text:
How do I scale from one side side only?
How do I scale from one side side only?
I want to keep the left side of a object in place, but scale it smaller from the right.
See this screen shot:

I want it to end up like this:

But I had to scale and move to get that.

Why do you need to scale? Just grab the vertices on the "right side" in edit mode and move them to the left.

@OcasoProtal yea but that won't keep the origin relative.

@Petah Why not recenter the origin afterwards?

@gandalf3 yes in this case recentering the origin after moving the vertices would work. But in other situations this would not be the case.

@Petah Unless you have your origin placed in a really strange spot (i.e. not relative to any geometry) then I can't think of any cases where this isn't the case. You can always position it using the 3D cursor.

@gandalf3 such as the origin being on the edge of an object?

@gandalf3 also it is hard to reposition the object after scaling it so 1 edge is in the place it used to be.

@Petah You could snap the 3D cursor to one edge, scale, then snap the origin to the 3D cursor. Anyway, it doesn't really make a difference as it is possible to scale based on the 3D cursor (as in stacker's answer).

@gandalf3 I can see that your points make a valid alternative. But I think stacker's answer fits my problem the best.

Set the Pivot Point to 3D Cursor and the 3D Cursor to the end that should not move while scaling.

For an exact position you may want to snap the 3D Cursor to the selection (Mesh -> Snap -> Cursor to Selection).

Is it possible to lock two vertices for not moving? So, it there is rectangle, only one edge is moving while scaling.

Another option is to try vertex slide in edit mode. Select the vertices you want to move and press GG.
Note: this is specific to mesh edit-mode and assumed you have topology which can slide.

I tried this, but it also seems to shrink them too. Also in edit mode it is easy enough to move the vertices as per the comments on the question.

Gy to only slide into the y-direction

Use the "Edit Mode"
If what I can see is a rectangle, then select both the vertices (First select one vertex, then also select the other vertex, by holding down the shift key.) If it is a cuboid, then you need to select four vertices.
Use the red arrow to move on only one side.

In Blender 4.1, a different approach for a more complicated mesh: use Scale Cage tool in Edit mode.


text:
Python Commands from Terminal Aren't Working Ubuntu 13.10
I'm fairly sure I'm doing something wrong and this isn't a bug, but when I installed blender from the 'blender' repository and have 2.66a running in an Ubuntu 13.10 VM, I got problems with using Python in the console.
After starting blender I get the following warnings:
Color management: using fallback mode for management
connect failed: No such file or directory

After this when I try to type in any Python commands at the terminal, nothing happens.  The >>>, suggesting an interactive Python session also don't appear.
What am I doing wrong?

Are you running the GUI-less version of Ubuntu?

no, the gui appears in the background

Does the same thing happen if you use a portable archive from blender.org?

Same thing happened.  But the console I get with Shift+F4 does work.  Should the interactive python environment automatically start on the terminal from which Blender is started or am I wrong in that assumption?

@Kylamus No,there is no python console in the terminal from which blender is started.

That'll be my problem then!  What's the best way to work with the Python terminal while using Blender?  Do you have any suggestions?  Do most just dock a terminal at the bottom of the Blender application and work with it from there?

For the colour management - read this for the console this is an option but usually you would use blenders builtin python console. The terminal you start blender from is normally used for debugging output - not interactive use.

As mentioned by sambler, the terminal from which blender is started is not normally used as an interactive python console. (however it is possible)
Usually one uses the python console built into the GUI.
The python console is an editor just like the 3D view or the text editor, so you can arrange your screen layout however you like to incorporate it with your workflow.
For example:

You can even split an editor into a separate window (as in the kind handled by the window manager).
This can be accomplished by pressing ShiftLMB on the area splitting corner and dragging, or by selecting the option from the editor areas menu:

For example:

Note that you probably still want the terminal from which blender was started open, as any error messages/warnings are printed to stdout and will appear there  (they will not appear in the interface by default, but there is a workaround).

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Mute audio files for playback?
I got few audio files in my sequence editor, and I would like to mute them all temporarily. How can I do that?

You can first cut the audio clips by placing the time cursor at the right place, then hit K. This will separate the clip in two clips. Repeat the operation for the end.
Then, you can mute the selected (active) audio clip by clicking the little eye icon in the properties panel (to show it, press N when hovering the sequence editor, or click the little (+) button at the top right corner of the window):

Another method would be to animate (with keyframes) the "Volume" setting between values 0 (mute) and 1 (listen):

I'm sorry but I dont see eye icon on my blender, probably because I'm still useing 2.69 version, whatever I noticed that i can mute my audio files by decreasing volume to 0 but it's still takes a while to do that on every file. I would like to mute my all files by one click, and that's why sometimes blender is annyoing me, he dont have a options which could make work faster, It's excatly the same with obj groups when you can't select few objects and add them to one group, you need to do this one by one, anyway, thank you for reply, just I need to deal with it :)

Edit: Guys, I asked about it on a forum too and there is a way to mute all audio files by one click ! :) You can do this on time line, by clicking on "playback" and then "audio muted" thx one more time, bye ! :)

@arto The eye icon should be there in 2.69, but you need to select a strip to see it. Could you add the technique that worked for you as an answer? That way other people can find it more easily. Thanks :)

ofc ! here's the screen how to that =) Edit: I can't add image as Polosson did, so I will just leave a link.  http://send-picture.com/img-5347b280340ed.html

You just have to add another answer (button below).

You were right. thx Polosson. :)
Step by step if you want to mute all audio files in your sequence editor:
1 Make your timeline visible
2 Click on Playback (You can find it on your timeline bar)
3 Choose "Audio muted" from the list and mark it.
If you want to back your audio audible, just unmark "Audio Muted"

Please include the text version of this answer. e.g. PLayback -> Audio Muted, something along those lines.

Also you could try "selecting by" - strip type and creating a meta strip of the audio strips. Then press H key to hide them (disable) to turn back on Alt H. This would allow you to choose the parts you want to hear/not hear.

authors: Валерий Коломиец

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


text:
Baking multiple objects to keyframes resets their orientation by their origins

I made a breakable object and the simulation is fine. But when I bake the simulation all the pieces of the breakable object just stack in the same place in space.
The pieces are driven by a cube the first 60 frames, then the simulation makes the rest.
.blend in a zip file: https://copy.com/qo3Rx2dNz0xn

Could you upload your .blend or some screenshots?

Hi, thanks for viewing my question, here is a link for the blend file you require, is a zip file:
https://copy.com/qo3Rx2dNz0xn

I found the answer.

First, the steps that caused the problem:
After breaking the object using the cell fracture addon, I needed the physics of all the 700 pieces to be driven by an animation (they where parented to a cube which has keyframes to make everything "fall" in one piece).
Then I keyframed the physics of one piece (1), but there where like 700 objects that I wanted to have that same behavior so to copy those keyframes I read that I just needed to link the animation data as I did (2).
How I found the problem:
An action was shared linked by 757 objects (3).
Solution:
So I selected my group of pieces, hit U to unlink the animation data (4) and then I baked the animation and everythig was almost fine. I didn't knew why but I simply had to unparent all the shards.

Making the objects "Single User" seems to fix it, in Blender 2.92 you do this by selecting all the objects you want to bake to keyframes in object mode, then go to "Object"->"Relations"->"Object Animation"

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


text:
Is it possible to use a custom shape for proportional editing?
I'm trying to add perspective to a picture however, I would like the proportional editing tool to affect only a certain part of the plane I imported. So, is there a way to pull only a specific zone (not a perfect circle), while using the the proportional editing?
Or is there an other way to easily add perspective?

When posting screenshots, try to crop them to the relevant parts only. Otherwise good question, although I doubt it is possible currently.

How about modeling from scratch like: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2297/how-would-i-go-about-creating-a-spiralled-dome ?

Another method would be to select all vertices that should not be affected and hide them temporarilly H.
It could be easier to select the vertices that should be influenced and invert the selection I.

You can't limit the influence of proportional editing to a vertex group. You can achieve this with the hook modifier.
Select the vertices that should be influenced and assign them to a vertex group:

Setup the modifier like this:
This would create a plateau on the top, when you're happy with the border use proportional editing to deform the top to a sphere:

Thanks for the fast answer, but that doesn't produce what I need.  Your solution gives a flat top, but what I need is a round snail... What I would need is to select the region and only influence this region with the proportional editing

you could stil to combine both techniques first use the hook followed by proportional editing. Post updated.

Hum...  The selected region would then need to be smaller then the real object to uprise, since the hook modifyer will drag vertices in the near region...  I'll try.  By the way, I will add the original picture so you will be able to try for yourself...


text:
How do I get a python script to run after the .blend file loads from the command line?
I am using this command line:
blender -P test.py test.blend

and test.py has:
import bpy
for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
    scene.render.image_settings.file_format = "FFMPEG"

If I run with just this command line:
blender -P test.py

the file format is set just fine. But if I put the blender file back in the command line, the file format is not changed. My interpretation is that the .py file is run before the .blend file is loaded. Whether or not my interpretation is correct, how can I make this happen the way I want it to?
Additional information: This is a stand-along render server for high school students and I need to ensure that a number of things are set correctly and not just the file format.

Command line arguments are run in the order they are given. So at the minute, yes, the Python file is being run and then the 'test.blend' file is being opened.
To fix this you just need to put the blend file part of the command first and the Python file after:
blender test.blend -P test.py

Now your file is opened then the Python commands are run in that opened file.

Dang! It was that simple? Yep, your solution works! Thanks!!!!


text:
How can I put a custom property into my pie menu?
I'm playing around with pie menus in blender. I used the default pie menu template and customized it to suit. But now I have four custom properties on a model and I want to edit them with the pie menu. I followed along one of Sebastians Konig's tutorials but he only used very basic tools like smooth shading etc. He simply right clicked > edit source, but doing that on my custom shaders takes me to this:
row.prop(rna_item, '["%s"]' % escape_identifier(key), text="")

And doing that to any of my custom properties leads me to the same place. How can I access the custom properties and put them into my pie menu?
Here is my code:
import bpy
from bpy.types import Menu

# spawn an edit mode selection pie (run while object is in edit mode to get a valid output)

class VIEW3D_PIE_template(Menu):
    # label is displayed at the center of the pie menu.
    bl_label = "Macbook Controller"
    bl_idname = "Object Mode.mc_pie_menu"

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

        pie = layout.menu_pie()
        # operator_enum will just spread all available options
        # for the type enum of the operator on the pie
        pie.prop(context.object.data, '["00_iSight Camera Indicator"]', text="iSight Camera Indicator Toggle")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(VIEW3D_PIE_template)

    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name = "Object Mode")
    kmi = km.keymap_items.new("wm.call_menu_pie", "E", "PRESS").properties.name = "Object Mode.mc_pie_menu"

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(VIEW3D_PIE_template)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    #bpy.ops.wm.call_menu_pie(name="VIEW3D_PIE_template")

It appears you are right clicking view source in the custom property in the UI.  Copy data_path will give you the path,  eg. ["prop"] where the property name is prop.  In the material properties panel the rna_item will be the active material, in the object, the context.object, in the data context.object.data, in the scene context.scene etc.
The code you are seeing is setup to handle the different object types that can have a custom property.  escape_identifier most likely handles garbage property names.
The pie menu template.  A custom property "prop" has been added to the scene.  The 'rna_item' equates to context.scene, the key to "prop":
class VIEW3D_PIE_template(Menu):
    # label is displayed at the center of the pie menu.
    bl_label = "Select Mode"

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

        pie = layout.menu_pie()
        pie.prop(context.scene, '["prop"]')
        # operator_enum will just spread all available options
        # for the type enum of the operator on the pie
        pie.operator_enum("mesh.select_mode", "type")

Thank you! I have the data path in now, but I'm still a bit confused with the context.something... For 3 of the properties I'm change a node value, and one of them is a bone rotation. What contexts would I use for those?

Ok, I found the context in the python tool tip for the custom property, but its not showing up in the pie menu...I've put my full code into the question.

Nevermind, got it, turns out it was just context.object!


text:
Custom pie menu not working with keyboard shortcut anymore
I was making a custom pie menu and all was well, I had set it up to activate when 'E' was pressed. Suddenly blender crashed, and I reopened it, and then the whole thing didn't work anymore. I tried coping and pasting working versions of the code (from other questions on here) and they no longer worked. I tried removing the keyboard shortcut manually, and found there were like 8 of the exact same one there so I removed all but one, still nothing, I then removed that last one and run the script, it made a new one but still didn't work. I then removed that one and made a new shortcut manually, still nothing. For a while though it did work in the properties panel and outliner, but not the 3D View, but now it doesn't work in any of those. I also tried putting back the line of code that activated the pie menu as the script is run and that works, but the items I had in the pie menu before this happened are no longer there. And there are also no errors in the console or info panel either...I'm really not sure what happened, could someone take a look at my code and see if there's something wrong with that or if theres anything else I've missed...Thanks, Matthew
*Update*
I've now got it going again in the 3D Viewport, but my items are all still missing...
Here is my code:
import bpy
from bpy.types import Menu

from bpy.props import BoolProperty

class VIEW3D_PIE_template(Menu):
    # label is displayed at the center of the pie menu.
    bl_label = "Macbook_Controller"
    bl_idname = "object_mode.mc_pie_menu"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        # get the camera, use a poll method to check no cam
        scene = context.scene
        camera = scene.camera.data
        pie = layout.menu_pie()

        pie.prop(camera, "iSight_Camera_Indicator", text="iSight Camera Indicator")
        pie.prop(camera, "dirt_dust", text="Dirt and Dust")
        pie.prop(camera, "menubar_dock", text="Menubar and Dock")

def register():

    #iSight Camera Indicator
    bpy.types.Object.iSight_Camera_Indicator = BoolProperty(
        name = "iSight Camera Indicator Toggle",
        description = "Toggles the iSight Camera Indicator ON and OFF",
        default = False
    )

    #Dirt and Dust
    bpy.types.Object.dirt_dust = BoolProperty(
        name = "Dirt and Dust Toggle",
        description = "Toggles the dirt and dust ON and OFF",
        default = False
    )

    #Menubar and Dock
    bpy.types.Object.menubar_dock = BoolProperty(
        name = "Menubar and Dock Toggle",
        description = "Toggles the menubar and dock ON and OFF",
        default = False
    )

    bpy.utils.register_class(VIEW3D_PIE_template)

    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name = "Window",space_type='EMPTY', region_type='WINDOW')
    kmi = km.keymap_items.new("wm.call_menu_pie", type = "E", value = "PRESS")
    kmi.properties.name = "object_mode.mc_pie_menu"

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(VIEW3D_PIE_template)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    #bpy.ops.wm.call_menu_pie(name="object_mode.mc_pie_menu")

I would try disabling the Pie Menus add-on entirely, save your settings, quit and relaunch Blender, then re-enable, then re-add your custom Pie Menu, then re-customize the shortcut. It may also be a good idea to back up your custom Pie menus before removing the add-on... not sure how that add-on stores its data, but when in doubt, back up.

In your register function you are adding properties to bpy.types.Object but in the menu you are displaying properties of a camera, which doesn't have the properties you registered.
You need to adjust your register function to add the properties to bpy.types.Camera


text:
How to get the coordinates of the knife tool on an edge (in real time)?
After developing my first addon (Arrange objects along a curve), I was interested in continuing learning and developing scripts for Blender. The question now might be difficult, but I know it's possible:
How to get the coordinates of the knife tool on an edge in real time, in python?

With the Chebhou's tips I get:
import bpy
from bpy_extras import view3d_utils
from bpy.props import FloatVectorProperty

def main(context, event, ray_max=1000.0):
    # get the context arguments
    scene = context.scene
    region = context.region
    rv3d = context.region_data
    coord = event.mouse_region_x, event.mouse_region_y

    # get the ray from the viewport and mouse
    view_vector = view3d_utils.region_2d_to_vector_3d(region, rv3d, coord)
    ray_origin = view3d_utils.region_2d_to_origin_3d(region, rv3d, coord)

    if rv3d.view_perspective == 'ORTHO':
        # move ortho origin back
        ray_origin = ray_origin - (view_vector * (ray_max / 2.0))

    ray_target = ray_origin + (view_vector * ray_max)

    def obj_ray_cast(obj, matrix):
        """Wrapper for ray casting that moves the ray into object space"""

        # get the ray relative to the object
        matrix_inv = matrix.inverted()
        ray_origin_obj = matrix_inv * ray_origin
        ray_target_obj = matrix_inv * ray_target

        # cast the ray
        hit, normal, face_index = obj.ray_cast(ray_origin_obj, ray_target_obj)

        if face_index != -1:
            return hit, normal, face_index
        else:
            return None, None, None

    # no need to loop through other objects since we are interested in the active object only
    obj = context.scene.objects.active
    matrix = obj.matrix_world.copy()
    if obj.type == 'MESH':
        hit, normal, face_index = obj_ray_cast(obj, matrix)
        if hit is not None:
            hit_world = matrix * hit
            return hit_world
        else:
            hit_world = matrix
            return 0.0,0.0,0.0
    #return None

class ViewManoOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """using mouse events"""
    bl_idname = "view3d.mano_operator"
    bl_label = "View Mano Operator"

    hit = FloatVectorProperty(name="hit", size=3)

    def modal(self, context, event):
        if event.type == 'MOUSEMOVE':
            self.hit = main(context, event)
            context.area.header_text_set("hit: %.4f %.4f %.4f" % tuple(self.hit))
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

        elif event.type in {'LEFTMOUSE', 'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            context.area.header_text_set()
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

instead of getting the coordinates of the knife tool you can get the mouse coordinates in the 3d space " since they are the same position " as CoDEmanX stated : they are not the same position. Knife tool snaps to edges and vertices and is thus not always at mouse location
all the steps needed for this are in the template script  "operator_modal_view3d_raycast.py" in blender , what it does is : cast a ray from the view and find the nearest intersection point with the visible objects , the position of the mouse in the 3d view is the Hit output from the obj_ray_cast()
here is the bare code after some elimination of unnecessary lines :
import bpy
from bpy_extras import view3d_utils

def main(context, event, ray_max=1000.0):

    # get the context arguments
    scene = context.scene
    region = context.region
    rv3d = context.region_data
    coord = event.mouse_region_x, event.mouse_region_y

    # get the ray from the viewport and mouse
    view_vector = view3d_utils.region_2d_to_vector_3d(region, rv3d, coord)
    ray_origin = view3d_utils.region_2d_to_origin_3d(region, rv3d, coord)

    if rv3d.view_perspective == 'ORTHO':
        # move ortho origin back
        ray_origin = ray_origin - (view_vector * (ray_max / 2.0))

    ray_target = ray_origin + (view_vector * ray_max)

    def obj_ray_cast(obj, matrix):
        """Wrapper for ray casting that moves the ray into object space"""

        # get the ray relative to the object
        matrix_inv = matrix.inverted()
        ray_origin_obj = matrix_inv * ray_origin
        ray_target_obj = matrix_inv * ray_target

        # cast the ray
        hit, normal, face_index = obj.ray_cast(ray_origin_obj, ray_target_obj)

        if face_index != -1:
            return hit, normal, face_index
        else:
            return None, None, None

    # no need to loop through other objects since we are interested in the active object only
    obj = context.scene.objects.active
    matrix = obj.matrix_world.copy()
    if obj.type == 'MESH':
        hit, normal, face_index = obj_ray_cast(obj, matrix)
        if hit is not None:
            hit_world = matrix * hit
            return hit_world

    return None

No, they are not the same position. Knife tool snaps to edges and vertices and is thus not always at cursor location.

is there way to get the snapping effect in python ?

No, unless you roll your own snapping code - which will likely be slow as hell compared to the C++ version.

Okay. I'm getting close. But in "Edit Mode" I get the Error: Object 'Cube' has no mesh data to be used for ray casting. In "Object Mode" works. What's this?

I have the same problem.  It seems that in edit mode you can not ray_cast the object which is in Edit Mode


text:
Do I need to recompile blender when changing C++ Shaders for Cycles?
I just needed to know the way of developing native cycles shaders (closures).
So, if I change, for example diffuse closure(another implementation of roughness), will I need to recompile Blender from source? Is that right?

This is correct, C++ shaders in Cycles require rebuilding Blender.
Note that OpenShadingLanguage is compiled using LLVM, so it should yield fairly good performance and doesn't require rebuilding Blender,

authors: แบงค์เฉิน เพิ่ลเค้าเรียกกัน


text:
Getting hair vertices via python
We can convert hair into 3D editable objects via the modifier tab, this means there must be an API to get the hair vertices instantly from python.
Can you explain it and all it's parameters and arguments?
I need it to start my project "Pholygonal", a polygonal hair generator controlled by the hair particle system.

Here is a little snippet that prints out all the coordinates of the hair vertices from the first particle system on a selected object. Make sure the object has a hair particle system.
import bpy

object = bpy.context.object
hairs = object.particle_systems[0].particles
for i, h in enumerate(hairs):
    print('hair number {i}:'.format(i=i))
    for i, hv in enumerate(h.hair_keys):
        print('  vertex {i} coordinates: {co}'.format(i=i, co=hv.co))

particle_systems[0] is used to get to the first particle system of the object. After this the particles are all the particles in the system (in this case the hairs). The hair vertices are accessed with hair_keys. Finally to get the coordinates of a hair vertex you use co.
If you want the coordinate of only one hair vertex, you could type it in one nasty line:
bpy.context.object.particle_systems[0].particles[0].hair_keys[0].co


text:
Problems with Import images as planes. Display behaves randomly(artifacts)
I am trying to import jpg-images in Blender (Blender 2.69). I am using Multitexture and a Nvidia Quadro FX 1500. I am using the Add-on "Import Images as Planes". But I have a problem. The images aren't always displayed properly. Shown in the screenshots below. (They are so blurry because I exported them in low quality.) When importing the images I don't have also the options mentioned in this answer.
To show my problem I imported the same images twice in Blender: .
I didn't scale or transformed them (yet). I want to transform them later on. If they get blurry or so I don't care.
But when I start the gaming engine I get following results, (they are completely random, sometimes both are right or wrong or 1 is correct and the other is strange). I tried png-images but with the same result. I also didn't change the viewport between those screenshots:

Does anyone have an idea, what causes this problem?
Thank you for your help.
Addition:
I was able to test it on another PC. On that it was displayed correctly. So I guess it is a hardware problem. Are there any settings I could change to make it work?

I added it into the post.

I'm not so sure why this can occur, but it seems that something wrong with the UV. like this and this.

I added a new remark.

While this is more of a bug than a question, I don't feel that there is any intrinsic value in putting it on hold. If somebody does have a working solution, it is only beneficial to post it as an answer. Perhaps I am simply conflicted about SE's system, but I also feel it's not hugely important to put it on hold as the question itself doesn't have any further problems.


text:
Problem rendering multiple smoke textures
I have figured out what was wrong with the smoke, I could render it but I could not see it but it was there just the same, thank you. Now when I try and render two different smoke colors they both come out the same. I have gone into the compositor and created two different settings but I cannot apply them, also when creating two separate domain boxes and two emitters they only take one setting. I have tried to put them on separate layers but this does not work either, I do not want to go into the video sequence editor as this is long. Is there a solution for this?

Well, not very clear... Did you create 2 distinct materials for your 2 distinct smokes ? I recommend you to be more specific in your question... Send some screenshots, etc.

Yes I did create 2 distinct materials and 2 different smokes, I thought I'd make that clear when I wrote "and created 2 different settings in the composition node editor". Even with 2 different settings and 2 different colours, both smoke generators take on one colour.  I cannot get Blender to treat the 2 differently ie asign the composition node editors to the 2 seperate smoke generators.  Screen shots to follow........thanks

I still suspect that you are using shared datablocks. Make sure that materials are all single-user. All textures are single-user, and all smoke systems are single-user.

It sounds like your materials or your textures or your caches are linked. You can check this by changing one setting for Smoke A and see if it applies for Smoke B. If so, then your issue is linking.
To get rid of the link, click the button with the number on it next to the material and texture. That should fix it.


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Render Freestyle strokes behind objects with alpha transparency?
I'm trying to make a wall disappear. Does freestyle support alpha? I mean there is an alpha for strokes but all it does is making my lines disappear but I still can't see strokes behind the wall

And here is the blend file: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/29200

thx for the edit, it is more obvious now ;)

I have just got a result with layering and compositing, I'm making 1 layer to slowly disappear and 2nd to draw the final picture with insides. Then blending them with alphaover. For my particular problem it works but I'm still wondering if there is any better way.

Yes, you can do this easily from the Freestyle settings. Blender/Freestyle gives you a lot of control. The parameter you want to change is QI Range. This specifies a range of face occlusion to render strokes for. So if you have a cube like in the example below you would set the range Start at 1, and End at 1 or higher and that would render strokes for the edges of the back of the cube.

However if you had a second cube behind your first one, a range of Start:1~End:1 will cause the second cube not to have strokes rendered in the areas which are occluded by the foreground cube. Here is an example:

And if we up the values to Start:2~End:2 the foreground cube's back edges are not rendered but the front edges of the background cube are:

Here is your scene rendered with values of Start:1~End:100 and Alpha set to 0.5 for the occluded stroke set:

Here is the .blend: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/31648
And finally, here is the section of the Blender manual which explains this if you want to read further: https://www.blender.org/manual/render/freestyle/parameter_editor/line_set.html

Yeah, Mentalist, I have no clue where to find any of those settings.

Everything I think "this won't be possible in Blender" I'm proven wrong. Amazing answer, thank you, helped me so much.

@Owen I'm glad I could help! Yeah, Blender is amazing. Let's keep growing and supporting the community to keep it amazing.  ;-)

QI Is indeed the answer but the featured response doesn't tell you where it is: I found it in
Blender Properties Tab\View Layer Properties\Freestyle\Visibility:
Set Visible to Quantitative Invisibility, and only then can you adjust the depth.


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Why is my model shrinking when weight painted?
The body part shrinks when touched by the brush. I am using blender 2.66.

One reason could be because you are posing the model as you are weighting it. Hard to say exactly without having a look at the model as this could be caused by several things.

Most likely that the scale of the armature is not equal to the scale of the mesh.

The real reason was that hat the scale of the armature is not equal to the scale of the mesh. It should be possible to weight while posing and I have been trying. The real reason was that hat the scale of the armature is not equal to the scale of the mesh.

@user3576 You can write an answer then.

This issue arises when the armature and the mesh have different scales. To fix that, press Ctrl+A and then select Scale from the menu.

This will apply the scaling so there is a zero scaling value. If you do this for both the mesh and the armature, then this issue should be resolved.


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How to curve only part of an object?
I am making a sword and require some help. Until now I have made swords in blender by making two meshes, one is the blade and handle the other is the guard. Now today I am wondering if I can make the sword one mesh and if its possible to curve part of the mesh, the guard, with out affecting the rest of the mesh.

Objects can be joined by selecting them and pressing Ctrl J. As for curving, I'm not really sure what you mean (curving in what way?). Can you upload some images illustrating what you want to do?

Yes I know how to join, as I said in my first post I have been doing that up until now. What I am asking is can I curve a section of a mesh without curving or deforming the rest of it?
http://puu.sh/97jtw/d0dcc54f1c.png

One way to approach this is with proportional editing:

Press O to enable it (or select Enabled from the drop down in the header)
Select the tip of the guard and press G. Then use the mouse wheel to adjust radius as you translate the tip.

i did this but instead of mirroring it i selected both tips.http://puu.sh/97kIb/213d50628d.png


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How can I make a tower of stacked boxes stable in the game engine?
I have a tower of flat boxes, but the simulation is not stable. I have tried with split impulse turned off and on.
I have tried:

setting the collision shape to box, convex hull, and mesh
increasing the number of steps per second and iterations per step (though this does improve the stability, it still eventually collapses without outside influence)
enabling deactivation
start deactivated (but as soon as an object touches the tower, it gets very "bouncy")

I have even tried to gradually increase gravity, hoping that the boxes would eventually gently settle all opposing forces (gravity and contact constraints). This blend file shows that gravity is squishing the boxes a bit.
This technique, combined with enabling deactivation seems to work alright, until an object activates the boxes (on contact). Does anyone know of a less hacky way to prevent a tower of boxes from bobbing up and down like this?
Is there a way to make this kind of tower stable without resorting to these kinds of tricks?

I cranked Steps per second up to 400 and then it stayed upright even after simulating 10000 frames.

Hm.. I don't see this as being a duplicate since in my question I mention that I've already tried the solutions presented in the answer to the similar question. The start deactivated trick doesn't work because the tower starts bobbing up and down on first contact. Increasing the steps to a huge number may help in rendering, but I'm not sure it will work for a real-time game.

Oh, is this in the BGE? That's different then..

Put collision shape to box and increase  linear and angular damping up to your needs. Remember higher the damping, higher the viscous effect will be (honey like). I suggest to start with 0.3 for both and then try to tune them up until they are stable.

You can build quite stable towers of stacked boxes. The tricks:

Convex Hull. This is the best all-round physics shape. It's the most "stable" with the exception of capsule and sphere - which are unsuitable here. Yes, I've found convex hull better than cube type.
Big collision margins. These help bullet to figure out how to respond to intersecting objects. If you separate your physics and graphics mesh you can make these unnoticable.
If you really need to, increase your physics substeps in the world panel.

A very good reference video about bullet is this one by phymec:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGAwRKPlpCw

if the boxes are inside of another object in the simulation Ex. inside another cube the boxes will instantly fly away from each other.


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Python script for a specific selection
To separate an object, I use the edge split modifier in the object mode:

then I go into edit mode, put my mouse over the external face and press L. This operation select all the external part and I can separate it from the rest :
However when I try to do it with a script it doesn't work because I have to manually put my mouse over the external surface...
Have you any ideas on how to seperate this object in two parts (the external part and the rest) with a python script ?

if it is for the case select the vertex with the highest Z component than use 'bpy.ops.mesh.select_linked()'  or if the edge split modifier result is 2 meshes use separate loosee

How do you select the vertex with the highest Z component with python ?

you sort them , go through them and find the max

I tried to make a script to select the vertex with the highest Z component :
`me = bpy.context.object.data
bm = bmesh.new()
bm.from_mesh(me)
for face in bm.faces:
center = face.calc_center_median()
for i in range (100,0):

    if  center.z >= i :
        face.select_set(True)

            if face.select_set(True):
            return

bm.to_mesh(me)
bm.free()`

@poor separate by loose my generate more than 2 objects (depends on the object structure )

@poor he gave a very specific case in the example , but i imagine in general  the selection would be based on the faces' normals since he said 'external part '

@poor indeed separate by loose generates more than 2 objects in my case because of the structure of my object...

Here is the script which :

goes thorough vertices and find the highest
select it and what is linked to it
separate it with separate(selected)

after applying the edge split modifier run this script :
import bpy

obj = bpy.context.object
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action ='DESELECT')
max = -9999
for i in obj.data.vertices :
    if i.co[2] > max :
        max_ind = i.index
        max  = i.co[2]
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'OBJECT')
obj.data.vertices[max_ind].select = True
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')
bpy.ops.mesh.select_linked()
bpy.ops.mesh.separate(type='SELECTED')
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'OBJECT')

#bpy.context.selected_objects[0].location[2] +=1


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Unable to attach bones to 3D model or create vertex groups
I have created a creature for the project and I am supposed to create an animation where the creature is running. This is where my problem comes in, I cannot get the bones used on my creature to attach or create vertex groups for the individual parts. If you could reply with directions or instructions as soon as possible that’d be lovely. Thanks.

Hi, what steps have you already tried and at what step does it not do what you expect?

Have you tried linking your model to the rig using automatic weights? (i.e. By selecting your model first and then your rig, then pressing control+P, and then choosing: With Automatic Weights)
You could then vertex paint the weight of each bone individually by hand to your liking.


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Is it possible to use a CSV file to assign to frames poses from a pose library?
Is it possible to use a CSV file to assign to frames poses from a pose library? For example: having a CSV file with the frame number where a musical note is played. The musical note been the pose required to play the note on a saxophone.
I have done it for a vibraphone, using the CSV file to drive a bone which in turn with a driver moved the stick to the correct place. But it looks to mechanical. Thanks for any help.

I have code to import a lipsync file to NLA tracks, one for each phoneme and action strips, the actions named after the phoneme.  https://github.com/batFINGER/sound-bake-drivers/blob/master/sound_drivers/NLALipsync.py  It would be quite simple to alter it to musical notes, if an NLA solution appeals.

This is a CSV like control file which starts with the frame number, an object variable (short cut and a list of assignments where Arm.L references a bone layer and things like KuenHalf or Tan are pose names
0 SET:A=r6839C
1 A:All=IRAS
10 A:Arm.L=KuenHalf,Arm.R=Tan
20 A:Arm.L=Fook,Arm.R=Bong
30 A:Arm.L=KuenHalf,Arm.R=Tan
40 A:Arm.L=Fook,Arm.R=Bong
50 A:Arm.L=KuenHalf,Arm.R=Tan
60 A:Arm.L=Fook,Arm.R=Bong

The source to create the animation from a control file is on github.
Note that this was designed for Makehuman created MHX rigs.

Hi Stacker, this looks great to me but I have discovered that I need to make some changes to my character armature before going futher.I have never done Python scripting but with my knowledge in Turbo Pascal and Visual Basic I should be able to manage. Thanks.

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


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Composite transparent overlapping objects from different scenes?
Following on from this question `Can I use Cycles materials with Blender Internal? When following the instructions the solution worked fine but when i tried to apply it to multiple windows I came across this problem

(larger image here)
When I render the picture (F12) as you can see the glass has no effect on the first picture and the glass can be seen through the mesh of my wall. So I added an add node and I got the effect of the glass to show but no matter what I have tried to do I still cannot get the back windows to be hidden behind the mesh of the front wall. Is there a way to solve this.

The issue your having is masking. You have to have a mask of some sort to get the windows behind the rest of the building. I've come up with a (rather imperfect) solution, as long as you assign a different material to the inside of the building. Note that the following is assuming that you have completed the steps in "Can I use Cycles materials with Blender Internal?"

In the outside building material for "scene", scroll down to options and set Pass Index to 1 (or 2 or whatever, as long as nothing else in the scene has the same pass number).
Create a second indoor material and assign it's pass index to something other than 2 (or leave it at the default 0).
Go to your render layers and enable Material Index.

Rerender the scene and go to the compositor. You should now see a new plug output called IndexMA.
Add an IDMask node, plug in IndexMA to IDValue and set Index to whatever value the outdoor material's index is (and check anti-aliasing).
Add an Invert node and plug in the output of the IDMask node.
Plug the output of the of the Invert node into the Fac of the Alpha over node.

Thank you worked a treat but I have a question. If you are going to render a scene but have no intention of going onto the house could i insert 2 planes (making them transparent) and call them indoor material and out door material would it still have the same effect or would the transparancy cancel the effect out.:-)

Z-Combine node

The Z-Combine node takes two images and two Z-value sets as input. It overlays the images using the provided Z values to detect which parts of one image are in front of the other. If both Z values are equal, it uses the top image. It puts out the combined image, with the combined Z-depth map, allowing you to thread multiple Z-combines together.

To use Add | Color | Z Combine or Shift+A,CZ and then connect up your render layers.

For best results then using BI scenes you'll also want to enable Full Sample (found under Properties window > Render tab > Anti-Aliasing panel).

Full Sample
For every anti-aliasing sample, save the entire Render Layer results. This solves anti-aliasing issues with compositing.


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Duplication along curve with Mirror modifier
After i created a duplication along a curve with this method I want to mirror the whole thing. If I add a mirror modifier on the curve and the object it doesn't the object is not transformed along the curve.

Are you sure you can click the Apply button on the Mirror modifier for the Nurbspath object? AFAIK, it's not allowed for curves.

No and I don't even want to apply it. Why should I?

Well, because you said " If I apply a mirror modifier on the curve...". Please consider to refine your answer, make it easy to understand, thus we could be able to help you more.

ok sorry about that

why not use an array modifier instead of the duplication method?

Instead of using the duplicate method post din your questions you can use an array modifier and a curve modifier.
1. Add Curve

Add -> Curve -> Bezier
move it (in my case I moved it along the positive x-axis)
Place the origin at the start of the curve path

select curve -> edit mode -> Select start point -> Shift S Cursor to selected -> Object Mode -> Ctrl Alt Shift C -> Origin to 3d cursor

2.

Add a plane at the same location
Scale it down

edit mode -> S

Apply Location: Ctrl A Location

3.
Select plane, add array modifier
Fit Type: Fit Curve
Relative Offset modify to move in the direction of the curve

4.
Add Curve modifier to plane

5.
Add mirror modifier

image description http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=67294


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Abstract Wave with Particle System
I want to create a wave made out of particles/dots. The wave should look like this:

I tried to achieve this effect by adding an ocean modifier to a plane. Then I added a particle system to the plane but now I don't know how to go on. How can I make the particles lay on the 'ocean' and move when the ocean is moving?
PS: I know there is a way to do this with a material in the Blender Render. But firstly I want to create the whole thing in Cycles and secondly I want to have particles.

I was thinking of doing something similar and as a newbie to blender I'm curios if you continued working with a plane or any other kind of object for the particle system.

@John P Hey, Sorry but no, i didn't continue working on that.

Method 1 - Dupliverts
You should use a mesh such as a cube or a simple Icosphere for your particle, this will allow you to properly shade the particles like any other mesh

Select the particle mesh, in my case an Icosphere

Select the ocean

parent the particle to the ocean, Ctrl P

Select the ocean

In mesh panel, set duplication type to verts

Method 2 - Particle System

Make sure your particle system is one the bottom of the modifier stack.

In the particle system enable Use Modifier Stack

If you want to use another mesh as the particles you need to select the particle system and under the render tab, Select Object as your render type. Then you can choose you object.

Thanks, but first of all this doesn't really work (I don't know why but what you said sounded logic for me) and second: I really want to use a particle system, because I want the particles to be keyed (physics of the particles)

OKay, I will update my answer

What do you do to add dupliverts after step 3? The menu lists 4 options


text:
Adaptative sampling on Cycles
I have a scene I want to render where a small object moves across the camera's field of view. The rest of the scene is just a black void containing absolutely nothing (see image below). I need to render this as an image sequence.
This object is basically a mirror reflecting a somewhat complex scene, so I want to render it with a very high resolution (14mpx or more). And enough samples to get a good quality on the reflections.
The problem is that if i rise the number of samples, and because of the high resolution, it takes ages for each frame to render, while most of the time is just spent rendering a black region. The camera must stay static during the whole sequence.
Is it possible to configure blender to use a high number of samples around the object, and a very low value on the empty region? (I want to make the whole process faster)

Edit
I used the option border in the render menu, as described in this answer

You might be interested in this article on Greg Zaal's blog.

@NoviceInDisguiseGraphics - I tried this but without success. Apparently, the pixel color information (or lack of) comes as an output after the pixel has been raycast, but all of the samples are still used even when there's nothing there.

@PGmath - That looks exactly like something it could help. Thanks.

You could also try using Branched Path Tracing, and have a higher number of reflection rays.

Adaptive sampling is now an integration added to the 2.8x series, and you can enable this by going to the render properties panel (the camera icon), and checking the box for "Adaptive sampling" underneath the Sampling tab.


text:
Animate a character by using a recorded video
I want to animate a character in a realistic but easy way. I was thinking that I could use videos of me performing the actions I want to have on my characters, however I can't find a way of placing the videos and make the character to follow my movements in an automated way, like motion tracking. How can I animate automatically using this technique? Are there any Plug-ins to work like this? Is this mehod actually more useful than standard animation techniques?

You can do this by using a Microsoft Kinnect and the NiMate software. The app captures your movement in the camera and converts it to mocap data you can import into Blender and apply to a rigged armature for your character.
https://ni-mate.com


text:
Video codec/video file format confusion in Blender
Having used other Video Editors it seems like the options Blender offers for selecting what container format and what codec format you want to use for your video is confusing.

The above screenshot shows there are 3 Buttons to choose your container and codec, which are two things, which begs the question, what is the difference between 1 and 2? Is 2 the encoder to use? Then why is Blender saying "file format" for the hint boxes of each?
This causes some confusion in practice as well. As an example, Youtube needs a video using the H264 codec and MP4 container for best quality results after it will convert it.
If you choose "H.264" for 1, ...

... "MPEG-4" for 2 and "H.264" for 3 you get a file with the .mp4 extension.
... "H.264" for 2, then the codec selection box 3 is completely hidden and the extension is then .avi. How does that make sense? And why is 3 hidden?
... "Quicktime" for 2 and "H.264" for 3 you get a file with the .mov extension.


text:
Where is the denoise option in 2.90?
I was using the denoise option in Blender 2.8, but cant seem to find it in 2.90. The documentation refers to the "Render Layers" but it doesn't seem to be there either.

When I open an older project that was created with 2.8 in 2.9, the denoise option is there and works fine.
is there a setting i need to check to enable the feature by default in new files?

The denoiser options are in the Properties Window > Render settings > Sampling > Denoising.

You can choose what kind of denoiser to use.

NLM is the original denoiser (native non-local denoiser), that runs on any computing device.
OpenImageDenoiser is Intel Open Image Denoiser, that runs on CPU
In this section you can enable the viewport denoising as well.


text:
Multiresolution modifier not working for bake
I'm trying to bake some normal map details onto a low poly model using a multires modifier. I set up the image texture, made sure both the object and image textures are selected in the viewport and shader editor, and I'm using CPU to bake. However, when I actually click 'Bake', I get an error saying "Multires data baking requires multi-resolution object".
I don't know what to do. The object has a multires modifier, but I'm still getting an error saying the object needs a multires modifier.
Additionally, and I don't know if this has something to do with 2.8, I can no longer change subdivisions for sculpt mode and preview independently. The option is just not even listed in my multires modifier.

What if you apply the multi resolution modifier ?

Create new or choose existing texture for bake to in material node editor and make it active by selecting it.
Then set preview subdivisions number of modifier to 0 before multires baking.

I tried this and it didn't work.
edit: I'm now getting a "You should have active texture to use multires baker" error.

answer updated with first paragraph

I created a new texture and made it the active texture, but I was still receiving the error. I went into edit mode and assigned the new texture to the whole model and the bake worked.

remove the subsurf modifier, if that does not work maybe make a duplicate and remove the armature aswell. So the only modifier is the multi res


text:
Fluid Viewport/Render Inconsistency
The fluid in my render looks significantly different to the fluid in the rendered view in my viewport as you can see from the pictures. If you can't see the pictures, the fluid in the rendered view looks like it's flowing into a significantly thinner bottle than the one that it's actually flowing into. It does not flow in and fill the entire bottle to the edges like it does in the viewport rendered view.

This is the rendered version, and below is the viewport rendered view.

I have no idea what’s causing this or how to fix it and I don’t know where else to ask besides here.
I’ve tried varying levels of surface thickness, using the planar tickbox, re-baking with different resolutions, but none of my changes have had any effect.
Is there anyone here who might know what the problem is and/or how to fix it?

Are you using cycles or eevee? I can't see it anywhere in your question or images

Check if all scales (domain, emitter, meshes, ...) are applied (Ctrl A): they all should have a scale of 1,1,1. Check also if there is a modifier which has a different setting between view and render (eye and camera icons on the modifier).

I'm using Cycles, and I've applied the scales to all the necessary objects but it made no difference.

Thanks for the suggestions, it turns out that it was the Subsurf making the fluid domain smaller at render.


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Face maps not exporting with the model as .glTF 2.0
I'm working on a low poly model that needs to be exported as glTF.
It needs to use face maps to hide parts of the geometry where clothing will be used instead.
I've tried both embedded and separate .glTF options, as well as the only .glb option.
None of them export the face maps, and when I import them back into a new blender scene, all the verts have been ripped so there are about 4x as many as the model that was just exported, which is highly undesirable for the project.
Blender version is 3.2.0 (the exact one from the .org homepage).
glTF importer/exporter is the one that comes packaged with blender, 3.2.40.
A colleague told me she was able to export the model with the face maps saved using blender version 2.93, and glTF import/export version 1.5.5. (I don't remember 2.93 having face maps as a feature though)
The model she exported does indeed show the face maps in the viewer we are using to check out the models (https://viewer.relm.us/), but when I import it into blender, it does not contain any face maps, and the verts are still all ripped, quadrupling the poly count.
She suggested I use this version of the glTF import/export: https://github.com/canadaduane/glTF-Blender-IO (this version appears to be 1.8.6 though, so not even the same as the one she is using)
And after trying it, the models still did not export with face maps or show any face maps in the viewer, so I am completely stumped on how to solve this.
(I also added a single vertex group for testing, which also doesn't import with the model when I bring it into a new blender scene.)

Face Maps are a Blender-specific concept, I'm not sure what (if anything) Blender's glTF exporter will do with them. Certainly a glTF file imported back into Blender will never contain Face Maps. Assigning different materials to different groups of vertices might do better. Differences in vertex count usually have to do with vertex attributes like normals and UVs — if you don't need them and can disable them from export, that may help. Otherwise there are optimizing tools like gltfpack or gltf-transform that can sometimes reduce vertex count.

Thank you Don. I have very little experience with this and any information is helpful to know. I'll see what I can do with what you've given me.


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Text doesn't show up in render
I made an intro, but when I render it the background shows up but the text doesn't. I fear I may have messed something up in the Compositor. What could cause this?
Click all images for full size.
This is the render layers for my scene

Compositor setup

The render

Blend file

Check your render layers; Post a screen shot if possible

You do not have enough information posted to determine what went wrong.

If possible, uploading your .blend is the quickest and easiest way to help us find the problem.

@Embers as cegaton said we don't have all the data in order to help you.. please edit and add more information

So I've updated it with an image. Not sure how to upload my .blend file. Please help me with this.

@cegation I put the link to the file. Hope this helps!

@Embers If my answer helped, feel free to accept it

You need to add a Composite node with the same input as your Viewer node.

In order for anything to be composited in the Render Image you must have the Composite node, otherwise the Compositor is skipped entirely.


text:
CUDA error: Launch exceeded timeout in cutCtxSynchronize()
I am trying to render my scene with my GPU (GTX 660ti) but it always fail with this error and crashes driver.

Rendering blender's BMW benchmark scene works just fine, there must be something wrong with my scene.
Here is the .blend .


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Is there any way to get a specific angle using the knife tool?
Instead of the constrained 45 degrees that happens when you press C, is there a specific angle I can get for example 35 degrees instead?
It's currently cut at 45 degrees in the attached image and I need it to be 35.

Currently there isn't such a function as far as I know.

It seem like it could be doable. Other tools allows allow for model numerical input.  This would be a good topic for BF-Funboard.

I agree this would be nice to have :) As MarcClintDion said, You might want to send a request along to the bf-funboard mailing list: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/1190/599. Though at the moment the developers are pretty busy releasing 2.74..

This is a work around.
For a simple object like your cylinder, simply rotate it in object mode 35°, make the cut, then rotate the object back.

For more complex objects where you can not rotate it. You can align the view to a rotated face. You could duplicate a face out of your mesh and separate it in to a new object, or just add a new object, a plane or an empty; then align the view to it with  with ShiftNumPad 7.

Finally do not forget that you can roll the view, but that is limited to 15° increments.

This currently isn't directly possible with the knife tool, but it is possible with a few other tools:
Knife Project

Add a plane and rotate it the desired amount (e.g. R 35°)
Align the view along the axis you want to cut
With both the plane and the target object selected, enter edit mode (↹ Tab) and press knife project in the tool shelf (T)

Boolean modifier

Again, add a plane and rotate it the desired amount
Select the target object and add a boolean modifier
Specify the plane as the boolean object

One advantage to this method is that you can non-destructively change the angle and position of the cut at any time.
Mesh Intersect

Select the target object and enter edit mode
Add a plane
Select the plane. You can quickly select disconnected geometry by hovering over it and pressing L
Press Space> Intersect


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Pin fur-planes to object
Is it possible to pin an object (lots of planes of fur) to, say a wolf, and make them move independently of each other(have them follow the part of the object they touch)? Or will I have to change all the planes to individual objects?

In which way they will be "touched"? You are talking about a hair simulation, a physic simulation, or is this a modeling question?

Sorry, but you would need to make them individual objects.

Would hair particles do something like what you are trying to achieve?

No. I need to use the model in UE4, and from what I've found, UE4 doesn't support Blenders hair particle system. Thankyou though.


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Is blender the right tool for my simulated 3D environment?
I want to create a (non-realistic) 3D representation of a true nautical environment (e.g. a harbor). I get a real-time stream of data for each ship in the harbor, containing position, size, speed, direction etc. over a tcp/ip interface. (For each vessel, I get an update every 3 seconds. Potentially there are hundreds of ships in the harbor.) Each ship can be represented e.g. by a simple box with the right dimensions floating in a blue plane representing the water. Then I want to put a number of virtual cameras in this virtual harbor, and output a video stream (h.264 over tcp/ip multicast) for each virtual camera at e.g. 10fps. These cameras are at a fixed position, but I need to be able to change pan/tilt/zoom from an external (tcp/ip) interface. All this needs to be done in real-time... Would Blend be the right tool to accomplish something like this? What would be a good approach to make something like this? Or do you have suggestions for other tooling that may be more suitable?

I would say yes, blender most certainly can do that. (It shouldn't be that hard, everything in blender is scriptable.) Is it the best, software to do it, I do not know, because I don't know what else is out there.

Blender is capable of doing what you describe.
One major hurdle with this system is going to be the viewing client. If you need to output a stream over the network, your simulation will need to render to python socket. Probably most easily done in BGE. possible.  Then you'll also need an adaptor to make that a usable video stream. (If you were trying to open it in VLC or iTunes type app)
Another option might be to build your clients with BGE also, then you could use a Multiplayer framework to let people login to the running simulation.


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Damped Track constraint on bone lags
So basically if you use a Damped Track constraint + Limit Distance constraint to move a bone with another one there is these strange bugs where the mesh doesn't move with it.
Especially when creating an animation this is a real problem because what happens is that you set up the keyframe for the thing and the mesh will move like it 1 frame later. At the actual keyframe it will have the position of the frame before and so on.
Do you guys know this issue and maybe got a solution?
EDIT: Well, I managed the animation somehow.
When you move the bone once it will reset the weird position then you can cancel the move. Yet there is some strange issues with the positions, I don't even know how they emerge. Plus I don't know if the animation will run correctly in any situation or if there will be these slight position changes occurring and this sucks.
a) Maybe someone can tell me that the animation runs correctly when for example used multiple times and with interpolation to other animations in the bge hoping.
b) Maybe fix this issue Blender guys, not pointing a finger.

This is almost certainly an issue where you have problems with dependecies.  What is the target of your constraints?  Does it in any way depend on a bone in the same armature?  Separate these bones to different armatures, as object dependcies work on an object-by-object basis, not a bone-by-bone basis.  (Although yes, it is irritating, and potentially fixable by Blender devs.)

Just faced the same issue, check the constraints loading order, if you also have copy rotation on that lagging bone, make sure it's on top of the damped track constraints.


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How to see if particle system is a hair system, with Python
Currently,I have this code that checks to see if the active object has a particle system.
import bpy
if bpy.context.object.particle_systems:
    print("There is a psystem!")
else:
    print("No psystem!")

This works. How can I make it print true only if there is a particle system AND that particle system is a hair system?

That code checks for uv layers not particle systems.

Edited the code

Below gives a list of all hair particle systems on the context object.
import bpy
context = bpy.context
obj = context.active_object

hair_particle_systems = [ps for ps in obj.particle_systems
                            if ps.settings.type == 'HAIR']
if len(hair_particle_systems):
    print("%s has %d HAIR particle systems" %
             (obj.name, len(hair_particle_systems)))

Edited code, what I have works already. I just need to know how to make it search for particle systems and if particle system is hair.


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Why do particles escape from the tube?
I am very new to blender and only started in February this year and I currently got stuck with a very specific problem.
I am doing a project where I want to have bubbles inside a glass tube. I did this by creating the tube and adding an emitter inside the tube emitting spheres. Everything looks fine so far. However, some of the generated "bubbles" escape the tube. I set the tube to collision and everything, but still some of the bubble stick for example half-way through the tube.
In order to make it more clear what I mean, a simplified version of the file can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q2hal3ll6vt47co/AACrXRq3cki0XVecXFOKEQHQa?dl=0
 (please ignore that the emitter is too long on the left site).

I cannot reproduce it with blender 2.77. I can see the bubbles escaping the tube in the cached position in your file, but as long as I go back to the beginning and restart the animation, it works almost ok.
Either you have an older version and something was fixed in blender or you never actually reset the cache. Blender resets the particle cache when you set the current frame to 0. You have to run the animation again for blender to recalculate particle positions. Thus, you might have already fixed that and you can't see it
In a theoretical attempt to solve the problem there are a number of things that might help:

Nothing is really impermeable. Though you have (correctly) permeability set to 0. Some bubbles might escape still. IIRC increasing the subdivisions on the pipe might improve the situation, but it seems this isn't the case here.
Increasing the Particle Damping factor on the pipe's collision properties helps to catch those rogue particles that would escape
Making your pipe a solid instead of just a wall of faces. Either use the solidify modifier or just extrude everything and then press AltS to offset the new faces. This way the particle will have to escape two faces to get out. It will also help with the bubbles that partially stick out of the pipe.

Finally, your pipe is way too high-poly for just being a pipe. You should be able to achieve the same rendered quality without so many polygons.


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How to make a file "non local-specific" for sheep-it render farm?
What does making a blender file non local-specific mean when using sheep it render farm? AND How do I in convention make this happen?

This just means that you need to make all file paths relative, instead of absolute. If you understand what that means, that's great. If not, I'll provide some explanation below (I don't intend to be insulting, if you already understand).
Relative and absolute paths are a bit beyond the scope of this site, but I can give a brief explanation.
If you have a Blender file that uses an image texture which is located at H:\Users\Node's Stuff\Blender Awesomeness\Sweet_Render\ReadyForSheepIt\Textures\FinalGroundTexture.png then Sheep-It won't know where to find it, because no such folder exists on their server.
That is called an "absolute path." No matter where you are on the machine, that path gives you everything you need to know in order to find FinalGroundTexture.png.
Alternatively, you can say "I don't care what hard drive you're on, and I don't care what higher folder you're in, just look in the folder next-door." This would be a relative path. If you had a Blender file in ReadyForSheepIt you could tell the Blender file that the texture is in \Textures\FinalGroundTexture.png. In this way, you tell Blender that it doesn't matter where the Blend file is located, it can find the texture by looking in whatever folder the Blend file is currently in, and finding a folder called Textures.
Regardless, there is a tool in Blender that will do a lot of the work for you.
From the Manual:

If it is necessary to relocate a blend-file relative to its linked resources, use Blender’s File Save As function which has an option to Remap Relative file links.

You can just "Save As..." without changing the file name, and that'll give you the chance to "Remap Relative" to make sure you don't have any absolute paths.

This conversation has been moved to chat.


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Can't find draw all edges
How do I enable draw all edges?  I researched a lot on google and all I got was go to display and check it. However it's not there!
Here is an example of what they told me.
Can someone show me how to do this?

It's in Properties > Object > Display:

Note that this option is only available on mesh objects.

Facepalm... I was looking at the wrong display

do I have to do this for every object individually?

@Zachooz No, with all the objects selected, enable it, then right click on it and select Copy to selected.


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Missing the UV island select mode?
I am trying to texture a flag pole model I made recently and after UV unwrapping it I tried to arrange the islands so they would be understandable.
However I couldn't find the island select mode, it just isn't there and I can't figure out why.
Can anyone tell me why this is and how I can fix it?

do you have the geo selected in edit mode?

It is there in 2.70a for me.
In your question there is very little to go on;
However my guess would be that you have "Keep UV and Edit Mode mesh selection in Sync" active, this changes the selection modes that are available.
Sync selection off:

Sync selection on:

Thank you very much! I had no idea that could affect the options shown. As you can tell, i'm a very big noob to blender. Thanks again!

Don't feel bad, Nicolas. After using Blender for a few years now, this is without doubt one of the most irritating things I have ever dealt with. It was a long time before I ever figured this out, and I still find it highly unintuitive.

Wow, thank you so much, Darren. This is still true in Blender 2.81. I had no idea what happened to island selection mode. The button should gray out, not disappear. That would be way less confusing! :-)


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How do I create an equilateral tetrahedron?
How to design an equilateral tetrahedron where all edges are of equal length?
Is there any general principle to follow when modelling platonic shapes?

I made a video illustrating the answer of user50691: https://youtu.be/QwnmARL88y4

To expand on user50691's answer:
If you take 4 corners of a cube on opposing diagonals of opposite faces, and connect each to the other 3, the result is a tetrahedron.

It's not equilateral, and it mathematically can't be, regardless of the dimensions of the cuboid.

Hello, @Cloudscape. It most certainly is equilateral :)   All 6 edges of the pink tetrahedron are equal, as you can see from the illustration, bearing in mind the perspective view.  !n the case of a cube with side 1, those are length [diagonal of a square face] :  √2. Scale accordingly for other sizes.

Yes, you're right. Sorry, I had a little blackout there...

In fact, it is such a good fortune that you're right! That's because the coordinates of your tetrahedron are rational; I was thinking this wasn't possible, because it's in fact impossible if one of the corners is oriented straight upward.

@Cloudscape hehe.. 'little blackout'  .. Comprendo! I get them all the time. No matter how obvious something seems to me, I have to grind through the steps doing it for myself before I can post an answer here.. there's nearly always some gotcha I hadn't thought of :D

I now found the mistake: The side lengths are sqrt(2), whence the edges can only be approximated on a computer. But as they say, "imperfection is the digital perfection". (Thanks also for your encouragements.)

From Platonic_Solids

The Tetrahedron Bring up the Add Mesh menu Shift-A, and select
  a Cone. Set the number of Vertices to 3, leave Radius 1 at its default
  value of 1.000 and Radius 2 at 0.000. Now, set the Depth to sqrt(2) ~
  1.414. To make sure that you have a regular tetrahedron, you can check the lengths of the edges (in Edit Mode, press N to open the Properties
  panel and locate the checkbox Length in the section Edge Info).

While I like the answers provided by cegaton and stacker, I had some time when I couldn't do much more than think and I decided to consider the exercise of making a tetrahedron from a polygon primitive. The method below can be applied to create any polyhedron from a base which is a polygon with an odd number of sides.
1) Create a circle with 3 vertices. Two of the vertices will be parallel to either the x or y axis of the scene. Name these two vertices (for sake of this explanation) "B" and "C".
2) Choose A, and B, duplicate those vertices, and choose the option to merge those two duplicates in the center; we'll call this vertex "D".
3) Select the vertices C and D and create an edge.
4) Select the vertices B and C, and extrude the vertices.
5) Merge the vertices created in step 4, choosing the option to merge at the center to create vertex E.
6) Create a face of the vertices B-C-E.
7) Set the selection mode to edge.
8) Create an edge from vertices E and A, selecting A last.
9) Select the Active element as the pivot point.
10) Switch to top view.
11) Rotate the edge A-E constraining rotation to the axis parallel to edge B-C [That is, if B-C are parallel to the x axis, constrain rotation to the x axis; if B-C are parallel to the y axis, constrain rotation to the Y axis.], until in top view, E appears to be on the line A-D.
12) Create faces A-E-B and A-E-C.
13) Delete vertex D.
The companion process to create a polyhedron on a base comprised of a polygon with an even number of sides is below. [Note, it will simplify the process if the polygon is aligned so that at least one pair of opposing edges is parallel to either to either the x or y axis.]
1) Create a circle with 4 vertices. Name the vertices (for sake of this explanation) "A", "B", "C", and "D".
2) Choose vertex A, and and extrude vertex A' from it, exactly crossing the vertex on the opposite end of the diagonal.
3) Extrude vertices from two vertices that define an edge, and merge them in the center. Call this Vertex "E".
4) Make a face from E, and the two vertices which were extruded and joined to create it.
5) Duplicate the vertices defining the edge opposite the edge whose vertices were extruded in step 3, and merge them in the center to create vertex "F".
6) Create a edge of the vertices E-F, selecting F last.
7) Set the selection mode to edge.
8) Select the Active element as the pivot point.
9) Switch to top view.
10) Rotate the edge E-F constraining rotation to the axis perpendicular to that edge.  [That is, if he edge defined by E-F is parallel to the x axis, constrain rotation to the y axis; if E-F is parallel to the y axis, constrain rotation to the x axis.], until in top view, E appears to lie on the line A-A'.
11) Create the faces from adjoining pairs of the original four vertices, and vertex E as needed.
12) Delete vertex A'.
I tested both procedures. Either one took longer to write than to do.

Take the default cube and declare a surface to be the top.
Select 2 vertices on the top surface (opposite corners from each other) and delete them.
Select the 2 vertices "below" the vertices that remain from the top surface and delete them.
Fill in the surfaces.

try to explain your method inserting some pictures about both steps, it could  be more clear...

The "add cone" method similar to stacker's answer, but with exact measurements (works in Blender 3.5. Assumes you want a tetrahedron with edge length of 1. You can scale afterward, as desired):

In Object mode, Add > Mesh > Cone.
Go to the Add Cone operator properties panel.
Change Vertices to 3
Change Radius 1 to 1/sqrt(3) (the distance from the tetrahedron's face's centroid to it's vertices.)
Change Depth to sqrt(6)/3 (the height of the tetrahedron.)

What the Add Cone dialog looks like afterward:

If you wish to center it properly, go to edit mode, select all vertices, and then zero out the selection's 'Median' in the Transform side panel.

If you wish for the tetrahedron to sit with its origin on the 0-plane, do as you would to center it, but set the z value to sqrt(6)/12 instead of zero (the distance from the tetrahedron's face's centroid to the tetrahedron's center.)


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Showing the dimensions of an object when rendering?
In Sketchup, we can display the dimension of a specified edge as below. Is there a way to do display that in the final render in blender?

There's an addon called measureit which can do this

In general geometry is required. There is also an addon called caliper, see http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/19783/3710


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How to push object straight in game engine
How can I push an object in a straight line with another object in the game engine? I made both objects dynamic, but when I push the object it moves in a random way. So how can I make it move straight?

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/6115/599

Your collision bounds on both objects are a sphere. Under the Physic tab check the button for "Collision Bounds". Now assuming you two objects are cubes, the cube collision bounds will work fine.

@mar_dim if that answered your question mark the answer as accepted (check mark button under the arrows)


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Objects showing through other objects in the BGE?
I am having trouble with a rig I imported from MakeHuman. When I run the Embedded Player or the Standalone Player my character's facial features come through the mesh.
They are positioned properly, but for some reason they seem to get priority over the outer mesh and are displayed through the outer skin.
Here is a picture to illustrate my conundrum:

Can you please upload your blend file so we can check to see what is causing this?

My blend file was too big to upload but here is a link to my Q with the code and some extra info:   link Thanks for the help!

If you want to upload a file of almost unlimited size, you can use Google Drive (https://drive.google.com/) -- they give you 15GB of storage and the links don't ever expire.

However I can't help you with anything related to code because I'm not a programmer. But, if you want more help here on StackExchange, you should revise your question to explicitly describe the code you used and also add coding-related tags to your question so that the coding experts might be more inclined to examine the question. There are lots of coders here that might be able to help.

One thought I have, though, is that it might be that you have the teeth and eyes on a layer that is rendered on top of the body, in which case you would need to make sure the render layer containing the teeth and eyes is below the layer containing the body. I don't know if that's you issue, but it's worth checking.

Thanks Thom. On further testing the problem seems to be inconsistent, sometimes the character renders correctly in the Player but other times it distorts as per above image. This is without changing the code, fps or logic tic rate. I think it could either be a glitch of some kind with rendering, perhaps related to my pc graphics handler. The MakeHuman import does not use layers for the eyes, teeth and tongue (just layers for different bones). I guess the best I can do his prevent the logic from taking longer than the logic tic rate and hope the rest runs smoothly when I make the game a .exe

I think you have XRay on the teeth and the eyes. If you do, they'll show through any objects in front.

possible duplicate of X-Ray Mode is Not Working

Can you check to make sure that the body mesh doesn't have alpha transparency enabled for some reason? Sometimes, objects with Alpha enabled gets drawn in a weird order because of the lack of z-sorting.

X-ray does not work in the game engine, so I doubt this is the same issue as the X-ray mode problem.

The simpliest way (and only one known to me) is to go to "user prefernces-editing" and in "Duplicate data" uncheck the "Metaball". Then duplicate problematic meshes. Duplicates shoudn't have these problems.

Game Mode:  In Properties tab, go to the material section and open the game setting.  Set the mode to alpha clip, alpha blend.  The problem is the order AI decide to prioritizes the order.


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Is there a way to locate where options are in the interface?
I'm new in this and I'm working on the gingerbread man tutorial. My problem is that sometimes I don't find some buttons and I would like to know if there is a tool for finding them.

For many functions you can press Space in the viewport, a search window will pop up, and then you can type part of the name and it will show up. It doesn't work for buttons in the Properties tabs though.

@David maybe better to put your comment as an answer.

Could you be more specific on which button you miss?

Are you looking for buttons in the UI or on your keyboard (hotkeys)?

If it's a keyboard shortcut you are looking for, you can try searching for the tool in CtrlAltU> User preferences > Input:

As for external resources, you can try the wiki, but beware that some parts are incomplete/out of date.
Another external resource which works well is google, usually searching for something like "blender <function name>" will get you results.
However, if all else fails you can always ask here ;)


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Customizing trackpad behavior
I'm using a track pad. The settings I had for moving around, zooming, etc. were two finger pinch for zoom, one finger touch and drag for moving around.
Now I can only scroll up and down to zoom! How do I change the setting back to how it was? It was fine an hour ago. Maybe I accidentally pressed something.

Are these blender settings or settings for you track pad?

Firstly, I'm assuming that these are blender settings.
To fix your problem, I would start with load factory settings. Loading the factory settings will reset every thing to the default settings. You can then customize from there.


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How to Use the Mapping node?
Prompted by my previous question, I am wondering how to use the mapping node.
(I still don't understand, even after reading the mapping node section on the wiki)
My setup:

Top:

Bottom:

Scaling the UV map of the cube does not make the texture appear larger or smaller, nor does changing the Scale on the mapping node. (Changing the scale seems to drag and stretch the texture off to one side, high values make it disappear completely)
My confusion is not helped by the fact that it appears differently in Textured, Material, and Rendered views.
Textured:

In Textured view, Scaling the UV map does change the size of the texture:

However, it looks completely different in Material view:

Could someone explain how the mapping node should be operated?
Thanks.

Looking at your node setup it looks like you are using Blender's automatic mapping. While the mapping node may be used to scale the Generated map around, it won't affect your textured/material views.
If you want the textured and material views to match up with the render, you will need to use the UV output (from the Texture Coordinate node) instead of generated.

Oops.. silly me.. (I meant to connect the UV output from the texture coordinate node, but instead I must have grabbed the generated output) :P


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Mix shaders with blend modes besides Add and Mix?
Prompted by my previous question, I am wondering if (since there is no apparent way to convert a shader to color) there is any (even using  post processing) way to mix cycles shaders with blend modes besides Add and Mix.
Is this possible?

I think the answer to this is also negative.
Let me try to explain my understanding of the problem with a different blend mode. To have an example to work with, let's use Multiply:
When Cycles uses the shader, it uses it with exactly one sample. It doesn't know anything about the previous samples, and neither does it know anything about future samples for this pixel and material.
To be able to multiply two shaders with each other, you would need the averages of all samples from one shader and all samples from the other one, as it could happen that for each sample, one of them is 0 and the other one is 1 (with a 50% chance for either one to be 1). In average, both would still be 0.5 in brightness, so the correct Multiply-result would be 0.5 * 0.5 = 0.25, but because Blender only sees one sample at a time, it would always calculate 1 * 0 = 0 or 0 * 1 = 0 and the material would be black. This is why all blend-modes have to be independant of the respective other input to make sense. Add and Mix are pretty much the only two useful blend modes for which the output is only influenced by the two inputs independently.
Any linear modifications that are supposed to happen to either of the inputs or the output can be applied to the color before it even enters the shader, as all shaders are (as far as I know) linear in respect to the input color. Subtracting also works that way, you can replicate it with negative brightness in a Diffuse/Glossy/...-Shader.
This is not the programming explanation for why it doesn't work but only the explanation that I think is correct and describes the problem from a rendering process point of view, please correct me if it's not correct but I hope it helps in some way to understand what works and what doesn't and cannot work.

Thanks. That makes sense, but wouldn't it be possible to multiply the result of the collective samples? (calculate the color of each shader separately and combine afterwards) I guess you need to be able to convert shader to color to do that though.. :(

You could only do that at the very end of rendering the image, because you can only then get the collective samples. Because Cycles is also built for real-time display, no such specific filters are applied to the image after rendering.
What you can do, of course, is create this processing step after the finished rendering in the Blender compositor. You can absolutely render the image first with one and then with the other shader and then use all the blend-modes you want in postprocessing.

While a shader contains colour information it also contains other information needed by the renderer to calculate the final colour when rendering. A shader is more like "instructions" for the render engine to calculate the final colour.
If you could extract a colour from the shader it wouldn't match the final image unless you also take into account the same calculations the renderer performs to get the final colour, like surrounding objects and lights, the angle of the surface to the camera...
While you can use different methods to mix colours before you pass it to the shader, the render engine is more restrictive as to how it generates the final image.
If you use the same 100% blue colour for a diffuse shader, a glossy shader and a glass shader, each will have variations that make them appear different from each other even though the specified colour in the shader is the same.

But, if I'm not mistaken it would be possible to have a duplicate of an object on a separate render layer and use ID masks and stuff to do this in compositing?

+1. The key point here is that the shader is not a color, it's an equation.

@gandalf3 Compositing can allow you to alter the final colour of the render. That is still different than altering the way the shaders mix together in the material nodes.

@sambler But it would work for simple things? (e.g. darkening a single object with a AO shader) this  would be easier if cycles had texture baking..

@WChargin True, but the shader produces colors when you render it. I guess what I'm looking for is a way to effectively setup some sort of compositing system to have different per-object "passes" for different shaders. (these would be fairly limited because you will have to render each one, but for things like AO I think it could work)

@gandalf3 if it is fake AO that your after then I know of two osl scripts that can add fake AO. BaAmbientOcclusion and FGgao_ambient_occlusion can be found in my github repo the .osl.jpg images are rendered samples, the .noodle.jpg images are the node setups used.

@gandalf3 It doesn't really produce a color when you render it. When you render it, it tells Cycles how the (randomly sampled) ray is likely to bounce. These bounce data are then mixed down to a single pixel by Cycles. The resultant color is created far after the shaders are invoked, and you'd need compositing to access it.

@WChargin Yes. That is what I mean, I am looking for some way to have per object "passes" for several materials in the compositor.


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Insert properties keyframe for multiple objects?
I know it's possible to keyframe UI properties, and it's possible to animate many objects at once for Location, Rotation, and Scale.
But is it possible to insert a keyframe for a UI property for many objects at once?
e.g. Animating rigid body properties for shards of a cell-fractured object
How can I achieve this?

possible duplicate of How to add keyframes for multiple objects at once

Not a duplicate - the previous question was about a blender feature, where this is finding a way to do what blender doesn't allow you to do normally.

As the answer to that question says it's done using keying sets. For more info see: Can I personalize the insert keyframe menu?

@Aldrik How would I go about adding the properties of each object to a keying set? (without doing individually for each one)

I wouldn't, I'd create a Builtin Keying Set (see the previous link for info).

So the easy solution would be to write a script that creates keyframes for every selected object.
While the Rigid Body Tools will copy attributes from the active object to all selected, it doesn't copy keyframes. Copying keyframes could be something to add to the Rigid Body Tools. I would think that the animated checkbox is probably the only Rigid Body option that would normally be keyframed.
Within the 3DView, Insert Keyframes will keyframe the same properties for every selected object. Creating a keyingset with an interface property doesn't allow the property to be keyframed for all selected objects. Sounds like a deficiency in the create interface value keyframe operator.
EDIT: There are some options that can help under some circumstances -
CtrlL -> Animation data - can create keyframes for every object to match keyframes for the active object. This creates keyframes for the same properties in each object - it doesn't make the properties the same as the active object.
For rigid body options you can set and keyframe the active object, use rigid body tools to copy settings from active, re-do calculate mass, then CtrlL -> Animation data to create keyframes for each object.
This doesn't apply to non-rigid body values. The following script can easily be modified to set and keyframe a specific value on every selected object, adjusting to work on multiple values is also easy. I used rigid_body.kinematic as an example as I see this as the most likely value to be used in this scenario.
import bpy

set_kinematic = bpy.context.active_object.rigid_body.kinematic

for object in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    object.rigid_body.kinematic = set_kinematic
    object.keyframe_insert(data_path="rigid_body.kinematic")

Creating a script to insert keyframes is a better option than modifying your version of blender. You can keep your script for next time you need it whereas blender mods will be overwritten each time you upgrade. I think that user created keying sets are of limited use as they are now, they should be able to work on all selected objects not just one specific object.

What worked for me: 1. RMB on UI property > copy to selected. 2. RMB in UI property > Insert keyframe 3. Ctrl+L > Animation data 4. U > Object Animation. done.

Wow, this is a fantastic solution, Sambler!! Thank you so much. I needed a way to copy the "Animated" property to many rigid bodies without overriding the animation already present on each. Also, thanks Gandalf3 for that great tip. That's a perfect solution for any situation where all affected objects are able to share the same animation data, and is very useful.

There is this commercial add-on, Key Selected Objects, which lets you add/delete keys for multiple objects from the user interface:

Anything you've already keyframed will turn up in the Dope Sheet. So add one keyframe for each and then it should be easy.
Other than that - scripting.

"add one keyframe for each".. for 95 objects? ;) could you elaborate on ways to script this? thanks.

@gandalf3 I've added an example to the other question.

This doesn't really answer the question as it doesn't give any real detail on how to do anything mentioned.


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What to do with potential bugs?
Prompted by my previous question, what should one do if they find something that might be a bug but aren't sure? Should these be reported? Ignored? Is there somewhere where there is a "tracker for potential bugs"?

Now why would you want to ignore a potential bug? ;)

@iKlsR I have accidentally reported several non-bugs lately (even after searching), and I was wondering if there is a alternative..

Ah, the answer on the question goes into depth about pretty much everything you need to consider.

@iKlsR I guess that does answer my question.. thanks


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Trim hair/fur outside of clothes
I created a basic shirt for my character but can't manage to cut the hairs that go through it. What would be the shortest way to trim the "outer" fur? I know how to do it via simulating collisions and the Force Field applied to the shirt, but it is extra slow and really too much for a still render.

Have you tried hiding the shirt temporarily or using x-ray mode?

@RobertGützkow I haven't, but how will it affect the fur?

It doesn't affect the fur itself, but it makes editing with the cut or length tool easier. You may also want to limit the hair emitting to a vertex group that excludes the area under the vest. Both approaches assume that your character never takes the vest off.

@RobertGützkow Thanks, I'd know if there is another way to manage it. Blender has the Cut particles to the shape option that shows particles inside a mesh but i haven't found any "filter" or "wall" that simply does not show particles passing through it.

The best solution so far is to apply the mask texture to the hair material. This can to not work smoothly with animations, but ok for still renders
Here is the video titorial on how to manage it
Hope that things will become better with the upcoming hair node system


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Why do seam edges move together?
I have a cube where I am trying to move one UV edge that happens to be a seam. My understanding is that since the edge is marked as a seam, it should be separate from surrounding edges, but when I move the edge other vertices/edges move as well. Why does it do this? Specifically, since the edge is marked as a seem, shouldn't it be moving independently?
Thanks,

Make sure you have the Edge Selection enabled (3 vertical line icon), as well as the individual vertex selected (3 white dots).

your help saved me a lot of time and frustration , thank you a loooot :)

There are two modes for UV Editing.  One is called Sync Selection and so far as I know, the other one has no name.  Sync Selection is just off.
To me they are modes because they behave very differently.  Officially, they may just be considered the same mode with Sync Selection either On or Off.
 Anyways, to the point.
In one of the modes; you will have the problem as described.
When you select a vertex along a seam then you will also be selecting the other vertices which are on the 3D mesh at that point.
Conceptually, UV seams are not spitting the vertices.
Seams are cutting up the image texture.
If you look at the image Mike Pan posted; there is an icon at the bottom left which shows a cube, two vertices, and a cursor arrow.  That icon is how you change between modes.
For the image posted, the icon toggle is deactivated.
In that mode, to work on all the islands simultaneously, you must select everything in the 3D Viewport.
Now everything will also show up in the UV/Image Editor.  In this mode, the seam vertices will not affect one another when selected and moved.
Now if you activate Sync Selection using the icon mentioned; the vertices along other island seams will also be selected and moved when you move island-edge vertices which are connected on the 3D Mesh.
I have found that both modes can be very useful.  If you want to avoid the problem that you are having while staying in the mode that you are in; then you can hide the other vertices by selecting the faces they are connected to and pressing the H key.
Now they will not be affected when you move their corresponding vertices.
Or, use the other mode.
EDIT:Additional info requested

Thanks Marc :) It's my first time to use stackexchange  and I did not except to get such a detailed explanation! Just wanna say Thank you big times :)

Just a small question, you mentioned the words : island, island-edge, island seams in your post, does "island" just mean an independent set of edges/vertices or it's got more meaning technical than that?

The islands are groupings of UV coords. I'll add a screen capture to the answer above.

Once again Marc, thanks for your illustration, time and effort :) your help is very appreciated...