text:
Why does this edge loop problem happen?
So I've created a desk, and im looking to make a central partition, however when I'm trying to make the loop cut (ctrl+r) (to extrude them together, My loop cut refuses to run across one particular face. I've probably (definitely) not explained that very well, but i suppose my question is, why am i not getting the option to make a loop cut here? and if not, how do i make it happen?
Many thanks
Sam

im working from a cube though? any further ideas? is the a certain way to connect two edges? im thinkgin this may be the problem

It means you have to do some cleanup to your model. You either have duplicate geometry or deleted something somewhere leading to an NGon face


text:
Output multiple images with variable materials
I have been asked to provide product images for a selection of display cabinets - these are basically like deep picture frames with different coloured interiors. They also come in different sizes too.
in total I have 16 different sized cabinets in a 32 different interior colours. This means 512 different images. There is also talk of 3 different views, so we're looking at 1536 individual images.
I have my models, cameras and materials set up and ready to go. I'm wondering if there is a sensible way to render each image without manually changing the material assigned to the coloured part of my mesh?
I know i could do it quite easily in photoshop, but always seeking a way to be more efficient!
TIA

If it is just color changes but material remains the same you could simply animate the material by keyframing the color.

Have you looked into using Blender's compositor features? You could set up a matte (check out the new Cryptomatte feature in 2.8) for each material and then render the "beauty pass" once with several passes (for diffuse color, specular reflections, etc). In the compositor, you could do color balance and hue-shift and work on each channel one by one.
You can even render a UV pass and swap out the texture in composite, but be aware that this won't affect the color of light bounces.
However, your best option is probably to automate the material changes by using Python. It's a little tough to learn it with a deadline looming, but if you've got experience with coding then Python is your best bet.

Python for the Win! What is nice is that Blender will write most of the Python for you and you just need to plumb it together. These are some scripts I wrote for creating different renderings of the same object with different materials. https://github.com/robgithub/camera-track-endevour

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
how to make 2 cloths collide with each other?
I'm having a problem with a cloth simulation. I've set 2 planes up and applied a cloth modifier to each, what I want to happen is for the two cloths to fall together and interact with each other. The problem I'm having is that both objects are passing through each other. I have cloth collision turned on, and self collision too. Any ideas what might be wrong here?
Picture here, as always, any help is greatly appreciated

You can either merge the two objects into one object with self-collision cloth physics, or you can have two separate objects, each with its own cloth physics, but then both need to also have collision physics enabled.
For more explanation see the answer to this question: How can I make sure that simulated cloth doesn't go through other objects?

I attempted to do this with Blender 2.82 and with blocks as cloth. The first way (joining objects and turning on self-collisions) seems to exhibit better results according to my blend file. Details here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/73780/how-to-make-cloth-catch-a-falling-object-slowing-its-fall/176006#176006

Add a collision modifier to each plane after the cloth modifier.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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


text:
How to I get rid of these flippin' edges?
I'm trying to fill a complex face created with via an SVG, my workflow is as follows :
Import SVG
convert to mesh
simplify mesh
fill
----------this is where I'm stuck
By filling the face it's creating additional edges by splitting the faces, not the end of the world but i want to inset the (one) face so that I can bevel the edge slightly. Having these extra faces in there causes them to overlap, and creates a mess.
I've tried dissolving the problem edges, but this doesn't do anything
I've tried deleting the vertices attached to the edges, but this removes the face too, and filling the hole created just puts me back to square one.
Stumped! Please help and thanks in advance]1

I do not understand, which edges are flipped? An edge in general has no direction, do you mean "reversed"?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/48954/merge-around-a-face/48967#48967 Also why are you converting to mesh?

You cant dissolve those edges. Some polygons simply have too many sides. I fought this many times importing project from Autocad and applying wireframe modifier for cool looking render. Anyway in case of the ring how do you imagine polygon data saved without edge going through the ring? It is simply not doeable to make one face polygon ring without edge going this way.


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No object option when adding a geometry bevel to a curve?
I'm trying to extrude a circle along a bezier curve. Normall i would create a specific object ( in this case a circle with 32 verts) and use that as the bevel object for my bezier curve to refer to.
However in 2.8, I go to select a 'bevel object' and just get a blank panel, no options at all ( there are several mesh objects in my scene). Any ideas why this might be?
Also, I can't select anything in the 'taper object' panel either - Nothing in the box at all.
Please help!

Sussed, it, Idiot me was using a mesh circle rather than a curve circle

We've all been there :). Glad you solved it yourself.

That makes us idiots? That was not obvious from the sources I was searching.

same issue here lol


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Modelling plane with irregular corner radius - how to model this shape?
I'm struggling to figure out how to create the following shape without ending up with loads of triangles or shading problems. I've tried using an extruded SVG, which is fine for a flat plane, but ill need to make an extrusion and spin the lower edge at some point, which means converting to a mesh, however the resulting mesh is really untidy.
IF the corner radius(es?) were all the same number of vertices that would be fine, I could model that, but the different corners are posing a real problem to me!
To summarise - how does one go about creating a mesh for the following shape?
Many thanks in advance :)

Here is a way to do it, tell me if it's ok:

Thank you - That looks much better than what I managed! Mind sharing what the workflow is like to create this?

is it not the question that is important for a search engine? By the way, how long will stackexchange keep the pictures in its servers?

They're hosted on imgur forever (in theory).


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How to control RGB color input via python script
As part of a wider script, I'm trying to build a script that will allow me to change the Hex value of an RGB node. I'm struggling though to find where to hook in to the hex value of the input node. Although not ideal, I could make do with changing the RGB value rather than the hex value, but I can't find where to get hold of this value either?
Any help is very much appreciated!
Cheers
Sam

Here is a guide to control cycles nodes with python.
So the code would look like this:
import bpy
mat = bpy.data.materials['Material_Name']
nodes = mat.node_tree.nodes
node = nodes.get("Diffuse BSDF")
# change the color
node.inputs[0].default_value = (0,1,0,1)  # green RGBA

This lets you change the value just one time and does not run in a loop like with animation nodes.

hex_ = '00ff00'  ;tuple(int((hex_+'ff')[i:i+2], 16) for i in (0, 2 ,4,6)) ###or hex_ = '00ff00ff' ;tuple(int((hex_)[i:i+2], 16) for i in (0, 2 ,4,6)) will return a rgba tuple

hex_ = 0xff884422;   rgba_tuple = tuple((hex_//((256**(3-x)))%256) for x in range(4)) #for numerical hex

Inasmuch as it is item zero recommend using .inputs["Color"]

.default_value = (0x80/255, 0x80/255, 0x80/255)

Thanks JuhaW - would you mind clarifying for me what the calculation here is doing? Am i right in thinking this is a method of changing RGB value to decimal value?

This is setting rgb values in hex format.

One way would be to do it with Animation Nodes.
I dint do it with hex directly because i think the color-in only accepts rgb, but maybe i'm wrong.
In this solution you could write a hex to rgb conversion an output the rgb as in the screenshot.


text:
Square - Octagon - Circle - Modelling puzzle
I'm trying to make a rubber mat that is basically a big flat cube with lots of little holes (cells). It makes sense to me to model each cell and use an array modifier to construct the overall mat.
The problem I'm having is one i frequently run into in other areas too, which is how to add geometry as you go along without creating shading issues.
In this particular example, I need to go from a square outer edge (4 verts) to an octagon (8 Verts) into a circle ( I can get away with 16 verts). I've done this by a combination of extruding and subdividing, which works okay(ish) but generally creates shading and edge loop issues.
My question is - Is there a proper way to perform this kind of extrude and subdivide modelling? Or am I going about it the wrong way completely?
Many thanks in advance!
Sam

in my opinion you are going fine, remember that there are many ways to achieve what you want in Blender, so in this case I see two other possibilities.
Option one:
You can add the flat base geometry.

Select and erase these vertices

Add a mirror modifier like this

And then extrude

Option Two:
Use Boolean
Add a cube

Add a 8 vertices cylinder

Add a Boolean modifier to the cube like this

To look the cylinder in wireframe only, go to Object menu > Display > and set Maximum Draw Type to Wire

Repeat the previous steps with the other geometry, at the end you will have something like this

Now when you're ok with the look, just apply the modifiers and done.

Thank you for such a helpful answer! I'm going to give them both a go right now - I really like your viewport shading setup by the way

For the viewport shading press N and a new menu appears, go to Shading > enable Matcap > enable Ambient Occlusion

You could do it this way:

Create a plane, subdivide it 5 times. Create an octogonal circle, subdivide it once. Duplicate and scale down this octogone and make it a circle with W > LoopTools > Circle.
Join the vertices of these shapes with the help of W > LoopTools > Bridge.
Extrude to have a 3D shape.
Give it a Subdivision Surface modifier and a Bevel (Weight) modifier so that it makes the circle smooth but keep the angles of the octogone sharp.
Add your Array modifier, put it above the Subsurf modifier and enable Merge and First Last options, so that it joins correctly between the duplications.


text:
Flatpack Boxes Suggested Workflow
I've been given the task of creating packaging imagery for a box supplier (thrilling I know) and I was wondering what the best way to go about it would be?
The products in question are sustainable take out food containers. Pizza, noodles, burgers, etc. They have been supplied to me in their unassembled form.
I have created a mesh ( see below ) with the intention of folding it into it's constructed form, however I anticipate running into trouble with the bent corners and the solidify modifier.
Would it be better to model the box in its assembled state? For what its worth I have about 12 different box styles to do.
Thanks in advance!

You can go in both ways unfold or fold in case I got a cutting data from factory ... with "Mesh Convert to Armature" addon ... problematic could be the corners due script is looking for tree hierarchy also you would have to probably add some more edges simulate paper thickness not all can be solved by Solidify :)

The link below might help to get you familiar with folding etc but if you are to present the packaging in it's assembled form, at a guess I'd say it would be easier to model it that way in the first place.  The folding link -
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/239379/looping-paper-fold-out-animation/240132#240132


text:
How to model this sort of cylinder into cone into flat edge shape?
I'm not too bad at modeling - and have built the rest of the model, but this particular shape really has me stumped. I've tried going down the subdiv route, and also boolean - but I cannot seem to get the right curves and it all goes to pot when bringing supporting edge loops into the mesh.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

You could try it this way:

Create a 32 vertex cylinder, mirror it on 2 axis:

Pull the central face with Proportional Editing activated, choose the Sharp option:

Create additional edge loops:

Pull the top face, this time with Proportional Editing Smooth option:

Rework the topology a bit so that you don't have too stretched faces, add bevels to sharp the edges:

Here is what it gives with a Subdivision Surface modifier:


text:
Transforming Child objects with multiple parents
Context :
I have a collection of objects that make up a whole door. These consist of
Door leaf
Door Frame
Expanding Frame
Door Handle
Various bits and bobs that make up the locking mechanism, hinges etc
I've parented all of these objects to an empty - this allows me to rotate the whole collection whilst keeping everything positioned correctly.
My question is, if i wanted to show the door slightly open, I would need to keep the frame in place, but rotate on the following around the hinges z axis
Can i create an additional empty that only controls the parts that should move. My intention is to angle the WHOLE door by 30 degrees, and open the door about half way.
How would i control this using objects parented to empties? I know i could do it manually object by object but my ( lack ) of experience tells me there must be a way to parent individual collections to individual empties.
FYI I have tried creating a collection just for the door opening objects, however the resulting empty doesn't appear to control any movement, as if blender is only considering the original 'whole door' parent relationship
Many thanks in advance

Yes you can use another empty, you can also parent to some parts of the door, etc, everything is possible, choose the easiest solution

AFAIK you cannot parent a collection to an object.
But it is pretty easy to parent multiple objects to one object/empty: just select all objects you want to parent to the same empty, then shift-select the empty, press ctrl-p -> object (keep transform).
I would use this easy setup here:

all blue objects (which are part of the moving door) are parent to the "open door controller"
all orange parts (which are part of the frame) are parented to master controller
the open door controller itself has the master controller as parent too

result:

Hint: for easier use of the open door controller you can lock location + 2x rotation like this:

You Sire, are a legend. Thank you !

You are welcome and thank you!!


text:
How to scale a model proportionally?
Here is my model link：https://gentle-field-05667750f.3.azurestaticapps.net/assets/box.gltf

The picture above is the incorrect stretching of the model after being scaled.
So what should be the correct approach?

Hello, your title should reflect your problem, as for your question, it's not clear what you want, if you scale your box it will scale the lids as well, of course, if this is what you mean, maybe scale the bottom part only?

How to relate the faces, for example, the height of the upper lid is half the length of the bottom lid, so that no matter how it is scaled, the proportion will always be correct.

I gave this question a down-vote because the title is meaningless and communicates nothing about the actual question.

I modified the question information again

If you scale the object in its entirety (as you do when using Object Mode) just on one axis with the lid faces opened at an angle, it would be not proportional if the lids would keep their edge lengths.

Correct approach could be:

model everything with real proportions in the first place
go to edit mode and select the parts that need to retain proportions and move them instead of scaling
in your case the model seems to be rigged, so you can select the armature, go to pose mode(Ctrl+Tab) and then just select appropriate bones and move them:

One trick I personally use is to use hook modifiers. If I need to have a lot of copies of the same object in different sizes, like a door or a window and need to keep the proportions of the frames, I go to edit mode and select each part and hook it to an empty( Ctrl  +  H  -> Hook to New Object), then parent those empties to the object so that I can select the object, select the hierarchy( Shift  +  ] ) and duplicate linked( Alt  +  D ), then move the new object and then I only have to move the empties to adjust the size so I can skip going to edit mode and selecting only the parts that I need:

And you can also use the same approach for more complex cases where your objects have multiple "clumps" of geometry that need to retain proportions, but the object needs to be scaled uniformly, because you can select the empties and scale only their locations:

However this is not "the right way to do this" and it's just something I find convenient. It is possible to do the same in many different ways with various rigging techniques, so that's only an example.

Oh, the hook solutions are nice... never thought of that because I usually don't have to modifiy a large number of objects... but will definitely keep this in mind +1

It's also helpful, because you can reuse the data so even with few objects with dense geometry and only their dimensions differing this can help keep the file size/GPU memory usage smaller. It's also easy to use material or geometry nodes to adjust UV offsets per object to make them look unique. I like reusing data a lot :D .

How to make the bones in the animation automatically update after moving the bones？

If you are in Pose mode, the geometry should be deformed in real time as you adjust the bones. Since you shared your scene exported in GLTF format, I am not really sure what you have in Blender so I cannot advise.

I adjusted the bones in pose mode and the geometry deformed, but when I clicked the start button of the animation, the geometry changed back?

There are probably some keyframes set.

Modifying the height can move the bones. How to modify the length and width of the express box? @MartynasŽiemys

You can delete the armature and try the hook modifier method, if you are going to need to change the dimensions a lot, if it's one time, it will be easier to just move the parts in edit mode.

Moving mesh components is really basic stuff, so if you struggle with that it will be easier to just watch some beginner tutorials. Like these for example. That's one efficient way to learn the stuff quickly.  There are loads of free tutorials online on using Blender. With basics it's just easier to watch some of them then asking. Video tutorials will be better, more complete and a lot easier to understand than an answer can be here. If you don't find the answers you seek in tutorials, BSE is great for that.

It is a dynamically sized express box that needs to be able to modify the length, width and height. @MartynasŽiemys , and the top lid needs to be animated.

It's possible to make a more sophisticated rig. I think it would be better to ask a new question detailing all the requirements and explaining what your situation and goal is and why in detail if you want help with that. Your current question does not specify detail like that, so I don't think it's possible for anyone to just guess what you want and provide the answer you are looking for.


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Blender 4.1 : Add selected objects to keying sets or ways to save a selection
I'm a storyboard artist, dabbling in Blender, using it mostly when a background will be easier to handle in 3d, for complicated sets or camera movements. I need to animate a complex group of objects, and I'd like to quickly set a keyframe for all of them when needed, without having to zoom out and select them every time.
Is there a way to call back an object selection quickly?
Keying sets seemed to be the answer, kind of, maybe I missed something but it seems that I can't add a selection of objects all at once, I have to add paths then assign a different object one by one, is that it?

It might be worth investigating putting them all in a Collection. Blender (4) has a Collection Manager addon which allows you to select all objects in the collection from its menu according to the docs.

I think the easiest way to select a group of objects is to move them into a collection and right click on the collection name > Select Objects.
Remember that you can store collections into a collection, and freely move in or out from a collection any object at any time.
In the 3D window press M to move objects into a new or existing collection.
You can then press Shift G (Select similar) > Collection to easily select its content.


text:
Why does my mirror modifier work like this?
I don't understand why mirror modifier rotate my model.
How i can fix that?

Hello try to apply the rotation in Object mode (Ctrl A)

Yes, it helped, thanks

Hi. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue in such way that anyone searching for a similar problem is likely to find it. Use the [edit] link above, remove anything superfluous, avoid words like "this", "help", "issue with" or "question about". 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?"

The orientation of your object is not correct, to fix that, apply the rotation in Object mode (CtrlA)


text:
Blender 4.0 Windows explorer thumbnail preview not working even after making it default version
Blender 4.0 Windows explorer thumbnail preview not working even after making it default version.
It used to work properly, I don't know what happened and it is not working anymore. I've searched for the solution a lot but none of them worked (like making it default version and etc.).
What am I supposed to do?

So, the trouble is that when you look at blend files in File Explorer, they just show the blender icon, when you want them to show what’s in the blender scene, kind of like a video or image file would?

There are settings for that in the user preferences:

Make sure those are OK.

Hello and thanks for your response! I tried it, but unfortunately didn't work :(

I had the same problem, I solved it by assigning Blender 4.0 as the primary program for Blender files, which automatically fixed the preview issue.

Hope this helps!


text:
how can i get rid of this black line going through the scene. (the one going through the main character}
Image (Not embedded because it contains nudity)
See that black line? I want to get rid of that. It's coming from the background layer. I've tried an erode node on the background layer but that doesn't work. I tried adding a ColorRamp to get out the dark spots, but when I add a node to the shadow layer it just seems to add a big white spot to the screen.

Please use the [edit] link at the bottom of your post
(https://i.sstatic.net/lXFuK.png) and use the tools from this site
to upload images so that they are displayed as part of your question.
See How to upload an image to a post?

Please post an image of the nodes you are using

Take a look at the following links for ideas on how to mask objects: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/63134/how-do-i-mask-out-certain-areas-of-a-photo and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/117572/how-to-put-a-mask-into-3d-space/117941#117941

Or you can create a mask, so that there are sections of the image  that are not affected by the composited image in the foreground: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/95228/masking-problems/95236#95236

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5131/using-mask-as-a-garbage-matte-to-hide-an-object


text:
How do I get hair particles to lay flat on an object?
I'm trying to create a procedural material for a sort of fibre based particle board, but I don't have the physical object so I need to create a material for it from scratch.
The picture below (side edges) sort shows what I'm trying to create, which is a sort of dense fluff with the odd longer strand that sits on the surface.
I'm reasonably happy with the main body of the material ( pale yellow bit ) but have tried using hair particles to create the longer strands. What I need to do is to get the longer strands ( coloured pink for visibility ) is to lie flat (ish) on the surface of the sphere.
I've tried messing about with the roughness, but no luck, so instead I've tried creating a vortex force field inside of the sphere to attract the hairs to the surface, but most of them disappear and the ones that remain stick up too much.
If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it! Thank you in advance!
Setup and file below :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19uSEF2Rl_n5cq6dXrtiqK58WN0MUXNBA/view?usp=sharing

What about switching to Particle edit mode and simply comb them as desired?

If you don't mind using the new Hair Curves you can use the Shrinkwrap modifier


text:
How do I elegantly build this sort of mesh?
Good day fellow blenderers.
Not so much a question of ' how do I do exactly this thing?' but more of a ' is there a best practice approach' type of question.
When you have an irregular shape that you want to put a hole though, it's easy to just think of using the bool tool, but I've always believed that this just comes with another set of problems to fix.
So my question is - Is my attempt at creating the mesh below using only quads and retaining edge loops a proper one, or is there another methodology that can be used here?
My process is :
Draw the outer Ngon
Add a circle with same number of vertices as the ngon
Connect it all up
Evenly space verts on Ngon where possible
I've done it this way to try and avoid shading issues that you get with booleans. Am I overdoing it? Is there a better balanced workflow in these situations? How would you do it differently?

Hi. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue in such way that anyone searching for a similar problem is likely to find it. Use the [edit] link above, remove anything superfluous, avoid words like "this", "help", "issue with" or "question about". 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?"

It seems like a good approach, you could use less edges if you use a Subdivision Surface modifier though:


text:
Export model to show it in web-browser
I'm looking for a way of exporting my Blender model in web-browser. I noticed this very cool video with model in browser and I want to make the same site. The project was done by three.js but I'm very novice in programming . Is there are more efficient ways or another alternatives in exporting Blender model to the web-browser?
Thanks for answers!

See www.sketchfab.com ... useful for sharing 3D models -- including native Blender animations -- online. You can link to sketchfab model display pages, and/or embed them in your own website...

Blend4Web can do most of the work for you. It exports Blender models correctly and also sets up the WebGL page. It's free and open source.
https://www.blend4web.com/en/

It is open core, and only free for personal use. Currently, a "pro" license is $990 US.

Khronos group (those who defined OpenGL) have now defined the GL Transmission format, which is the main supported export import format for multiple tools and web apis such as three.js which recommends its usage.
With a glTF, you can embed your 3d scene in a web page with one line of code (plus one to reference the library). see [see this babylon.js viewer]
As I had the same question and had to investigate this, I created here
multiple boilerplate examples with three.js . Each has a live demo helping show exports from blender with hints how to make them interactive in the browser such as getting mouse clicks and changing their paramters, colors animation from javascript events.
Github :
https://github.com/HomeSmartMesh/web_three_interface
Live demos on github pages :
https://homesmartmesh.github.io/web_three_interface/
This question was asked in 3 years ago, but still appears in the search so this is sort of an update.

You can embed your 3D models for free in three easy steps using http://p3d.in.
The site that was created by Blender contributors and is free for personal and commercial use.

Export your model in gltf, fbx, obj or another supported format
Upload the model to p3d.in
Embed the model with a single line of code, or use the URL directly

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Extruding around 3d cursor
Is there a way to extrude around 3d cursor like this

I know about spin but that doesn't serve my purpose.
Or any other way to do it with accuracy.

Spin does exactly that.  Why doesn't it suit your purpose?

Yes, spin looks like what you are looking for, you could try Bridge edge loops but it will create a linear connection between the too edge loops, and that doesn't look like what you want

Select the Blender element you want to extrude, and set the pivot point to "3D cursor". Extrude press the escape key, and use the rotate transform to complete the action.


text:
Fluid Baking Stops
I'm trying to bake this fluid simulation but when i click in Bake, it starts baking and like 30 seconds later it stops and the domain reamins as solid cube (the cache_fluid folder remains empty too).
I will put my blend file here if someone can help me solve this problem:  https://we.tl/ZBAF9qe6Y3

What are your PC specs?

Like GPU and CPU, RAM...

CPU: i7-4790K
RAM: 16GB

GPU: ASUS R9 280X

Well, it can't be your system...

So why you asked about my specs then??

Is this really the file that won't bake? I tried it with both 2.69 and 2.76, and it baked that just fine. Sure, your domain is way larger than it needs to be, but that shouldn't cause baking to stop. Whatever the problem is, it's on your side.


text:
Draw UI elements with the GPU module in the N-key panel?
In an add-on I'm developing, I'd like to draw elements (using the GPU module) to a N-key panel. I've looked extensively, but I haven't found a correct answer.
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/155692/23372
In the "Hard Way" section, it shows a way to draw an image to the screen, but it draws it to the Properties panel, which is not a desired effect.
Is there a way to make elements show/hide (when panels are shown/hidden) and move (when panels are rearranged and not have a fixed position)?
I've seen this done a lot in the node editor (see https://blendermarket.com/products/node-preview, https://docs.animation-nodes.com/release_notes/v2_0/interpolation/#mix-interpolation (with the Interpolation Viewer node)).
Can this be achieved using the N-key panel?

import bpy
import gpu
from gpu_extras.batch import batch_for_shader

vertices = (
    (10, 10), (300, 10),
    (10, 200), (300, 200))

indices = (
    (0, 1, 2), (2, 1, 3))

shader = gpu.shader.from_builtin('2D_UNIFORM_COLOR')
batch = batch_for_shader(shader, 'TRIS', {"pos": vertices}, indices=indices)

def draw():
    shader.bind()
    shader.uniform_float("color", (0, 0.5, 0.5, 1.0))
    batch.draw(shader)

class ModalDrawOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "view3d.modal_operator"
    bl_label = "Test Operator"

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        if context.area.type != 'VIEW_3D':
            print("Viewport not found")
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(draw, (), 'UI', 'POST_PIXEL')
        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ModalDrawOperator)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ModalDrawOperator)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Is there a way to make elements show/hide (when panels are shown/hidden) and move (when panels are rearranged and not have a fixed position)?
Yes, it do auto.

Definitely more the direction I'm looking for! However, it's not quite fixed onto a specific tab and subpanel. Could it be implemented with those features, or is it not possible?

If you can get the name of current category and get the tab position, it can do that. glScissor can cut the drawing area according to the given position. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to get the current category.

If there are more than two viewports on the workspace, it also can draw on specific viewports, see line 84 in:  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/270382/how-can-i-make-a-2d-gpu-polygon-draggable/271032#271032


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How do I create diagonal checher like shape
I want to create a diagonal checker grid like this
but all I could do with arrray modifire and some tinkering is this:

I need as clean topology as possible, how can model it in blender?

Not sure to understand, but something like this?

where the base object (in red square) is Z-rotated 45° and rotation applied.

m.arditos way Is legit, but You can also do it like this:


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Fluid simulation fall out of glass?
I have created a wine glass in blender, and am working on adding a fluid simulation to the glass (which is my obstacle right now). The problem I am running too is when I try to animate the glass to move from side to side, some of the fluid falls out of the bottom of my glass. I am not sure how this is happening. Some of the fluid does move and splash with my glass, but I can't figure out how or why it continues to drip out the bottom of it. Any ideas!?

There are two things you need to do.
First, increase resolution. At a low resolution, the fluid won't interact with the obstacles in a good way.
Second, your obstacle (the glass) has too much of an impact. Under the obstacle settings, change the impact value to something like 0.5 or lower.

This may be beause the physics simulation are too rough in comparison to your glass movement speed. You can adjust that by going to Properties Panel -> Scene (3rd icon in the rop row) -> scroll down to "Rigid Body World" -> Increase the values of "Steps per Second" and maybe also "Solver Iterations"
It's also always a good idea to enable "Split Impulse" on that panel.
Comment if this has solved your issue


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Bake textures from hair converted to mesh
I am wanting to create textures based on a hair particle system.
The answer to this question says

There are 2 techniques. One giving the best results but being rather complicated and very computationally expensive (involving converting the hair to mesh, UV mapping the hair strands in a particular way and baking particle color in another complicate way and then baking the whole thing)

That's all they say about the first option, they then go on to explain a second option which I tried, but was not happy with the result. I would also like to bake a normal map, which is not possible using that technique.
What are the details of the first technique?


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Is there a quick method to make a sawtooth structure?
Is there a quick/easy way to make the following shape?
I was making the following shape, and the method I ended up using was loop-cutting a box, then extruding all the top edges up. This gave me all the vertices I needed, but there was still a lot of removing and adding of faces to do.
I also tried using the Rip Fill tool, but that made a mess of my geometry.
I was curious if there was a better way?

Somewhat related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/76521/how-can-i-make-an-indented-cube-without-using-a-boolean-operation/76526#76526

Add a cube. Go to edit mode extrude little to z axis. With the edge selected align with the below edge with the snap transform on. Remove doubles. Add array modifier on Y axis.

For repeated shapes, the obvious answer is “make one copy, then add an array modifier”. You can apply the modifier if you want to further edit the geometry, otherwise you can leave it in place.


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Undo old Extrude
How are you supposed to delete an old extrude? Undo is not an option as it was made to long ago. When I try to delete its vertices it deletes all the old face that I originally extruded from. Please help.

Post some screenshots of what you mean, it's hard to help with so little information. You can't just delete an "old extrude", blender doesn't generally keep a history of operations, you can however dissolve the extruded faces by selecting them and pressing X > Dissolve vertex. You'll will still have to reconstruct the original geometry if you extruded more than one contiguous face.

Try pressing A (in edit mode) to select everything, then press W > R to remove doubles.


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How do I subtract an image from specularity of a material in blender?
How do I subtract an image from specularity of a material in blender?  If some of you have seen this energy drink tutorial by blender guru can you please tell me how to achieve this effect in blender 2.77 as I cant find any of these properties + I am new to nodes.

For those who have not seen this tutorial I have attached an image,so please tell how to achieve similar effect?

All those answers were helpful I am glad that a community like this exists .. :)


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Problem with minecraft eye rig
I'm trying to make a minecraft eye rig, but I'm having problems. The pupils should stay inside the eye and move within the limits and they should follow the head bone. Does anyone know how to create a control panel that works?

hello please share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/

Your pupils are not parented to anything for the moment, what did you plan exactly?

in another version of the file I not this, (if you want I can share it )i have parented the eye bone and used the bone constraint "limit location", to make the pupil move inside the eye, but there is a problem when I tilt the head bone the piupli follow in
a strange way

is there a reason why you don't join the pupil to the body mesh? If you want to keep them apart, select a pupil, shift select the armature, switch to Pose mode, select a bone, press Ctrl P (Parent to) > Bone

can I show you the other file. I'm new to blender and I'm not thet good with english

please share it with blend exchange as well

From what I see the problem is that your pupil bone, called Bone, is not parented to the good bone, you need to parent it to the bone called TopM.L (which is the head bone)

I already try it, it doesen't follow well when I bend the head

it must be because of the Limit Location constraint, switch it to Local Space instead of World Space

I olso tried that

Unrelated to the issue, but why on earth does your rig have 800k triangles? I know you don't want to keep the full cubic Minecraft aspect and have some flexibility in the mouth shapes and whatnot, but you should add your geometry where it's needed, not everywhere. That's just overkill and your viewport performances shows it very well: I can't even rotate the head without a massive fps drop with a high end computer.

I have donwloaded blender 2 weeks ago i'm still learning :(

In Edit mode, parent Bone to TopM.L. In Pose mode, switch the Limit Location constraint of Bone from World Space to Local Space. Redefine the Minimum and Maximum values on XYZ so that it's correctly set. It should work:

Keep in mind that XYZ are now the axis of the bone itself, activate the bone axis display to make it more clear:

when I try swith from world space to local space, I have problem with fizing the XYZ. the pupil doesn't move on the axes

It's like the axes are messed up, it move wird

please share your last version

when I change the the value of the axis Z it move the piupil on another axis

First thing, bring back all the min and max values to 0. Then set the min and max you want, but again, keep in mind that these are the XYZ values of the bone itself: In the Object Data panel, display the axis, see my edit. For Z choose a low value like Min Z > -0.1, and Max Z > 0

I changed the axis values but the pupil does not move

As I said, set Min Z > -0.1, and Max Z > 0

okey the z work now, but i don't know what value use with x

hey you need to find a bit by yourself  ;)

but I am trying sorry if I'm making you angry. I did not mean

I'm not angry, it's just that now you have everything to go on   ;)

okay thanks, i really appreciate what you did for me


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How to undo/redo using my mx mouse's thumb button
How can I have the undo/redo function using my MX Mouse thumb buttons, similar as I'm  using them in Firefox (forward/backward)


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Not able to apply the most simple screw modifier possible

Add curve
Rotate as displayed in picture below
Add screw modifier

Tried other axis, got a dome instead of a ring
I want the result on the left but got the one on the right instead.

https://youtu.be/gbNo0odrSVg?t=31

CTRL A > Rotation

The axis of the screw modifier is set to Y in the first example, but it’s set to Z in the second example. Change this, and everything should be fine.


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How to save the knife tool cut line?
How can I save the line before cutting ↲ Enter? I thought of vertex groups, though can't use them for this purpose since the line disappears immediately on clicking outside the mesh.

Why not draw a bezier curve instead and use it as knife project? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/50538/how-to-cut-an-object-along-a-curve/50560

That's the answer @DuarteFarrajotaRamos


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Material doesnt come up in texture list for UV
I'm using nodes to texture my pistol a bit, however, I've colored each material seperatly so I can assign specific parts to the pistol, however, none of them show up in the list of materials, I'm worried because I'm doing this for a game, and I'm scared that they will not show up.

What are you trying to do? If you are trying to assign materials to different parts of your object, you would need to do that in the 3D view.

@MasterHolbytla If you need someone to improve their question, please explain to them what you find confusing or what additional information it would help to have.

Yes, I already have assigned them, sorry for the confusion, I'm just scared because I have no texture file for the model right now, like, if you are texture drawing, you always have a texture file, but I don't have that.

Then you can either upload a texture or create a new one to paint on.

But how do I get the colors on the texture? The one where an arrow is pointed at

You don't, you are confusing to distinct concepts The list of the left is a list of textures, and the list on the right is a list of materials, you can't mix the two nor can you apply colors of materials in a texture.

You can't use the uv editor for assigning materials.  All you need to do is go into edit mode, select what you want to color, click the material you want to assign it, and click assign.

It's more that you can't use the uv editor for assigning materials.

True.  That's what I meant


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Lagging/glitching when moving things
When moving things, it almost seems like it's lagging or I'm moving in specific grids, it's hard to explain, watch the gif:

You have snapping to increments while transforming on. Click on the magnet icon to turn it off, or change your snapping element (to vertex/edge/face) if applies.


text:
Object data panel menu, not available
The panel that appears as shown in the image below, cannot be re-opened.
It only appears, on the left-hand-side of the screen when I create a new object.
How do I get it back as shown in the image?

https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:2.5/Source/Development/Proposals/Editable_Object_Parameters

My "Data" tab, looks different.

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/7850/is-there-any-way-to-edit-parameters-for-an-object-after-it-is-created. What is shown on that page is a proposal and not yet implemented feature.

@cegaton Should have been an answer, not a comment.

Thanks Mr. Zak. Your link led me straight to my answer.
Is there any way to edit parameters for an object after it is created?
Ok, it seems you can't change the properties after you've created it.


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How to convert solidified plane to cube/rectangle
I took a plane, and applied the "Solidify" modifier to it.  Is it possible to convert that to a cube, or rectangle, so that I can manipulate its edges with the bevel tool more easily?

Just make sure to add the bevel modifier after the solidify modifier. If you applied it, it should work perferctly fine.


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Beveling edges with varying number of segments (preferably programatically)
So I wrote a script to select a certain set of edges that I'd like to bevel. I save the edges inside of a dictionary with the key being the indices of the vertices on that edge and the value being the weight of the beveling. The edges are guaranteed to be separate. Which mean they don't share any common vertex. But some of them need more segment and width, some of them need less depending on the angle between the faces it lays on. I tried using the bevel modifier but it only either bevel by weight OR by angle and not both. I also tried manually beveling each edge but after one bevel, the indices are all messed up and the algorithm can't find the edges anymore.
Is there a way to achieve this?

As the index of an item changes as edits are made to the mesh you need to get each edge object before making any changes, then refer to each edge as you do the bevel. You can use the edges verts property to get the vertices at each end.
import bpy, bmesh

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
me = bpy.context.edit_object.data

# edge_bevel_data
ebd = [
{'idx': 13, 'edge': None, 'offset': 0.05, 'segments': 3},
{'idx': 32, 'edge': None, 'offset': 0.04, 'segments': 2},
{'idx': 89, 'edge': None, 'offset': 0.06, 'segments': 3},
]

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

# first get the edges
for i in range(len(ebd)):
    ebd[i]['edge'] = bm.edges[ebd[i]['idx']]

# bevel each edge
for i in range(len(ebd)):
    e = ebd[i]['edge']
    bev_geom = [e.verts[0], e.verts[1], e]
    o = ebd[i]['offset']
    s = ebd[i]['segments']
    bmesh.ops.bevel(bm, geom=bev_geom, offset=o, segments=s)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, True)

If I understand it correctly, you refer to the edge as the object instead of the index?

For some reason blender crashes at bmesh.ops.bevel(bm, geom=bev_geom, offset=o, segments=s)

@JackLe - bad values of geom will do that. The geom value is a list of BMVert/BMEdge/BMFace - if you only have an edge it crashes, if the verts don't match the edge it crashes....

But I used the vertices on that same edge like you did. I even tried doing it separately in the command line. It still crashed.

Odd - the only time I can get it to crash is as I mentioned above. Have you tried with a different mesh, I have used an icosphere and subdivided cube and checked back to 2.73. Bevel only happens if there is a face on both sides of an edge but I only get it to crash by changing the bev_geom=[] line.

it still crashes for me. I just did it the good'ol select and deselect way. It's really slow but it got the job done. Thanks tho :)


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Exception_Stack_Overflow error in Command Line Script
I'm new user of Blender. I decided to give it a go in order to create a simple animation for a Youtube channel. I found a template, made the changes I wanted, and then saved it, but there's a problem when I go to render it. From the in-program window, I go to render it, and then the program immediately crashes. To work around this, I studied up on how to do it from the command line, and I was able to get it to work once, but the text came out all screwed up, so I needed to re-do it. Now, every time I go to render it from the command line, I get "EXCEPTION_STACK_OVERFLOW", and it fails. I have attached an image of the exact command line script after attempting to render the animation.
Computer Specs:
Dell Precision M4500 | Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit | Intel Core i7 | Q740 @ 1.73 GHz | 10.0 GB Ram

Thanks for the help!

Many will suggest rendering to an image sequence, then convert the image sequence to a video file when done (images to video is a quick operation). Your first error is that -F AVI is invalid, this could be leading to repeated errors that cause the overflow. Valid video options include AVIRAW and AVIJPEG see the manual for option info

Thanks, however I fixed the AVI error, and also tried rendering it out to an image sequence (PNG), and that also resulted in an EXCEPTION_STACK_OVERFLOW error.

Thanks for the help. As it turns out, the font I was using was overloading it. I erased all of the text, created a test file, and it rendered out just fine. Guess I will need to either find a different version of the same font, or find an entirely different font to use.


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Is it possible to use cloth sewing springs to make pants?
I saw a few tutorials on YouTube utilizing the cloth sewing spring method and I'm trying do such a thing with pants.

 All of the examples that I saw, have a piece of cloth going over the character's shoulder.

 Pants however don't  do so unless if they're overalls. I want to know does this method work only if a mesh is over an area of the character?

Of course it's possible to create pants using sewing springs. You can either turn off gravity, or pin the top of the pants to the avatar to prevent it from falling.

Please expand your answer to include information as to how you can turn off gravity or pin cloth.


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Can the viewport rotation be changed?
I had just upgraded from using blender version 2.75 to 2.77 and I immediately found a difference between the two. Here are the differences:

default perspective 2.75

default for 2.77
When I do a custom rotation using the same coordinates, the view becomes different.

2.75

2.77
In 2.77 it's no longer rotating directly along the z-axis.
How can I rotate the viewport on the z-axis in 2.77 as it was on 2.75 (or 2.76?)

I found the answer to my problem: the turntable isn't working in 2.77 but was corrected in 2.77a

Different screenshot would be useful in your question, specifically screenshots with an expanded properties shelf (T key) in each version. My starting guess is that the models shown in the two versions may not have identical rotation settings to start with, in which case applying the rotation might resolve this issue.

authors: Алексей Гориздра


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Is it possible to have a 2d element interacting with a 3d world?
I want to know if it possible to simulate an augmented reality situation in Blender without the elements negatively interact with one another. I already know about using the emission shader on a 2d object to simulate a flat appearance of it, but such a technique would have an impact on the interaction in a 3d enviroment (i.e undesired light would be casting on the environment). What would be a technique to bypass that?

See my answer here http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/58272/making-an-emission-shader-emit-a-different-colour-of-light-than-the-colour-assig/58280#58280 You can use the same technique to mix any two shaders. In your case you can have an emission shader for the visible component of the material and say a transparent shader for everything else, making the material virtually neutral to your scene and every other object.


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Is a render farm suitable for using high-res stills?
This question is primarily for curiosity. I'm aware that render farms are used as a method to speed up rendering time for animation sequences. Is it a good alternative to use for high-res stills that would take a lot more time to render by just using a standard computer to do so?
If there is such an option, where can it be found?

That will depend on the render farm you plan to use. Normally a render will generate a complete image which means animations can easily take advantage of multiple computers as each computer can render a single frame from the animation.
It is possible to cut up a single render into multiple pieces that can later be stitched together into a larger image, this will allow multiple computers to work on the same larger final image. Blender's render border option can be used with a python script like in this answer, it is possible to use imagemagick to automatically stitch the pieces into one image.
Some commercial render farms include an option to do this, Render.st is one example. If you are creating a personal render farm then chances are you will need to add this ability yourself.


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Can normal maps be edited after creation?
I have some normal maps and want to edit them. Is there an alternative to do so without going through the process of baking it again, such as painting?

One option could be to extract the height information into a bump map as in this answer : https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/90276/29586. Once you have that you can edit it in and later use it as the input to a bump node to convert back to a normal.


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Does image texture resolution impact rendering time?
I'm trying to make a high-res bump map for human skin. I've seen many examples where there was quite a lot of detail on the texture, although it's mostly in portraits. I've downloaded and open the OpenEXR file that have the texture map included in it. The image resolution was at 8192 x 8192. Would such a size have an impact on rendering time, if so, does it vary by CPU/GPU? Also, will it affect the performance of the 'Texture Paint Mode' when the map is being painted directly on it?

Render time may be affected, but in theory it should not make a lot of difference, however it will have a significant impact in memory consumption. If you have little memory resources available for rendering this may have a more noticeble negative impact, like for example while GPU rendering on a card with low VRAM amount. Texture size will significantly affect painting performanceperformance

Done, posted below

Render time will likely be affected, but not much so, in theory it should make a negligible difference unless you are working close to your hardware limits.
It will however have a significant impact in memory consumption. If you have little memory resources available for rendering this may have a more noticeable negative impact, like for example while GPU rendering on a card with low VRAM amount.
Texture size will significantly affect painting performance


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Is the roughness setting is based on a standard measuring unit?
I was wondering since Blender implemented the 'PrincipledBSDF' shader and it is based on improving photo realism in Blender, I want to know if the roughness index is based off of any unit and if it is what is it?

No, it scales linear beween zero and one.

There are several models how light interacts with surfaces. Cycles supports Beckmann, Ashikhmin-Shirley, GGX and Multiscatter GGX models. They all model surface imperfection (roughness) with microfacets:

We assume that surfaces that are not perfectly smooth are composed of many very tiny facets, each of which is a perfect specular reflector. These microfacets have normals that are distributed about the normal of the approximating smooth surface. The degree to which microfacet normals differ from the smooth surface normal is determined by the roughness of the surface.

So the roughness is only a statistical value how microfacet normals deviate from the mean (smooth surface). How the surface looks is determined by the lighting model used.
There are many methods for measuring surface roughness on materials and they all are also just statistical values. They are based on the amplitude and frequency of surface imperfections ( how they deviate from a perfectly smooth surface). These imperfections can be measured using profilometer.
The Beckmann model uses Rdq roughness and like this it's results could be validated against physical objects. The Beckmann specularity distribution formula is defined in this paper (A Reflectance Model for Computer Graphics, L.Cook, 1982) on page 6.
The Principled shader uses the GGX specularity model and uses perceptual roughness defined in this Pixar paper (PBS Disney BRDF notes, Burley 2012). It is the same roughness that many apps use, like Arnold renderer, Substance painter, most pbr game engines, and many others (Renderman of course, etc..):
Roughness = (Perceptual_roughness)^2

This perceptual roughness has more linear progression and is more friendly to artists, but doesn't directly correspond to physical methods of roughness measurement.
Blender version 2.79 has inconsistency in this (between Principled and GGX glossy). If you want the same result using Principled shader as you are used to from Glossy GGX, you need to square root the roughness.
However this inconsistency is planned to be fixed in version 2.8 and unified using perceptual roughness.
You may find this related answer thread also useful:
What do glossy distribution models do?

Your "this Pixar paper" link now points to a mattress review.

@Tara thx, fixed


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What are the minimum spec requirements for 2.8?
I have tried using Eevee on my computer, but it kept crashing. It was a version that was downloaded a couple of weeks ago. Also, I attempted to use Substance Designer and it failed to work as well. My computer is just a standard laptop with no special additions to it. I went to the requirements page and it said the following:

Note: These requirements are valid for Blender 2.77 up to 2.79b. However, Blender 2.76 and earlier still supports Windows XP and OpenGL 1.4 graphics cards. Blender 2.8 requires OpenGL 3.3 or above.

Unlike the last time that I check this page almost a year ago, Blender was more explicit about the graphics card requirements. I want to know is OpenGL 3.3 is the common standard for all new computers after a certain date if not, are there indicators for it?

As you said it, Eevee is a GPU Boosted engine, it uses features present in >= OpenGL3.3. The fact that you added Substance made it suspicious for a driver issue.  Make sure you have DirectX and .NET for Substance and the latest OpenGL Drivers.
As for your other question, new cards are  mostly OpenGL 4.5 capable. You can check your OpenGL version by going to the dxdiag. And please add more details about your PC specs, it helps us better


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Does the mirror modifier have to be applied in order to a complete a UV map of the model?
I want to know if it's possible to have the complete UV map of an object while still retaining its mirror modifier. I have unwrapped the model, but it can only do so for the edited side.
I'm using Blender 2.75.

I think you can only export the 'real' non modifier-generated side, but since it is mirrored after export all you have to do is either mirror or extend it in your image editing software

It depends.  The Mirror modifier extends UV's as well.  So if you have textures mapped to your model, it will map to both sides identically.  If you are fine with that, then no.
If you need to edit both sides independently, you will need to apply the modifier and further unwrap your model.

Does the second option also includes the export of the UV layouts as well?

What sort of export are you referring to?

In the Mirror modifier panel, you can check Mirror U (or V) to mirror the UV horizontally (and/or vertically).
Then you can texture both sides of your model separately.


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How do I make a crystal glow?

I am trying to make the infinity stones and I am struggling to make them glow.
This answers doesn't translate to my issue since the solution involves creating a duplicate of the object scaling down and making it emit light. This ruins the transmission shading of the original object.
In  the films they emit a strong light from their cores. I want to animate them spinning in a circle so the glowing effect must be done in blender. I am currently using an hdr to light them. (using a gtx 960m chip so the less taxing the better).

What did you try? Light inside the cristals? Emission shader as materials of the objects? Outside light pointing to crystals (with very small radius to act light a laser)?

I put a point light inside the crystals which didnt work. I used the emission shader as materials of the objects aswell. Using an outside light might work if they were static but the end goal is to have them spinning

Make a uv sphere inside the crystal , use emission shader , increase the strength of emission and render using evee.

I'm wanting to use cycles since the transparency is much more realistic


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Export RigidBody Simulation as FBX animation?
I've made a rigid-body animation (explosion) which I'd like to export as fbx.
https://i.postimg.cc/J7yQw2Ky/ezgif-1-20d0b92cad.gif
After hours of reading the same question over and over, apparently it's impossible unless I use alembic.abc format. However, I need it to be fbx format to be able to import it into a Game Engine which doesn't support abc files.
I've previously purchased a similar explosion animation from Sketchfab in fbx format. It works perfectly. It appears to have been made using rigid-body physics so I have hope that this can be done with blender.
How would I export my animated rigid-body simulation, as fbx?

I successfully managed to export the rigid-body simulation from blender, as an fbx animation.
1- I baked the animation as key-frames in Blender.
2- I used the "better fbx plugin" and exported with the default options for fbx(2016).
-At this point, the fbx exported with the animation, but still didn't work when imported into the game engine (Coppercube)-
3- I imported to UltimateUnwrap3D and exported the file as blitz3D animation file.
Resulting file size is only 196kb (mesh and animation) and works perfectly when imported into the game engine.

So you exported as a blitz3D file, not FBX?

Successfully exported as fbx (from blender), but then re-exported it as blitz (from Ultimate Unwrap), just to get the file-size down even further and fix the compatibility issue with Coppercube game-engine. I could have exported it as fbx from unwrap too, the file-size would have only been 2.5mb - but the tiny blitz file tempted me.


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How to change the duration of a Layer in Blender?
How to change how long a layer is visible, for example for making blinking eyes or having a character disappear

Hello, what kind of layer are you talking about, could you please give more details?

Kinda like any layer just sorta change how long it is visible for.

What do you mean by "layer"? There are Render Layers in the compositor, there are Bone Layers for armatures, and there are even data layers. Blender 2.79 has layers, in Blender 2.8 they are called now Collections. So which layer do you mean now? Which Blender version do you use? Please be a little more specific...

I am a blender beginner only started using it last week and I am using blender version  3.6.5  and I am talking about the  layers like the default cube that is there when you startup blender and its listed under collection.

I think they are called Object layers or data blocks because when I copy and paste it says paste data blocks from internal clipboard.

You can animate the visibility of the object in the Outliner, put your cursor on the camera icon and press i, then move in the Timeline, disable the option and press i again, is it what you are trying to do?

If you want to make the cube invisible from frame 20, put your timeline cursor at frame 19, put your mouse cursor over the camera icon in the Outliner and press i:

At frame 20 disable the icon and press i:

If you want to hide in viewport as well, the option Disable in Viewport is available here:

Thank you, it works. But is there a way to view it without rendering it?

Yes, do the same but this time with the eye icon

It says hide_veiwport can not be animated.

Yes sorry you need to display the Disable in Viewport icon, see my edit

Thank you so much.


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Wireframe shader with gradient colors
I am trying to land a project similar to the one in this image. Any ideas how I could get a similar render for any type of figure, for example a Torus or an octagon? I don't care about the mesh, but about the render type (wireframe, colors, and maybe shader).
I don't really know what could help to nail this. Maybe by using some kind of freestyle set? All ideas are welcome.

Hello and welcome. Could you please use a descriptive title that sumarizes the content of the question. Also clarify what part of the image you wish to recreate. Is it the modelling, the shading, colors, wireframes?

Ill edit it. Thanks for the feedback. I´d like to recreate the shading and the wireframe, so i can use it in any shape. Setting colors like this may also help.

Here is a try:

Create your profile shape (here an extruded triangle) and a curve, give your shape an Array and a Curve modifier so that it follows the curve, then a Wireframe modifier so that it thickens the edges. Disable the Replace Original option of the Wireframe modifier so that you can still see the original faces.

Create 2 materials, one for the faces, one for the edges. The first material is a mix between a Transparent shader and an Emission shader, with a Layer Weight as factor.

The second material is a basically a mix between Emission shaders and a Transparent shader, with a Noise shaders as factors, in order to create a blend of colors and transparency.

In the material list of your object (Material panel), put the first material (faces material) above the second one (edges material). In the Wireframe modifier, choose Material Offset > 1 so that the edges will have the second material of your material list.

Here is what it gives:

I´ll try it out! Thank you!

just create a cylinder and decrease vertice

and scale it and add same loop cuts and add a curve
 and towic it until it is mash the reference and
 curve modifier to follow the curve and wireframe modifier
and finally add the gradient texture with the mapping node and texture coordinate
  and use it as a mask to  in the mix shader by connect it to the fac
and but the two emission shader with different colors to it

Periods, commas, and sentence structure, might make this answer more useful.


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Object has no materials on it but still displays there to be a material
I'm quite new to Blender so sorry if this is an obvious question, but this cylinder has no materials added to it but still shows as if it has this metal material and I'm not sure why.

Here is the Blender file if you need it:
https://pasteall.org/blend/9993cea4b1df4396be8ceb93fbd7f823

It shows it has a material on my end.

that's weird because if I select it I can see 2 materials in the material list and the one that is assigned to the object is called "can"

Yeah, same here.

Sorry, I think I uploaded the old file, this is the new one which shouldn't have any materials applied to it.
https://pasteall.org/blend/9993cea4b1df4396be8ceb93fbd7f823

There are 2 materials associated with the object, however why their material slots don't appear by default in the material menu is because the material is being added through Geometry Nodes. If you want to simply see the material, select the "Can" material from the menu (underlined in red). Also, your Noise Texture should be connected through the Height input of the Bump Node (not the normal input - also highlighted in red).

If you want to remove the material, however, you must first make sure there are no assigned material slots in the material menu (your file "came this way" - use the minus button if you added any slots). Visit the Geometry Nodes section, and disconnect the Set Material node(s) from the chain:


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Issue about Cloth Simulation
I have followed several tutorials on the Youtube.
This is the cloth I made, I double check there is no duplicated vertex left in the mesh.

I also applied the scale and rotation for both cloth and human body.

This is the result occurred in the last period.

I have tried to add subdivisions and still get a wired result

I have no idea about how to fix this issue.

Here is the link to download this blender file https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t-RIXcjIPi4ujR8g3hxExlUOrZnInZfN/view?usp=sharing

The back of the cloth template has flipped normals. Select the back part of the mesh and flip it with Alt+N in Edit mode. Also, don't apply the Subdivision modifier. You have added edges before you added the modifier and there are now edges missing and the existing edges are subdivided. This will create holes at the seams.

I have tried doing the flip normals, the back of cloth works. Thanks, the rest issue as you mentioned about the edges, I will try to redo the edges according the tutorial again! Thank you!

What does it look like in the tutorial? Blender has a bug (or feature, I don't know) It does not remove the threads nor does it merge the vertices of the islands. If you want to see the seams with a Solidify modifier you need to clean up the mesh a bit.

Here is a test with the following changes:

turned off Self-Collision as suggested by BlenderMaster15
lowered Collision > Distance to 5 mm to get the fabric is closer to the body
lowered the Collision > Softbody & Cloth > Thickness Outer value to 0.001 also to get the fabric is closer to the body
use Elastic Deformation brush in Sculpt mode and made the upper parts of the sleeves a bit wider. Rotate the end of the sleeves a bit (Pose brush) and straightened the back of the neck.
flipped the faces of the back
added more threads

The result after 30 frames:

There are still some glitches and the mesh islands are not connected. But this can be changed manually (or with a script) after the Cloth modifier has been applied.

Thank you for your test!

Fixed! Turn off "Self-Collisons" in the shirt's cloth modifier.

Thank you for your help! I have turned off the "Self-Collisons" trigger and it seems that the cloth is not weird like before, But still cannot seems like the same as the effect of tutorial.


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3D Print Addon Miscalculating Volumes
This doesn't occur consistently but enough for me to notice. I have Applied Transform /All and reset origin to geometry to no effect. The dimensions on this example are correct and correlate with edge dimensions as they appear in Edit Mode.
This is a bit of deal breaker for me as I'm using this for concrete volumes in a real world scenario.
I am aware of the scale mismatch but the result is off by a factor other than 10 so that is not the issue. If there's a better and equally simple method to determine a correct result I'm all eyes.

I'm sorry, can't reproduce your error... I create a cuboid with these dimensions, the volume shows 12.992 mm³ as it should. Did you make sure there are no decimals other than the ones shown in the dimensions? If you click on one of those values to edit it, are they exact? For example, if you click on 20.3 mm, there could be 20.34 mm and it would still show 20.3 if you leave the field. Or did you change any values and the volume calculation is not refreshed? If you change values and don't click the Volume button afterwards, the displayed volume isn't refresehd and show an old value.

Thanks - your comment triggered me to use the Checks function ( Solids ) and it reported non-manifold geometry. Using the Clean Up function fixed this and then the volume calculation returned a proper result.


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Is there any standard way of measuring SSS according to real-life objects?
I was wondering if there is a standard way measuring SSS in comparison to objects in the real world like the index of refraction measurements. I know that scale plays a large role in its appearance and intensity but it has to be estimated visually on trial and error. Is there some sort listing of comparisons of the types of material with SSS measurement, such as 'wax=1.000' or 'skin=0.541'or is it better to guess the amount?

I would recommend to base your values on observation instead of guessing. since it's hard to get measured data for something as basic as albedo values, I think it is safe to forget about SSS measurements even if they existed. Correctly exposed and white balanced photographs in similar lighting conditions to your 3d scene should be a really good source of information.


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Is there a limit on the chaining of nodes in the shader editor?
I'm trying to create a procedural texture in cycles using smaller texture maps with masks separating them. Each texture map is grouped with a mask and image texture. It is then outputted into a mix RGB node  in add mode with a factor of 1 combining both groups. The process is repeated 18 times. The setup went as expected until I reached the 7th node setup. When I go beyond the 7th node and plug it into either the add RGB or bump map socket, the entire mesh rendered black as if there no material on it. If I connected all the nodes and view them in preview mode with the node wrangler all the textures will appear as expected. Here's a preview of my setup.

Inside the texture node.

Node chaining on the outside. (same results occurred regardless of adding the images together directly or through the bump map.)
I want to know if is this a shading issue due solely to the node setup or is there a limit on how many node chains can blender handle?

The limit is based on your Graphics Card Memory... You probably reach the SVM Stack Limit

What's an SVM stack limit and can it quantified?


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How to define the peak of a curve in geometry nodes?
I'm doing a node network using instances along a path. Although the instances are behaving correctly from the endpoints onward; it's until they approach the focus and towards the peak they're not aligning with the path. Also I want to delete the highest point on the instance without affecting the rest of them. Is there a method of defining the top curve and editing it? Here are some screenshots of the problem:

Instances along the curve are not fully aligned.

Instances node setup.

Quadratic bezier setup. The instances will be realized along the network.

pls provide blend file so we don't have to rebuild everything on our own. This will attract more people who want to answer (like me). Thanks. if you don't want, i am pretty sure this can be solved with the attribute statistic node and the delete geometry node.

It's kind of unclear to me from your question what you want to rotate and how, so I can only make guesses.
However, when instantiating along a curve, you can omit the center point by simply dividing the number of points and comparing it to the current index.
You then use the selection obtained in this way directly in the instantiation:

Thank you. I should've made my question more specific. This was my primary problem. The rest was secondary.


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How to make or simulate perspiration?
I want to know if it's possible to simulate perspiration on a surface in cycles such as in the following images:

If so what techniques should be used?

Usually this is done with a particle system.  Are you specifically looking for a solution using just material shaders or are you open to a solution using particles?

Are we talking about animation or still images? I'll suggest to have a look at http://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/how-to-make-a-rainy-window/ tutorial, if you hadn't already.

@PGmath :  I'm open to both options.

@Carlo I'm talking about still images but I wouldn't mind learning about the animation method.


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Does the world altitude on objects affects its shader output?
I'm making a character and putting it an environment. I had used the BlenderGIS addon to get the location which will affect the height of the mesh. The objects are attached to an armature inheriting its transformation properties. The eyes are compose of two separate meshes that are less than an inch apart with each having its own material. On the outer mesh is a glossy shader, and the inner one has a Principled BDSF shader. The following screenshots are eyes in local mode from the character:

At default coordinates (0, 0, 0)

At 463 ft on the z axis
This is first time that I saw this happening in Blender. I had adjusted the camera and render settings but it doesn't do anything when I changed the character's altitude. Is this a bug in Blender because I've tried without the addon and it was still doing the same thing. Does anyone know what's causing it?

World space altitude (Z position) does not do anything special.  Materials can affect things (especially if using object coords with something armature deformed); and of course, moving one thing but not everything can change things (because then you're lighting from a different angle, or reflecting things with a different relative position.)
But what you're probably seeing are errors related to precision from placing your geometry + camera far from the world origin.  Z axis in particular doesn't mean anything special, but distance from origin does.  It shouldn't, but it does.  See https://developer.blender.org/T43835 .
I can't say that for certain without seeing your file though.  It would be easy for a material you're using to be based on world position in some way.  Possibly, in a way that isn't immediately obvious.

Interesting reference.. I'm naively wondering why Cycles would be founded in World, not Camera, space.

@RobinBetts That is exactly what I wondered out loud in that bug report (or one linked to it) :)  I don't know enough about ray tracing to have any idea myself.

I've read the thread in the link and have moved my scene much closer to the world origin. The render results came out just as expected. Maybe camera distance is a limit in ray-tracing.


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Why is my model moving vertexes that aren't selected, when scaling
When I extend my "cylinder" by using the E key and attempt to scale it
http://prntscr.com/axq436
It also moves some vertexes along with it.

Well ***, i thought i disabled it?!
Thanks for answering a simple question.

Change my comment to an answer. :)

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1495/duplicate-objects-transformation-applies-to-both-objects, also http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/27394/strange-problem-cant-transform-faces-edges-or-vertices-without-transforming

Check if proportional editing is on, press the shortcut key O will toggle the setting.
Click Here for more information on Proportional Editing.


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How do I scale a skeleton down with out affecting the animation time + the location of the skeleton
Basically what I want to do is scale a skeleton down. The reason for this is that I'm ripping a model from another game and I want to use it in Unity. When the model is ripped from the other game, it is way too big for unity and has to be scaled down in order for it to even show up on the screen.
This is my model. It has a walking animation.

Now I want to scale the model down from it's original scale to 0.2 by 0.2 by 0.2, I scale the skeleton down so that the mesh goes with it.

Now I'll have to apply the scaling, so that it's the smaller scale is the default one, instead of the big one.

As soon as I apply it, the model moves away from it's original location, and the animation is all messed up, it goes much faster to it's walking destination because he's smaller.

How do I avoid the skeleton, and most importantly, the animation from messing all up?

the model looks great. :D

You can remove separately the scale keys in the dopesheet.This will allow you to scale it down.

When exporting from Blender, calculate the size as 100 percent and export it, eg fbx scale 0.01 or 0.1 This is fixed in ue4.

If you really do not want to scale the model while exporting (or while importing into a game engine), your best bet is to scale all the fcurves on the y axis by the same factor as the previous scale, with the 2d cursor (which should be at 0,0) as the pivot point in the fcurve editor. This should keep the speed constant, but if you wanted to speed up or slow down the animation, scaling on the x axis would do that.
See, for example, before:

And after:

Unfortunately, for particularly complicated animations this can be a tedious process, as you'd have to make sure that the pivot point for each scaling operation in the fcurve editor looks ok afterwards.
Another partial option is to export your animation as an FBX file and using the included scale factor during the export. Make sure to use y-forward and z-up! After exporting it, you can import it back in (crucially with the settings "Ignore Leaf Bones" and "Automatic Bone Orientation" checked!). This does not seem to apply the scale of the rig, however, and may not be worth it as such.

How do you put 2D cursor in 0;0 in the graph editor? I can slide only by X axis. But how to make sure it is in zero point by Y?

@3DBear The easiest way to set it to 0,0 would probably be to change the cursor coordinates in the Show Cursor tab in the side panel. See https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/graph_editor/introduction.html#graph-editor-view-properties for additional information

You might be better of scaling the model in Unity (and leave it at full scale in Blender).


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bones barely moving with mesh
I've rigged my mesh, but when I move a bone, it doesnt fully move with it:

If the below answers don't work, please let us know what you tried, and more details about what isn't working.

Just wondering why you would use bone to control the animation on hard surface object. In my opinion bones are more suited for soft object animation like a human arm and legs because there is a weight system that comes along with it to help with softbody deformation. For hard body all you need is a target and animated keys.

I may want to put it in unreal engine or something

Select the object that is parented with the bone, and go to the data panel  in the properties window. Enter edit mode, and select all geometry. Under the vertex groups, ensure the Weight slider is at 1.000, and select Assign.

Not working, http://i.imgur.com/1R0V3Ow.gifv

Check if you have weights from other bones. if yes set them to 0

gabe, looking at your video, you don't only need to assign vertices to bones, but also to unassign these same vertices from the others bones. So as wyskoj and @Denis indicate just handle the vertices assignments to the correct bones.

Lemon, your solution worked, though I'm unable to give you the bounty through comments

Click on the armature that you are using, then without deselecting go down to the mode drop-down, and change that to pose mode.

Then select the object that you want to move, and in the mode drop-down, select Weight Paint Mode. Just paint the entire thing red, and it should work correctly. Completely blue means it won't move at all, red means it moves completely with the armature.
This ball I have will become a jumbled mess when I move the armature, because it is only half shaded. If I paint the entire thing red, it will move with the armature correctly, without stretching.

The image you included isn't helpful at all. You could add an image with the "Weight Paint Mode" visible, or a mesh with either blue or red weights.

Didn't work, when I checked it wasn't different then first, everything that is needed to be red already is.


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Any way to attach another mesh to another ( Not CTRL + J)
Basically, I'm creating a uniform, I want the uniform to have some pockets and the like
I want to create nearly the same as in the picture, but I'm struggling at creating the pockets.

Imagine the cube is a pocket, how do I properly attach it and deform it so it perfectly attaches/merges to the jacket? It's hard to phrase, I hope you understand.

I think with the cube u make a pocket separate and with the shrinkwrap modifier u can stick to the uniform

Retopology techniques help a mesh to stick to the surface of an object as it is created. By having the mesh snap to the surface you can create the outline of the pocket to match the suit and then extrude it out.

Maybe it would help us if you could explain why it's a problem for the jacket and pocket to be a single object? Also, is it safe to assume the jacket and pocket should be able to deform together in animation?

I use often Parent ( constraint ) i.e. Ctl+p

You could try using the Boolean modifier.  Select your jacket, add the modifier, change the mode to Union, and set the Object to the pocket cube.  Hit apply and it should make it one manifold mesh.

You could use the Shrinkwarp modifier on only the vertices that you want to attach and then blend the normals with the data transfer modifier. Like in this 8 Minute Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luFz5gzvM9s&t=288s
It looks like one mesh if done well and it is nice to position anywhere you want on your jacket. You can also just duplicate the whole thing and you have a second pocket without any need for further modeling.

To merge object you can use the Join (Ctrl +  J) operation in Object Mode. Another way would be to go to edit mode and add another mesh primitive (⇧ Shift +  A), this creates an extension of the mesh you were working on in Edit Mode.
To create your pockets it might be advisable to create the pocket rather by face extrusion rather than adding a box.

Like I already stated in the question itself, just imagine the box is a pocket, I want to have the pocket be properly attached to the jacket. I stated aswell that I don't want to use CTRL + J.

Then you are left with adding (Shift + a in edit mode, then select mesh primitive). But there is - to my knowledge - no automated way to properly attach the box to your "jacket" mesh. You need to manually model your pocket afterwards by removing/adding/moving faces/edges/vertices in edit mode. I think there is no way around that. Maybe you could share your mesh, so we can help you a bit more "on target"?


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Snapping vertices (Ctrl + Click) not working
I'm creating clothes and having some troubles

I created a vertice using ctrl + click, it seems to be perfectly ontop of the other mesh I am using. Now when I try to create another vertice:

It goes straight through. Is there any way to stop it and actually have the edge not going through my mesh?
I am able to not let it through but this is only if I use a lot of vertices which shouldn't be the solution considering in other tutorials they do it the same way as I did.

I don't see where the problem is. Both vertices are on the surface of the mesh. Edge connecting them is mostly inside due to lack of geometry, i.e. it's too long straight line and mesh surface becomes round much quicker than edge can follow it

Thanks, something I notice too is that my normals are flipped to the wrong side, any way to stop themf rom doing that?

Are you certain it's normal? When I tried using edges instead of vertices it did the same: https://i.imgur.com/zuVHWJJ.png

There isn't any way to stop faces normals facing the wrong side, it's much easier and flexible to recalculate them (Ctrl+N), i.e. fix this afterwards. I've no idea what do you mean by "using vertices instead of edges", the fewer geometry the shrinkwrapped surface has the more it will be falling into the highpoly - it can't follow curvature of the highpoly, that one is too smooth, lowpoly is too steep. The more geometry you have for lowpoly, the fewer that effect will be visible (and less sense in doing lowpoly).


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Texture doesn't want to change
The texture of my rocket launcher doesn't want to change, only a part of it however, as you can see in the pic below:
Information on the thing:
The part was copied from another model

Can add more info/a .blend file?

How do I assign them?

Nevermind, fixed it, it was assigned to the wrong material so I had to delete it, thanks for the hepl

Reminds me of: "How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Perhaps just one, but... the light bulb has to want to change."


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texture paint going wrong
everytime I try to use texture paint, it uses another material to paint it, for example, here it uses an earlier texture

Check out my scrapbook on texture painting, bumps, etc. 88 pages. If using phone tablet, be careful with your fingers on screen, as pages contain links. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10l5N7JILfF59AvlwjUqP76t044ecXb-MUj1qm9W-IUU/mobilepresent?slide=id.g60ca14e196ecde6_0

Nevermind, after this question I fixed it by clicking the texture category and clicking on the X

authors: Антон Контушев


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How to rig clothes?
I've made a guy with some clothes, I would like to rig it now, however, when I raise his leg a bit, his skin comes out more as seen here:

How do you stop this from happening?

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/62818/rigify-skin-overlapping-clothes/62831#62831. You can also delete or mask the part of the mesh which is underneath the clothes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVfTRwXpmuQ I think, here u will find an answer

Use the Data Transfer Modifier.

Select the cloth
Shift select the rig
Ctrl + P to Set parent with empty groups
Select the cloth alone
Add the Data Transfer modifier (anywhere in the stack) then within the modifier:

Source object - Select your Rigged mesh (body)
Check Vertex Data (first in the list below Source object)
Select (highlight) Vertex Group(s)
Click Apply

Done. Forget about most of your nightmares and forget about destructive solutions. You may have to do some additional weight paintings or shape keys with drivers for the cloth to react the way you want with some flexion but at least, the clothes won't get through your base character as you move your rig with this method.

This method still works, tried in blender 3.2 with my Rig.

Just for anyone wondering: This still works in 2.8

Still works as of Blender 2.9
(I actually looked back because i forgot how to...Lol)

I still get a bit of clipping from this method (though on the whole it's really good). Are there any settings to fine tune to prevent this from happening? In the past I've just sculpted the clothes to cover the parts of the body that clip and are visible.

It's in fact a good starting point but to my understanding, best results will imply the use of some mesh distortion using drivers.
At some point Cloth simulation with proper repulsion could be the way to go.

What do you select in the vertex groups option? am using Blender 3.2


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Some parts in render mode white
when trying to animate some parts are white in render view, not sure what causes it.

Try removing any doubles or recalculate the mesh.
Also, switch to Cycles xd

Fixed it, remove all materials then add them back


text:
Anyway to rig this wheel?
trying to rig this robot, but I've got no idea how to do the wheel, any idea?

Perhaps consider separating and using it as a separate mesh?

What should I do then?

Related or even a duplicate: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/28120/creating-a-simple-bicycle-pedal-motion

that question is about the foot turning with the wheel, i do not even know how to let the wheel turn

First of all, is the wheel mesh part of the same object as the character?
You need to separate it by selecting all the faces and press "P"
You can turn the wheel into a rigid body constraint of the type: motor
here is a youtube tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU9PADYJLM0
or you can skip that step and simply keyframe the rotation on it
here is a youtube tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFFhgutjZQk
And finally you need to use the graph editor to edit how your keyframes get interpolated
here is a youtube tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9gCHhJOjlQ

Welcome to the site :) Is it possible you could add a short summary of the content in the videos you linked? We like answers to be able to stand on their own in case the linked content becomes unavailable sometime in the future. Thanks

the first one is on rigid body constraints type:motor, the second one is on keyframes, and the third one is on the graph editor.

To answer your question more fully, I switched from comments to an answer.
The first thing I did was created and rigged a very rough estimate of your model:

I then added a square-ish wheel underneath it (visible in above picture). I parented this wheel to the armature via Object (Keep Transform), not any of the Armature Deform settings. This means that when you move the armature, the wheel will move with it (assuming the transformation is in object mode). While the wheel moves in conjunction with the rest of the model, you are free to rotate it on the appropriate axis. Here is what I achieved (glitch is in gif alone):

Eh, how did you make it so the armature moves with the  estimate of my model?

I keyframed it while in object mode by pressing I and then selecting location.


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I cant change to faces or edges view!

where are the buttons to select faces or edges view gone? loaded factory settings, still not there.

You don't have a mesh, you have a curve that is filled in (i.e. set to 2D curve type).
Curves have no face / edge / vertex options. If you want to convert it to a mesh (something that has vertices and faces) use Alt + C and select Mesh from Curve.


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Load .blend file into Blender as Python Module
I am using Blender as a Python module.
Now I am trying to load a scene into blender.
Unfurtunately the obvious function bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile(filepath) does not work as expected.
The command fails saying:

Calling operator "bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile" error, expected a string
  enum in ('INVOKE_DEFAULT', 'INVOKE_REGION_WIN',
  'INVOKE_REGION_CHANNELS', 'INVOKE_REGION_PREVIEW', 'INVOKE_AREA',
  'INVOKE_SCREEN', 'EXEC_DEFAULT', 'EXEC_REGION_WIN',
  'EXEC_REGION_CHANNELS', 'EXEC_REGION_PREVIEW', 'EXEC_AREA',
  'EXEC_SCREEN')

Can anyone explain to me how to load an existing .blend file when blender is used as Pyhton module?

This is a general operator calling issue, not related to using blender as a python module.
From the api docs on operators -

For calling operators, keywords are used for operator properties and positional arguments are used to define how the operator is called.

As you are giving a single positional argument it is interpreted by the operator as the execution_context value, which is meant to be a string from a defined enumeration of values, hence the error and the working solution that you found.

I found an answer to my question.
Problem was, that Python misinterpreted the passed argument filename.
Assigning the argument filename as follows fixes the error.
filepath = "path\to\file.blend"
bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile(filepath=filepath)


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Cycles hard edges in retroreflective material within a face
I have a problem with a retroreflective material in Cycles. When i render my scene it seems that some faces get rendered differently. The scene contains only one lightsource in form of an emitting Icosphere.

The following picture shows the used node setup.

Can anybody tell  me the reason for the effect and maybe a solution? I want to achieve a smooth lighting without hard edges, as it would occur in a real world.

I suspect you normal map may be off in some way. How does it look with the normal inputs disconnected?

That fixes the problem.
Also when i UV unwrap the face the issue is solved! Thanks @gandalf3

This kind of symptom strikes me indicative of a normals problem. If blender believes that different parts of a flat surface are facing different ways (and therefor reflecting different amounts of light), check the normals.
Try disconnecting normal sockets on the shaders. If that gets rid of the artifacts, try previewing what you're passing into the normal inputs to see what exactly is wrong.


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Light ignoring a solid object to illuminate object hidden behind the solid object
I have a scene where it would be great if the following would be possible either through Cycles or Render Layers.

I want to have a light source behind a solid object (no transparency or glass shader). Is it possible that this light source illuminates an object in FRONT of the solid object: Thereby it is important that the light is not influenced in any way. It should completely ignore the solid object.
Does anybody know a solution to this issue?

You can change the shadow option on the wall object.

Exactly what i was searching for! Thanks! @lemon


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Render isn't showing my active viewport - just a texture
This is only occurring with this one .blend file I'm working on. For some reason rendering the image using Blender Render doesn't give me a fully-rendered version of what I've got in the active camera. Instead it results in a single, flat picture of a texture while OpenGL rendering is giving me the expected result.

Any ideas on what settings might be causing this?
.blend file can be downloaded here:
dof-test.blend

Something is broken with the texture definition of "mike_ironfist_advance_sprite_idle_512h". I don't know exactly what because I created new texture identical to the existing, it renders the material and texture preview fine and works in actual render unlike the existing texture.

Ah, this seems to be the solution that still allows the viewport preview to appear correctly! I just did what you did (added another texture using the same image as the original) and it worked without issue. Thanks a lot!


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Find and Install Current Blender Release
I don't know the correct place for this question so I'm asking here:  I have a previous version of Blender that I downloaded but was never able to use (extended illness).  I would now like to download the current version and would like to know what the latest version is and I'd like to know if I have to delete the version I already have.  Thank you.

You Can keep the current version but it's quite useless.
There are three current builds:

the main: 2.78c that you can download from the official website under download.

https://www.blender.org/download/ù

The last two are for advanced users they are unstable, so do not save any important file with this versions:

2.79 testbuilds (2.78.5), downloadable from here:

http://graphicall.org/110

2.8 Testbuilds (2.8), downloadable from here:

https://builder.blender.org/download/ under the red rectangle (2.8 project)