, but when I attached the part of the leather ropes to the Armature, although in principle it moves with the movement and it fits in principle where it is supposed to... When I try to import the GR2 again to see that everything is fine it always places it at the bottom... And in the game it looks like this on the ground. Someone who has experienced something similar could enlighten me... Thank you

Hi. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue so that anyone searching for a similar problem is likely to find it. Remove anything superfluous, avoid using words like "this", "help with", "issue" or "question about", instead describe what "it" is. Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on how insightful it is. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"


text:
How do I create prongs that are cut into a curve ring and that cover a object?

I want to create a ring where the diamonds are jaded into it's sides with prongs that are part of the ring and are connected to it.
This is what I have achieved so far.


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Geometry Nodes Points (and instances) not showing in a small sized objects
I'm working in a really small sized object with real scale size (about 13 mm length object) and I make a distribution node tree to put some tiny rocks distributed in part of the model. All transforms applied in all objects. I try to append a nodetree that have been using in bigger objects and it doesn't work. When I try to recreate it I see the node "Ditribute points on faces" is not showing any point.
After a lot of testing, I find "Ditribute points on faces" shows points and particles when I put some negative value in Density Max value (multiplying the input value by -1). That makes the points appear, but no matter which negative value I put, the density always remains the same.
Do someone know if this is normal, or just a bug, or how can I do the trick to get the particles (hair particles like distribution on the object) but avoiding particles overlapping, controlling the density of the particles and the depth the particles go through the surface?
Thanks a lot!

can you share your file? https://blend-exchange.com/


text:
How to distort a color attribute
I’m looking to give a natural look to dirt paths by setting up bounding boxes that distorts the color with noise to simulate realistic erosion.
In the first 2 images I have successfully set the bounding box system but now I’m looking to add noise similar to how in the 3rd image when I used an image texture

you could try distorting the sample position.


text:
Blender rigid bodies getting stuck in each other
I am trying to make a pinball simulation with blender and have been constantly having an issue where the pinball (a ragdoll) keeps on getting stuck inside the obstacles:

The simulation works by starting the animation and using the controller object to rotate the paddles. The paddles have a driver attached to them where the controller object’s Z changes the rotation of the paddles. The Z of the controller is limited to 0-15.
Video on how to use: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bg58lgm76uu1bhjqhyi59/pinballguide.mp4?rlkey=im54ws266z3qfa2ohzj9qs0uk&dl=0
File Link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5aorzcunqgd28m5930tmd/pinball.blend?rlkey=8cosbs6m3osgkq90f4u2h94g3&dl=0

one problem for sure is your wrong face orientation of some parts of the body. But even after correcting that, it happened - so i don't know how to solve that.


text:
How to restrict vertex selection only to those visible within camera cut-off range?
I'm trying to do some NURBS editing. I want it to match some reference images set 5μm apart. I set a camera cut-offs to give me 4μm slice.
Is there a way to restrict edit-mode selection to visible vertices only? Whenever I drag a selection box in the main area (front view along Y axis), the selection includes vertices in the back way past camera cut-off (shown in left bottom area) as can be seen on left top area with a side view facing X axis. (Ignore out of plane vertices as I was dumb to use Proportional Editing without plane restriction. That is why it looks messy).
I see many similar questions that mention unchecking x-ray. It does not affect this behavior. I tried all types of Viewport Shading w/ and w/o Toggle X-Ray.
If I remove reference images object from view, I do see only vertices that are within camera cut-off distance only. Yet selection includes stuff in the back... but not in the front. I don't think I found a bug. Did I? What am I missing?


text:
Problem when I export from Blender in FBX, no texture is exported
I have been exporting in Blender and wanting to practice with 3D models that I have textured well and I have assigned to the models, but when I export these never carry the texture or color.
Only pure white remains in the 3D preview and in the model in Unreal Engine, it is not a problem of "Path Mode" or "Embed Textures" because I have them activated to 100% and still happens these.
I do not know what happens and I've tried a lot.

enter image description here

.fbx export why there are no materials or textures?.


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This artifact happens when I use the bevel tool
Any idea what could be causing this to my model when I use the bevel tool? Thanks in advance!

Try selecting all vertices with A then press M and merge by distance, also try applying scale


text:
Baking Diffuse with AO Node is creating messy texture image
This what the baked texture looks like with the AO Node contibuting to the Base Color.  (Yes, it's rather high poly, that's because I am baking a sculpt paint).


text:
use nurbs circle to cut model
There is a nurbs circle on the model
now I want to cut the part below the circle
I can get all vert's co.
how can I achieve that?
If someone could help me, I would be very grateful


text:
Why doesn't my animation have the effects applied after compositing?
So, I have a video in MP4 format, and I put it into the compositing workspace. I want to render this video with the effects I applied in compositing, but every time the effects are not there, just like when I try to render an image. In that case, I have to switch to the viewer node to see the effect and save it as an image. However, when I try to do the same with an animation, I can't save it as a video; it only saves as a single image. How do I render the video with these effects?And u can see that effect in viewer node but not in render result


text:
How to save a list of objects as a scene property for operator filtering objects
is there a way to have an equivalent of a list/tuple as a scene property?
something similar to c++ like "array< classname >* object list"
the operator i'm working with hides any object that is not within user selection, one issue is consistency between what's hidden and what's revealed, without a reference to the previously hidden objects sometimes everything gets hidden stopping the operator from being able to reveal anything
a list within the operator is not possible as all the tests i've done end up with a "referenced before assignment" error and CollectionProperty() can't be used either as i it stops me from writing to any property within it (read only)
the code i'm stuck on, the commented out section is alternatives that are less reliable
Addon code here for reference: Release is out of date v0.5.0 stage 4 is the latest
class Alx_OT_Scene_VisibilityIsolator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """"""

    bl_label = ""
    bl_idname = "alx.operator_scene_visibility_isolator"
    bl_options = {"INTERNAL"}

    TargetVisibility : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="", default=False, options={"HIDDEN"})
    UseObject : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="", default=False, options={"HIDDEN"})
    UseCollection : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="", default=False, options={"HIDDEN"})

    @classmethod
    def poll(self, context):
        return context.area.type == "VIEW_3D"

    def execute(self, context):
        if (len(context.scene.alx_addon_properties.SceneIsolatorVisibilityTarget) != 0):
            TargetType = set(Target for Target in context.scene.alx_addon_properties.SceneIsolatorVisibilityTarget)
            TemporaryList = set(Object for Object in context.scene.objects if ((Object is not None) and (len(context.selected_objects) != 0) and (Object not in context.selected_objects)))

            if (len(TemporaryList) != 0):
                SafeList = TemporaryList

                if (len(TemporaryList) == 0):
                    for Object in SafeList:
                        if (Object is not None):
                            if ("VIEWPORT" in TargetType):
                                Object.hide_viewport = not self.TargetVisibility
                            if ("RENDER" in TargetType):
                                Object.hide_render = not self.TargetVisibility

                if (len(TemporaryList) != 0):
                    for Object in TemporaryList:
                        if (Object is not None):
                            if ("VIEWPORT" in TargetType):
                                Object.hide_viewport = not self.TargetVisibility
                            if ("RENDER" in TargetType):
                                Object.hide_render = not self.TargetVisibility

        return {"FINISHED"}

what i did for CollectionProperty
the PropertyGroup definition:
class AlxIsolatorObject(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    IsolatorObjectName : bpy.props.StringProperty(name="", default="", options={"HIDDEN"})

alternative register with the same IsolatorObject class (which gives the read only error)
class AlxAddonProperties(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    """"""

    SceneIsolatorVisibilityTarget : bpy.props.EnumProperty(name="SceneIsolatorVisibilityTarget", options={'ENUM_FLAG'}, items=[("VIEWPORT", "Viewport", "", 1), ("RENDER", "Render", "", 2)])
    SceneIsolatorVisibilityList : bpy.props.CollectionProperty(type=AlxPreferences.AlxIsolatorObject)

registered with this inside the register() function, it fails to create the property as the property group fails to register even tho it's in the correct order:
bpy.types.Scene.alx_scene_isolator_visibility_list = bpy.props.CollectionProperty(type=AlxIsolatorObject)

You can use collection property

Collection property is the way to go, what you describe is you trying to modify the pointer which is indeed not possible, I am sure you can do what you want by using the collection property in the way it is intended, would you mind posting the things you tried with collection property that resulted in this error message ?

reguarding collection properties, i'm aware of the read only pointers, the weird thing is having it gives the same error with strings, i hope it's not due to the fact it's multifile addon, the read only is sparked from the scene pointer to a property group i will update the post with everything i've tried with collection props

Collection Properties were not the way to go at all, i need to be able to access indexes but due to the fact CollectionProperties are created as a set by default, it made me unable to access indexes
Here is how is solved this issue, good practice or not it gave me the exact results i needed with no errors or side-effects
How i defined the Scene property
i simply put this in the register function
bpy.types.Scene.alx_scene_isolator_visibility_list = []

How i handled the operator
class Alx_OT_Scene_VisibilityIsolator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """"""

    bl_label = ""
    bl_idname = "alx.operator_scene_visibility_isolator"
    bl_options = {"INTERNAL"}

    TargetVisibility : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="", default=False, options={"HIDDEN"})
    UseObject : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="", default=False, options={"HIDDEN"})
    UseCollection : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="", default=False, options={"HIDDEN"})

    @classmethod
    def poll(self, context):
        return context.area.type == "VIEW_3D"

    def execute(self, context):
        if (len(context.scene.alx_addon_properties.SceneIsolatorVisibilityTarget) != 0):
            TargetType = set(Target for Target in context.scene.alx_addon_properties.SceneIsolatorVisibilityTarget)
            IsolatorSelectionSet = [Object for Object in context.scene.objects if ((Object is not None) and (len(context.selected_objects) != 0) and (Object not in context.selected_objects))]

            try:
                IsolatorSelectionSet[0]
                bpy.types.Scene.alx_scene_isolator_visibility_list = IsolatorSelectionSet
                for Object in IsolatorSelectionSet:
                    if (Object is not None):
                        if ("VIEWPORT" in TargetType):
                            Object.hide_viewport = not self.TargetVisibility
                        if ("RENDER" in TargetType):
                            Object.hide_render = not self.TargetVisibility
            except:
                try:
                    context.scene.alx_scene_isolator_visibility_list[0]
                    for Object in context.scene.alx_scene_isolator_visibility_list:
                        if (Object is not None):
                            if ("VIEWPORT" in TargetType):
                                Object.hide_viewport = not self.TargetVisibility
                            if ("RENDER" in TargetType):
                                Object.hide_render = not self.TargetVisibility
                except:
                    pass

the reason i needed something similar to arrays is indexes to shorten how much time sanity checks take, running len() every 2 lines was causing severe freezes the higher the number of objects in the scene regardless of poly-count, i only needed to know whether it has at least one object not the whole length
a scene with 200 objects was taking a whole 5-10 seconds to recover from a freeze
which CollectionProperties would have only worsened as i would need to access and do a context.scene.objects.get(objectnamefromcollection) for every item in that scene property
having a try: except: that attempts to access index 0 is going to be faster and not be affected by the length of the list from my understanding as whether that list has 500 object or 10, accessing a index takes the same speed at the same depth
don't quote me on that, i found that from testing and might be completely wrong


text:
How to add vector blur for particles produced by Mantaflow?
I'll briefly explain my setup here:
I am trying to render an animation including sand movement produced by a falling object. I have made the simulation using mantaflow as a source for the particle system that will then serve as an instancer for points (Mesh to Points in geometry nodes). I transfered the particle system using the Particle Instance modifier on a different object containing a single vertex (with the previous geo nodes applied to it).
I have also enabled the vector pass output aswell as the Z depth. In compositing nothing seems to be blurred and the vector pass is just a blank image. I am afraid that if I add a Realize Instance after the Mesh to Points node it would break the simulation.
Any clue on how to get vector blur in this case ?


text:
How can I parent separate clothing meshes to different parts of the armature?
I am attempting to clothe a character in two pieces of clothing that comprise a robe. After parenting the meshes to the armature, when the movement begins the lower "skirt" part deforms up with the hands in an unnatural motion.
I have used the steps:
Select clothing mesh, then armature and parent to empty groups.
Select character mesh then clothing and go to weight paint, assign as transfer weights.
It works well for the upper piece, but the lower portion also follows the arm motion and makes it "flare" forward unnaturally.
I am trying to figure out how to parent the lower portion only the the legs of the armature, but haven't found how or figured it out yet. Any tips or assistance are appreciated.

You likely need to paint the skirt's weights manually.  Transferring weights typically operates by measuring the closest part of the target.  If the closest part is an arm, rather than a leg, you get arm weights.


text:
newby mode solidify outline issue
im trying to make a simple lil model thats just flat and has outlines to learn about it
so all parts work
except the hair
how do I fix it?


text:
When looping the selection_history of a bemesh it Crashes With Error: HIPEW initialization failed: Error opening HIP dynamic library
I'm Making a tool for boundary weight paint pinning from selection with bmesh
Am i supposed to report this as a Bug ?
Edit:
the script works with no issues when using selection_history.active instead of looping through selection_history
if 2 or more faces are selected at the same time in edit mode and the script below is run it will instantly crash blender with this as the debug_log
Error:
***** *************** ***** device.cpp:34] CUEW initialization succeeded
***** *************** ***** device.cpp:36] Found precompiled kernels
***** *************** ***** device.cpp:61] HIPEW initialization failed: Error opening HIP dynamic library

Recreate the linked image in a new blend file to prove it's not file dependent
To recreate:

2 strips that are 3 or more faces long of connected 4 sided faces under the same mesh object
select as illustrated in the image
run script

Script:
import bpy
import bmesh

if (bpy.context.mode == "EDIT_MESH") and (bpy.context.edit_object.type == "MESH"):
    bpy.context.BMesh = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(bpy.context.edit_object.data)
    PinGroup = None
    for VxGroup in bpy.context.edit_object.vertex_groups:
        if (PinGroup is None) and (VxGroup.name.lower() == "pin"):
            PinGroup = VxGroup
    else:
        if (PinGroup is None):
            PinGroup = bpy.context.edit_object.vertex_groups.new(name="Pin")
    if (PinGroup is not None):
        PinGroup.name = "Pin"
        for SelectionItem in bpy.contextBMesh.select_history:
            if (SelectionItem is not None) and (SelectionItem.__class__ is bmesh.types.BMFace):
                BoundaryVertex = []
                NonBoundaryEdge = []
                DividingNonBoundaryEdge = []
                for Edge in SelectionItem.edges :
                    if (Edge.is_boundary == True):
                        BoundaryVertex.extend([Vertex for Vertex in Edge.verts if (Vertex not in BoundaryVertex)])

                for Vertex in BoundaryVertex:
                    for Edge in Vertex.link_edges:
                        if (Edge.is_boundary == False):
                            if (Edge not in NonBoundaryEdge):
                                NonBoundaryEdge.append(Edge)
                            if (Edge in NonBoundaryEdge):
                                DividingNonBoundaryEdge.append(Edge)

                AddVertex = [Vertex.index for Vertex in BoundaryVertex]
                RemoveVertex = [Vertex.index for Edge in DividingNonBoundaryEdge for Vertex in Edge.verts]

                bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode="OBJECT")
                PinGroup.add(index=AddVertex, weight=1.0, type="REPLACE")
                PinGroup.remove(index=RemoveVertex)
                bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode="EDIT")

You're modifying the selection history while iterating over it. I suggest doing operations after you've initialized your arrays. BTW I'm pretty sure going out and then back in edit mode invalidates the bm so I'm not surprised it crashes when you try to access it in the next loop cycle :)

also this for SelectionItem in bpy.contextBMesh.select_history should throw an error unless I'm mistaken ?

the selection is not being modified, i am aware of the invalidation but the mode change happens only after the bm is not used anymore, as the data relevant to the mode change is stored as list of indexes, also there is a copy-paste error as the second history access is supposed to be SelectionItem, just noticed that

the main issues with this is it doesn't simply throw an error, i have no idea what even that library that is failing is, when the bmesh is discarded is taken into account and i avoided editing selection_history because it was giving console errors, but when i loop through it, it won't tell me anything else other than that bit of debug_log

Then I think you have an indentation problem, the last 4 lines are run within the for SelectionItem in bpy.contextBMesh.select_history: loop. Also fwiw a suggestion (SelectionItem.__class__ is bmesh.types.BMFace) => isinstance(SelectionItem, bmesh.types.BMFace) more readable imo

note you can get a debug log if your blender crashes if you launch blender_debug_log.cmd from your blender installation. I re-read my comment nad you're right that you don't modify the selection history, but you're still accessing an invalid object after you went out of edit mode

can you make it an answer please, i just realized what was wrong with it other that the last 4 lines, i was also passing vertecies that didn't exist anymore in the last 2  comprenshion lists making the operator throw a lot of errors, making this at 2 in the morning was the cause all along


text:
Blender VSE 180 VR export
I have MP4 files from Insta360 Evo camera that I want to edit, combine and export using Blender VSE. The editing is no problem - but the exports are not working when I then view them thru the Meta Quest 2 usking Skybox viewer app (not side by side stereopsis). I've tried every permutation in blender with rendering the file. I'm playing around now with injecting metadata back into the rendered files. In summary - I have pre-existing 180VR footage, just want to edit it and export it using Blender VSE. People can do it in other VSEs - is it possible here? Thanks


text:
How to join two meshes with different number of loops
I have modeled the head and the body of my character separately, and I’d like to join them.
However, the number of loops in the head is signficantly higher than in the body.
The only way I have found is using triangles to progressively simplify the neck topology towards the body, as shown in the image.

However, I am aware that non-quads are to be avoided.
Is there a better retopologization approach for this use case?
Thanks in advance.

Tris are OK if it doesn't create any bad shading and pinching

https://topologyguides.com/loop-reduction might help to reduce the number of edge loops.

@Blunder your link is awesome! exactly what I was looking for


text:
Can you select optimal tile sizes per each rendering devise used in homogenous rendering Blender 3.6.0 Windows 10 x64?

The Auto Tile Size preference isn't available in Blender 3 and my rendering software isn't yet compatible with Blender 4. How can you determine an optimal tile size for a specific CPU and for specific GPUs?
I'm homogenizing  computation between a CPU , GPU1, and GPU2... is there any way to set specific, optimal tile sizes for each rendering device instead of making them each render the same tile size?

Well, even if there still was an Auto Tile Size feature, it never was optimized for specific hardware, it was a general setting like smaller tiles for CPU and larger tiles for GPU. I never used that for example, because by testing out different sizes myself I found better values than the automatic ones. And that's how you determine the optimal tile size for specific hardware: test it yourself. Have one or more scenes and render them with different tile sizes for CPU and GPU and see which ones render fastest. Of course this can vary from depending on the content of your scene as well.

No, there is no built-in tool to set specific sizes for specific hardware. Don't know if somebody can come up with some python script to do this maybe...


text:
string property with subtype "DIR_PATH" crashes blender after clicking accept on the file browser it opens
i tried copy pasting other peoples code and it still crashes even tho nothing is being done with that path
this is a batch exporter that worked perfectly fine before that line, how can i make the user select a path to export to?
no matter what even with everything commented out the file browser this line opens always causes a crash
UserExportPath : bpy.props.StringProperty(name="Path", subtype="DIR_PATH")

Code:
import bpy
import os

class Alx_PT_PLYExport(bpy.types.Panel):
    """"""

    bl_label = "Batch Export Selection"
    bl_idname = "alx_panel_ply_export"

    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_category = "Alx Export"

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

    def draw(self, context):
        AlxLayout = self.layout
        AxlOPS_PLY_Export = AlxLayout.row().operator(Alx_OT_BatchPLYExport.bl_idname, text="Export Stanford (.ply)")

class Alx_OT_BatchPLYExport(bpy.types.Operator):
    """"""

    bl_label = "Batch Export Selection"
    bl_idname = "alx.operator_ply_export"

    UseAsciiFormat : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="Export as ASCII", default=False)
    UseMeshModifiers : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="Export with Mesh Modifiers", default=False)
    UseVertexNormals : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="Export Vertex Normals", default=False)
    UseUVCoordinates : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="Export UV Coordinates", default=False)
    UseVertexColors : bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="Export Vertex Colors", default=False)
    ExportGlobalScale : bpy.props.FloatProperty(name="Export Scale", default=1.0, min=-100000, max=100000)

    UserExportPath : bpy.props.StringProperty(name="Path", subtype="DIR_PATH")

    @classmethod
    def poll(self, context):
        return context.area.type == "VIEW_3D"

    def execute(self, context):
        # try:
        #     ObjectListToExport = []
        #     context.selected_objects[0]
        #     for Object in context.selected_objects:
        #         if (Object is not None) and (Object.type == "MESH"):
        #             ObjectListToExport.append(Object)

        #     for ExportObject in ObjectListToExport:
        #         blend_file_path = bpy.data.filepath
        #         if (blend_file_path != ""):
        #             directory = os.path.dirname(blend_file_path)
        #             target_file = os.path.join(directory, "%s.ply" % ExportObject.name)

        #             for DataObject in bpy.data.objects:
        #                 DataObject.select_set(False)

        #             ExportObject.select_set(True)
        #             bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = ExportObject

        #             bpy.ops.export_mesh.ply(
        #                 filepath=target_file,
        #                 use_selection=True,
        #                 use_ascii=self.UseAsciiFormat,
        #                 use_mesh_modifiers=self.UseMeshModifiers,
        #                 use_normals=self.UseVertexNormals,
        #                 use_uv_coords=self.UseUVCoordinates,
        #                 use_colors=self.UseVertexColors,
        #                 global_scale=self.ExportGlobalScale
        #                 )

        # except Exception as e:
        #     print(e)

        return {"FINISHED"}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        return context.window_manager.invoke_props_dialog(self, width=300)

AlxClassQueue = [Alx_OT_BatchPLYExport, Alx_PT_PLYExport]

def register():
    for AlxQCls in AlxClassQueue:
        bpy.utils.register_class(AlxQCls)

    bpy.context.preferences.use_preferences_save = True

def unregister():
    for AlxQCls in AlxClassQueue:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(AlxQCls)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

AFAIK it opens a file browser which clears the current temporary panel. Similar to https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/309664/do-not-show-x-clear-button-in-prop-search eg it's technically possible to do it but it's not designed to work

thank you for the answer, i saw a few similar posts but didn't find a specific reason of why, now i know, hopefully passing a string path to it then should work if done from a NPanel


text:
Spot light rendering in image, but not animation
I'm rendering this simple rotating animation for a video essay; when I render it as an image it looks just like the viewport. But, when I render animation the spotlight doesn't render. The light is turned on in the outliner and I can't see anything in the render settings (using Eevee).

Hello please share your file

Here's a drive link if that's okay https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oxVGckzafyhhebACeHPK0YPg9ai7P1pu/view?usp=sharing

it seems to work fine for animation as well (as you didn't share the image it looks pink): https://www.zupimages.net/up/24/03/4c4n.jpg

This folder has the image, a rendered image and an image from animation render to show what I'm getting https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MGKB0Uc1MyDClm5L95f916lUrRgmk07g?usp=sharing

I can't download your files, I'm not sure why, could you please use another platform, like workupload for example?

Sure thing, here you go https://workupload.com/archive/SWEWzPuQSe

it still work fine, the light is very low though

I have no clue why, but I just deleted and added a new spotlight, pressed render and it works. Thanks for your help though!

Oh ok great then  ;)  .............


text:
Slide edges in Blender when model is subdivided into quads
I have the following mesh:

Now, I would like to move the green edges parallel in Blender to the red line. Normally I would slide the edges with G+G, but this mesh is already divided into squares in this area. And when I merge the part of the mesh with F, I get strange results or the edges cannot be moved downwards.

How can I achieve this?


text:
Object also moves up when moving left and right
Why does the object move up slowly when moving it left or right?
Its the same in Unity.

For example the left stick cant reach the upper stick, keep in mind all the sticks are same height

The picture up shows the right side, it shows that its the same thing, even I can see the upper stick moving up when I move it to any side, but I cant really find any video option so the only thing I can show are images.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/2kod2doc3y8kjez/mansion.blend/file

the selected object is rotated by 90.6186 degree. This is creates the gap. You can fix it in the side panel (N). Just enter 90 degree for the X rotation.

Thank you, I’ll try and see if it works.

it worked! thanks.


text:
Problem with Repeated Blender Crashes
I'm new. :) I've been modeling a living room in Blender 4.0 and it keeps crashing a lot.  At first, it worked great. Then it started slowing down and freezing up. Now I barely have to click on the model a few times and Blender will freeze up. The screen will turn gray and say "not responding", and my mouse will spin. Often I have to restart my whole computer because the screen is frozen or the mouse won't move.
I tried opening the file in Blender 3.6 and it has the same problem. It slows down all my applications and takes forever to load them. I'm still able to use Grease Pencil and do small scale things in the 3d workspace.
I've had Blender on my computer for a year and a half. It's always worked fine.  My computer is a two year old laptop HP. My system is Windows 11 and my CPU processor is AMD Ryzen 5 5500U with Radeon Graphics. My GPU is AMD Radeon (TM) Graphics. I have lots of memory and 11 GB of RAM space. What could be the problem?
Thanks!

Hello and welcome. This looks like a hardware limitation

So it's not because the file is so large? I've imported large models before and it wasn't a problem.

Yes, the more objects you have, the harder for your hardware to manage

You wrote a lot of text but all we know at the end is that you have 11GB of ram and a specific file or two that slow down or crash. We can't help much from this little information. You could try to troubleshoot the crash using Crashes — Blender Manual. How many triangles do you have in that scene before crashing? What is your system, cpu and gpu models? Please [edit] your question to have the right informations we need.

Note that, while we can help if the crashes come from a misusage of Blender, we can't do anything if it's a bug from Blender or a third-party addon, those would need to be reported on the respective bug trackers.

I used planes for building the set, if that's what you mean. Sorry, I'm still relatively new to Blender's 3d space. I apologize for not wording my question correctly.

You don't have a dedicated GPU?  That can be problematic. Enable "statistics" in the overlays popover, deselect everything and tell us what is the amount of triangles shown in the statistics in the top left corner of the viewport.

I know this may be tedious, but you could try step-by step debugging your scene. In a fresh file, append objects, most suspicious first, from the bad one.

I enabled Statistics and it shows I have 2 / 814,057 triangles.

I can tell at least that your CPU is recent enough for Blender. Have you followed the Crash troubleshooting link I sent earlier? The crash logs you can get from there could tell what's going on.

800k triangles should be fine with 11GB of ram, if your ram isn't bloated by other softwares already.

I'm working on the Crash troubleshooting. I will post when I have more info. I don't have many applications installed on my computer. My Task Manager says that Blender takes up 29.2 MB when it's closed and 410.1 MB when it's opened. My System Information app says that I have 12 GB of installed Physical Memory (RAM), 11 GB total Physical Memory, and 1.10 GB available Physical Memory.

I have an antivirus software on my laptop that keeps giving me notifications that my storage is below 17%. I think my problem is that I have too many junk files. How would I go about deleting them safely without erasing my personal files?


text:
how to wrap chains around a treasure chest?
I've been exploring various methods to wrap chains around a 3D object, particularly a treasure chest, and despite reviewing multiple responses, I remain lost as to what to do. The process so far has been both tedious and imprecise.
Attempting to shape the chains to fit the shape of the chest has proven challenging. When i use curve, it often passes through the box, complicating the task.
Even creating a path curve in Blender to wrap around the box feels confusing.
I would appreciate any help from the community on achieving a more effective and precise way for wrapping chains around a 3D object in Blender.
The image in this post is a reference am using and uploaded it so who's ever reading can get an idea of what am trying to do.

You could cut some edge loops in Edit mode with the knife tool (C tocut through):

Result:

Now select the edge loops, duplicate, separate as new object:

Then right click > Convert to > Curve, then Curve > Set Spline Type > Bezier, select the points you want and V > convert to Automatic if you want to smooth the bezier. Keep in mind that you need to cut some segments and join some points because they won't be correctly connected at the intersections:

This is a really good solution, and ultimately the use of curves is the best option.  However, in response to the OP, there isn't a perfect one-click solution that I think you're hoping for, and even this answer will likely result in imperfections.  I suggest in scenarios like this taking it one orthographic view at a time and making the small tweaks that it will likely need.

Yes it will need a lot of adjustments of course

@moonboots thanks so much for responding  and so far this has been the most clear and concise response i have seen but i wanted to ask i how do i attach the chains to the loops? i have seen videos where you need to add an array, then fit to curve, and add an empty? or do i need to just draw the chains to the cuts and then it takes the shape?  am still a complete beginner learning sorry for all the noob questions

Yes use the Array and Curve modifiers, the Curve modifier will deform some links though, you'll replace them

@moonboots ohh okay i get it now it creates a link for the chains to follow ! going to try it out then post results thx!


text:
How to cut out mesh into colored png borders

I want to cut out these provinces of the united states, this is what my intended result (kind of) would look like:

I did not want to cut it out all individually so I want to use an image to cut them out for me, I tried converting it to svg but I got a buggy mess instead

Does this answer your question? How to Voronoi-fracture with Chebychev, Manhattan, or Minkowski?

I don't see the relation between the two images. Even the contours don't match, I see just a very slight resemblance.

Oh I didn't expect that to be a problem for some reason, I was really sleepy, I found a version of the map with borders so that will make things a LOT easier when i get back to it


text:
Why Does Remesh Never Load On This Model?
When I try to use remesh on this model, it never loads. Blender doesn't crash, but for some reason my CPU and memory just go up to 100%, but the remesh never actually completes and my app just sits there unresponsive until I close it. There are not too many vertices and the topology isn't that crazy. I even tried removing the head of the model but that didn't help. This also happens to other similar models. These models are ones I have done heavy manual edits on in edit mode, since I had not discovered the sculpting tool until a few months ago.
Could it be that there was too much manual vertex editing done to the model so it won't process a new topology?
And what is weird is that in sculpt mode, I have no problem sculpting the model with any of the tools. It is just the remesh tool that does not load.

I just found out what the problem was. For some reason, the remesher scaling is skewed for these models and entering values below 1 causes the remesher to try and add millions of vertices to it which would explain why it never loads. When I entered in higher values such as 2, the remesh worked and added tons of vertices on. This is unusual as my newer models need to be tweaked down to .1 or lower to retain their details. These older models were different.


text:
How to view what materials are using an image?
Some images in my Blender file don't show up in orphan data even though I can't find anything using them. Is there a way to locate what in the Blend file is using the images?

should be easily doable with a python script.

Maybe close and reopen the file and this time the images will be removed? They won't be removed at the same session as the materials they are part of but at the next as they are hierarchically below

Do you want to locate them to get rid of them or for some other reason?

I want to remove them, but want to make sure they aren't being used for something.


text:
Bevel Node does not work in 4.0.2
The Bevel Node in Blender 4.0.2 just doesn't work and I can't figure out why.
I tried it on the Default Cube in 2.83.18 and it works just fine. But in Version 4.0.2 it just doesn't work.
Thanks in advance.

Try on a fresh install of Blender with default settings and no addons. If it works then, it may be a compatibility issue with your hardware (GPU)...

Works for me as well on Windows 11. Might be a  bug related to your hardware.  Are GPU drivers up to date?

Sadly, that didn't work. I updated my drivers and still get the same issue.


text:
image of render squashed after saving as image
when i saved my render which was in 1:2 aspect XY ratio, it got squashed to the original camera ratio of 1:1. screenshots are given. please help!!
original render

saved image

The Aspect X and Y you can set in the output settings are used if the rendered image is intended for anamorphic display or on devices that have non-square pixels.
The Resolution X and Y is the real amount of pixels in width and height which get rendered (when you set it to 100%), no matter which Aspect you have set. You could say they are more or less independent from each other.

So, with the guess that you have left the resolution at the default 16:9 ratio with 1920 × 1080 pixels, you tell Blender your image should be rendered with this amount of pixels (left in the image below if the pixels were square) but the device where you are watching it will show this with pixels that are just half as wide as they are high (right in the image below), the grid physically having a pixel amount in a 16:9 ratio, but optically being displayed only with a 16:18 (or 8:9) ratio.

Now the problem is, since an image format like JPG or PNG always saves square pixels, in order to get an undistorted output on the device with the non-square pixels, the render camera has to adjust the width of its field of view to the X/Y aspect ratio, so in this case 1/2. Now this is important: it will not render half the amount of pixels in width! It will render 1920 × 1080.
And this means, to have an image of a perfectly round sphere on your device with non-square pixels (left in the image below) the camera has to capture an image with half the width stretched to the full width (right in the image below).

The thing is, and this is where it seems your question is lacking some information, usually by default the render result is shown with square pixels, i.e. as a stretched image in this case like below - and this is how the image gets saved.

But your render result shows an unstretched image so I can only suspect that you have set the Aspect X and Y in the Image Editor to 1:2 as well, to display the image as you expect to see it. However, this is a squashed version of the actual pixels - as it says there in the options, this is the Display aspect ratio. But only the actual pixels are saved with the image, not this squashed visualization because as I said before, image formats like JPG or PNG save square pixels. And this is why it looks correct after rendering but the saved image is stretched.

In the Output panel, make sure that the Aspect XY ratio is 1:1

I thought of just changing the Aspect X and Y as well, but then I realized that alone would not explain why the render result has (or rather seems to have) a certain aspect ratio and look normal while the saved image has a different ratio and looks stretched.

oh ok it may be that


text:
Camera-based Driver
I noticed that making drivers is difficult for a lot who know python in Blender. I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with it, and need help please.
Goal:
I'm trying to achieve this ability with drivers:
https://youtu.be/srXAef8Eisg Notice

I notice it has what I call the "feedback loop", where if you move the object and/or rotate the camera, the value where the driver is located will trigger and automatically slide back and forth 0.0 to 1.0). It's similar to camshapematic, but that addon has too many limitations. What I'm looking for can be achieve with drivers alone.

Naturally, this would have the ability to work with values in general (node values, shapekeys, custom properties).

Their next video touches on it a bit: https://youtu.be/gqm9-79RbOM but I don't know what's happening. if it's possible, can someone send me a .blend file over what's possibly going on?

My best guess is that the driver is on the scale, and influenced by the color change to determine what's being scaled between 0.0 and 1.0.

And I'm assuming the setup in the video is registering both rotation/angle and [orbital rather than distance, if that exist?] location between the cone of the camera and the cone of the object's parented empty?

And lastly, how would I include the piecewise function? I'm just learning what it is.

Here's what I was able to make with some help on using a driver with a piecewise function (it doesn't work in Blender 3.6. This isn't the driver I'm hoping to use of course. It's just an example):
 Object.PropValue = max(min(any((Sun.rotation.quaternion- (Object.matrix_world * vertex)).dot(normal) > 0 for vertex, normal in zip(Object.data.vertices, Object.data.normals))) * (1 if 0.2 <= dot_product <= 0.3 else 0.5), 0.4, 0.1)

Essentially, an arm's rotation to and from the sun [or camera], affects a custom property, but it has a piecewise function [0.0 - 0.2 slow + 0.21 to 0.4 fast + 0.41 to 1.0 slow], so that the custom property [PropValue] has a stylized "pop" effect when sliding up and down the value based on the camera's angle. I wanted to add in stepped in 2s, but just couldn't imagine where to include it.
The vertex normal and dot product stuff can be ignored. I realized it won't work because it won't stay 0.0 if facing away from the cam/light, and still turn the value to 1.0. But it did give me the idea that the more front-side of the vertex normals visible to the camera the closer it reaches to 1.0 automatically.
The videos above do better justice with those custom wires on an empty they're using, which I can assume help the camera detect their specified xyz quaternion angles? Since spinning them around or the cam around I would assume won't gimbal lock?

I'm still learning. So be delicate lol. Would be tremendous help if someone can send me a .blend file for me to study over.

EDIT: Found this. The person who made the videos above. Here's their post on twitter about the cone driver with screenshots commented: https://twitter.com/tjf_kuroko/status/1441673834428440580
It's a little confusing for me to understand what I'm seeing here, sadly.

Hello @Marquis, I think this question would be clearer by starting off with a simple statement of the result you want to achieve. Maybe a specific example of a method you'd like to use more generally. Your last example seems to indicate something like "drive shape-keys by viewing angle" for toon or non-physical alteration of  the 2D shapes in view  projection? I can't be sure.

This is the best I can do, sorry. I can't really imagine a way to make simpler in explanation. Pretty much what you see in the videos I linked is what I'm looking for, plus a piecewise "slide-skip-slide" effect. The details provided is to avoid confusion since I was told I need to be thorough. So I spent a long time typing this up lol. Each bulletin hits each issue necessary to get the whole picture... I stated that the example code is to get a point of view of the piecewise function but I'm not clear if it really works this way.


text:
Certain files crash when opened in Blender
A few Blender files I have crash immediately upon being opened. I am using Blender V.3.6.5 on a Mac with OSV10.15.7 (Catalina).
All the files that crash were originally made in Blender V2.79 according to my text editor app. What could be causing the crashes?

Incompatibility. Maybe you should try to make a new scene and append content from the old file into the new file. Hard to say without knowing the files what exactly makes them crash - and therefore it's also hard to tell which parts you can append in a new file and which not.

Do 2.79 files not work in 3.6? I thought there was backwards compatibility.

Blender strives to have backward and forward compatibility, but there are exceptions. Usually on main versions e.g. going from 2.x to 3.x and 4.x there are breakages of this rule. In general, LTS versions of a previous version should be able to work as a converter between the old and new main versions. Crashes could be considered as bugs in these. But as I said: without (maybe even with) knowing your files we cannot determine if there are critical parts which could cause crashes or if there is a bug, since we are no Blender developers here and only answer questions on working with Blender.

So what you might want to try is downloading 2.83 LTS, try to open the files with this version and save them again with the LTS version. Then either try to open those with 3.6.5 or get Blender 3.3 LTS and try it with this version.

@GordonBrinkmann, I think this could have been posted as an answer instead of comments. I think this is the answer.

@MartynasŽiemys But it could still be a bug and I never tried this if it works. This is what the Blender developer page says about backward and forward compatibility. I never tried opening such old files with such a big gap between versions. So I'm not going to post an answer which I do not have the slightest idea if it really works and then get a lot of downvotes because it does not ;) I just wanted to make some suggestions from what I read on those developer pages.

This one, right? I don't know... looks like quite an official source, to me at least. But it does say "Any crash or file corruption caused by loading a file saved with an older version of Blender is considered as a severe or critical bug." Hm. interesting. Maybe reporting a bug could be a good idea then.


text:
GLTF Embedded missing in V4
In Blender 3 there were three GLTF export options:

GLTF Binary (.glb)
GLTF Seperate (.gltf + bin + textures)
GLTF Embedded (.gltf)

We have a number of projects that use the "GLTF Embedded (.gltf)" format, but it's missing in Blender version 4.0.2.
Does anyone know why it was removed, and if it is going to be reintroduced?
Thanks.

https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF-Blender-IO/issues/2148

Thank you.  Most helpful.


text:
Is it possible to clip an object's alpha to another object in the viewport?
I'm trying to find a way to recreate an 'alpha clip' effect that 2D art software has. I'm trying to create 3d/2d characters. An example use case would be making a pupil/iris object, then clipping its alpha to an eyeball object. I would also want to see the result in the viewport while working. I am using Eevee but I'll hear cycles answers.
All of the examples are a cylinder alpha clipped inside a cube.
The first method I tried was using the compositor to mix them. This works, but the render layers node does not work in the viewport compositor. Maybe there is a way to work around that limitation?

The second method I tried was converting objects into grease pencil and using the layer mask functionality. This works, but would remove any materials I had on the objects. This will probably be the method I end up using if there is no better solution.

My Ideal solution would be to drive the factor of a mix shader node with the alpha of another object within the shader editor. Is this possible? I do not know how this could be done, so I just put an empty node group in the picture. Any insight would be useful.

There is the option to code shapes using nodes/SDFs in shader editor, apply that material to the cube, and have it projected in some manner. I'm really only looking for clipping geometry to geometry though. A Boolean modifier would be too slow. I'll probably have to compromise, but at least I asked.
I notice there's a difference between the compositor result (method 1) and the grease pencil result (method 2): In method 1, the cylinder appears on top of the cube no matter if the cube obstructs it. I do not mind which behavior your solution follows. Thanks for reading.


text:
Low frame rate in viewport even in an empty scene
I have a 144 hz monitor, and few days ago I noticed that Blender started to run noticeably slower than what I was used to, even when I wasn't doing anything unusual.
I recently upgraded my computer, and although since then I did not had a lot of time to use Blender, I don't think the frame rates were off when I was briefly testing some stuff, but it is possible that I just simply missed it.
I tried a lot of solutions already: restarting PC, reinstalling Blender, updating drivers, factory resetting Blender and its preferences, but to no avail. Verifying files (I use Blender 4.0 on Steam) caused a download of 1 file and increased the average frame rate from ~30 to ~80, but that's about it. I couldn't find anyone else with my exact problem.
I downloaded an fps monitoring add-on for the debugging purposes, and it shows the bizarre fps behaviour I'm experiencing.
I should also add that games and other programs run completely fine.
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X

EDIT: There doesn't seem to be anything helpful in the System tab in Preferences.

If it were me, I would poke around in Edit->Preferences->System and see what I could see.


text:
Is there addon to make weight painting easier?
Good day. For the last 3 days I'm trying to weight paint my mesh and I still can't achieve good result. I've tried to use automatic weights - result is awful; I've tried to use auto normalize option after that - result is still awful; I've tried to create all weights by myself, but result is still awful in "bendable" areas:

I've tried to adjust result with sculpting, but it's breaking at the moment I'm trying to change character's pose. So, is there add-on that can help me to get a good result? Maybe something that can give more accurate result of automatic weights or anything else?

I know, from experience, that weight painting can be very frustrating when you're starting out.  I also know that the problems can be overcome.  If you want to share your rig + mesh + current weights at blenderartists.org, on the support/rigging and animation subsection, either I or someone else will be happy to work with you to help you learn what we know.

@Nathan thank you very much for your proposition, but I would prefer to make this work by myself. I just need a right direction, so, maybe, you can share some techniques here?

Sorry, no, this just isn't the right place for dialogue, and I think that learning from others demands some.

@Nathan it's okay, I'll use your advice if I won't find any solutions. Thank you.

Automatic weights are not perfect but usually, it should give you a good result to work with. Are you sure your mesh is OK? Flipped normals can mess up the weights for example.

@Blunder mesh is ok. Could be a problem if mesh have too little polygons? My mesh has only 8k polygons.

8k polygons should be fine. Have you checked the status bar if there is a yellow message when you do automatic weights? Sometimes it fails and the calculation is aborted. Then the result is indeed awful. Automatic weights don't like intersecting mesh, duplicated vertices, and flipped normals. Loose meshes/multiple parts can also be problematic. Is the shirt a separate object or is it part of the character? Have you tried to separate it and parent it individually to the armature?

@Blunder yes, I've tried all of this, and every time I've got a bad result. I think I've found good solution so I've posted it as answer. But thank you for your advices.

Well, after 5 days of attempts, I think I've found the best solution at that moment:

You need to scale mesh to make it bigger; bigger the mesh - bigger your chances to get good result.
After that - select body mesh, select clothes mesh, use Object -> Link/Transfer Data -> Transfer Mesh Data -> Vertex and select All Layers option in pop up window. With this you'll transfer all vertex groups from body to clothes.
Make rig parent of clothes mesh with Empty Groups option.

In that case I've got much more accurate weights, but there are still problems:

You'll get a lot of empty groups you don't need (I don't know how it will affect performance or occupied disk space) - for example, your character have tail, but you're trying to attach hat. Obviously, you don't need legs, hands, tail and other unrelated groups.
It's still need corrections.
If you have bad topology, it won't help you at all.
Maybe, something else I haven't found out yet.

I won't accept it as answer, because I'm sure there are the ways how to improve result, but I hope this will help people, who will run into the same problem.


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Bones rotate instead of moving; I tried fixing it and changing it to keep offset
This is my first time rigging a model. When I was trying to move the bone, it rotates. Instead, I tried changing the bones to keep offset, but when I moved the bone, all the model's parts all changed direction to where that one bone is but didn't stick to the other bones.

Welcome to BSE. Unfortunately you haven't provided enough details or any images for us to even guess what your problem might be. Please edit your question and add screenshots of Blender's screen before and after moving your bone. You can take Screenshots in Blender via the Window > Save Screenshot menu.

Hello, Slider, I have to agree with @JohnEason.. at the moment this post is vulnerable to closure as 'unclear'. Please try to  reduce your problem to one representative example of what's going wrong. A picture would help a lot, and you can share your file on https://blend-exchange.com/ ..

do anyone know how to solve this ?, im still waiting for a answer.

This post is unclear, but the bones usually rotate instead of moving when they are connected.  Bone > Relations > Uncheck the "Connected" option.


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how to call standard leftclick selection in edit mode from bpy.ops
tldr:
editmode has a workspace modal tool that stops from the other selection tools from being used to expand on the editmode ops behaviour, meaning i need a substitute for the LEFT_MOUSE click selection
Goal:
currently working with a modal operator that is meant to replace the entire set of mesh tools
everything is fine up until the selection operator for LEFT_MOUSE when in "EDIT_MESH" mode
everything works perfectly fine, including all bpy.ops.mesh.select..., but i was not able to find a replacement for the standard LEFT_MOUSE
bpy.ops.view3d.select() does nothing within editmode  it seems, so i don't know what operator should i call
Reason:
i need permanent settings that the user can choose to swap to, meaning: using the loop_selectas an example, in the full code within the modal it blocks input from LEFT_MOUSE and uses that operator instead with a user-chosen subset of options for extending, toggling etc
i need the same as explained above as i need to be able to control the LEFT_MOUSE behaviour from within the modal like the code below:
        leftclick_mode = context.scene.alx_tool_unlocked_modeling_properties.leftclick_mode
        leftclick_selection_mode = context.scene.alx_tool_unlocked_modeling_properties.leftclick_selection_mode

        if (event.type == "LEFTMOUSE") and (event.ctrl == False):
            if (context.mode == "EDIT_MESH"):
                override_window = context.window
                override_screen = override_window.screen
                override_area = [area for area in override_screen.areas if area.type == "VIEW_3D"]
                override_region = [region for region in override_area[0].regions if region.type == 'WINDOW']

                bExtend = True if (leftclick_selection_mode == "EXTEND") else False

                with context.temp_override(window=override_window, area=override_area[0], region=override_region[0]):
                    if (leftclick_mode == "NONE"):
                        bpy.ops.view3d.select()

                    elif (leftclick_mode == "LOOP_SELECTION"):
                        bpy.ops.mesh.loop_select("INVOKE_DEFAULT", extend=bExtend, deselect=False, toggle=False, ring=False)
            return {"RUNNING_MODAL"}
```

the function i was looking for is: bpy.ops.view3d.select("INVOKE_DEFAULT")
"INVOKE_DEFAULT" is necessary for the operator to be called, without it the operator simply won't run
additionally an example for my editmode use case that overrides context:
if (context.mode == "EDIT_MESH"):
    override_window = context.window
    override_screen = override_window.screen
    override_area = [area for area in override_screen.areas if area.type == "VIEW_3D"]
    override_region = [region for region in override_area[0].regions if region.type == 'WINDOW']

    with context.temp_override(window=override_window, area=override_area[0], region=override_region[0]):
        bpy.ops.view3d.select("INVOKE_DEFAULT", extend=False, deselect=False)


text:
SImple way to prepare model in Blender for face motions and send it to DeepMotion for tracking
I am completely new to facial emotions in Blender. I want to get the job done in the easiest way possible with the help of Deepmotion.
I want to prepare the face in Blender and then send the model to Deep Motion for tracking and have Deep Motion transfer the emotion from my real face to the 3D model face.
Once I get the animation this way, I plan to transfer it to Unity 3D for the video game I'm making. What preparation should I do to the 3D face in Blender before sending it to Deep Motion? And then, of course, this animation should be able to be implemented in Unity 3D.
Can you point me to some simple tutorial for this, some simple video with explanations?
The animation I will make will be very simple, only movement of the mouth and eyebrows.

Sorry, this site is about using Blender, not DeepMotion so you cannot expect everybody to know how DeepMotion works. If you need help preparing a Blender model for DeepMotion you should tell us what the requirements of the target software are and where you are stuck at trying to achieve them in Blender.

Thank you for the answer, but I don't know - I have not done it till the moment. It could be not DeepMotion, it could be something other. Deepmotion is just the first that I saw for this job - because it can easily transfer the motion of your real face to the 3D model. I see that in Blender there are also some tools - but I don't know from where to start. To say it simply - I want an easy way to prepare a 3D face with animation for the motions, and after that - this to work in Unity 3D. Some video tutorial? I could pass without Deepmotion for tracking, to make only mouth movement and eyebrows

Video tutorials would be the best option to learn character animation, since this is not a tutorial site and it is usually expected to ask about a specific issue you have working on something. Unfortunately someone else has a good recommendation, I'm afraid I don't.


text:
Blender & 3Dconnexion
my input data:
Blender 3.3.1
3dconnexion
SpaceMouse Enterprise
The top panel with numpad in 3dconnexion does not work. The NDOF panel works very well, but I can’t assign a single button to the top panel.
Has anyone encountered such a problem?
I want to say right away that I tried everything that came to my mind and I have “emulate numpad” enabled.
I really hope for you

We can't help you on external software, we can only solve Blender issues. Thus, I'm voting down for now but don't hesitate to update your question / open a new one, if you have an issue on the Blender side ! We'll gladly help.

"I want to say right away that I tried everything that came to my mind and I have “emulate numpad” enabled. " - it seems to me we would need to be able to read your mind to know what it is that came to your mind.

@Lutzi So im not big specialist. But in the other app this simulator work perfect. I have a problem only in blender and only with numpad panel. And I was thinking that's  its about Blender.

@MartynasŽiemys I think my mind its not general) if you know about this problem and have solution.


text:
Blender baking png
I'm on a project where I want to animate a character's face with an image sequence and then open it in Unity to create a game. The thing is when the character is opened in Unity, the eyes part of the face (a duplicated mesh with 2 offsets of PNG images) can't be showed.
I have the whole body of the character and the eyes mesh in two objects. I tried to bake putting them together within one object by Ctrl + J but I could not get to see the eyes in Unity.
If you have any idea to deal with this issue, I'd be glad to read the comments. I think it's all about the baking process.

It looks like a problem on the Unity side, so it seems to me we can't help you. Does your baked texture has the eyes or not ?

No, i've just checked it and it doesn't have the eyes once i bake the body. Could you tell me how to bake png on meshes? Thanks a lot

We would need a lot more informations, screenshots and even your blend file https://blend-exchange.com/. Are you sure you're trying to Bake your texture (which is a specific process) ?


text:
how to synchronize the rotation of the icosphere
Hello i want to synchronise the postion of the icsphere with the x coordinate of the cube .Please Tell me how can i make it . here is my blend filenew screenshoot

i think you uploaded my blend file from my old answer....

Please check  with your file.

I don't know how  to sychronise. May you englight me please.

your uploaded file is wrong. just delete it and upload again.

What do you mean?

i strongly recommend using some kind of translation tool - e.g. https://translate.google.com/?hl=en

It looks like an issue on the math side. What is driving your green object ? How is it possible your icosphere isn't on the same trigonometric angle ? Are they both driven by the same maths ?

@GordonBrinkmann: if you would have taken a closer look, you could see that he edited his question in the meantime....

As of now, blend file and screenshot don't show the same node tree. @KebabSharif please edit your question with correct blend file or screenshot.

Lutzi please  check .. In screen shoot i just deleted some un connected nodes. That's all .

Now please some one help out to synchronise.Thank you .

So at the end no one has  given me a solution. So please help me .


text:
color ramp steps limitation
I'm using the color ramp node to mapping values for later use, but the color ramp has a limitation of steps of 32, can I reset the limitation through python? or is anyway to get rid of the limitation?

There is a way, here is the solution!!! float curve couldn't create a step function

Hello, baby boss, if the answers linked in the commentary are not good for you, by all means edit this post to explain why not, and we can re-open for you. If you can include some details of your use-case, maybe we can make some suggestions  of how to  achieve your purpose.. perhaps not involving a Color Ramp ? The placement of all these stops looks pretty painful.

Now I get the answer from my other post question: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/314395/float-curve-couldnt-create-a-step-function/314467#314467


text:
Normal map is way screwy!
I have generated a normal map for my (unwrapped) model in Blender 4.0.2 The Normal map appears corrupted (big green streak from the lower left corner as you can see) and I can't figure out why. I have done the regular UV Unwrap, Smart UV Unwrap, Project from View, etc, but nothing seems to fix this. I have already merged vertices by distance and the Face Orientation appears correct both inside the crate and outside. When I generate the Normal map for the lid of this crate, it comes out fine. Any idea what I'm overlooking?

Many thanks in advance!
Here is a link to the FBX file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jeyqheow4gCunPqS9Pl6JT9VIuoim_YU/view?usp=sharing

I ended up just deleting the darned model and recreating it from sratch. I really appreciate those of you that commented! After losing a day of productivity, I decided I'm better off recreating it rather than trying to figure out what was wrong, lol.

Hello, hard to say without the object, maybe share the object. Or you could simply paint over the bad areas with a correct color in order to get rid of these bad streaks?

Thanks. Good point abut the object.  I'll post the FBX version of it.

Post the .blend, not the fbx.  From right before you hit the "bake" button.  The fbx won't let us know why it's wrong-- likely, we'll just bake it right and be unable to reproduce your problem.  This particular case looks like you baked to a different UV map than the one you're showing, or that you have parts of your geometry that you're not showing, but a .blend file would let us say for sure.

Yeah, it's not corrupted, because Blender did exactly what you wanted it to do :) Seems like a common geometry problem, likely a few vertices (given the shape of the 'triangle') that were wrongly selected. You can find those by enabling the sync option in the UV unwrapping area, selecting all vertices on your mesh, and then selecting the culprits by zooming in on the area in the lower left corner.


text:
How to append cameras into another file with exact same locations
I have 5 cameras set up, all in each different location, and angles. I tried appending these 5 cameras into another file, but the cameras when they appear in the viewport, are all in the same location pointing downwards in Z direction. How can I append these cameras from file to file, so they are situated as I have positioned them?

Duplicate of https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/52801/is-it-possible-to-append-a-camera

I guess so, this is a duplicate question. You have to append the camera from the Objects category. Or when you have multiple cameras, put them all in a collection and append that from the Collections category.

OK, I saw it now. All solved by appending from the objects category. Kind regards.


text:
blender 4.0, how to use python set render denoiseer = Optix
blender use python set like this : https://i.stack.imgur.com/b2igV.png

Hello and welcome. Instead of having users go through links and external sites please use the builtin tools to embed images in your post. See How to upload an image to a post? or GIF

did u try bpy.context.scene.cycles.denoiser = 'OPTIX'?


text:
Inquiry about the shading technique used in this artwork

Can someone help me with this? How to achieve this look in Blender.
Original Project - https://www.behance.net/gallery/56244769/Vampires

What have you achieve so far ? Where are you stuck ? There are tons of shaders and techniques in your example. Keywords to help you : black&white, low key lighting, clipped blacks, dithering.


text:
Creating Cubes from a Spreadsheet/CSV file and export Object info
Im recently joining Blender community, and I have a question that related to my work. Hope you guys can help me finding the answer. So my question has 2 parts:
1/ Is there a way that I can create multiple cubes with name and dimension from a spreadsheet or CSV file?
2/ After putting the cubes them in place, working and duplcating them. Can I export them back to spreadsheet with name and quantity that has used in the scene?

You should have simply searched this forum for csv and found answer like this.  It'll involve python scripting.

Hello, Mr. Brn, welcome. The answers to this particular question are 'Yes', and 'Yes'. and that is about as far as we can go, this time round. I suggest you have a look at the suggested duplicate answers, maybe get stuck, then come back and ask us how to get unstuck, showing us what you have tried. That would fit our format here, on Blender SE ..  it would give us something specific to  help you out with.


text:
Why Fingers glitch to the wrong direction when project saved?
Why do the fingers just decides to go back to the default position after I saved Blender and restart it ever time?
Like after I spend all my precious time posing the fingers the way I want, and I save and closed Blender and open it another day, only to see the fingers have reset back to the default pose.

Is he rigged and in that case have you keyframed the bones? Maybe share the file?

he is rigged of course

Maybe you have keyframed your fingers before? Please share the .blend file via Blend Exchange

aww, i think i see what's the problem, it's just i didn't turn on auto keying

You can also key manually by pressing I.

There is no "of course" if you don't tell us :) Has this problem been solved now?

sorry CoreRage, but you didn't give us ANY technical information what you did and how you did it, so pls provide blend file - because we cannot magically guess what you did and not providing necessary informations doesn't make a good question - so i can only downvote that question.

Hello and welcome. Please don't write in all caps in the title or body of any posts, it is the written equivalent of shouting, is harder to read and may be considered rude. Please use the [edit] button below the post to change you text into regular case.

Hey, so the problem was i forgot to turn on Blender's Out Keying, because i thought i had it  turn on all this time, like i said on march 13, it's has been solved. sorry for not replying sooner i was afk


text:
Blender Face-Shade Smooth
I am curious about how to apply the shade smooth value applied to the faces around that face to some faces that do not have shade smoothing applied, as shown in the image.

I tried applying Shade Smooth to the angled face, but it doesn't connect as naturally as in the image. Can I copy the smooth normal data from the surrounding face and apply it to this angled face?

How can these faces be naturally connected?

Hello, if you shade smooth again and it doesn't work it means that the topology tends to flattent the shading and you need to round it, you can try a Ctrl V > Smooth Vertices in Edit mode

Try selecting this object and applying a smooth shading again.
This may have happened because of the new geometry.

please share your object: https://blend-exchange.com/

If you are wondering how you can achieve smooth shading just for some of the faces: with the object shaded flat, go into Edit Mode to select some faces, then right-click and choose Shade Smooth (only available in Face Select mode).
If you then go back into Object Mode, the selected faces are now shaded smooth while the unselected faces stay shaded flat. Selecting a shading option in Object Mode afterwards will remove this face distinction and apply the same shading to all faces.
Of course it works the other way round as well, on a smooth shaded object you can set some faces to Shade Flat in Edit Mode. Note that the Shade Auto Smooth option is not available in Edit Mode (but you can enable it afterwards in the Object Data Properties and it will have an effect on the partially smoothed mesh).

By the way, the Set Shade Smooth node in Geometry Nodes can also be set to just smooth a Selection of faces instead of all. Here is an example where I just smooth all faces with index > 120, as you can also see in the Spreadsheet (which by the way shows this information even when you set it manually without GN):

Go to the Overlays and enable Face Orientation - the surface of the object should be blue. If some parts (the ones with the issue especially) appear red, go into Edit Mode, then select all with A, then press Shift+N to recalculate the normals. If there are still red faces, select them manually and press Alt+N > Flip (however the fact they did not change before might indicate there are more issues with your mesh).

Another possible reason: go to the Object Data Properties tab and check under Geometry Data if there is a button that says Clear Custom Split Normals Data. If it exists, click on it and check and see if it helps. If the button says Add Custom Split Normals Data then there are no custom split normals and you should better not click it to add some.


text:
How to fix overlapping timer in Days countdown
I've created a countdown timer however when I attempted to add days into it, it shows 1 day & 24 hours... Anyone know how to fix this?
The timer runs on a divide node, connected to floor connected to value to string with a string input both connected to join strings, connected to a String length and a slice string, the string length is connected to subtract.
Boxed area is the days timer.

Sorry, the node setup is too complex and to small to be legible - but to help you it might be necessary to inspect the nodetree in more detail. It would be nice if people trying to find a solution would not have to build this all themselves from that small screenshot, maybe you could upload your file here: https://blend-exchange.com and follow the instructions there to edit it into your question?

as Gordon wrote - pls provide blend file. why? because a) we hardly can read your node tree b) you want help for free from us in our spare time, so you should make it as easy for us to help you c) the fact that you didn't get an answer within 13 hours for an easy GN questions (which are normally answered within 2-3 hours) might be a reason for that. thx for your understanding

Hi DTR... welcome to BSE. The comments have a fair point, here. In this case, without a share, the question is pretty much un-answerable, and vulnerable to closure as 'unclear'. Please edit, to avoid that.


text:
How do I set up physics for mutually-attracting/repelling bodies (planets etc)?
I want to set up a number of objects which will push/pull on each other using inverse-square laws of attraction and repulsion, so as to model planets, electrostatic forces, etc.
How can I do this?

If you are lucky for 100% accurate physics, I don't think Blender is the right tool

i think it would be a lot easier by just animating manually and/or just by mathematical equations with GN or AN or empties

GN? AN? How are empties helpful?

GN = geometry nodes, AN = animation nodes. with empties you can parent a planet to that empty and e.g. rotate the empty on the z axis. By this the planet would make a circular movement. Of course you can make more complex movements with this, that is just an example


text:
Toolbar and Sidebar not showing, handles still visible
When i loaded up my project today my toolbar and sidebar wouldn't show, despite them being enabled in the view menu. (i.e pressing N & T does not work) If i open a new project they show up. The handles to drag and move the bars are visible, but not the bars themselves. NOTE: I am not looking for the outliner or properties panel. Only the toolbar and sidebar.
I have tried this thread as well as this one but to no avail.

Did you try pressing T and N ? What version of Blender are you using ?


text:
Rendering,blender,curvpath
Why are my nurbspath lines showing while rendering?

Hello and welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the post. It should read like a question, be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the problem so that anyone searching for similar issues is likely to find this. Remove anything superfluous, avoid using words like "this", "help with", "issue" or "question about", instead describe what "it" is. Remember, your title is the first thing visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on it. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"

Hello and welcome. Rather than take photos of your monitor post actual screenshots instead, see How to take a screenshot. Photos are harder to read because we have to look past external interferences (like reflections, smudges or Moiré patterns) and guess if we are looking at hardware issues such as a malfunctioning display or connections, a software level issue like driver malfunction or glitch, or actual artifacts or issues with the model itself.

It looks like you are in Edit Mode (otherwise we could not see a curve handle ?). But it is hard to be sure with just a truncated screen view... By rendering, do you mean using Render/Render Image menu, or in the 3D Viewport ?

The lines are showing because you are not rendering - to render you hit F12 or choose Render > Render Image from the top menu.. What you see is a render preview, but it has the viewport overlays showing if you do not disable them. And especially when you are in Edit Mode as it seems, you see the inherent structures more than in Object Mode.


text:
My character's shape has changed
I have a problem. When I transferred my character and his armor to Unity, there were distortions in his shape. To solve this, I did Ctrl + A in Blender, but this time the positions of his fingers and arms changed.
What should I do to solve my problem?

hello, maybe a bon orientation, try a Ctrl R 180 on the arm in Edit mode

It didn't work. By the way, it's not just the arms that are crooked, but the legs that are crooked.

"I did Ctrl + A in Blender" is vague. What did you do exactly?  What kind of distortions do you see and what do you expect instead?