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Where are the keying set's keyframes in the dope sheet?
With no keying set specified when I press I and select LocRot for example, it places keyframes on both dope sheet and F-curve graph editor.
However I started making my own keying set comprised of 3 shape keys value. When I press I, it only appears on the F-curve and not in the dope sheet. Any way to make it appears on the dope sheet too?

Oh, never mind. I was in Action Editor mode. That mode does not include shape keys and shape keys can't be included together in an action. There is an exclusive Shape Keys Editor mode with its own (special?) action or even Dope Sheet which you can see the shape keys.


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Symmetrize bone generates flipped X axis

I used W -> Symmetrize to create the bones on the other side. I noticed that the axis was flipped. Is this how it supposed to be? Because now my bone constraint cannot be copy-paste easily. (e.g. Limit X 0,0 on the left side is equivalent to Limit X -90,-90 on the right side)

Yes this is how it is supposed to be. And you are right, you cannot easily copy over your limit constraints, if they are defined in world space. Since the "world axis" are not mirrored.
But if you set them to local space, they should copy just fine. And local space is what you want anyway in most rig constraints. Otherwise depending on rotation your bend axis would change and a bend forward in t-pose would become a painful bend in any other pose ;)

Are you trying to mirror the bones?
You can select the bones you want to mirror, duplicate them, then rescale them amongst the x axis by a factor of -1
Select the bones you want to mirror
shift c to center cursor and . to center pivot point
shift d to duplicate
right click to keep in the same location
s to rescale
x to rescale on the x axis only
and of course input the factor of -1

This should also keep the axes aligned.

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How can I have an armature deforming 2 separate meshes?
I have organized my model so that the skin is the parent of clothings, hair, etc. Currently all of them move together according to the parent hierarchy.
I select the skin and Ctrl+P to the armatures and selected automatic weight. In the pose mode it deforms only the skin because weight paint could not go to different object
If I Ctrl+J all of them the armatures would probably work, but can I keep the mesh organized and have the armature deform everything? I have different auto smooth settings for each groups for example, that I don't want to merge them.

Ok I got it. I have to select all of the meshes before selecting the armature the last. Blender will give all the vertex groups to every mesh with different weights and then I can paint them separately.

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Blender Internal's fire simulation has different result in actual render than viewport

Using "Quick Smoke" on a starting cube and turn on "Smoke+Fire" in the flow object gives this result. Why can something in the viewport (Material View) has a kind of additive effect while not in the real render?
The render layer have almost everything included from the start. I don't understand what it is excluding.


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Pressed something and outliner expands all recursively. How to revert?
I was going to rename an object by double clicking the name in my Outliner and accidentally pressed some keyboard combination. I don't know how many keys I pressed but they are all around the Enter key and now everything is expanded recursively.
I can click the minus sign on the outermost hierarchy to close them but inside them would be still expanded if I want to look inside again. I would like to know this key combination that expand all/collapse all so I can undo this. Doing it manually is not feasible because I organized the project by parenting. There are so many children.

The easiest way to fix this is to close one level at a time by pressing Numpad - repeatedly until all levels are collapsed.

..and, of course, Numpad+ will open them up again..


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How many ray tracing samples they used in theater animation?
I am assuming that box office grade animation (Moana, Zootopia, etc.) used ray tracing physically based renderer like Blender's Cycles, and so the amount of tries to sample per pixel is needed. I would like to know what amount of sample setting they usually use to achieve that level of quality? Basically I have never seen anything like fireflies noise in theater like in my personal rendering.(If you know a rough number of computer specs, # of computer in a cluster they use that would be really helpful)

As mentioned the number of samples is something that will vary between every shot, you can also expect any flaws would be fixed before a cinematic release.
You can find some information online about different render farms used by studios, the details are also something that is always changing.
For Toy Story Pixar started with 53 processors, which expanded to about 300 before completing the film. According to this post it originally took about 4 hours per frame and re-rendering it on more recent machines took 2-4 minutes per frame.
Cars 2 averaged 11.5 hours per frame, with some shots taking up to 90 hours per frame and used a 12,500 core render farm.
Monsters University had 24,000 cores in the farm, and one frame took up to 29 hours, think of all that fur - "Sully now has 5.5 million individual hairs in his fur"
You can see that Toy Story was at the beginning of rendering and would have used various tricks to emulate an effect, same as home users still do to reduce render times, newer movies get better render results and leave more work to the renderer to get accurate results.

Depends.
The thing that you noticed was that it looked good. That is the target, not a certain number of samples.
You may have noticed for instance that a glass shader typically needs more samples than a diffuse shader. Once you have determined a ratio of samples that looks good (assuming you are using branched path-tracing which separates out the number of samples each type of shader uses per pass), then you can turn up the samples to produce higher quality results.
If you are trying to reduce fireflies, that is a separate question that has already been answered here.
Computer specs don't really matter either, as it is more a matter of what gets the job done in a certain amount of time within budget. The more computers and/or more powerful computers you throw at the "problem" of rendering, the easier it becomes to quickly produce animation.


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How to move multiple UV's face together to the 2D cursor

I want to move all of those rectangles to be stacked on the 2D cursor, because I want to reuse a texture area for all those UVs.

Manually dragging : not accurate, no snapping
Align X/Y : The rectangle collapse into a little dot
Shift + S -> snap to cursor (offset) : They are not gathered/stacked together, they retain the original spacing
Selecting one by one and do snap to cursor (offset) : Works but time consuming, is there any operator that do this for all items?

Look into UV Align/Distribute addon, it should be able to stack UV islands, though as I tried before 2D cursor aligning doesn't work as expected (maybe was bug)

One (not perfect, but useful) workaround: select all faces that will share the same portion of the texture and press U choosing "reset" option: all thoose faces will be UV unwrapped in a stack covering all the UV space available. This "big square" can be scaled and moved to the right place and dimensions with a single shot, even using the "Shift S, selected to cursor" option.

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How to place a video within an existing 3D scene (via .bpy/python script)?
I currently have a sphere spinning around a cube,
and the main camera spinning around the same cube on another axis of rotation
I would like to replace the cube with a 2D video clip.
Is this achievable?

Perhaps I don't fully understand the question, but could you not just import the video file using the Import Images as Planes option? Do you need to mask/show the video in a more specific way?

I wasn't familiar with 'Import Images as Planes', that's useful information, thanks.

I'll pore through the source code for that addon

It's useful because during import you can choose the type of material (emission best for your app), as well as a video source instead of a still image.

Go and add a screenshot of your setup, please.

I'm sure that you can extrapolate this to python, but this would be my approach:
If this is an animation, you can place a keyframe on the object's render icon.
eg. in the outliner hover the mouse over the icon and hit the I key.
For the cube, goto frame 1, with the camera icon on, add a keyframe.
For the image plane on the same frame, click the camera icon to turn it off, and add a keyframe.
THEN
goto the frame that you want to swap the visibility and inverse what is on and what is off, then add your respective keyframes again.

Per the comment response i am going to expound on this clarification - Please Refer to the end of this answer for the steps that I propose to accomplish your efforts.
My guess is that I did not understand your question properly.
Are you using the cube as a place holder for the 2D movie?
OR
Are you trying to transition an effect two morph between the visibility of a cube to a 2D Movie plane?
OR
Something else altogether?
Appended since clarification

Since I believe that you are using a cube as a placeholder reference to rotate your cameras around, mark the center of that cube by selecting it, then use the Shift+S >> Cursor To Selected, unless you have moved the origin of the cube this should work. If you have moved the origin, it would be wise to go into edit mode, A to select all, then Shift+S >> Cursor To Selected, then back to object mode.
Delete the cube.
identify your video size (eg. 1920x1080)
Add a plane to your scene of the same dimensional ratio (eg. 1.920x1.080)
Go into edit mode on the newly created plane and UV unwrap it by A to select all vertices >> U >> Unwrap >> Tab to go back to object mode.
Go into the materials panel and make sure that the object has one (Assuming Blender Render here, there is a different workflow for Cycles, which I will post if this is required), and add a material if needed (Hint: you may want to check Shadeless, otherwise you may be very dissatisfied that your plane reflects other things in your scene).
Go to the Textures tab and add a texture, for the type select "Image or Movie", then be sure that Auto Refresh is checked, then in the Image section, browse to your video file, then in the Mapping section set coordinates to UV.

This should do the trick.
Good Luck

Are you suggesting: load all the video frames as individual images in the same location and toggle the visibility of these based on frame number?

No I would add you image sequence in as a movie strip, and make your movie be your material for whatever piece of geometry you want to associate it to.

The question was poorly worded, apologies, the cube isn't really relevant. I meant 'I would like a mesh plane with a movie/image sequence on it', but I wasn't aware of the right nomenclature at the time I asked the question.

OK, then I will edit the answer to suit. Thanks for the response.


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Simple rotation animation using command-line python script
I've been trying to generate a simple rotation animation entirely using a python script from command-line. The animation file gets generated with the configured frames and all, but the rotation applied to the cube object doesn't reflect in the animation. Could you please point out to me what I'm doing wrong?
My code involves sample.blend, which is a blender file with the default scene with cube, and renderAnim.py (code given below). I invoke this from the command-line as: blender -b sample.blend -P renderAnim.py
import bpy

scene = bpy.data.scenes["Scene"]
mycube = bpy.data.objects['Cube']
mycube.rotation_mode = 'XYZ'

scene.frame_start = 1
scene.frame_end = 100

scene.frame_current = 1
mycube.keyframe_insert('rotation_euler', index=0 ,frame=1)

scene.frame_current = 100
mycube.rotation_euler = (0,0,180)
mycube.keyframe_insert('rotation_euler', index=0 ,frame=100)

scene.render.use_stamp = 1
scene.render.stamp_background = (0,0,0,1)

scene.render.filepath = "render/anim"
scene.render.image_settings.file_format = "AVI_JPEG"
bpy.ops.render.render(animation=True)

In these two lines, you are rotating on the z-axis and then keying the x-axis, which means you aren't doing any animation.
mycube.rotation_euler = (0,0,180) # (x, y, z)
mycube.keyframe_insert('rotation_euler', index=0 ,frame=100) # index=0 is x-axis

Changing the axis you keyframe will most likely not provide the expected result. While by default blender's UI uses degrees for rotation, when setting rotations in python you need to specify in radians, which means it will be rotating over 10,000 degrees in 100 frames.
Also note that to properly change the current frame you should use frame_set(), but you don't have to change frames in your script as the keyframe_insert() specifies what frame the value is set for.
import bpy
import math

scene = bpy.data.scenes["Scene"]
mycube = bpy.data.objects['Cube']
mycube.rotation_mode = 'XYZ'

scene.frame_start = 1
scene.frame_end = 100

mycube.rotation_euler = (0, 0, 0)
mycube.keyframe_insert('rotation_euler', index=2 ,frame=1)

mycube.rotation_euler = (0, 0, math.radians(180))
mycube.keyframe_insert('rotation_euler', index=2 ,frame=100)

scene.render.use_stamp = 1
scene.render.stamp_background = (0,0,0,1)

scene.render.filepath = "render/anim"
scene.render.image_settings.file_format = "AVI_JPEG"
bpy.ops.render.render(animation=True)

Thanks a lot @sambler - your explanation clarifies the issue, and the code works perfectly!

I am very new to python scripting, but this script is very interesting for me.
If I want to animate more geometries togheter, after selecting them, what changes would be necessary?

Put the steps you want to repeat into a loop that goes through all selected objects, like this. Feel free to create a new question to get a better explanation - that is how this site works.


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How can I make a closed flat base for an object?
I've made a 3d model of an ancient sculpture with its nearest surrounding. Since I want to publish it on Sketchfab, I need to make a base for it, make it nice and clean, plus reduce it's size to make it more comfortable for further review.
This is how it looked in the begining:

And this after extruding edges:

Better but there is still long way to go. This is how I do have some questions. Hope You can help.
I was able to extrude edges of the model along z axis to make a base. But - even I was strictly following the tutorials - I was not able to create single face that would close the model from below. Are there any requirements regarding side faces that need to be fulfilled to get this done? Since the mesh was created in Photoscan, not blender - it does not have straight edges, but it resembles saw or something (unfortunately). Is this a problem?
Thanks in advance!


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Merging neighbouring edges
Is there a way to merge two neighbouring faces/polygons etc. and avoid badly stitched look of it when bevel modifier applied on it?
I'd like to create clean base without any seams on it. When I worked on a model I paid attention to receive a clean look of final object, aligned vertices and edges and finally joined all cubes and extruded vertices and faces. But when I applied Bevel modifier, every seam was visible and in some places where I extruded vertices and then made a face modifier ruined geometry of it.
Any ideas?

Have you tried just selecting the edges you want to bevel rather than the whole mesh?

I tried both ways and when I do only select some edges results are not satisfying as well. This is why I'd like to reduce number of objects and seams.


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Video won't render properly, only audio?
I recently created a 3:45 minute video, it's like a montage, a lot of short clips put together. It's my first time using blender but everything seemed to go smoothly, except that now that I want to render, the only thing I get is a black screen but the audio is there. If it's any help, whenever I change my proxy from 25% the preview window doesn't show my video anymore. It won't play my video unless I have it set to 25%. This is what I used to edit, since my laptop had an easier time loading the full FPS of the clips with this low proxy. However, whenever I try to make a proxy for 50, 75, or 100%, the progress bar goes maybe to 5% and then disappears. Being a first time user, this is a bad experience as I put so much time into this and now I can't render. Is there any way I can fix this? I'm clueless

You most likely have once let Blender create the 25% proxy files and then moved your footage or *.blend-file to a different location afterwards so that Blender can't find it any more...

Is there any way to fix this? Or I may have deleted the files, they would still be in the recycle bin but what am I looking for? The proxy file for each clip?

You're looking for the original footage - your clips source video files. There's a menu entry in the File menu helping you find lost files. Or just look at one strip in your VSE and see where it points to and if your source footage is still there or if you can put it back there again. There already are some questions with good answers about this here...

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/61537/2843, http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/45497/2843

Possible duplicate of Preview and rendered video from VSE suddenly shows nothing

Thanks a lot, I was able to go through my files and just found that after I had imported a lot of the clips into Blender I had organized my folders. So I moved most of these clips to another location and that was my problem. I just moved them back and it worked

You have once let Blender create the 25% proxy files and then moved your footage or *.blend file to a different location afterwards so that Blender can't find it any more...
You have to look for the original footage - your clips source video files and put them back in place where they originally were. There's a menu entry in the File menu helping you to find lost files. Or just look at one strip in your VSE and see where it points to and if your source footage is still there or if you can put it back there again. There already are some questions with good answers about this here on BSE...


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Mesh is deformation is mirroring very strangely, how do I fix this?
I am rigging a crossbow to be exported to Unity3D. It is currently just a model of a bow, and I am trying to perfect the rig as much as possible before I model the stock. I have been trying to fix a problem where the bow deforms the opposite way it should along the mirror axis, even though I have already applied the mirror modifier. It looks (mostly) fine before deforming,
but when it deforms, it is absolutely horrible when it crosses over the y-axis
I don't think this has much to do with it, but I am using inverse kinematics, TrackTo, rigify, and, as stated earlier, a mirror modifier, but it was applied earlier. In the first picture, you can see that only one half is rigged, and the other should be mirroring it, I have checked vertex weights, bone constraints, all of the modifiers, and everything I currently know that can go wrong, but have found no indication of what could be happening. I am fairly new to armatures and rigging, so I am sorry if this has a very simple fix that I am not aware of. If anyone knows how to fix this, I would appreciate it if you could answer.
Thanks in advance.

You'll need to create a symmetrical armature first, rig it properly, and then assign proper weights to the mesh. What you get is partially logical. Think about it: The vertices of the right hand side of your crossbow are parented to the left bone. That bone, when it deforms, rotates counter-clockwise. Since the vertices have no idea yet that they should behave like they were mirrored, they just inherit this rotation, and everything becomes distorted. Without having your model in hand, it's impossible to judge what's causing the middle section to deform in such a strange manner. But in your screenshot, some bones under the large deformation bone are visible, so I'd suggest looking there.
To tell the right hand side to behave mirrored, they need bones which behave like so. So your rig should in top view look like this:

I've created the left hand side, setup the constraints in Pose Mode, and when I was done I mirrored the deformation bones using the Cursor as the mirroring center. To mirror, select the bones in Edit Mode, Shift + D to duplicate, RMB click to Cancel translation. Then, Ctrl + M to activate mirroring, and type in the axis:

The weighting for this example is easier, as you can take advantage of the mirror modifier, which creates the right half for you automatically. Important: You need to stick to a naming convention for this to work. Name your bones Bone.L, Bone002.L for the left side, and Bone.R, Bone001.R for the right side, so Blender knows its way. There is a nice tool in the Specials Menu, keybinding W, in Edit Mode, which helps you in this:

Paint your weights now before you add a mirror modifier, make sure there are EMPTY Bone.R, Bone001.R vertex groups present, and then add and apply the mirror modifier afterwards. Alternatively, you can of course use the Automatic Weights Binding and fix the weights later.
Here is an example Blend file:

Use it like this:


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BPY in Game Engine Workaround?
I hope that someone might be able to explain me a workaround on how to use the bpy module in the game engine as a standalone.
I've read of methods like modifying Blender and import it as a module into the standalone or something like this.
Does someone have a clue or maybe a modified file?

There is a bpy module that gives access to the modelling/texturing/etc side of blender, then there is the bge module that is used in the game engine, bpy is not available and shouldn't be needed in the game engine. A simple distinction is bpy is used to create the 3d models while bge is used to access the models in the game engine.

To be more specific - bpy is the API for Blender while bge is the API for the Blender Game Engine. They are both different applications. It makes not much sense to use Blender's API without Blender. The Workaround is ... provide Blender and you can use the Blender API.

Wellt thanks for the info, but I knew that already. Though I definitely want to use the bpy in the game engine and somewhere I read that there might be possibilities with modified versions of Blender.

It is still the same. You need Blender and the BGE. While running the game write access has no effect on the game. E.g. you can create new objects via bpy. But they will be created inside Blender not inside your game session. May I ask why you think you need bpy?

If you use the BPY module, you can still run it as non-runtime code.
This is perhaps what is wanted in your case (you are not forced to create a game with the BGE.
However, in most cases, the authors want to create a game. Non-runtime code will prevent him from creating one.
Using BPY in a game is a typical mistake as you yourself can find in research regarding Blender scripts. It is usually plain copied from there as it is not clear to them that Blender and BGE are two separate rendering engines. This image exists. as this topic comes up from time to time. I hope it is a funny way to help remind to stay clear and avoid BPY for games.


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How to place a single crisp element as an alpha while sculpting?
This is my first question, and I am a complete newbie at using Blender (and 3D modelling suits in general).
To elaborate on my question: the goal is to model a logo as a relief on the side of a coffee cup. I am trying to sculpt it with an alpha.
The background and the reasoning are as follows:
The logo in question is quite elaborate, so my first idea was to:

import an SVG
convert it to mesh,
project the result via Shrinkwrap modifier.

However, I have found that the triangular mesh I am getting this way, wraps very poorly. I have tried recalculating it into quads with Remesh, but the results have remained suboptimal.
My second (and sadly last) idea was to:

rasterise my vector of the logo,
turn it into a BW alpha image,
sculpt it (like I managed to do before while messing around with
ZBrush).

Unfortunately, using my alpha as a texture creates a multitude of blurry superimposed reliefs of my logo. I understand that this technique must be intended to create noise-like features (scratches, scales, etc.).
But is it possible to place just one, crisp element this or similar way?
Thanks in advance! =)
P.S. I have tried searching for the answer both on Google and this site, but failed. My apologies if this question has already been answered.

To do this only with sculpting add the logo as the texture mask to the sculpting brush, switch Stroke method to Drag Dot and draw on the object's surface.

The texture defines a pattern according to which the brush is painting. Drag Dot stroke method will make brush draw only one dab preserving pattern of the texture.
Note that depending on the case you might need to continue sculpting with other stroke methods (use E to change) to bulge the logo out of the surface as desired. And obviously this model will be highpoly which is better to retopologize using certain methods.

What you need here is texturing.
Before you begin, please note that as far as I know, you can't use vectors in a texture, so you'll need to use a raster version of your logo. It doesn't have to be terribly high-resolution—512x512 should be just fine.
On to the details. BI is the default, but I prefer Cycles—it's much easier to get realistic results.

If you're using the Blender Internal rendering engine:

Go to the Textures tab—third from the right in the Properties panel.
Add a new texture (or you can just use the default "Tex").
Change the texture type to "Image or Movie".
Add your image in the Image section. You'll have to drag it into a UV/Image Editor first.
Change the Coordinates (in the Mapping section) to something appropriate, like UV.
At this point, it won't know where to put the texture on your model, so you'll have to unwrap it.

Everything after this is for the relief look. If you don't care about that, just skip it.

At the top, click the second texture slot, and select the same texture from the popup. Then press the "2" button—this will duplicate the texture.
At this point, you'll need another version of the texture image with everything opaque being white. You can use an external image editor for this.
Set this new image as the image for the second texture.
In the Influence panel, check the Normal option (first under Geometry) and uncheck the diffuse color option.

If you're using the Cycles rendering engine:
Cycles is a more realistic-looking engine; it uses nodes (sort of like compositing) to set up materials. It also has the advantage that you don't need to make a second image to use as an alpha mask. It's what I prefer, but of course you're welcome to use BI if you want to!

Head over to the Material tab (one left of Textures) and make sure you're using nodes. If you aren't, click the Use Nodes button in your material.
Open a Node Editor and make sure you're in material mode (the ball in the first area, the box in the second). If this is a new material, you should see a Diffuse BSDF connected to a Material Output.
See the side note about making the base material—you'll want to do that here.
Add a Mix shader node between the BSDF shader node and the output. (Add it after the first Mix node if you followed the side note.)
Add a Diffuse shader node and connect its output to the second input of the new Mix node.
Add an Image Texture node and select your image from the popup. (You'll have to drag it into a UV/Image Editor first, and unwrap your model).
Add a Texture Coordinate node and connect the UV output to the Normal input on the texture.
Connect the Color output of the texture node to the new Diffuse shader, and the Alpha output to the Fac of the new Mix node.

Everything after this is for the relief look. If you don't care about that, just skip it.

Add a Bump node (Shift+A) and connect its output to the Normal on the first Diffuse shader (both shaders if you followed the side note).
Connect the Alpha output of the image texture to the Bump node.

Side note: The base material
You'll probably want two shaders, a Diffuse and a Glossy, connected to a Mix node. You can use the Fac on the Mix node to control the intensity of reflections in your material.


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Adding a vertex with control-LMB does not work on OSX - how can I fix that or work around?
A technique used in a number of tutorials is start with a mesh, delete all the vertices and then start adding new vertices with control left mouse click.
It seems this never works on a mac.  At least there are a lot of forum posts out there saying it doesn't work and asking for help.  I haven't yet found one that results in useful answer.
The user preferences, 'input' tab, shows very clearly what keys are bound to actions and allows you to reassign them but mouse gestures don't seem to be exposed to configuration with the same clarity.
I'm working on a macbook air with a three-button wheel mouse plugged in.  I've tried turning 'emulate three button mouse' on and off, I've tried working with the inbuilt trackpad instead, I've tried all the combinations of modifier keys and mouse gestures I can think of.
I have come close to using harsh language.
Does anyone know how to add a vertex to a mesh on osx?

Ctrl + LMB works for me (iMac)

I too had the same problem. I noticed that I had was using face select instead of vertex select. Changing that might help you. Good luck!

I know that this thread is a few years old, but this issue still persists, I have yet to see an answer for this issue, so I took it upon myself to do some poking around and I have found the solution. I entered user preferences, and found the shortcut for "Duplicate or Extrude to Cursor". The hot hey for this was set to Ctrl+MiddleMouse Button - even though every forum says to perform this function you must press Ctrl+LMB. I set my own hotkey sequence to Ctrl+LMB and it now works flawlessly.
Duplicate or Extrude to cursor is the equivalent of the Create Polygon tool in Maya.

In Blender 2.8 it is CTRL + Right Mouse Button for drawing edges in Edit Mode.

Thanks for the comment parameciostudio. I tried doing the simplest possible thing - ie start with a new file, delete the vertices from the default cube and start adding vertices with control LMB.  And, in fact, it does work.
As far as I can tell the mistake I made with my original project was this - I inadvertently selected an object behind the one I was trying to create.  I carried on adding junk geometry to this without getting any feedback from Blender.
It sometimes feels as if the Blender interface is cryptic to the point of actual malice!
What would be really helpful, is a feature I think is in C4D but not in Blender, where you can view and edit the geometry of an object in a numeric table.

"without getting any feedback from Blender" well, selected objects and the active object are indicated by bright orange outlines, so there's that feedback. "cryptic to the point of actual malice" okay, and how long have you been using Blender vs C4D? Biased in favor of what you already know, perhaps? "where you can view and edit the geometry of an object in a numeric table" There's the Outliner, which lets you select from a hierarchical table. Also the name of your active object is always shown in the 3D viewport, bottom left. Anyway, glad you figured it out. Blender gets easier with time ;-)


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How can I add motion blur to an animated image in the video editor?
How can I add motion blur to an animated image track in the video editor. For instance, If I key framed an image track to swipe in fast from the side, how can I give the image motion blur while it's moving, but not when it's still?
(Without using the compositor) If anyone could answer this I would be I would be eternally grateful. :)
(Sorry about the lack of images, If you need some for reference please tell me.)

It's kind of hard to understand what you're after, but basically there are different types of blur. 1. Compositor blur - there are sub-types within this category, but essentially you're blurring flat images 2. Motion blur (relies on movement and is calculated in the render) 3. Depth of Field A.K.A. DOF blur (is a camera setting and is also calculated in the render). It sounds like you want to use motion blur, but between what and what? Motion blur obviously does not apply if the subject(s) are not in motion.

What I want to blur an image overlay that moves from place to place. But if I use Gaussian blur it's always blured.


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A problem opening old (non-filmic) VSE only .blend files when Filmic is installed?
I'm finding the Blender crashes when opening an old VSE only .blend file (default cube, light and camera in 3D view) that was saved when I didn't have Filmic installed.  This isn't a problem with geometry files, only ones with strips and modifiers in the VSE.  This now means that all my old VSE project files cannot be opened.
An excerpt from the console when in debug mode:
Version 268 sub 0 date unknown hash
.
.
.
Color management: display "sRGB" used by scene not found, setting to default ("sRGB / BT.709").
Color management: scene view "Default" not found, setting default "sRGB EOTF".
Color management: sequencer colorspace "sRGB" not found, will use default instead.
.
.
.
wm_window_make_drawable: set drawable 1
Error: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION

A quick test seems to show that the reverse might also be true, that new VSE only files cannot be opened in a copy of Blender without Filmic installed.
I have updated the start file to use Filmic valid defaults on load and the three warning messages disappear but the Access Violation still happens.

I'll advert Troy about this question, but yes, even if I've never had any compatibility problem with 3D scene, it can, from what I've read.
In all the cases you can go back to default color management to open the old files. I know it's not really an option to work without when you've tried it ^^.

I see you are using v2.68, try updating to the newest release.
https://github.com/sobotka/filmic-blender/issues/24

I'm using Blender version 2.78c.  I'm not sure what that number in the debug output refers to but it doesn't match the program version.  The link refers to a trunk fix in December last year so I'm assuming that fix is present in the official release 2.78c.  I'm also using the latest github version of filmic in case there was a fix there.

Update: My apologies it appears I posted the wrong log file - this was the older version of Blender which exhibits the same bug the other way around.  The newer log file contains the identical error but includes the following line near the top:
Version 278 sub 0 date 2017-02-24 14:33 hash e92f235283

Should be fixed in trunk.


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How to bridge edges without creating a twist?
I'm trying to model my first car in blender. I started by creating the front wheel arch and then duplicating it and scaling it to -1 in the Y direction to create the rear wheel arch. I then continued to extrude out the side of the vehicle from there.

Now I want to create a bridge between an edge towards the front of the car and one towards the back so I can model the area above the windows. When I select the edges and create a bridge (W > Bridge Edge Loops) I end up with a twist in the bridge:

I assume the edges have inverted Y axis orientations caused by me when I mirrored the wheel arches by scaling -1. I have tried recalculating all normals and playing with the Twist setting in the Bridge tool but I cant create  bridge without the twist.
How can I fix my model so all faces, edges and vertices have the same Y axis orientation again?

Have you tried to recalculate normals? In Edit Mode select the whole mesh with A and press Ctrl+N.

Hi Paul. Yes I have recalculated the normals. Didn't make a difference.

Instead of recalculating all normals, select only the faces that are incorrect and use Flip Normals on just those faces.  Since those faces appear to be 2D, Blender might not be able to automatically recalculate the normals because it cannot tell which is the correct direct for them.

With those faces selected use ctrl-n to activate the Make Normals Consistent operator.  If their orientation afterwards is not to your liking, use the Inside checkbox in the operator options panel to flip them.  If you can't find that checkbox, go ahead and use the Flip Normals operator in the Mesh > Normals menu.
If this does not work, then the face sets probably do not share an edge.  Maybe the Remove Doubles operator will fix that problem.  Or you could just select the normals that are facing the wrong way and use Flip Normals on them alone.

Delete the faces you have select in the images.Press 3(numpad) ,then 9(numpad) ,then 5 (numpad) and be sure you are in ortho view (you can see this at the top left corner of the 3d viewport) then select the edjes you want to extrude and keep extruding them till you create the bridge and then navigate to the 3d viewport to see if you are happy with the result.

You can also try using other spaces like the local or normal space

xlsx your answer works as an alternative method to create the geometry but I want to know why the bridge tool wont work in the first place. I suspect I have created an anomaly in my mesh.

The Bridge function normally needs two separate edge loops to join together. You don't appear to have this, so it's just trying to make do with what it has to work with. It's not the right tool for what you're trying to do.


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How to make on color not overlap other while texture painting?
I'm developing my first 3d game "My Little Hitler" and I am texture painting my low poly model. As shown in the picture, I want to paint the skin color whithout removing the facial drawing black color... how do I accomplish that?
thanks

In this particular case you can set the blend mode to multiply. Since input_color * 1 = input_color and input color * 0 = 0, painting on white (1) will result in the exact color you are painting with, while painting on black (0) will result in black.

But I'd recommend painting from the bottom up, using layers and transparency to minimize destructive editing.

Layers on texture !!?? I think that's what I'm looking for

This will only work if the background is white and the foreground is black.

@TARDISMaker Hence the "your particular case".

@gandalf3 yes, but this still doesn't explain why it works. I edited you answer to explain it better (you might notice that I basically just used your commented part for this)


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NLE - How to separate and export shots on a video clip
I have a short film and I want to separate each shot into a separate video file. I've already cut the long string into each shot and named them accordingly.
Is there a way to render and export each shot automatically? Or the only way to go about it is set the starting and ending frame for each shot, press render and repeat it for as many shots I have?

You can do this via a Python script.


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My object doesn't show in camera mode
[

Hi, i'm having to make a scene for a project at uni and i'm building a castle with the intention of having the camera float around it for an animation like a guided tour. I can edit it fine and all, and i'm currently trying to add a texture to it, when i try and check to see if it has worked and use camera view nothing shows and just shows me a grey screen as if there is no object. I'm using a plugin to build the walls but that shouldn't make them seem "transparent" if i've added a texture to them? I have a lamp set up and have turned it up really high because it's a large object so it's not like it's hiding in pitch black.

I would start checking viewport clipping settings (N key, properties)

Maybe it's outside of the cameras clipping plane. Select the camera, then go to the camera settings in Properties > Object data. There you can see Clipping start and End. You want to increase the End value so the distance to your object falls within it.

Don't forget to mark your question as answered then ;)


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Why won't my fluid simulation render?
My fluid simulation baked and showed up, but when I rendered it it shoed no simulation. The rendered viewport even shows the fluid! The bottom part of the screen shows the rendered viewport, the top screen shows the images after rendered


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Why does the wrong image appear after I motion track it?
I made a blender scene, motion tracked an image, animated my bull model, then rendered and the image showed up. Then I wanted the bull in another image, so I went to the movie clip editor and added an additional image. I motion tracked, and even the camera perspective shows it. The problem is, when I render the first image shows up instead of the new one I added. I tried clicking the x on the first clip but that didn't work. The first picture shows the camera perspective with the image I want and the second image shows the image that it renders on, with the trackers from the previous render!

@cegaton Where do I find the post processing section

@cegaton I found it but that doesn't work


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Is there away to export textures created with nodes to fbx?
I had my monkey textured with nodes, and did an fbx export. Usually fbx takes my materials in blender render, but in cycles, the nodes don't transfer so there is no texture. Is there a file I can export in so the nodes come? Thank you so much to all my helpers!

No there is not, nodal materials are not supported (by any exporter afaik), this would require some generic work first to be able to 'translate' those advanced shading representations in the basic, 'fixed' shaders supported by FBX and similar formats (and results would likely not be that great anyway)…

It depends. It would be quite helpful if we would know more about your material setup. Screenshots are always helpful.
If it's basic diffuse textures you want to "export" you can of course bake them. There should be plenty tutorials around the net by now.
However, if you want to export a complex material setup with all its attributes, the answer is no. And I doubt that this will ever happen.
Edit: This is how I bake diffuse maps composed from two textures and some nodes. The texture node to the right that is not connected to anything is used to specify the image I want to bake to.

authors: Денис ДОБРОВОЛЬСКИЙ


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What could I improve on on my monkey model?
So I made this monkey model and I am no expert on modeling so I was wondering if you guys could take a look and give me feedback! If you want to look at the file download it at:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByrMQl4A3FTwcUVSalF2WXZ5Slk/view?usp=sharing  Thanks!]1

Recalculate normals in Edit mode for body part of mesh. See http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/3606/why-are-some-faces-in-my-mesh-darker. Aside from that I think this is not really a question about using Blender which is out of scope of Blender.SE.

Blender Artists is a more appropriate place for this subjective question stated without criteria.  Where did you come up with that interesting monkey face?  Perhaps you can ask a question such as .... How can I get a rounder back for the monkey?  Then that would not be so subjective.

@atomicbezierslinger - isn't that just the monkey face that ships with blender?  http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?274119-The-Blender-Monkey

@Baronz Is it?  I though it was more Lancelot Link Secret Chimp featuring Mata Hari.

oooh.. i love it. but sadly this isn't in the scope of our site! come to this chat room and i'd be happy to help you: http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/8888/the-renderfarm%5C

@atomicbezierslinger Thank you yes it is the monkey that comes with blender but I made the rest!

@atomicbezierslinger LOL :D

JUST SOME TIPS: The body part topology of your model is decent, though hands and legs' topology is too dense. Try to keep it as simple as it can be (start to model fingers using a circle with only 8 vertices).

Do the same for the toes (see my topology suggestion below).

Always start with a simpliest shapes and then slowly add more geometry.
Your question reminds me this one: How to retopologize my model? Wish I have more time right now to retopologize this model for you and show you some simple solutions, but I'm quite busy right now :(.
Remember, that simple and smart topology is a key to make the model bend well while animating (simple finger model topology bend example here: How do rigs relate to weights?)

Monkeys do not have feet like that.  How would they hold a banana?  They have beautiful hairy feet.

Male monkeys doesn't have feet like that, I agree. Please notice, that I've presented a FEMALE monkey feet. Modern female monkeys shaves feet regulary nowadays.

Oh its a Show Monkey, very High Gloss.


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Why when I render an image does it work, but a weird render result comes up?
So I made my monkey, added a ground plane, and rendered. Then when it finished rendering, it shows this weird final image that I used as a texture before. The first image shows it in the middle of rendering, the second image shows the render result.

The render result may be changed after end of calculations if either there's something in Compositing nodes setup in adjacent way Or something in Sequencer Or you preview not render result. Make sure it's Render Result selected in image list.

If you uncheck "Compositing" and "Sequencer" in "Post Processing" section of the Render settings, and then render again, do you get a different result?

This may be your issue: Render turns black when finished

The render is being overwritten by something in the compositor or the sequencer. Un-tic "Compositing," and "Sequencer" in the "Post Processing section of the Render settings, and you should see what you expect.
You might also undo whatever sequencing and/or compositing you have going on in those panes.


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How to keyframe changes to assigned materials in Cycles
I'm trying to set-up an animation where each frame renders an object using one of several materials with the whole sequence rendering out all the material variations.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem possible to keyframe node connection changes in the Node Editor.  I've 12 materials that I need to connect to some more nodes before the material output.  I was thinking I might render this out over 12 frames, each one using a different material node setup.  It's not as simple as an RGB colour change.  This is the code I've tried but it appears to only set the final material for all frames.
mat = nodes.get("mat1")
link = links.new(mat.outputs[0], car.inputs[0])
car.inputs[1].keyframe_insert(data_path="default_value", frame=1)

mat = nodes.get("mat2")
link = links.new(mat.outputs[0], car.inputs[0])
car.inputs[1].keyframe_insert(data_path="default_value", frame=2)

Is there any way I can script this in Python?

It is not possible to keyframe changes to structure (eg adding/removing nodes or links).
You can achieve the same effect by using mix nodes/mix shaders and keyframe there factor. Or create many different materials and keyframe the material slot.


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What does the ! mean in user preferences?
I want to enable the export option with the ! next to it, but I want to know if it's safe. Can you please tell me what the object with the circle over it means in user preferences?

It is a support level warning icon.
That generally means it is an experimental, community contribution, or "work-in-progress" under development addon or extension, not officially supported or endorsed by the Blender foundation, as opposed to official addons, or stable fully supported ones, I think.
Generally means use at your own discretion, though most likely no harm will come from it.


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How do I get a texture painted image to show up on my model?
I have a body mesh for my monkey, and I uv-ed it! Then I added a new material and opened an image for it in the texture panel! Then I went in to texture paint mode and changed the paint type to image. Then I opened the same texture image I used before with the material! I went to texture paint mode, and the image showed up on the mesh and the uvs! Then I went to object mode and texture viewport shading and it wasn't there! It wasn't there in material mode either! The image shows it in texture paint mode where the image actually shows up. How can I fix this?

This appears to be a repeat of your question not long before this one.  Please do not repeat questions.

Example Nodes above. Texture Node with the UV on a diffuse shader as the surface output.  With the image texture node the file selection button was pushed and the correct image selected.  There is also a emission plane in the image. If you wanted a different texture you can add another texture node and make the connections or specify a different image with the file selector on the node.

Ahh thanks it works!!!! But now the texture is too dark. How do I make it lighter?

In the image above you see the plane with emission material ... a light.  Increase the [strength].  Lets assume your texture is not a light.  Make sure all comments are directly related to a proposed answer.


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How do I un make my object the camera?
I was pushing random buttons and all of the sudden my monkey was the camera. How do I undo this?

related http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/46487/19287

Your camera is inside the monkey "Suzanne". Select the camera in the "Outliner" press "G" to grab it and move it away from Suzanne. You can also select Suzanne and press "H" to hide it. You'll then be able to see your camera to move it. Then press ALT + H to un-hide Suzanne.


text:
Will audio render in sync, like when previewing in textured or solid mode?
I am trying to lip sync a character, which requires timing. In the cycles render engine in textured mode, things are slower but I animated the character that way, so my sound is in sync. But if I go to non texture mode and everything is gray, it's all faster and the sound is out of sync. When I render a movie file will it be at the slower speed and be in sync, or the faster speed like in solid shading. Here is just a little image of the scene if it helps.

It will not render it at the slower speed. However, there is a way you could be able to get around this.

Just look in the upper left corner of the 3D view while the animation is playing, and get its approximate frame rate. (average the values it changes to). [this number is the framerate the animation is playing at due to lag]

Now choose a "custom" as the framerate and set the FPS to that average.

Alternatively you can use time remapping to adjust the "speed" while still sticking to the target framerate.

This is not the optimal way to do things, and it will not work perfectly, but it is the only way (that I know of) to do what you are asking. Also note that to render it how it looks in the viewport (but at the proper frame rate) use open GL render.

Unfortunately, this framerate lag is natural, and there isn't much of a way to fix it. If your computer is not fast enough and can not handle processing the info for each frame that fast, it will have to slow down. Here is a picture of my quadcore's (8 thread) workload while running a 1,000,000 particle simulation. The FPS lagged down to 7.

The arrow is where I stopped the simulation before starting it again. The only way to fix this is to simplify your scene to make it run faster, or use compensations that will help speed things up, like viewing in solid view-port mode. If you move objects that are not necessary while animating to other layers, and have those layers hidden, this will also help. You can also simply hide objects.
There is a good way to avoid this in the future though!
Us the A/V sync feature (audio/video sync)

In the timline, open the "sync" menu.
Change it to "AV Sync"

But why when I have the frame rate at 24 frames per second, does it sometimes say 11 Frames Per Second? And also, since up above your answer, cegaton said its not in real time if it's red, then how do I get it not red and to real time. The reason I ask this is because mine is always red.

It will automatically play in real time if your computer is fast enough. Unfortunately, if your computer is not fast enough and can not handle processing the info for each frame that fast, it will have to slow down. I will update my answer showing this.

If you check AV/sync in Timeline > Playback, blender will try to keep the playback in time with any sound playing in the VSE (even if it cannot display all the frames quickly enough, in which case it'll skip some instead of falling behind)

That's a good idea. I'll try to add that when I get around to it. :)

@cegaton If I render using open Gl render in the solid viewport, should this sync things and make the textures appear, or will there be no texture if i open gl render from solid shading?

@Nolan yes, as Cegaton said, regardless of whether you are viewing in textured or solid mode in the viewport, the final render will still look the same, using your Cycles shaders (like it does in "rendered" viewport). Unless you want it to render as it looks in textured viewport, which is what OpenGL render is for. In that case, switch to textured shading before clicking OpenGL render.


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If I get the latest version of blender, will I lose anything in my old project files?
If I  uninstall the old version I have, then download the new version, will my I still be able to open my old project files, or will I lose anything in them like models, rigs, textures etc. I have a ton of blend files and really don't want to lose them! I hope you can help!!!

If i recall correctly there's no need  to uninstall blender, just install the newer one and it deletes the old stuff. Also, as another note to @Duarte's answer, it will also on first start up in the pop up menu ask if you'd like to copy the same settings from the previous version.

@Lukaash - pretty sure the copy old settings only works with single version jumps not 2.74 to 2.77 - but you can manually copy your settings to the new location. Blender has always been good at opening any version blend file. Doubt you will have any trouble between 2.74 and 2.77.

@sambler Oh, didn't know that, i don't often update so i thought i would of noticed though.

Blender is for the most part backwards compatible, that means files created with previous versions will generally open problem free in future versions.
Apart from major version jumps (like from 2.4# series to 2.5 or like the future 2.7# series to 2.8) Blender should open files created in older versions without any problems. Some times changes are made and "version patching" will happen internally automatically, that means blender will automatically try to fix anything that changed so it will look as close to original as possible. That being said there may be an occasional thing that breaks or causes a minor glitch, but never to the point of totally breaking or being unable to open your work.
Hell for the most part Blender even prides itself in being able open files created with recent versions of the software in very old versions, albeit with lots of warning and broken things.

You can opt to download the zip file from the Blender site, which is a stand alone working bundle of Blender files. That way you can keep all your work in one place and work on your models without the trouble of changing folders or anything of that sort when you upgrade your blender.


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How to get sculpting to stop mirroring?
I have a model I am trying to sculpt on and the only modifier I have is multi-res. I am trying to sculpt, and when I do it keeps mirroring. In the picture, you see two strokes, but I only want one stroke.

In the tool panel, T if it is not open find Symmetry/ Lock and disable mirror there. It is directly under Dynotopo.


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Cube won't appear in render
I have a simple cube with simple images as a material. I Uv unwrapped it and I made sure the camera was on for the show in render in the outliner. The first image shows the 3d view, and the second shows the render view. I don't have any nodes because I am in blender render. I also have a motion tracked image but no nodes either.

Is your camera and lamp on a different layer?

@cegaton What are Strips on the VSE? And how do I find out if it is in the render layers?

@cegaton Actually it was in the wrong layer. And thanks for helping!

Don't forget to confirm the answer.

@MasterHolbytla Um well how do you do that?

@Cegaton Write your answer as a answer not a question...

Sorry! I meant as an answer not a comment!


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Why is texture paint mirroring?
I uv mapped a part of my character and am looking to texture paint it. I used the fill brush to fill the whole part green, but then went to the texture draw brush and then drew on the back of the character. The drawing appeared, but it flipped to the front of the mesh. I applied the mirror modifier. The image shows the uvs of the object, and the stroke that I painted on the back of the mesh, but showed up on the front.

Please test this.  Can you get 5 strokes to appear correctly on the front?  Can you get 5 strokes to appear correctly on the back?  What modifiers are active on the Mesh. Mirror Modifier?

Mirroring actually means that both sides would get painted (and also look identically) which is obviously not the case. My guess is that you just assume what your front and your back in the UV image editor is. I think that the UV part which you assume is the back of the mesh is actually the front of it.

@metaphor_set Ok I tried selecting the uvs and rotating (r-y-180) and the problem was still there

@atomicbezierslinger There is no mirror, just sub-surface, and I can't get any strokes successfully on with painting on the side I want the stroke to appear on.

I didn't say anything about rotating. You say you want to paint on the back but the strokes apear on the front. Where do you actually paint? 3D view or UV texture editor? Maybe you could upload your blend file to blend exchange, so we could take a closer look?

@metaphor_set Here is the blender file https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByrMQl4A3FTwbWViVjBaSXM4Zzg/view?usp=sharing

Its overlapping uv on each other. Separate the uv's

Your normals are inverted (they are going inside the model).
Texture paint paints on front normals. That's why when you think you paint the front, all is going to the back.
To see the normals (edit mode) : go to the "mesh display" part of the right panel of the 3D view.
To inverse the normals, select all the needed vertices, then ctrl+N or ctrl+shift+N.


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How to make smoke a different color?
I have a smoke simulation with particles in blender. It's supposed to be a firework. There are particles emitted off a sphere, and the a smoke simulation. On the domain, the material color is blue like I want. In the render the blue will not appear though. The image has my node setup for the domain. Please help]1

@cegaton I did that node setup and all it did was add a little blue spot at the top of the smoke, it didn't cover it all.

You need to add the Volume Scatter node to be able to colour tint the smoke.


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Is there any software that I can do real time motion capture in Blender with?
I just finished an animation, and it took me a really long time. I was thinking of ways to reduce the time, and motion capture crossed my mind. I was wondering if anyone knows of any real-time motion capture software that works with Blender.

There are trials you can play with here https://ni-mate.com/ and here http://ipisoft.com/. Extra functionality, you might have to pay for...

Ok thank you! I will look into IPI soft. I already tried Ni mate and it didn't work.


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How do I make normals visible on both sides of a model?
I am making a first person shooter. I am making assets in Blender and importing them to Unity. I made a building with an entrance and imported it. When I walked around it, the walls started disappearing. To solve this,I re-calculated the normals, but then when I walked inside the building the walls disappeared. When I flipped the normals, I could only see the walls inside and not outside. Is there a way I can have the normals visible from the inside and outside of the model?

Common workflow is to model independent faces for inside and outside surfaces, walls are never paper thin anyway

You should simply add thickness to your walls, as they said in the comments, you don't have walls made only by a plane in reality, so the fastest way you can adjust your model is by using the solidify modifier just add as much thickness as you want and you should have something similar to the first picture; as you can see, this way you have normals on every side. In the second picture you can see where the thickness value is and all the other values you can play with in the solidify modifier.
Difference between solidfy and no solidify:

Solidify modifier:

For walls, you should add thickness as has been said. Sometimes you do need a paper-thin object, in which case you can simply duplicate the faces (SHIFT+D) and flip the normals ( W, F).
Leave this for the last stage of modelling, because overlapping vertices are not edit-friendly.


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How to bake without overlapping textures
I have an object with multiple materials. All these materials have their own textures and their UV maps overlaps. How can I bake without editing textures and not overlapping textures?

My answer on using multiple UV maps may also be helpful to you.

Hi David, with my all respect, the answer you linked is not solving my problem. I need to move my UV without loosing their texture. Can you unmark my question, there may be people out there with different ideas. Thanks you so much for your time.

@Valamor, Blender's texture atlas functionality should do the trick.

@R00t yes, I need one .png file that includes my textures and after that I will use it in my game engine. But the thing is, my UV maps are overlapping. So that my baked .png file is not correct.

@Valamor: I still recommend blender's texture atlas feature since it is exactly what you need. In this answer I explained how to use manual mode. [http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/51659/texture-baking-and-existing-uv-maps/51677#51677]


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How to export to dxf file without the geometry having a triangular mesh?
I have a simple 3D model made in Blender that I need to export to AutoCAD in dxf format. In Blender I have dissolved faces to simplify the geometry of the mesh.
When I export my model to dxf I get new triangles on the faces. My client asks me to eliminate this triangulation and make the mesh as clear as possible so that it can be edited in AutoCAD.
Is there a way to export my model in Blender without creating those triangles? Is it possible to export my model in Blender to another format that can open AutoCAD avoiding that triangular mesh? Is the methodology I am applying correct or is there a better one?
Please note that I will need to create many 3D models like the one I show in the image and that my client requests that the final file be in dxf or dwg.

For all intents and purposes, if anyone's looking for an export solution, I've been developing a dxf exporter for my own needs, you can find it here : https://github.com/Gorgious56/blender_ezdxf_exporter/blob/main/README.md (free)

Unfortunately the DXF exporter always triangulates faces before exporting. I would suggest using .fbx as format instead, which can be imported by AutoCAD.

Currently the .dxf exporter doesn't seem well maintained. The code is littered with commented code and to-do notes.

Thanks @rjgs, I will export my models to fbx files.
I see it's the best workflow for my purpose.

You can delete all faces on your mesh in Edit Mode with A; X Delete > Only Faces) in Blender, and after export you will not have triangulation edges.

With version 2.79 the DXF export exports well "without triangulation".


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Animation Nodes: Create a trail effect from an object moved by a list of coordinates
I have a list of coordinates in a CSV file and my goal is to be able to animate the movement of an animal or vehicle in Blender.  An example of what I want to achieve can be seen in this video. Notice that the movement of objects leaves a light effect on the track that fades over time. In this other example, the same effect is shown but this time the trail is maintained and does not fade.

I am learning Animation Nodes and can already move a sphere by parsing the CSV and capturing the coordinates from a list. Here's my node tree. It works just fine.

Also, I've experimented with applying particles to the emitting object and having them fly around the scene as the object moves.
But I would like to create a trail effect on the movement with Animation Node as the examples show.  I have seen several solutions to create trails in Blender, using particles or using splines, but I don't know which is the best solution. Also, in all solutions the movement of the emitting object is already predefined by keyframes or is random, but it is not given by a list of coordinates.
I am blocked. How can I create an animation in Blender with a trail that follows a list of coordinates?


text:
Select all overlapping vertices
There is "remove doubles" function for removing overlapping vertices and it works nice. But sometimes I'd like to see which vertices will be merged in order to decide whether I actually need to remove them or not. So in this case selecting them first (specifying distance threshold) to highlight would be useful. Unfortunately I have not found any such option in "select all by trait"

I have been using Blender for years, never even thought about that feature. I'll be super interested in any answers that are posted.

Ok, here the script that adds button with such function to "Select" > "Select All by Trait" menu. Feel free to improve.
Edit: Updated to blender 3.4.1
bl_info = {
    "name": "Select Doubles",
    "author": "Lambdadelta",
    "version": (1, 1),
    "blender": (3, 4, 1),
    "location": "(Edit Mode) Select > Select All by Trait",
    "description": "Select all overlapped vertices.",
    "warning": "",
    "tracker_url": "https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/68326",
    "category": "Mesh",
}

import bpy, bmesh
from mathutils import kdtree

def select_by_distance(context, distance):
    ob = context.object
    me = ob.data
    bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
    verts = bm.verts

    verts.ensure_lookup_table()

    size = len(verts)
    kd = kdtree.KDTree(size)
    for i, v in enumerate(verts):
        kd.insert(v.co, i)
    kd.balance()

    for v in verts:
        v.select = False

        vert_in_range_ids = [index for co, index, dist in kd.find_range(v.co, distance)]

        if len(vert_in_range_ids) > 1:
            for i in vert_in_range_ids:
                verts[i].select = True

    context.tool_settings.mesh_select_mode = True, False, False
    bm.select_flush_mode()
    bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, loop_triangles=False, destructive=False)

class MESH_OT_select_by_distance(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Select duplicate vertices"""

    bl_idname = "mesh.select_doubles"
    bl_label = "Select by Distance"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    distance: bpy.props.FloatProperty(
        name="Distance",
        subtype='DISTANCE',
        default=0.0001,
        min=0.0,
        max=50.0,
        description="Minimum distance between elements to select",
        unit='LENGTH',
    )

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        ob = context.active_object
        return ob and context.mode == 'EDIT_MESH'

    def execute(self, context):
        select_by_distance(context, self.distance)
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        select_by_distance(context, self.distance)
        return {'FINISHED'}

def menu_func(self, _):
    self.layout.operator(MESH_OT_select_by_distance.bl_idname, text="Verts by Distance")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(MESH_OT_select_by_distance)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_edit_mesh_select_by_trait.append(menu_func)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(MESH_OT_select_by_distance)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_edit_mesh_select_by_trait.remove(menu_func)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

First - Thx for creating this script. Can you update it, for working with Blender 3.4.1? :)

@jedrzej_s Updated


text:
How to symmetrize object in angle?
Here what I'm trying to achieve:

In 3ds max it can be done by rotating mirror plane of symmetry modifier. Video
In blender we can do almost the same with mirror modifier and rotating "mirror object", but the main difference is lack of slicing. Part of the mesh that cross mirror plane is not removed automatically.
So how we can do symmetry with rotation similar to 3ds max in blender?

You could probably achieve this with a combination of two modifiers.
You can use any object type as a mirror object, set up a mesh as object as mirror center, and use it also in a Boolean modifier.
Model it in the shape of a 'half box' so that it is a volume bounding only the half of the object you want to remove, then use it also as mirror axis.

Indeed, boolean combo with planes works nicely! https://i.imgur.com/cGL2afp.gif
Thank you for help.


text:
Controlling saturation on scene referred data
As troy_s mentioned in his answer about CDL node, Saturation is part of ASC CDL, but blender doesn't incorporate it in the CDL node. And

to control saturation on scene referred data a custom node group needs
  to be created to operate after the CDL node.

So, I searched about it on internet and found that:

A fourth parameter “Saturation” is achieved by converting the out.rgb
  data in a Luma and Chroma component. The Chroma Signal is then
  multiplied by the “Saturation” parameter.

I created this nodes and they seems work, but I'm not sure about math, is it the right way to control saturation?

The sample code for the ASC-CDL Saturation component looks like this:
/* compute the fully desaturated grey value */
luma =  rgb[0] * sat_coef_709[0] +
    rgb[1] * sat_coef_709[1] +
    rgb[2] * sat_coef_709[2] ;

/*
output rgb is a weighted average between the input rgb and
the fully desaturated grey value with "sat" as the weight...
*/

for (c=0; c<3; c++)
    rgb[c] = rgb[c] * sat + luma * (1.0 - sat);

The coefficients for any given RGB colourspace will differ. The coefficients for REC.709, are RGB 0.2126, 0.7152, 0.0722
Should be easy to sort out.
And yes, as per @cegaton, avoid the horrible use of (the also equally incorrectly labelled) YUV.
Technically, the RGB to BW node should work and honour the luma coefficients in the OpenColorIO configuration as well.

Worth noting that the ASC Saturation has a clamp in on the values, which makes it essentially useless for scene referred work.


text:
Turn off HDRI shadow casting
Is there a way to make an HDRI light setup not cast shadow? I Want to light my scene with an HDRI, but control the shadow with an normal lamp.

2 pass rendering (render layers) and compositing do the trick.

HDRI src: https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?c=outdoor&h=green_point_park
A few caveats:

it involves manual steps (see below)
as commented by @jaroslav-jerryno-novotny (thx), this method produces only black and white shadows where true environment lighting produces colored shadows.
it requires to carefully match the orientation of the environment lighting with the lamps to avoid producing an image that would otherwise look fake

In this example, I changed the light orientation to create a lamp shadow obviously different from the original Environment Lighting one.

First render layer, Environment Lighting only, no shadows:

disable all shadows from all objects (Object/Cycles Settings)
disable all lamps from rendering (outliner/Restrict Rendering)
enable environment lighting (Properties/world tab)
render

Second render layer, no Environment lighting, lamps only, shadow pass:

disable environment lighting (Properties/World Tab, delete world or black background)
enable all your lamps (outliner/Restrict Rendering)
enable transparency in the Render/Film tab
enable shadows for all objects (Object/Cycles Settings)
enable Shadow pass (Properties/Render Layers/Passes/Shadow)
render

In composite, use the first render and mix in the Shadow pass result of the second render layer (multiply or any other suitable method).

Note that the lamp shadow overlay factor here is controlled by the alpha channel of the second pass.
Let me know if you need me to flesh out the setup.

Yep, this is a way, but there should be a note it works only for black&white shadows. In reality the shadows should be colored by bounce light from the environment.

Thx, added your comment to the post.

Sadly you cannot turn off shadows for emissive material or the world background.
You can control the shadows of any object in that objetc's shaders using the Light path Shadow ray input or by unchecking the Shadow option under Ray visibility in Object panel, but that reacts to all light sources.
The only solution is to use Light primitives, for which you can turn shadows on/off. If you create a big dense icosphere and you put a point-light in every vertex, you get a sky dome with even light distribution.
Using python you can access the HDRI texture pixels and drive every light's strength and color to match a point on the texture accordingly. How the pixel array works is explained here and figuring the math of turning a point on a dome into 2D point on texture is a matter of some trigonometry. You can use a script to be run once and set this for all the dome lights.
You can also add drivers to link and multiply the strength of those lights with some Scene property for better control. How to create drivers with python script is here.

If you are making some sort of vector image, like a logo, you could use the Ambient Occlusion.
Turn Faction to 1.
Distance: 0
This will brighten your scene.


text:
Should i run SLI or not?
I were given two 580 GTX evga cards and thinking of putting them to use. Should I use SLI or not? I know that sli makes two card work as one etc. Hear some say SLI is not good for cycles, better to run them without the bridge.
any advice?

Short answer: turn it off when rendering with cycles. My video card is almost the same as yours (evga 590gtx, its a dual proc card, so the computer detects it as 2 video cards) and runs faster with cycles when not on SLI mode.


text:
Where is the FK/IK switch?
Can't find the IK/FK switch on this rig, (it says it has).
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/73740

You have to right click the base; the IK/FK panel will be on the right side.
0 = IK on
1 = FK on


text:
Loop alembic animation
I have an 4 frame animation made in Maya that i need in blender. Alembic wokres fine, but stops after frame 4, since there is no more animation. Is there a way i could loop the alembic file in blender?

Related:

reverse alembic
start alembic at specific frame

Once you imported an Alembic Cache, the object in Blender will have an Alembic Cache Constraint.

Check Override Frame.
In the frame property you can set keyframes. The following expression will loop through frame 1, 2, 3, 4. Directly enter the following in the Frame property:
#(frame - 1) % 4 + 1

The Values used in the Python Expression
#(frame - <starting_frame>) % <animation_duration> + <starting_frame>

frame               the actual frame played
starting_frame      the frame id where the animation begins
animation_duration  the number of frames the animation lasts

To customize the driver to your needs, replace starting_frame and animation_duration with your values:
The animation starts at frame 1 and lasts 4 frames: #(frame - 1) % 4 + 1


text:
How do I open JSON files using the Text Editor
I've been working with Sverchok (awesome add-on), which allows you to import/export data in a few formats, including JSON. The import function in Sverchok's node editor only allows you to utilize text files that are pre-loaded in the Text Editor window, but the problem is that the Text Editor can't "see" JSON files, and none of the filter buttons seem to make this possible. Am I missing something pretty basic?

What if you disable filtering entirely? (click the funnel icon to the left of the filter options)

we (team sverchok) should allow json to picked from disk and have the option to update the disk-read at low frequency at least (for dynamic json).

The easiest way to see files of any unexpected format (including JSON) is to disable filtering (click on the funnel!)


text:
Quickly Copy UV's from one face to another
I am looking for a way to increase the speed of my workflow. For the task at hand I will be using custom textures with replicated UVs across the same model. In other words, the walls will reference the same UV, as will the floor tiles, etc. Right now I have to select a face—let's say a floor tile—resize the uvs until they match the correct area of the texture, and then repeat the process for every other floor tile. It's a little too time consuming. I was wondering if there is a way that I could simply copy the UV rectangle of one floor tile, and copy it to the rest. Here is a picture to further articulate my wishes:

Does anyone have any tips to increase the copying of UVs?

Use this add-on:
https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/UV/Copy_Paste_UVs

You could also just unwrap one, then use an array modifier to duplicate it down the row, then remove doubles.

This add-on had been renamed to "Magic UV", new project page, stable version is included with Blender and can be activated in Preferences -> Add-Ons.

What surprised me is that when multiple faces are selected, "paste" command applies UV to all of them — very convenient!

I couldn't find an exact solution to this, but I did discover a quick way to configure the UV's by hand. All you have to do is look at the face that you want to alter UV's for, select it, press U, and then "Project from View". The UV quad/triangle will show up with the correct orientation(assuming you were looking at it the correct way)and all you will have to do then is drag the corners of the uv into place on the desired texture area. This greatly increased my speed when it came to texturing models.
If anyone has a better suggestion for actually copying UV data, I would love to hear it still.

By creating the parts of an object and texturing them before joining into one and duplicating, you can save a lot of time.

You can download the free addon and use the Stack operator.
But until the tool has a threshold on dimensions, and in order not to pick up unnecessary, unnecessary geometry that resembles the target island is better hidden

In Object Mode select the object, you wish to copy the UV order to, hold ⇧ Shift and select the object you wish to copy the UV order from, press Ctrl +  L and choose Transfer UV Maps.

This will overwrite whole UV layer of the object which can be unexpected if only several faces were supposed to get the same UV map as in the source object

Right. I didn't read the header. It's what I use all the time.

Have you tried to use this addon tool?
Align / Distribute UV
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/UV/UV_Align_Distribution
It should help with scaling the faces to fit your last scaled uv face.

In the 3D view of the uv editor, under the uv tab you can find copy/paste uv>copy>default
This will copy the coordinates of your selected face.
Then select your next face and choose copy/paste uv>paste>default to paste those coordinates to the face.
Strangely, this function is not found under the UV tab in the image view of the UV editor, which is
where you would expect to find it.

This is only if you have the magic uv addon installed.

Thanks, yeah, I forgot to mention that!


text:
Blender "double click" or "Open With" does not open .obj located on desktop
I have noticed that if I double click a .obj file on my desktop(which has the blender logo) it opens blender, but the file was not correctly loaded. Here is a picture showing the scene after the double click:

I also did some reading and saw that this may be caused by the Import/Export Wavefront .obj not being enabled...so I checked that, too.

It appears as though the only way that I can load a model into Blender is if I go through File -> Import -> Wavefront .obj. I could do that, but it really staggers my workflow when I have to go through all that instead of just double clicking the .obj file on my desktop. Is there a workaround for this? How can I fix this?
I'm using file-format as a tag because I don't know what else to put this under.

see this http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/34477/can-i-use-blender-as-a-photo-and-video-viewer

this is the normal behavior of blender, the file has blender logo because you changed your system settings to open that type of file with blender but it doesn't work this way

Also related: Is it possible to associate non-blend files with Blender?

Blender can't open OBJ files or any other 3D file format directly, besides the native .blend files.
OBJ files can only be imported, for that you must have the mentioned addon enabled and explicitly use the File > Import > Obj menu option, not double click on the OBJ file.
Your obj file probably shows a blender file because you manually associated the file format with blender possible through Right Click Menu > Open With > Blender and have the option "Always use this application" enabled, but that doesn't mean that Blender can open it successfully


text:
I cant see the background images
I have toggle the front view and other sides but i cant see any of my imports pictures in the background.

i ha e tried a tutorial posted here too, and still not working

related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/3339/drag-background-images-in-3d-view

also: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/14219/why-does-the-background-image-not-show-in-3d-view-of-blender-2-71

You've set the background image to the viewing position Left, but to show the background image you should be in Orthographic mode not Perspective. Press 5 on keypad to set Orthographic

im pressing numpad 5, it doesnt doing anything...

ok, just did it manually... XD... thanks for help!... Now it works...
If someone have the same problem Press [view]>[View persp/orth]


text:
How to open the MakeHuman Plugin Tab?
I want to import a MakeHuman figure for scale.
I have installed the MakeHuman plug-in for Blender and it is showing as enabled in the add-ons list. I have enabled Accept Connections in the Community -> Socket tab in MakeHuman.
How do I open the window/tab in Blender in order to use the plugin?
I have googled for how to show add-on tabs and add-on windows in Blender, but have not found any general instructions. I have looked in the File -> Import menu, the Modelling Object Mode Add menu, the scene tree dialog context menu, and the add workspace menu, but it cannot find any reference to it.

Try pressing N in the 3d viewport - a box will appear in the top right corner with tabs with vertically rotated text on the right side of it (Item, Tool, View, etc...) See if the MakeHuman addon has left a tab there.

Hi @ChristopherBennett, I have made sure that the viewport is in focus and pressed N, but do not see anything change in the GUI. I am in the modelling edit mode view at the moment, if that makes a difference. I have the Industry Compatible bindings on as well.

Strange, pressing N in almost any viewport should bring up a toolbar from the right, both in object and edit mode (also sclupt, vertex paint, draw, etc...). If you cannot bring up this toolbar (by pressing N when the mouse is in the viewport, by default) then I would look into why this is happening because often add-ons (I'm thinking of ones such as FaceBuilder) place their controls in this menu.

@ChristopherBennett thank you, that got me on the right track. I couldn't make the shortcuts work but I found a teeny arrow that showed the tabs and MH was there (I highlighted it in an image below).

The MakeHuman tab is in the viewport list as @ChristopherBennett says.
For my instance of 2.83.4 the key shortcuts did not work, but the list can be opened by clicking the little arrow near the top right of the viewport (shown below).


text:
Why is Keyboard C selecting the Cursor and not Circle Select?
When I press C on the Keyboard in Edit Mode in 2.8, it activates the Cursor tool, instead of Circle Select.
I tried to verify the shortcut in Preferences by searching for Circle Select, but became more confused, because while mask.select_circle is bound to Keyboard C, there are multiple entries, and some such as view3d.select_circle have the Ctrl modifier set to Subtract mode and Shift set to Extend: however the behaviour I observe is that Shift Subtracts and Ctrl does nothing.
How should I interpret these keymaps? And what is the correct way to set a shortcut for Circle Select in Edit mode?

maybe in the Preferences > Keymap, use the Key-Binding search field?

I'm not sure how to fix this but u have a cover up , you can get into circle select by clicking on the small triangle in the select box tool and then select the circle select


text:
How to delete uv maps (UVMap.001), etc?

I'm using MagicUV and I don't know how these uv maps keep getting created. MagicUV has also stopped working correctly (Copy and pasting is broken now), and I think it has something to do with these uv maps. I can't seem to find a way to delete them, though. Does anyone know how to delete them?

Never mind, I figured it out. It's located in a different area. The green triangle icon, select the unwanted uv maps from the list there and then hit the minus button.


text:
MagicUV not pasting correctly
Started using the magic uv addon, and it was functioning great for about a day. Now it's suddenly not copy and pasting faces correctly. Or in other words, I select the faces that I want to copy, copy them, then select the faces I want to paste the UVs at (which are exactly the same), paste the uvs, and the result is skewed. Here's a picture to better illustrate what I mean:

Does anyone know what would suddenly cause magic uv to behave in this manner? I've tried completely resetting the layout settings to factory, and opting out of magic uv, saving and quitting, then restarting and turning back on magic uv. None of that worked. For some reason, MagicUV is just suddenly very broken.
Also, it's not just these faces. Any face I copy and paste is broken now.

I think I just found a lead on why this is happening. I noticed that UV data for the face on the right can be moved as a single island, but the one on the left must be selected in parts. I don't know why this is happening, and merging the vertices, etc, doesn't seem to be resulting in a single selectable uv island....trying to fix it.

It looks like the face you pasted the UV to has a different vertex order than the original. You can fix that rotating the face UV:
Select the face and go to: Face -> Face Data -> Rotate UVs
You may or may not need to rotate two times.
Before:

After:

That's what I figured out as well, however this is not convenient for me, and it's still quicker to just unwrap projected from view. Was a good addon up until that point.


text:
UV Editor Grid Overlay
I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to enable a grid overlay like one would see in Gimp or photoshop, for the UV editor of blender. Here's a picture showing what I mean:

The grid is a 16x16, showing the bounds of each individual tile. Is there a way to replicate this sort of grid within the blender uv editor? So that I can see the boundaries of said tiles easier? Here is what my uv editor looks like in blender:

A grid overlay would really help me out, here. However, I can't seem to find an option for it, and Google turned up nothing useful.
Thanks!

Add grid to uv editor via gpu module

run script

# v2022_4_22

import bpy, bgl, blf, gpu
from gpu_extras.batch import batch_for_shader
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent

line_width = 2
line_color = (0.5, 0.8, 1.0, 0.9)
size_x     = 8 # int > 0
size_y     = 8

shader = gpu.shader.from_builtin('2D_UNIFORM_COLOR')
class BOX:
    def __init__(self, L, R, B, T):
        self.L = L
        self.R = R
        self.B = B
        self.T = T
    def upd(self):
        L = self.L
        R = self.R
        B = self.B
        T = self.T
        self.batch = batch_for_shader(shader, 'LINE_STRIP', {"pos": [[L, B], [L, T], [R, T], [R, B], [L, B]]})
    def draw(self):
        self.batch.draw(shader)
    def is_match(self, L, R, B, T):
        return L == self.L and R == self.R and B == self.B and T == self.T

class LINE:
    def __init__(self, x0, y0, x1, y1):
        self.x0 = x0
        self.y0 = y0
        self.x1 = x1
        self.y1 = y1
    def upd(self):
        x0 = self.x0
        y0 = self.y0
        x1 = self.x1
        y1 = self.y1
        self.batch = batch_for_shader(shader, 'LINE_STRIP', {"pos": [[x0, y0], [x1, y1]]})
    def draw(self):
        self.batch.draw(shader)

def draw_callback_px(self, context):
    try:
        bgl.glEnable(bgl.GL_BLEND)
        bgl.glLineWidth(line_width)
        shader.bind()
        shader.uniform_float("color", line_color)
        self.box.draw()
        for l in self.line_x:   l.draw()
        for l in self.line_y:   l.draw()

        # restore opengl defaults
        bgl.glLineWidth(1)
        bgl.glDisable(bgl.GL_BLEND)
    except:
        bpy.types.SpaceImageEditor.draw_handler_remove(ModalDrawOperator.handler, 'WINDOW')
        ModalDrawOperator.handler = None
        bpy.app.handlers.load_post.remove(run_when_open_new_blend_file)

class ModalDrawOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "view2d.modal_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Modal View2D Operator"
    handler = None

    def fin(self):
        self.box = None
        self.line_x.clear()
        self.line_y.clear()
        cls = self.__class__
        if cls.handler is not None:
            bpy.types.SpaceImageEditor.draw_handler_remove(cls.handler, 'WINDOW')
            cls.handler = None
            bpy.app.handlers.load_post.remove(run_when_open_new_blend_file)
        if bpy.context.area is not None:
            bpy.context.area.tag_redraw()
        print("END")

    def modal(self, context, event):
        if context.area is None:
            self.fin()
            return {'CANCELLED'}
        if event.type in 'ESC':
            self.fin()
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        region      = self.region
        L, B        = region.view2d.view_to_region(0, 0)
        R, T        = region.view2d.view_to_region(1, 1)
        w           = (R - L) / size_x
        h           = (T - B) / size_y
        # print(L, R, B, T)
        if self.box.is_match(L, R, B, T) is False:
            self.box.L = L
            self.box.R = R
            self.box.B = B
            self.box.T = T
            self.box.upd()

            x = L + w
            for l in self.line_x:
                l.x0 = x
                l.y0 = B
                l.x1 = x
                l.y1 = T
                l.upd()
                x += w
            y = B + h
            for l in self.line_y:
                l.x0 = L
                l.y0 = y
                l.x1 = R
                l.y1 = y
                l.upd()
                y += h

            self.L = L
            self.R = R
            self.B = B
            self.T = T
            context.area.tag_redraw()

        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        print("INVOKE")
        if self.__class__.handler is not None:  return {'CANCELLED'}
        if context.area.type == 'IMAGE_EDITOR':
            areas = bpy.context.screen.areas
            area_types = [a.type for a in areas]
            image_area = [a for a in areas if a.type == 'IMAGE_EDITOR']

            if image_area:
                image_area = image_area[0]
                editor      = image_area.spaces[0]
                # zoom = editor.zoom[0]
                region      = image_area.regions[-1]
                L, B        = region.view2d.view_to_region(0, 0)
                R, T        = region.view2d.view_to_region(1, 1)
                w           = (R - L) / size_x
                h           = (T - B) / size_y
                self.L = L
                self.R = R
                self.B = B
                self.T = T
                self.region = region
            else:
                self.report({'WARNING'}, "Area not found, cannot run operator")
                return {'CANCELLED'}

            self.box    = BOX(L, R, B, T)
            self.box.upd()

            self.line_x = []
            line        = self.line_x
            x           = L + w
            for r in range(size_x - 1):
                l = LINE(x, B, x, T)
                line.append(l)
                l.upd()
                x += w
            self.line_y = []
            line        = self.line_y
            y           = B + h
            for r in range(size_y - 1):
                l = LINE(L, y, R, y)
                line.append(l)
                l.upd()
                y += h

            args = (self, context)
            if self.__class__.handler is None:
                self.__class__.handler = bpy.types.SpaceImageEditor.draw_handler_add(draw_callback_px, args, 'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL')
                bpy.app.handlers.load_post.append(run_when_open_new_blend_file)
            context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
            context.area.tag_redraw()
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}
        else:
            self.report({'WARNING'}, "Editor not found, cannot run operator")
            return {'CANCELLED'}

@persistent
def run_when_open_new_blend_file(dummy):
    if ModalDrawOperator.handler is not None:
        bpy.types.SpaceImageEditor.draw_handler_remove(ModalDrawOperator.handler, 'WINDOW')
        ModalDrawOperator.handler = None

addon_keymaps = []
def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ModalDrawOperator)

    # Add the hotkey
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    kc = wm.keyconfigs.addon
    if kc:
        km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name='Image', space_type='IMAGE_EDITOR')
        kmi = km.keymap_items.new("view2d.modal_operator", type='F9', value='PRESS', ctrl=True)
        addon_keymaps.append((km, kmi))

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

    # Remove the hotkey
    for km, kmi in addon_keymaps:
        km.keymap_items.remove(kmi)
    addon_keymaps.clear()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Press Ctrl F9 in uv editor. Esc to End the operator.

Known Issues/Bugs

invalid when the image area outside the region.

Awesome. I'm going to be trying this here soon. I'll go ahead and upvote you and select you as the answer. Thank you so much for this!


text:
Merging two objects to make a corner
I'm making a hill/elevated surface, and I wanted to add in self-intersection corners, which would allow for me to have corner peices. I already tried to make both walls objects, and boolean them, but only one of the walls booleaned correctly, and the behavior could not be replicated on the other wall (even if I duplicated step 1 and tried to target the opposite wall). Here are two pictures:
This is a picture showing two walls overlapping.

This is a crude drawing showing in red, what triangles I want to be omitted, while the other faces are seamlessly merged together, thus creating a corner.

The answer to this was evidently to choose "union". Visually, it doesn't delete the other unwanted faces, but if you apply the boolean modifier, it will allow you to select the unwanted faces afterwards and delete them.


text:
UV Texture from Photoshop won't show
So I am making my first UV-mapping and have been following a video on Youtube.
I have UV-mapped my model, baked it and colored it in photoshop.
I have also saved it as a PSD file and opened it in the UV-window in Blender, but the model is blank. My viewport is in texture, but the model appears to be the same as when I baked it. In the video, the texture just appeared automatically.
Am I missing something here?
( I have Blender 2.74 + Photoshop CS5. I have tried opening it as a PSD file and a JPG, and I have tried changing cameras and changing to Edit mode)
Thanks for reading

Have you turned on GLSL Shading? (Properties panel -> Shading > dropdown menu). After that the texture should be shown when in Texture mode.

Hello again. I found the GLSL option (see new image) and turned everything on. Yet no result :( Any idea what it could be?

Have you created and applied the materials and textures to the model? You didn't mention that in the answer. It doesn't matter that the model has been UV unvrapped, there will be no images seen in Texture mode if textures hasn't been created (so and materials) and images you need haven't been opened in Image or Movie scroll.

Thank you Zak, that solved it. In the Youtube-video he just opened the new UV image and the texture came on. But I created a new material with Image Texture and used the UV-file. Thank you so much!