text:
Missing 'add shortcut' entry in addon
I'm fiddling around with an add-on to set Vertice Axis, and the add-on seems to work.
The addon creates a button in Tool Panel, and a menu entry in Mesh-Vertices.
The Problem is the missing 'add shortcut' entry in the right-click-menu.
I have tried for days to figure it out. If I add the entry manually in the shortcut menu with the rna 'mesh.move_verts_axis' it works.

import bpy
import bmesh

def _setupVertEdit():
    _set3DViewModeEdit()
    _initMeshEdit()
    return

def _initMeshEdit():
    global gObj, gObjData, gBMesh, gMat_world
    gObj = bpy.context.active_object
    gObjData = gObj.data
    gBMesh=bmesh.from_edit_mesh(gObjData)
    gMat_world = gObj.matrix_world
    return

def _get3DViewMode():
    return bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode()

def _set3DViewModeEdit():
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(type="VERT")
    return

def _updateData():
    bmesh.update_edit_mesh(gObjData)
    return

def _countVerts():
    return (len(gObjData.vertices))

def _getSelectedVerts():
    return [ v for v in gBMesh.verts if v.select ]

def _countSelectedVerts():
    return (len(_getSelectedVerts()))

def _getActiveVert(optSel=0):
    elem = gBMesh.select_history.active
    if elem is not None and isinstance(elem, bmesh.types.BMVert):
        return elem
    elif optSel == 'sel' and _countSelectedVerts() > 0:
            elem = gBMesh.verts[0]
            gBMesh.select_history.add(elem)
            return elem
    return None

def _SetActiveVert(vert):
    if (type(vert)=='int'):
        gBMesh.select_history.add(gBMesh.verts[vert])
    else:
        gBMesh.select_history.add(vert)

    _updateData()
    return

def _selectVert(vert):
    gBMesh.verts[vert].select = True
    return

def _deSelectVert(vert):
    gBMesh.verts[vert].select = False
    return

def _getVertCoor(vert):
    return gBMesh.verts[vert].co

def _getVertCoorGlo(vert):
    gBMesh.verts.ensure_lookup_table()
    return gMat_world * gBMesh.verts[vert].co

def _setVectorCoor(vert,x=0,y=0,z=0):
    if x>0:
        gBMesh.verts[vert].co.x=x

    if y>0:
        gBMesh.verts[vert].co.y=y

    if z>0:
        gBMesh.verts[vert].co.z=z
    return

def _setVectorCoorGlo(vert,x=None,y=None,z=None):
    vert = gBMesh.verts[vert]
    pos_world = gMat_world * vert.co
    if x!=None:
        pos_world.x = x
        vert.co = gMat_world.inverted() * pos_world
    if y!=None:
        pos_world.y = y
        vert.co = gMat_world.inverted() * pos_world
    if z!=None:
        pos_world.z = z
        vert.co = gMat_world.inverted() * pos_world
    return

def _adaptVerts(vert1,vert2,x=False,y=False,z=False):
    if x:
        _setVectorCoorGlo(vert1,x=_getVertCoorGlo(vert2).x)
    if y:
        _setVectorCoorGlo(vert1,y=_getVertCoorGlo(vert2).y)
    if z:
        _setVectorCoorGlo(vert1,z=_getVertCoorGlo(vert2).z)
    return

def _setVertsAxis(axis):
    selV=_getSelectedVerts()
    actV=_getActiveVert(optSel='sel')

    if axis=='x':
        for vert in selV:
            _adaptVerts(vert.index,actV.index,x=True)

    if axis=='y':
        for vert in selV:
            _adaptVerts(vert.index,actV.index,y=True)

    if axis=='z':
        for vert in selV:
            _adaptVerts(vert.index,actV.index,z=True)

    _updateData()
    return

def checkVerts():
    global lVerts
    lVerts=_countSelectedVerts()
    # print('Selected Verts: '+str(lVerts))
    if lVerts<2:
        return False

    if _getActiveVert() == None:
        return False
    return True

def getVertsData():
    obj = bpy.context.active_object
    return 'Mesh: '+obj.name+', '+str(lVerts)+' Verts selected, move Axis ...'

def moveVerts(boolX,boolY,boolZ):
    if boolX:
        _setVertsAxis('x')
    if boolY:
        _setVertsAxis('y')
    if boolZ:
        _setVertsAxis('z')
    _updateData()
    return

def menu_func(self, context):
    self.layout.separator()
    self.layout.operator(OBJECT_OT_VertsButton.bl_idname)
    self.layout.separator()

# store keymaps here to access after registration
addon_keymaps = []

# Registration
#   All panels and operators must be registered with Blender; otherwise
#   they do not show up. The simplest way to register everything in the
#   file is with a call to bpy.utils.register_module(__name__).
#

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_edit_mesh_vertices.append(menu_func)

    # this does not work !!!
    # handle the keymap
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name='Mesh', space_type='EMPTY')
    kmi = km.keymap_items.new('mesh.move_verts_axis', 'SPACE', 'PRESS', shift=True, ctrl=True)
    kmi.properties.boolX = False
    kmi.properties.boolY = False
    kmi.properties.boolZ = False
    addon_keymaps.append(km)

    print('register done')

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_edit_mesh_vertices.remove(menu_func)

    # handle the keymap
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    for km in addon_keymaps:
        wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.remove(km)
    # clear the list
    del addon_keymaps[:]

    print('unregister done')

    # bpy.utils.unregister_class(OBJECT_OT_VertsButton)
    # bpy.utils.unregister_class(ToolsPanel)
    # bpy.utils.unregister_class(SetVertsDialogOperator)

#
#    Menu in tools region
#
class ToolsPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Adjust"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "TOOLS"
    bl_category = 'Tools'
    bl_context = "mesh_edit"
    bl_options = {'DEFAULT_CLOSED'}

    def draw(self, context):
        self.layout.operator("op.adjust_verts")

#
#    The  button Function
#
class OBJECT_OT_VertsButton(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "op.adjust_verts"
    bl_label = "Set Verts"

    def execute(self, context):
        #       if checkVerts():
        bpy.ops.mesh.move_verts_axis('INVOKE_DEFAULT')
        return {'FINISHED'}

# Dialog from Toolpanel-Button 'Set Verts'
#       https://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_57_release/bpy.types.Operator.html

class SetVertsDialogOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "mesh.move_verts_axis"
    bl_label = 'Move verts to Active Vert Axis'
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "data"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}   #Important for F6-Menu

    # Properties default=False
    boolX = bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="X", description="Move selected Verts to Active Vert X-Axis", default=False)
    boolY = bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="Y", description="Move selected Verts to Active Vert Y-Axis", default=False)
    boolZ = bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="Z", description="Move selected Verts to Active Vert Z-Axis", default=False)

    #   Execution
    def execute(self, context):
        # print('execute:' + str(self.boolX))
        _initMeshEdit()
        moveVerts(self.boolX, self.boolY, self.boolZ)

        # this does not work !!!
        #        message = "Popup Values: %d, %d, %d" % \
        #            (self.boolX, self.boolY, self.boolZ)
        #        self.report({'INFO'}, message)
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        # print('invoke:')
        wm = context.window_manager
        return wm.invoke_props_dialog(self)

    def draw(self, context):
        _initMeshEdit()
        if checkVerts():
            check_msg = getVertsData()
            self.layout.label(check_msg)
#            row = self.layout.split(0.35)
            row = self.layout.row()
            row.prop(self, "boolX")
            row.prop(self, "boolY")
            row.prop(self, "boolZ")
        else:
            self.layout.label('* Need more than one selected Verts')
            self.layout.label('* 1 vert must be active [shift click]')

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

i think you need to register all your ops bl_idname as mesh.something  and not op.something , it's the custom op. path messing things up (which arguably it shouldn't ).

regarding the register/unregister of keymap entries, see tutorial in the blender API docs --...addon_keymaps.append((km, kmi))

thks, after change code "bl_idname = "op.adjust_verts" to "bl_idname = "mesh.adjust_verts" it works in Menu and Button.

I think this is hardcoded in Blender, it could be reported to the bugtracker as a bug. I don't know of ways around it so can't offer a better solution.

Unless someone knows a way around this, this seems to be the answer:
Although it's convenient to use a new namespace for the operators of your addon, this does seem to break the Add Shortcut feature. Which seems to be hardcoded to include only existing namespaces like mesh.some_operator_name or object.some_operator_name.
These will work:
# bpy.ops.mesh
bl_idname = "mesh.some_operator_name"

# bpy.ops.object
bl_idname = "object.some_operator_name"

this will work functionally, but won't it show the Add Shortcut menu item
bl_idname = "op.some_operator_name"


text:
Why does my object not show up?
This is meant to solve this problem once and for all. What is every reason an object isn't showing up in a render or viewport in when using the cycles render engine?

Another possibility, it could be misplaced far away.

Why is part of my model not being rendered?

This is the overview. I am breaking up the parts into individual answers that we can link to from other questions. This is a community wiki, so feel free to add ones that need to be addressed completely in another answer. If you decide to add another answer, please follow the pattern that I used with the first individual answer. This will make it easy to send people to this question or a particular answer while knowing that their question will be answered completely.
Invisible to the render

Camera icon is disabled in the outliner

Render layer not showing in the compositor

Render layer does not include scene layer or the objects are in a layer that is not renderable.

Scene layer not selected

Cycles camera visibility disabled in object settings

Cycles material disables visibility to the camera

Objects are not within the range set by the camera clipping

Using the wrong scene

Strips present in the VSE, and the sequencer box is enabled in the post process section

Cycles: Exposure setting in the film section set to 0

Depth of field not set properly making the whole scene blurry

Object blocking the camera view

An object has been set as the active camera.

There are no lights on the scene or they are on a different layer.

Objects have no faces

The Solidify modifier takes over the object and is disabled in Viewport

Duplication type set to 'Group' and no group is selected.

Duplication issues (under the Object tab in the properties panel), e.g., duplication type is not 'None', and object has no childen, or set to 'Group' and no group is selected.

Render layer In Node editor is muted (disabled)

Cycles materials don't have a shader node

Camera is not pointed at object

Save your data to .blend before rendering with Cycles/Eevee (Blender 2.8)

Object has a particle system with emitter visibility disabled and/or no particles

Cycles Filter is active

Run out of maximum amount of lights in EEVEE

Particles of rigid body world is not baked.

Objects has keyframed position, rotation, scale, or is otherwise animated

Invisible in the viewport

Object is hidden.
3D view clipping distance set too high/low.
Scene layer not selected. / Collection is hidden.
Using the wrong scene
Object is moved far away
Using local view
View Border is active (Alt+B)
Cycles Filter is active (same as #24 for the "render" list above)
Cycles Render Preview: Ray visibility is disabled for camera or visibility is set as Holdout or Shadow Catcher
Object is a "helper" without geometry (including but not limited to cameras, empties, armatures, curves without faces, force fields tec.) and Extras are disabled in Viewport Overlays.
Object has modifiers with disabled viewport visibility (Monitor Icon)
Bug with AMD graphics cards - objects are not visible with subdivision modifier and GPU subdivision
Camera bounds outside of viewport region

Questions about problems that have not yet been addressed
Why Does My Object Not Show in Rendered Shading Mode?
Why do some objects not show up in the camera view?

I'd like to add that if a object is hidden (by pressing 'H' when selected) it could also result in an incomplete scene, especially when your workflow uses the isolate parts function ' / ' alot.
NOTE: There have been some bugs reported concerning this in the past. So it might be difficult to replicate.

@Delagone The "H" is already mentioned. That is just a shortcut to disable the "eye" icon in the outliner. Local/global view is important, though. I'll add it soon.

Also, this happens to me all the time, maybe it should be added to the answer: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/88765/object-doesnt-render-layer-conflict

@MicroMachine Why don't you go ahead and edit this answer?

@JakeD all done :)

@Leander That's fine IMO, but I edited it to improve the flow a bit.

2. Render layer not showing in the compositor
Documentation: https://www.blender.org/manual/render/post_process/layers.html#render-layers
There are actually a few different ways to run into this kind of problem. I will divide this up into different cases. If the Use Nodes button is not checked (in the node editor), you will not have any of these problems.
Case 1:
What it will look like
The render layer image output is not connected to the composite (final output) node.

How to fix it
Connect the nodes in some way (this is the simplest case...there will likely be other nodes in between).

Case 2:
What it will look like
The wrong render layer is selected by the render layers node.

How to fix it
Change the render layers node to the correct render layer.

6. Using local view
This one is a bit trickier, but is pretty easy to avoid. Nevertheless, if you happen to hit the Numpad / key, you may hit this so it's important to put here.
What it looks like
When you switch to local mode, only the selected objects become visible in the active 3D view.

How to fix it
Switch to global mode by pressing Numpad /, or use View > View Global/Local.

1. Camera icon is disabled in the outliner
Documentation: https://www.blender.org/manual/editors/outliner.html#object-level-restrictions
What it will look like
The object will not be able visible in the final render, but it may or may not be visible in the 3D view render and the 3D view's solid mode.

How to fix it
Enable the render icon in the outliner for the object, or (with the object selected) hit Ctrl+Alt+H.

1. Object is hidden
Another reason why something might be invisible in the viewport is because it is hidden. Usually what triggers this is an accidental press of the H key, or Shift+H. The H key hides anything selected from the viewport, whereas the Shift+H hides anything not selected.
What it will look like
You won't be able to see the object in your viewport. In the outliner, there will be a greyed out eye next to the object.

How to fix it
Pressing Alt+H will make any hidden objects appear again. Also, you can enable the eye icon in the outliner.

I already had this one in the overview list...I just didn't call it the same thing.

Gotcha, i didn't even realize that the eye icon and Hothey H did the same thingxD

15. Objects have no faces
What it will look like
A mesh may have edges and vertices, but no faces.

How to fix it
Right-click to select a few vertices, then press f to make a face that spans them.

Alternatively, you could add a skin modifier:

22. Save data to .blend before rendering with Cycles/Eevee
I think it hasn't been mentioned that, at least in Blender 2.8, you need to save to a .blend before you can render the smoke (and before you can bake it).

Cycles Filter
The cycles filter will restrict elements from being visible in viewport rendering and render. If you uncheck the Surfaces or Volume for example, no surfaces or volumes will show.

Ray visibility is disabled for camera:

Or visibility set as Holdout or Shadow Catcher:

8. Using the wrong scene
What it will look like
An empty scene is selected. In this example, the scene "Scene" is empty, and a different scene "Scene 2" has things in it.

How to fix it
Use the drop-down to the left of the name to select a different scene:

Note that you can set Blender to set the current scene to be the same for when you switch screens by enabling "Global Scene" in the user preferences (User Prefs > Interface > Global Scene). Make sure to save the user settings.

Object has keyframes
Objects might have keyframes for some properties with some values that would make them not visible in renders. This could be visibility, location, scale or something else. In this scenario one may move or adjust the objects to their liking and hit render, but since new keyframes are not set, the objects would return to their previous state making it seem as if they disappear upon rendering, frame change or reloading the file.
It's possible to see if an object has animation data in the Outliner and animated properties are colored dark orange to indicate the value is changed but not keyframed:

You should select the object(s) with animation and search( F3 ) for Remove Animation operator:

It's also in 3D Viewport header menu - Object > Animation > Clear Keyframes
One could also just delete the animation data in the Outliner by right-clicking and choosing Clear Animation Data.

Be sure to check parent objects as well. Sometimes the object itself may not be animated directly, but it might be parented to another animated object, like an empty, armature, or other meshes that are themselves animated.
Look for any parent objects, along with drivers and constraints both on the object and parents, to ensure none are inadvertently affecting your objects.

source: Stack Exchange

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

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sort: votes


text:
Selection Glitch
When I try to select the faces of my sphere with C the selection slowly becomes random.

Furthermore, in solid view in edit mode, when adding a new cube, it looks like this picture, with all faces divided by triangles and strange borders!?!

It's a common problem, related with you driver of video. Enter in Blender User Preference CTRLALTU and try with different configurations, in Selection and Window Draw Method, to fix it.

Thanks for your advice, but still not work, in my user preferences this setting is already set to "automatic"!
Maybe the problem could be related at my system, i use blender in Fedora 24 with gnome 3. my Graphics card is Quadro 580FX with compatibility driver installed.

The cause of your problem might be that you have set the number in the image below too low , try increasing it it may fix your problem. Hit N while your mouse is in 3d view to bring up those options

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


text:
Palette Texturing
I was wondering what node combination I would need to achieve the coloring shown in the attached picture. I've been fiddling with a color ramp for a while but couldn't get the result I wanted. I've focused most of my learning in modeling so I don't know much about materials, so any tips are valuable to me.
Thanks!

Possible duplicate of Gradient multi color each face?

What have you done so far? Can you show screenshots of your work? Where exactly are you stuck?


text:
Using Blender to animate physical (real world, non-Blender) lights
I am thinking about using Blender as a way to animate a 3 dimensional array of lights in physical space. I thought I could set up a 3D mesh of spheres and animate the color and intensity of those spheres, values of which I would then send to the real world via OSC or some other protocol using Python. Is this a feasible way to do this? I could just use a lighting program but I would like the flexibility of having an object made up of the pixels (spheres) animated. I wanted to ask here before I go down this rabbit hole as I'm not a Blender user but see it as a great potential interface for this project. Any opinions on this or anyone know of similar projects/attempts at this. Thanks for any insights.

This is a very interesting project, It would be fantastic to develop a cross talk between Blender/Python and the MIDI protocol (widely used in Music and Lighting production): there would be a lot of controllers, for data input, lots of hardware responding to the instructions, lots of sequencers to run the programmings! I'm not a developer but I'd would like to get in touch. joshsanfelici@gmail.com

Consider that Blender works with mathematical points in a 3D space (not pixels). Every point has a location (3 values: XYZ coordinate), a rotation (difference from starting 000 rotation) and scale (difference from 111 default scale). Then every point can be an object, a bone, an empty, etc.. having others attributes (materials, color, UV (2Dimensionals) projections, intensity of some parameters, custom properties, etc..).

If you have a mac, try quartz composer. Processing linked with Arduino could also work. Both quartz and processing have the 3D rendering capabilities that you need for this project so it should be simpler to implement with them.

Here is sort of the opposite direction, but interesting nonetheless. I don't know how he does it, but it's definitely possible in that sense.

Thanks a lot for the pointers. I considered Processing but I really wanted to use a program dedicated to animation so I could use it's tools.  @joshsanfelici I think if anything rather than MIDI it would probably be useful to use DMX or OSC as an output protocol at least for my purposes. Thanks for the link to the puppet . Quite interesting. For those of you interested in this thread I found this link which also offers some insights. link

authors: Барни Стинсон


text:
Arm doesn't want to merge with body
My arm that is a curve, doesn't want to merge with the body when I select both of them then press Ctrl+J
At first, it works, I can move the whole body together with the arms
However, when I de-select it, and then click the body again, they don't go together anymore.

The reason you cannot merge the body and the arm together is that they are not the same type of object. The body is Mesh object, while the arm is a Curve object. You may only merge if both objects are the same type (with certain limitations, e.g. you cannot merge two Lamps, or two Cameras).
In order to merge the arm with the body you will need to first convert the arm to a mesh by selecting it and pressing ALT+C > Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text.
After converting you can then merge the two mesh objects with CTRL+J.

You can Parent the curve to the Mesh with "Ctrl+P" and select "keep transform"
Then when you select and move the parent, the child will move with it, but they will be separate objects though.
Or you can put them in the same group
With "Ctrl+G" and move the originals to a different layer by selecting them and press "M" and choose the new layer.
Then go to a different layer, press "Shift+A", go down to group instance
and select the group you created.
You cant go into edit mode in the group instance, you will have to change the originals located on that other layer.


text:
Trying to use editing mode
I'm trying to use edit mode to change vertices, faces, and edges, but whenever I select a single edge or face, etc., instead of moving that I just translate the entire object.
That is, instead of moving an edge down the entire object moves down, as if I am in object mode and translating.

I don't have all edges selected, but i dont have proportional editing enabled. The problem though, is that when I turn off proportional editing, moving the edges moves only the edge and the faces don't follow. So if say i move the edge of a square, the face will stay in place and the edge im moving will go down. Basically creating an opening.

Is your proportional editing sphere of influence really big? Sometimes I will forget about how big my sphere of influence is and be surprised to find that all of the vertices move when I just wanted to move one.

Maybe you have accidentally duplicated your mesh or parts of it? Posting your .blend http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ file might help speed up a solution.

How do I change my proportional editing sphere of influence?

scroll with the middle mouse button.


text:
How to make a perfect curve
Is there any way to create a perfect curve automatically without having to move the polygons manually?

Do you know about curve objects? Also, what about proportional editing falloff?

Maybe not, I'm still learning

What do you mean by "a perfect curve"? Does proportional editing do what you need? In edit mode, press O to turn it on and experiment with it. Note that there are different settings for it which will give different results.

I don't think it's possible, you could flat the surface then deform it with the Proportional Editing / Sphere Falloff type, or delete this surface, and completely recreate it from an circle arc.

I have no problem editing manually, but it would be interesting a tool to make symmetrical curves in large areas automatically

You can use Relax function that comes with LoopTools add-on. The add-on comes with Blender so you just need to activate it in the User Preferences (ctrl+alt+u). The function is then accessible from Specials menu (w), LoopTools submenu. It can be used with edge loops selected. Note all the options in the t panel that you can change.

Space function might also be useful:

I'd suggest using fewer polygons and letting the subsurf modifier work for you. For example, I tried replicating your shape with fewer edge loops:

Sparser geometry should make it easier to manipulate your subsurf'd mesh into curved shapes manually. Additionally, for a "perfect", arbitrary, non-destructive curve, I'd suggest using the curve modifier. This way you can guide your mesh with a curve object, which is ideal for describing a smooth curve with few points.
For perfectly repeating geometry, you can couple this with an array modifier for maximum non-destructivity:

Yes, I certainly exaggerated in the subdivide.

Or, to extrude to a specific curve:

Draw your curve.. in its Data > Shape panel set its resolution to match the edge you're extruding from, bearing in mind resolution is per-segment.
In Object Mode, Alt C convert the curve to a mesh
You may have to tweak the number of, and/or space the vertices - Loop Tools > Space will do that
Ctrl J Join the meshes
Ctrl E Edge Menu > 'Bridge Edge Loops' (probably set to linear , with no profile influence)

I would have recommended bsurfaces, which theoretically should be ideal for this, but they've been giving me jip.

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


text:
Locking size of individual mesh part
I have an object with a lot of holes with the same size.
I want to make the object smaller, but also I want to save sizes of the holes that are part of the object.

Screenshots? It is hard to tell what you're asking with just words.

https://imgur.com/a/WkHtzDf

I went ahead and edited your question for you to add the screenshot.

After scaling the object, determine the amount of scaling of the holes required to "undo" that scaling. For example, if the object was scaled down by a factor of 0.9, use 1 / 0.9 = 1.111 as the scale factor to adjust the holes by.
To quickly scale all of the holes switch to use the pivot center "Individual Origins" and it should scale each hole separately.
You can get the add-on presented in this answer to verify that the dimensions of the holes are indeed the same: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/68678/28015.


text:
Lines appear on the texture in render
I am trying to learn Blender. While trying to render a subdivided plane with an image texture applied to it, the subdivision edges are not removed in the rendered result.
Kindly, advise, why these edges appear in the render.

Yes I agree it looks like they are part of the texture, try to open the image you are using and check if you see those lines outside of blender as well.

the plane has no modifiers applied to it, the lines appearing during render are added to the texture during the uv unwrap because the plane has been subdivided before the uv unwrap

Yes those lines appear outside of blender as well

the exported uv/unwrap image contains these lines

Then i guess it's a problem of the image itself, you should use a tool like GIMP or Photoshop to delete those lines.

Does the initial imae, the one you use as a texture, has those lines too? or are they only in the exported UV/unwrap image?

these lines appear in the exported UV/unwrap image and I didn't remove them while edit using gimp

I didn't realize that these lines should have been deleted diring edit. Thank you for your help.

It should be obvious that a texture with lines in it is going to render with those lines.
The Export UV Layout operator exports the UVs as lines so you can use it as a guide for texturing in external programs. (In your question you should not even need it, because you are just texturing a plane.)

These images are the subdivided plane, its UVs and the image below is the exported UV layout.
In any event you must turn off the UV guide layer in your project (in whatever image editor you are using) before exporting the texture map to use back in blender.


text:
Where is the "Project Paint" and "Layer" option in Blender 2.77a?
I am now following a YouTube video that teaches texture painting in Blender 2.61. But I cannot find the Project Paint and the Layer option in my version of Blender (2.77a). Where are they in Blender 2.7x?
The left-hand side is a shot from the YouTube video. The right-hand side is the menu in my blender 2.77a.

First, the video uses 2.61 not 2.7x. I edited your question to reflect this.
The project paint panel resides in the options tab, and the uv layer select is in the slots panel of the slots tab.

Blender User Interface Terms

I updated my question with a screenshot of the menu. There is no Project Paint =[.

The project paint panel can be found in the Options tab.

@CasperLIWaiKin Sorry, I misunderstood your question. Please see my updated answer.

authors: Рустам Сафиканов


text:
Why doesn't constraining to a vertex group behave like parenting to vertices?
It is possible to constrain objects or bones to vertex groups using Child Of, copy rotation, etc. However, when you do this, you tend to get odd behavior, especially with bones. They tend to roll over or otherwise flip strangely.
However, if you parent an empty to 3 vertices, it works reliably. You can then constrain the bone to the empty. But this is a lot more setup.
Can anyone explain why these behave differently? Why is constraining directly to vertex groups not viable, and is there a way to solve it? I remember reading about it somewhere in detail a year or two ago, but cannot find it now.

I would bet on the fact that bones uses Quaternion rotation but the vertices would be using Euler rotation ... not too sure but you can check.

Another suspicion.. the constraint system can't work on the assumption that the vertex group is planar, (even if it is). So it must be deriving the orientation of the target space from a weighted mean/median of the group's vertex normals, which could be subject to all sorts of variability?The parenting system knows there are three vertices, and so can derive its orientation from the simpler normal of the plane defined by them?

I vaguely remember that it was something to do with Vertex Normals vs Face normals, but I can't remember the details or find where i saw it.

When using a "Child Of" constraint with the vertex group option, because there can be any number of vertices, the rotation must be derived from a mix of all the vertex normals.
Even if you just use 3 vertices in the vertex group, the normals of those three vertices will be affected by other vertices that are not part of the vertex group. If those three vertices are connected by edges to other vertices, the connected vertices will affect their normals.
When doing a vertex parent, there is a guarantee of only three vertices so the algorithm is a simple barycentric algorithm.
If you make a duplicate of the three vertices in your group and detach them from other vertices you should get the same behavior with a "Child Of" constraint that you would get with parenting to three vertices.
One possible workaround would be to duplicate the vertices you want to use with the constraint so they are not connected to any neighboring verts that could affect their normals. You could delete their faces so they don't show up in render. I tried the mask modifier but it kills the constraint.


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How to get rid of an object's reflection?
I am creating a logo for a friend (not getting paid), and I want to figure out a way to get rid of one object's reflection against another without removing the other object's reflectivity. If you look at the image, the "e" in Jewel shows up against the diamond and I don't want it to. Can I place the Jewel on a different layer with an alpha layer background in order to insert it into the image without the diamond having a reflection of it, and then use the compositor to overlay one on top of the other?
How would I go about this? I've looked up tutorials online on how to use the compositor, and they all involve an "image" node and a "compositor" node, but I can't seem to find these under the "add node" button, and I've been searching for a while.

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/7573/how-do-i-composite-render-layers-in-2-69-using-cycles?rq=1 and here you can find a more in depth explanation (skip the "divide" node part): http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/3002/using-scenes-and-render-layers-to-composite-an-object-isolated-on-white-backgrou?rq=1

@Carlo I can't find anything in either of those about how to get a render layer node.

@cegaton I'm using Cycles

You can find the Render Layer node in the Input section/tab of the Add menu (or you can use the Search function)

Oh. I was looking on the materials node editor, not the compositor node editor. I still don't really know how to use the compositor or its node editor. I'll look up some tutorials.


text:
Fill Bezier Curves
I'm having a big problem with the bezier curves in Blender. I'm trying to fill up the curves, but I can't. I have already seen some videos from YouTube, that say that I have to click on the 2D button.

But when i click on the 2D button, this is what it happens.

I thought it was a problem with the camera, but:

What am I doing wrong?

could you upload the blendfile?

After you switch from 3D to 2D, you should choose Both, Front or Back instead of None in the curve properties drop down menu.

Also apply the rotation of your curve (Ctrl + A > Apply rotation), before switching to 2D.

I've done what you suggested josh sanfelici and it is "almost" the same as the 3rd screenshot, but a bit thicker. But it doesn't fill up and it doesn't keep the same shape.

then you should upload the file...

Thank you very much josh! I just applied the rotation and it work!

Make sure you're using x end y axis only (not z). If not, rotate your curve (And don't forget to apply the rotation).


text:
Transparent PNG texture casting shadows
I'm attempting to overlay a transparent PNG texture over a plane to create a glowing cutout effect. However, the transparent regions of the cutout aren't actually transparent and are casting a shadow on the floor below. Below are the top, side and node setup of the plane with the texture.

Try to unplug the Color input of Transparent BSDF. Set it's color to pure white.

@PaulGonet Thanks. That worked. Could you put it in the answer while explaining what the color input of the transparent shader actually do? I would appreciate it if you explain when it should be used.

Set the transparent bsdf to one color (solid white: 1, 1, 1...alpha is disregarded). For this shader to be truly "transparent," the color must be so.

Transparency color levels from left to right: 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1 (yes, there is an invisible monkey on the end).
Here is the demo blend:

And here is a link to the transparent shader in the manual:
https://www.blender.org/manual//render/cycles/nodes/types/shaders/transparent.html

The color can also be used to tint (it doesn't have to be the same for R, G, and B channels):

From left to right, the RGB color is as follows: (0.5, 0, 0), (0, 0, 1), (0, 0.75, 0), (0.75, 1, 0.75), (1, 1, 0).

Does the transparent shader take in RGB or RGBA? If its RGBA like you said, then whats the alpha channel doing if the RGB determines transparency? I am currently assuming that the transparency is the saturation of the color.

Transparency is based on the value of the color (black-->white). The alpha doesn't do anything: I've updated my answer.

As I understand Color is 3 values. How is transparency determined? (Unless its the grayscale value) Also, I assume the RGB tints the transparent material?

Yes, RGB tints the transparency...the amount of transparency is determined by the grayscale value. I will add a color demo to my answer.

Great clarification. Thanks for the explanation.


text:
Trails Behind Projectiles
How would I add comic-like trails to projectiles, such as arrows? I have an example from YouTube, but the effect is done in another software.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4lmGGSsFYg
The effect occurs around 27 seconds, where an arrow is shot and there is a blue trail behind it.

Try this:http://www.blenderdiplom.com/en/tutorials/346-tutorial-light-streaks-in-blender.html  It uses the Motion Trail Addon https://sites.google.com/site/bartiuscrouch/scripts/motion_trail.  Unfortunately I haven't done this myself, so I won't make an actual answer.   Please let me know how this works out!

another which might be related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/33993/how-to-make-precisely-defined-trails-along-orbits-in-space/45077#45077

You have to use a particle system inside a particle system.
Just add the particle system you want to appear on the object you use for the first system, tweak the time and that should do it.

This won't work without using the particle instance modifier


text:
Cannot scale vertices
Currently, I am following some tutorials on the blender. On latest tutorial we were supposed to create a little creature here's the photo of what it looks like in development.

I am trying to scale those selected vertices to give a more rounded shape. In the tutorial, the instructor successfully does this, however, when I try the scale tool it does not move the vertices.
Why I am failing on this, but the instructor can successfully do it?
Here are the settings I am using:

Note: I am using Blender 2.77.

Welcome to Blender.SE. Can you show a link to the lesson you mention preferably with the time point where this is discussed (or describe a bit where do you want each vertex to move) ? Are you sure you use the same Pivot and other settings same as in tutorial ?

It appears you have set the origin to Bounding Box Center.
  Set it to Median Point, and this should work.

The origin in the screenshot is set to Bounding Box.


text:
Modeling with metric units (cm)
I want to model a cover for my key with exact proportions in centimeters. What tool I should use and how should I do that?

Just switch to metric units in Properties Window > Scene > Units > Length:

Or in versions 2.93 and above go to Scene Properties > Units

I would add that the user can also display the sizes of their objects on the screen by checking "Length" in "Edge info" in "Mesh Display" in the lateral N-Panel (display it with the N key)

@cegaton, just curious is there a way to also display sizes via MeasureIt plugin to show up as 5cm instead of .05m? nvm i see that  you can set the Unit via getting the right panel to show up (press N if its not there), then look for MeasureIt section and set dropdown to cm.

Not sure I understand your comment, @cegaton - the question was already originally about centimeters. What's 0.01 versus 1.0?


text:
Better way for stopping simulations on timeline?
I have been working on a lot of fire and water sims for a project.
The problem I am having is after baking the sims and then playing them back to see how it looks, the timeline gets "frozen" while it's loading the next frame.
Example: I have a fire sim that was baked out, then I hit play to see it in the viewport and after halfway through I realize I want to change some settings. However, when I hit Pause/Stop on the timeline it doesn't always register that I want to stop it because it is preparing the next frame. So it leads me in an endless loop not recognizing that I hit pause. I have to time it perfect when a frame is about to end, but this is frustrating because if I don't do it at the right time it hits play again.
Although ALT+A works a little better it still gives me a similar problem.
Anyone have a better way to cancel the timeline animation (like you can hit escape to cancel a render) and actually have it register the 1st time?

If you keep the mouse over the pause button in the timeline until the next frame is updated, I think it will register your click eventually. AFAIK the problem is that during a frame update, all of Blender's UI is locked (including all hotkeys), so consequently, nothing will be able to stop it while updating an individual frame.

wow you're right, that's weird, If I hit pause and then move the cursor to another spot on screen it does not always register (sometimes it does). However if I hit pause and leave the mouse over the pause button it will eventually register it every time. That is good to know, thank you.

If you keep the mouse over the pause button in the timeline until the next frame is updated, it should register your click eventually. AFAIK the problem is that during a frame update, all of Blender's UI is locked (including all hotkeys), so consequently, nothing will be able to stop it while updating an individual frame.
This is universal for anything in Blender (and I think any app) that locks up the interface for a while. It doesn't log the position of the mouse until it has time to handle the click event. Sort of unfortunate, but that's just the way it works.


text:
Environment lighting(Blender internal)
I recently created a simple scene and worked with environment lighting checked on so now that I have completed it, I unchecked the environment lighting but the lighting isn't going away. What should I do?

could you include a picture where you show what you checked?

When settings/check boxes tend to 'stick' to a project, my workaround is to check the poject's folder, see if an extra folder(s) has been created called "BlenderCache" or similar.  Delete those and re-run your animations from frame 1.  Another recommended deletion are all files or folders found in Belnder's  temporary folder. (user prefe'ces under the "File" tab at top.  (I like the photo)

I deleted all the files but still there is light in the scene idk why?

Tip: Start from a pitch-black scene:

Set all World colors (Horizon, Zenith, Ambient) to Black (hex 000000)
Turn off all other forms of Lighting (ambient, environment, sky, indirect)
Turn off all lamps (or move them to another 3d-viewport) layer

So that your scene now becomes totally blacked out.
Then start adding various light sources from the TOP -> Down:
Global lighting first:

World (sky, horizon, zenith)
Ambient occlusion
Environment lighting
Indirect lighting

then add Local light sources:

Lamps (sun, area, hemi, spot, point)
Turn on any material emission (which bring light into the scene)

En voila... now you know and understand which light source effects what in kind of lighting effect inside your lovely scene.


text:
Extruding in Blender

I want to extrude one face of cube keeping one edge fixed.
I had to cut the 3d model. I am using knife tool for this. Is this the correct way?

To extrude you can use 'E' key. Or open Mesh options on the viewport Menu. You can see there all options like Alt+E
To cut, the same, there are many options, and one I used to use is the Ctrl+R to cut the loop.


text:
360 Video for oculus/ streetview panorama sequence to video / Spherical Stereoscopic Panoramas
I am new to Blender and am trying to use Blender to make a sequence of Google Streetview shots into a movie to view in an Oculus headset. I used the VSE and put the sequential panoramic photo and produced an AVI file that did run in the Oculus.
Problem was that it was very distorted (like smeared road kill). I obviously need to use the correct settings to get the right Panoramic / Equirectangular view of the photos. I saw that Dalai was working on a patch (https://code.blender.org/2015/03/1451/) that he thought would be incorporated into Blender, but I cannot find the present method for Blender. (The links on that blog page are now disconnected.) Is there a new patch or other download or is it in the Blender present set up.

You'd have to wrap it on a sphere then render from Cycles as an Equirectangular camera. If the unwrap is wrong the the VSE can't fix it or distort it correctly for you.

Thanks for the help. My million-dollar question is do I have to wrap every photo around the sphere or will the video sequence editor (or some other great Blender function) somehow only necessitate me to wrap just the first photo and it then auto-magically do all other (different) photos in the sequence the same? (Or do I have to do the full wrap process for every frame?)  Thanks again for your help.

Thanks, David for your guidance. Will the VSE handle separate photos onto a shape in a sequential manner? Or is it simpler to make an AVI video out of the panoramas (as I did) and then wrap that video around the sphere using the VSE? (So its done in one action?) - and render that with an Equirectangular camera ?


text:
Can I control wind area?
I want to make animation of wind that blows text in particles from top to bottom, but the wind blows the whole text. I think wind applies everywhere. How to control its area to blow specific things?

You could use falloff for the force field which will specify the shape of the areas where it will make the effect.
In the force field options (in the Properties editor) find Faloff area and check Tube instead of Sphere, selected by default. This will make force field affect in the areas which fall in that shape while with Sphere it affects radially in all directions.
Then enable Maximum, just below the Tube option; this will ensure the force field doesn't affect all the particles in the given area.

If testing this now, force field will affect all the particles in the given direction up to the specified minimum:

Particles are red icospheres; blue line in the middle is the plane which shows maximum area of the force field effect; partially transparent blueish cylinder shows force field shape itself.
This is however not what is desired; the force field affects up to the certain area, but to all the particles, reaching its minimum distance. To make it affect only particles within its shape of effect enable Maximum in the Radial settings:

With that, force field will affect particles up to the certain area (shown as blue line) and within certain area of the tube (in this case) shape.

 Click on the wind and go to the right hand properties panel and u can find various settings. In the strength u can lower the wind etc.


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How to select faces inside model?
Here the author selects only faces inside of the model. In my case, I can't select only inside. I am using border select.

Is there any way to select faces inside without selecting faces on the surface?
Here is my file:
http s://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_-tV3odolwlaTM1bjZLRDF6U1Evv

There are several ways to do that, but first, change triangles to quads by selecting all faces and pressing ALT+J in edit mode.Here is what you can do to select only inside faces:

Hide the rim, select one inside face, CTRL+L to select linked.
Mark seam around the rim, select one inside face and CTRL (it doesn't work with vertices, must be with faces)

The file is no longer there, but there is a dedicated function for Selecting Interior Geometry: it is aptly named Select Interior Faces and you can find it under Select > Select All by Trait > Interior Faces

Just change from Wireframe view to Solid View. After you select you can turn the view back to Wireframe. This allows you to not select "through"  the mesh, and thus gives more control. You will need to navigate to the inside of the mesh from the 3D view to select the inside faces.

This doesn't really answer the askers question. Switching from wireframe to solid and back won't do anything.  If it still makes sense to you, try to elaborate or provide pictures


text:
Trees/plants/rocks spam for my game terrain
I'm making a terrain for a video game. Is there a tool to spread a lot of trees/plants/rocks on a terrain? For example Unity has a built-in terrain tool for placing them, are there similar methods for Blender? Also, I don't want to decrease perfomance for every tree. Thanks!

Hi and welcome to BlenderSE. Your question is very broad, please specify if you want to export your scene to unity or if you want to use Blender's internal Game Engine.

Yes, im gonna use this terrain in unity3d 5.

You could use Particle System with Clouds texture (or any texture, even hand painted) to do this.
Steps:

Add Particle System to your terrain (and set it as screenshot below shows).
Add texture to this Particle System.
Go to Texture tab, select created texture (and set it as screenshot below shows).

Settings:

Blend file:

Update:
To add custom generation of trees you need to create New Texture, then in Texture Paint Mode create Material (Material Diffuse Color) and choose it in Texture tab. Now you can paint wherever you want.

Yeah, tha''s what i want. But how can i attach those trees to certain areas, for example along the roads? I know i should use weights, i made them, how can i apply my Particleystem to them? Thanks for reply.

Check my update, and maybe check this excelent tutorial from Gleb Alexandrov as an addon to the whole process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eshOzshjt90

I did not understand this method with texture ;(

What exact part of it? Do you know how to add Particle System? Do you know something about Texture Paint? I can make some more detailed answer but you need to tell me specifically what do you need.

Yes, i understand what the Paint Mode is, i know how to use UV's and paint this black line, but i dont understand how this black line can help me to avoid Particle System objects placement. Also i dont have "Textures" menu in particle system (as you have on your screenshot, i have the last version of blender(2.77a) ).

Are you using Blender Render or Cycles?

Hmm. Ok, now i use Cycles Render. I made a texture, placed UV on it, painted black lines. But my terrain is pink in Texture Paint mode(no texture detected). Also there is no my texture in Texture tab in ParticleSystem settings. My texture tab is different from yours, i dont have "Mapping" and "Influence".

Check in update, second screenshot, and double check those textures. Also (I don't know why) after you paint something Blender do not update particle system. I'm changing back and forth some option to get it update. For example click on brightness in texture tab to 1.01 and go back to 1.

Yeah, i know about updating the PS. Ok, i got something, there is still pink texture in PaintMode, but when i checked "Density" - trees dissapear where black lines are. This Cycles mode is so strange, blender mode is more "correct". I cant even change my brush color...

http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5966/paint-particles-from-texture check this one, and I will make step by step answer for you.

I understood your method, it's interesting. I'll play around it, thanks)

Blender is great, but there are so many "points of no return", where you can make a mistake and to solve it - you should do too many movements, for example animations (when you cannot delete animations, coz blender thinks they used by phantom users and e.t.c)

I've done this once more and pink texture is result of not having material slot created in texture paint mode. Blender could be painfull but as it goes for me, I always have copy of my objects on another layers just to be able to redo everything also if my answer was good enough, consider accepting it or/and upvoting.

If you intend to export a whole terrain to unity (or any other RT 3D game engine), it would be wise to create your terrain, the trees, rocks and so on as independent objects, then import them into unity and let unity's distribution method do the work.
The reason for this is that unity works with instances of objects, while Blender would produce actual geometry or - if you do not intend to join your terrain into one object - many objects with possible redundancy of materials. That means more draw calls which lead to a heavy load on the engine.
Besides from that, you would still need to create collision meshes, which means even more redundant data or, if you chose to join all objects into one mesh with submeshes, it would be nearly impossible to generate the collision meshes automatically.

Thanks, so even if i use Blender tools for spreading my objects - they will export as individual ones?

No, but the performance would be horrid.

It's a huge problem to make normal terrain in unity, for example placing roads and e.t.c. It becomes painful when u want to change it ;( What should i do?

@Stanislav - "I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it."
You can exchange one pain for another. I don't know anything about your project, but I know that one normally expects to have collision data and a decent not too heavy CPU/GPU load from a game. So next step would be: Try your method.

I think the best way to do this - is to make base terrain - without trees, buildings, houses, just terrain, roads and mountains (or use separate objects for mountains, i'll play with it), then just use special script to export my mesh to Unity terrain object, and then use Unity's tools for surrounding.


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Creating a shortcut for changing the solidify thickness
I would like to create a shortcut for changing a solidify modifiers thickness much like changing the amount of subdivision with Ctrl + number or hitting the S key and typing the number for scaling. Is there an easy way to do that?

This can be easily done with python.
1. Get the script
Copy the script into blender's text editor and save it as "solidify_set.py" (NOT "solidify_set.py.txt").
OR
Download from github (see the comments for more info).
2. Install it as an add-on
(make sure to click the all category and the community supported level)
3. Add the hotkeys that you would like
It should be added in the "3D View > Object Mode" section where the subdivision set operator is.

Click Add New, then enter "solidify_raise", then enter your hotkey (and select any key modifiers you want...shift, ctrl, etc.). Click Add New, then enter "solidify_lower", then enter your hotkey (and select any key modifiers you want...shift, ctrl, etc.). You can click on the amount setting to set the amount it shifts. Clicking on the restore button, restores your hotkeys to the way they were before. Finally, don't forget to save user prefs with Save User Settings :-)

# Copyright 2016 Jake Dube
#
# ##### BEGIN GPL LICENSE BLOCK #####
#
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
#
# ##### END GPL LICENSE BLOCK #####

import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator
from bpy.props import FloatProperty

bl_info = {
    "name": "Solidify Set",
    "author": "Jake Dube",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 77, 0),
    "location": "Spacebar > Solidify Raise/Lower",
    "category": "Object",
}

class RaiseSolidify(Operator):
    """Raises solidify modifier."""
    bl_idname = "object.solidify_raise"
    bl_label = "Solidify Raise"
    bl_options = {"REGISTER", "UNDO"}

    amount = FloatProperty(name="Amount", default=0.01)

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.prop(self, 'amount')

    def execute(self, context):
        scene = bpy.context.scene
        for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
            scene.objects.active = obj
            modifiers = obj.modifiers
            found = False
            for mod in modifiers:
                if mod.type == 'SOLIDIFY':
                    mod.thickness += self.amount
                    found = True
                    break
            if not found:
                bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='SOLIDIFY')
                for mod in modifiers:
                    if mod.type == 'SOLIDIFY':
                        mod.thickness += self.amount
        return {'FINISHED'}

class LowerSolidify(Operator):
    """Lowers solidify modifier."""
    bl_idname = "object.solidify_lower"
    bl_label = "Solidify Lower"
    bl_options = {"REGISTER", "UNDO"}

    amount = FloatProperty(name="Amount", default=0.01)

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.prop(self, 'amount')

    def execute(self, context):
        scene = bpy.context.scene
        for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
            scene.objects.active = obj
            modifiers = obj.modifiers
            found = False
            for mod in modifiers:
                if mod.type == 'SOLIDIFY':
                    mod.thickness -= self.amount
                    found = True
                    break
            if not found:
                bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='SOLIDIFY')
                for mod in modifiers:
                    if mod.type == 'SOLIDIFY':
                        mod.thickness -= self.amount
        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    register()

Troubleshooting add-on installation tips:

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/13917/28015
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/1689/28015
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/35600/28015
https://cgcookiemarkets.com/2015/12/16/installing-add-ons-in-blender/

I thought about doing built-in key mapping, but when you consider the vast number of add-ons available (that many people have installed) there would be too many conflicts. Other problems: you don't even have the key that I would have used, there are problems with laptops that don't have numpads (like the one I am typing this with :-), and there are differences between mac and windows keyboards as well. That's why I think it's easiest to just set it up manually in the user prefs. On the other hand, if it is built from script, it could always be changed later if it did cause a conflict...

Thank you, @pycoder, but I can't import your script as an addon. If I try to, Blender just shows me the default addon screen. Which Blender Version did you use? I am currently using Blender 2.77.

@schustudrai Did you save it as a .py file? Did you copy the entire script?

@schustudrai Did you click the "all" category and the "community" supported level?

I have saved the whole script as a .py file @pycoder. I also tried clicking the all and community support level. "Solidify Set" still does not show up.

Try a direct download from github: https://github.com/ekaj2/solidify_set Click "Clone or Download", unzip the file in your downloads folder, and then install the .py file in blender that was unzipped.

@pycoder I believe the OP is trying to import the script using the 'install from file' button. This only works with zip archives afaik.

@aliasguru That works fine for me with .py files, does it cause problems for you?

@schustudrai Please grab the add-on from github as I mentioned above, take a look at my troubleshooting links, and let me know if you are getting any errors.

@pycoder for me it only works if I unzip the file I downloaded from your GitHub repo and install that using the command. Installing the ZIP directly shows the behavior the OP is mentioning. I think you need to ZIP the Python file directly, without putting it into a subfolder to make that work.

@pycoder By the way you could de-duplicate some code if you use mix in classes to generate the two operators. See https://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_78_0/info_overview.html#integration-through-classes , section 'Integration through Classes'

@ aliasguru 1. Yes, you do need to unzip the downloaded version...his problem isn't that though, b/c he said he was having the issue before I posted it on github. 2. Yeah, I thought of that after I pushed to github, but I was just typing it up real quick and didn't want to fix it (seeing as it is such a simple add-on). Lest you think I don't know how to write blender add-ons well...I was the largest contributor for this one :-) https://github.com/MaximeHerpin/modular_tree

@aliasguru If you are building a zip add-on, you will need to start with an __init__.py module that loads the rest and registers the add-on.

@pycoder I downloaded the script from Github. After unzipping it the instalation works properly, so does the rest of your anwser.

authors: ณฤทัย เนาถาวร


text:
Why can't I flip key frames?
When animating, I realised not all the key frames get flipped! After selecting a column of keyframes in the dopesheet, I press Ctrl+C to copy them, then Shift+Ctrl+V to paste/flip them, but only one keyframe is flipped and the others are not. Why?

I'm not sure what you're asking. Can you add a screenshot of what the result looks like, and describe what you expect to happen?

@Matt am doin a walk cycle..

That's useful to know, please add it to your question. But it's still not clear what's happening and how that's different from what you expect to happen.

Based on this other answer (which might be helpful), it sounds like you're expecting Blender to do something that it's not designed to do. (Making some assumptions) I think you're trying to flip the keyframes of more than one channel or object at a time, which doesn't seem to be possible. If that other answer is any indication, you can only flip certain sets of keyframes at once (probably per-channel or per-object, but I can't experiment right now), and you'll have to do the others manually.

I think I've had a similar issue. I resorted to using"CTRL+D" instead of "CTRL+C" after selecting the Key Frames.

The issue is that Blender only flips keyframes where the associated bones have left and right pairs. For Ctrl + ⇧ Shift +  V to work, the bones that flip should be named Bone.L and Bone.R. If this naming convention is followed, they should flip properly.

That helped for me. Many thanks!

Select the keyframes in the dope sheet editor, then press ⇧ Shift +  MShift+M and in the menu choose Key > Mirror

Whenever I've had a selection problem in the Dope sheet, I've had to revert to using "A "first to deselect anything that might be highlited already, then "B" to Box Select the required keyframes, and when only the required keyframes are lit up, press CTL-C, then CTL-V.   I've only ever done this with keyframes related to the one object, never over separate items in the 3D window.

You could try going to the Graph Editor, selecting all  of your keyframes with A, and then scaling on the x axis with: s, x, -1, which will invert all of your keyframes. Although this might not work on multiple objects...


text:
Why does my rigid body simulation glitch out?
I tried to make a rigid body simulation for a chain built out of torus objects. After starting the simulation, the chain links suddenly break apart and go in all sorts of directions for no apparent reason.

I can't find any solution for this. Does anyone know how to fix it?

without knowing anything, apply the scale and set the collision type to mesh on all of the pieces.

That's the problem, i did that already already. All the circles are set to mesh and scale is what it should be.

Can you post a screenshot of your rigid body settings panel?

Change the "Shape" (Under Rigidbody Collisions) from "Convex Hull" to "Mesh".
What's happening is that when you use Convex Hull, the simulation can only see a "shrinkwrapped" version of the shape. That is, it won't see the holes, and will therefore think that all the rings have ended up penetrating each other. To resolve this, it will apply a large-ish force to each object to force them apart, resulting in the explosion you see.

authors: Денис Одарчук


text:
How to get glare on a specific emission reflection
I am attempting to make a red dot sight that is (relatively) physically-correct, but I would like to add a bloom/glare effect to the red dot.  Basically, a face that emits red light reflects off a lens back to the camera, and the emitting face is not visible at all.  Is there an easy way that I can filter out only that reflection and add glare to it in the compositor?
(diagram from Wikipedia):

You basically need to have some way to get only the reflection so that you can perform some effect on it (e.g., glare or blurring the reflection and adding it to the image). You could use color keying if you can't see anything else that is red, you could map an object to the screen of the red dot that was on a different layer only used for compositing, and you can also provide access to the glossy reflections in the compositor. Actually, all three techniques can be used to do this in a more universal manner, but depending on your situation, you will have to make the best choice.
Here is an example I just made:

Enable glossy direct in render layers

My compositor node setup (could be much improved...I just blur the bright parts of the reflection)

Result

Blend file:

Grabbing the Indirect glossy pass and applying the glare on that worked for me.  Thanks!


text:
use python to randomly inset each face, bmesh?
I would like to create some interesting shapes with a script. I'm still pretty new to python and I'm having trouble understanding how to get BMesh to behave the way I want. Here is what I'm trying to accomplish.

Randomly inset faces a random length, with some not being inset at all.
Advanced function: randomly inset again excluding the 4 faces around original insets (if that makes sense)
import bpy
import bmesh
from random import randint, random

obj = bpy.context.active_object

bm = bmesh.new()
bm.from_mesh(obj.data,face_normals=True)

for faces in bm.faces:
    if randint(0,1) > 0:
        bmesh.ops.inset_region(bm, faces=bm.faces, thickness=0.4, depth=randint(0,1))

bm.to_mesh(obj.data)
bm.free()
obj.data.update()

Here is an idea of what I'm going for generated from a cube.

You can't loop through bm.faces, because you are creating more faces in the loop, which are also iterated over. Instead make a copy of the faces
faces_copy = [f for f in bm.faces]

Now, your code would give us the following result.

Notable problems
- Insets, even at 0 depth.
- Your example image shows and inset with 0 depth and then a random extrusion.
Let's implement that. Luckily, after a inset_region operation, the face index stays the same so we can simply extrude it by insetting another time and moving the face's vertices along the face normal.
bmesh.ops.inset_region(bm, faces = [face], thickness=0.4, depth=0)
bmesh.ops.inset_region(bm, faces = [face], thickness=0, depth=0)
bmesh.ops.translate(bm, verts = face.verts, vec = face.normal)

Now lets add the randomness:
import random
#[...]

bmesh.ops.inset_region(bm, faces = [face], thickness=random.uniform(0.1, 0.9), depth=0)
bmesh.ops.inset_region(bm, faces = [face], thickness=0, depth=0)
bmesh.ops.translate(bm, verts = face.verts, vec = face.normal * random.uniform(0.1, 4))

Iterations
We need to catch the newly "extruded" faces. Luckily inset_region returns geometry. We can create a new face list like this:
geom = bmesh.ops.inset_region(bm, faces = [face], thickness=0, depth=0)
new_faces = geom['faces'] # list of bmesh faces

Create an empty list for the new faces. After the insetting and extrusion, we'll add the active face and the extruded side faces.
new_faces.extend(geom['faces'])
new_faces.append(face)

Complete code (with two iterations):
import bpy
import bmesh
import random
from mathutils import Vector

obj = bpy.context.active_object

bm = bmesh.new()
bm.from_mesh(obj.data,face_normals=True)

# faces, which could be extruded
faces_copy = [f for f in bm.faces]
new_faces = []
# number of iterations goes here
for i in range(0, 2):
    for face in faces_copy:
        do_inset = random.randint(0,1)
        if do_inset:
            bmesh.ops.inset_region(bm, faces = [face], thickness=random.uniform(0.1, 0.9), depth=0)
            geom = bmesh.ops.inset_region(bm, faces = [face], thickness=0, depth=0)
            bmesh.ops.translate(bm, verts = face.verts, vec = face.normal * random.uniform(0.1, 4))
            new_faces.extend(geom['faces'])
            new_faces.append(face)
    faces_copy = new_faces
    new_faces = []

bm.to_mesh(obj.data)
bm.free()
obj.data.update()

The concept is pretty cool, but it already show, that we need to implement a method to take the faces size into account before using bmesh.ops.translate.

You are amazing! Thank you so much for your help. I had been spending days looking at other peoples code and documentation to try and understand this. Thank you for taking time to explain everything.

@adminbromo You're welcome, I fiddled around a bit more with it and tried to add an intersection detection. It's not ready to be included in the answer, but may it'll help you anyways.

Unless i'm missing something, you can copy a list by taking a "full slice" e.g. faces_copy = bm.faces[:]; probably better than a list comprehension.

@StarWeaver Feel free to edit. I didn't use the slice notation since OP mentioned being new to python and it's even less clear what happens there. Also bm.faces is a BMFaceSeq and understanding why the list notation works on a collection is also not very beginner-friendly.

Are there any resources that would help a new user like myself understand bmesh (or blender scripting in general). I have an okay understanding of python. Where I have trouble is understanding syntax and how to move things around within lists. I guess what I'm asking, are there any best practices or resources that you would recommend. One of the problems I run into is older versions of code that don't line up with newer versions. Especially when working with things like pie menus etc... Please don't feel like you need to answer this, I figured I would ask. Thanks again!


text:
How can I achieve a crumpling effect?
I want to make an object - a fork in a vertical position - fall and hit a flat surface, and when it hits the surface I want it to fold in on itself as if it was made of a very very soft metal...but hold its shape as pictured in this sketch I made .
I've tried soft body, but it collapses to absolutely nothing, as in the end result has no form and no volume. Any advice would be appreciated since working it out by trial and error takes a lot of baking time!

Blender does not take volume into account when simulating softbodies. You need volume preserving softbody, like finite element solver in Houdini. Or you need to take other route - no simulation but rigging the effect.

The effect you're looking for seems quite unnatural, so I doubt you're going to achieve it using soft-body physics. A curve modifier might work, but you would probably be better off using shape keys.

Maybe try the cloth sim.

Hard cloth simulation maybe?

Here's how you might do it using shape keys.
First model the fork as you would normally, but include plenty of edge loops around the handle and prongs (tines?). Save this as your base shape, create a new shape key, then enter Edit mode and deform the object manually by selecting and dragging nodes. Make sure the undeformed parts of the object are moved down by a suitable distance so that the deformation looks believable.
You can then animate between the base shape and the deformed shape key by animating the shape key's value parameter:


text:
Place Image in Front of a Grease Pencil Layer
Please refer the 2 images provided. In the image it can be seen that a white grease pencil layer is drawn on the default 3d cube Surface and an image of a  girl (using images as planes addon) is placed is placed in front of the cube.
However once seen in Camera view the GP layer is seen over the girl's image which is not the case in reality. Note that the GP layer is placed on the surface of the 3d cube which is placed behind the girl's image. Please let me know how to get the accurate object placement be seen in the camera view.

Didn't get any answers for this.,not sure why this happens but I did find a workaround.Added the image post Greasepencil rendering in the video editor.

In Blender 2.8, to get the image plane to appear in front of grease pencil objects:

Select the image plane
Change the Blend Mode in the material settings to "Alpha Clip"

Not sure if this is a solution, but it can be surely considered a workaround.
(Please do note that this applies to Blender 2.79 and before.)
As seen in the above query, whenever a image is imported into a Greasepencil animation it gets hidden behind the GpLayer. This makes exactly placing image files into the 2d animations next to impossible.
For precise placement:

Import image using Image as planes addon
First create a separate Background Gplayer and then create other layers to draw your animations
Now inorder to precisely place the image into the 2d view, lower the opacity of the Background Gplayer. This will expose
the hidden image and then use regular transform operations on the
image  using the mouse and place the image precisely and then draw
the animations on the layers above after this.
Once done,raise the opacity back to 1.0 and export the 2d animation.
Import this animation and the image in the VSE and then place the image above the 2d animation at the planned location.


text:
Material won't apply to mesh
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here? I'm attaching the file. Why are my materials not assigning to the eye? I have one for the inner eye mesh called "eyeball" and one for the outer eye mesh called "outereye".
Also, when you open the file, you will see a logo on the character's body. I followed the tutorial, which told me to use an empty, but the result is supposed to be one logo on his chest. As you can see, the logo is repeating all over his body.
EDIT: Actually I see the logo in the center now when I render. Is it possible to see it in center without having to render?
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B85i1BKJ9r96Z0NCM3RoNFVpZzQ
Thanks

Already did that and it doesn't work. Or maybe it is assigning it but there's something wrong with the material itself? It looks like an eyeball on the preview and just like in the tutorial but I'm not seeing it on the mesh.


text:
How to make eyelids that close with a shape key?
My character is a cartoon so his eyes are larger than normal. I can make the shape key to close the eye but on the way down or up the eyeball penetrates through the eyelid. Is there no way to fix this without making two shape keys?
This is what I mean:

Please show an image of your Blender 3D View to illustrate and clarify.

There you go. I fixed that but had to make three shape keys to close the eye. I guess that wouldn't be so bad if I could control them all with one slider.

If you made a second shape key to "fix" it, you can use a Blend Key without the need to manipulate multiple keys.
In the shapekey dropdown, next to the min/max setting, deselect "Base" and select the key you want to blend with the current key.
Imagine it like parenting key1 to key2, it will blend the two shapes when you use Key2.
The problem in your case seems to be that the eyelid has very little geometry compared to the eye, so the shape key interpolates it linearly along the edges which intersect the eye.
A fix would be to increase geometry to adjust it to the eye and it should work fine if it has more steps in-between.

Yeah I figured I need to add more geometry but I'm following a book so I wanted to keep the geometry the same. I had it set up like you said. The first key uses the basis as the relative key, the second one uses the first key, and the third one uses the second key (yeah I made three). But to get the eye to close I have to put them all at 1. Is there a way to create a slider or something for all three at once?

Yes. You can do this via Drivers.
Here is a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4qYHNA_x4Q
Its pretty simple to use. The principle is to use an object to as a controller for the shape key(s). In your case, you just need to use the same object for all shape keys. So when you move the driver all shape keys get affected.

What I really need is one driver that moves the first key from 0 to 1, then when the first one has reached 1 it moves the second from 0 to 1, etc. Is that also possible? I don't know how. I was able to get them all to move with one driver but what all of them moving to 1 at the same time does not give me the results I want. I'll make another question. Thank you.


text:
How to import a model as a shape key?
I want to make changes to a model on Zbrush then bring it back as a shape key on Blender. I won't be adding any geometry just changing the shape.
EDIT: I tried what Mr Zak said but seems like there's something that changes when I export from Zbrush. If I import the basis model into Zbrush and then export it without making changes and use it as the basis it does work.
What should I change on zbrush?
Here's the file with modifiers deleted and some other things I removed. It also has the other model already imported from Zbrush.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7sse481vepjp43f/Capn%20B.blend?dl=0

It should work with using shape keys and Join As Shapes operator in Specials menu.

Just tried and the mesh totally explodes. I tried removing all modifiers, clicking on "keep vertex order" but nope. What could it be?

It seems that something still changes with model. What format file do you use for transfer ? You could upload your file with imported model / part of model and add info about export settings.

@MrZak I attached the file to the original post.

The base mesh has doubles which can be removed if using dedicated operator. Of course the vertex count won't match after that, but anyway there shouldn't be any doubles in mesh which is equal to another one. It's hard to say what's causing that, probably you might consider sculpting inside Blender to avoid file transfer (still this might not be the option).


text:
Wierd Glitchy Render
my rig wont render properly but when I view it in texture or material I can see the skin just fine. Can someone help me?

Explain your problem in detail. Post screenshots or provide blend file

Check if you have multiple uv maps, and check which one is being used for rendering purposes. It looks like you have one selected for the viewport, but a second one selected for rendering (the camera icon)

It looks like you textured your model using the Textured Mode. The problem is that those settings don't transfer back to your material settings. For example if you have the face and the clothes on different textures Textured mode will allow you to unwrap some faces on one texture and others on the other one but the Material will ignore that.
Make sure to work in the Material Mode and set your material to Shadeless so you can see the texture better.


text:
Making seamless, scalable objects
I'm trying to make a level/levels for a game, and the walls are my biggest challenge, because I have to re-scale textures every time I make a new wall of a different size.
Is there a way to have a texture scale automatically when I change the size? For example, I properly scaled the texture on the middle wall (see image), but the smaller (left) and larger (right) walls have skewed textures. I want these to mimic the scale of the middle wall. Is there a node for this?
Thanks!

EDIT:
New node still doesn't help:
EDIT:
Blend file uploaded here:
http://www.filedropper.com/walltesting_2

Still not working with new texture:

I was playing around with settings, but I can't seem to get it to work (thats why flat was selected). Even with BOX, still doesnt work :/

I should note that the solution here:
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/22872/unwrap-uv-map-proportionally-to-object-size
does not work for me. It just causes the texture to become very squished, and I can't change the scale.

You can do this by using Position texture coordinates.
Just use the Position output of the Input > Geometry node for your texture coordinates.  This uses absolute world-space instead of the scaled local-space, so the textures will not be stretched.  To get it to map from all directions, select Box on the image texture node.

Still not working, see edit. Thank you for your help though.

@Vranvs  That's strange, box mapping should have fixed that.  Let me try something.

@Vranvs  Is it possible you could upload your .blend (or just the relevant parts of it) so I could take a look at it?

Added a link to my blend file.. see edit. :)

Crap, Im not sure how to include the material with the file

@Vranvs  Go to file > External Data > Pack all into .blend.  (In playing with your file I just used a different texture and it worked fine.)

http://www.filedropper.com/walltesting_2

Okay, I will try a different texture

@Vranvs  In that file you still had Flat selected on the texture, I changed it to Box and it worked fine.

What the hell am I doing wrong?? I'm copying your settings exactly and can't get that result (See 3 new pics above)

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


text:
Geometry nodes - add a character inbetween every character of a string
Using Geometry nodes, is it possible to take a given string and loop through each character, inserting any other character(s) until the end of the string?
For example, say I want to take the following string:

blender

... and add '-' after every character to become:

b-l-e-n-d-e-r-

I understand how to do this with Javascript with a for-loop, but I can't see an obvious way how to loop through an arbitrarily lengthed string using Geo Nodes.

There is no functionality for that in Geometry Nodes. You could use Python app handler though:

Do you happen to know a good place to learn about the sequence of events that the handlers observe?  ( It's not obvious to me, for example, that the inputs to modifiers are evaluated after depsgraph update )

Actually, I happen to know just the right place for it! There is this online thing called Blender Stack Exchange and people ask all sorts of questions about usage of Blender including its Python API and they get amassing answers all the time! I bet it would be a great place to find out about app handlers as well if one decided that Python was the right way to work around this lack of string manipulation functionality in Geometry Nodes. :D  One could also have a look at the doumentation of course.

:D ... snark ! The docs weren't helping me understand that much. I was looking for a sketch of what the depsgraph contained,  and if not the parameters to modifiers, when those were passed, then.  I'l try to phrase a question of my own..

Oh, it was a serious question. Well, to be honest, I don't know much about how it works, just that it does. I thought the OP would have to look into that on their own. Depsgraph update happens quite a lot the way I understand - every time anything changes, so for usable script one might benefit from checking if the text has actually changed before going through all the rest of the script. Another type of handler like frame change might also be more appropriate depending on the situation.

While not ideal (I'd love to keep everything within Geometry Nodes), this works just fine. Thanks @MartynasŽiemys


text:
Why is this Normal bake triangulated?
I have a character mesh I'm trying to bake normals onto from a duplicate of the mesh that's been subdivided to smooth it out.
Problem is, the normals I get from baking from the hi poly to the lo poly are highly triangulated, and this triangulation shows up when the mesh is viewed with Material shading in the viewport.
I've never done an organic mesh before, so I don't know if there's just some missing steps I passed over or what, but this is pretty frustrating (also mystery issues like the normal baking onto a totally different diffuse map I have but thats another thing...)
Here's what I'm doing:
I have the Lo Poly mesh on layer 1
Hi Poly mesh on Layer 3
I select Hi Poly on layer 3, select layer 1 and layer 3
Select Lo Poly on Layer 1.
Go into edit mode and select all geometry. I set the UV image to a blank (128 128 255) blue image.
I go to the bake controls and these are my settings:

And this is my result:

Just what is going on here? Why are my normals baking in such a way that they aren't leaving the mesh looking smooth when used in a material?
I've Uploaded my blend file to Dropbox if anyone wants to take a look.
Lo Poly is layer 1, Hi Poly is layer 3. Other layers just have old WIP backups of the model.
If you look at the back, unlit part of the model you'll see the normals are WAY off, with lots of artifacting going on back there.

You are doing right man! Don't worry i had the same problem.
FIRST Smooth your low poly (LAYER1)
SECOND UNWRAP and BAKE like you did before, the high poly onto the low poly
mesh.
END

This seemed to work for me. And it apparently imports fine into UE4 with smooth shading on.

I'm very happy that all works ;)


text:
Export a model containing only edges
I'm wondering if there's a way to export a model containing only edges.
I modeled the Blender camera, but I cannot import it into Unity. Any ideas?

This sounds like the XY Problem. I don't think any of the available exchange file formats  even supports that at all. Why not fill the faces and just export a regular model? What are you trying to achieve? It's unlikely Unity is going to be able to deal with a wire model anyway.

dae exports it by default, and fbx and gltf export it if you turn on the "Loose Edges" option. Don't know what unity will do with it though.

Well to durate I'd say why we should fill surface anyway. When it's exported to engine if we set wireframe in shader render mode then it'll show triangulated mess not clean quad wireframe in any generic meshes(which this cam can avoid by not having quad part a surface but loose filled triangle above). Not to mention extra (altho tiny) wasted space in model file defining useless surface. Some Game asthetics do needs clean wireframe meshes... and since godot just directly support any wire model not to mention pointcloud I wonder why not for unity


text:
Can't see HDRI in cycles/eevee in blender 2.8
I don't know what happen, I don't know if i just have a deactivated a node or an option.

Hello and welcome to Blender SE :). There might be multiple reasons, you can upload your file here so others can have a look.


text:
Layers and keyframes not showing in Summary
Why are the layers not showing up under the Summary tab?
I have tried to find out for hours, but i can seem to figure it out.

Please click on the green coloured button which is located to the right of stroke under collection to show the layers under summary.
And the image below  is taken from Blender v3.1.2


text:
How to create a flat mesh and give it a thickness by bmesh?
I'd like to create a flat mesh and give it a thickness by bmesh.
Putting together some answers seen on this forum, I thought that a script like the one below should have done the work, but it doesn't. How to make it work?
import bpy
import bmesh
me = bpy.data.meshes.new('theMesh')
ob = bpy.data.objects.new('theObject', me)
bm = bmesh.new()
bm.from_mesh(me)
ob.location = [0,0,0]
ob.show_name = True
bpy.context.scene.objects.link(ob)

#Create the mesh (in this example a very simple 4 verticies mesh)
#=======================
l=1
w=1
h=1
vertex= [0 for i in range(4)]
vertex[0] = bm.verts.new( (-l/2, -w/2, +h/2 ))
vertex[1] = bm.verts.new( (-l/2, +w/2, +h/2 ))
vertex[2]= bm.verts.new( (+l/2, +w/2, +h/2 ))
vertex[3] = bm.verts.new( (+l/2, -w/2, +h/2 ))
for i in [0,1,2,3]:
    bm.edges.new( (vertex[i], vertex[(i+1) % 4] ))
bm.faces.new( (vertex[:]) )
#========================

# Add thickness
bmesh.ops.solidify(bm, geom=[f for f in bm.faces], thickness=-h)

bm.to_mesh(me)
me.update()

The script runs without errors, but the thickness doesn't appear.
Note that if the flat mesh is created by create_grid the script works.
#Create the mesh
#=======================
bmesh.ops.create_grid(bm,size=1)
#=======================

I tested the script and it created some additional geometry, so i added these two lines
for face in bm.faces:
    face.normal_update()

before calling the bmesh operator and it worked for me


text:
How to render 2 scenes in the same animation
I have two scenes, both with the same resolution (720x576).
My target is to get an animation with one scene in the upper part e the other in the lower part.
I tried using  compositing, but I couldn't get the result I expected.

I added a third scene with resolution (720x1152) as canvas.
It seems that the two images are enlarged and cropped to be resized to the resolution of the canvas (720x1152).
Any suggestion to avoid such a resizing or any other method to get the result I expected?
I tried also VSE, but I found a very similar problem.
Thanks
As suggested, I edit my question to explain the problem I have with the solutions of the two questions indicated below, that are similar or equal to mine. They do not avoid the resizing of the images when the images/animations are rendered, at least in my case.
Fig.1 below shows the best result I have got from the solution indicated in the first of the two questions, adjusting some of the parameters of the nodes.
The solution proposed in the second question is very similar to mine. It uses the transform node instead  the translate node. It seems to work in the preview, but when it is rendered, it shows similar problem as the others, at least in my case. Please see fig.2 below. Note the change in the input node where the images have been resized automatically.

Possible duplicate of How can I resize/move the "canvas" of an image in the compositor?

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/52231/rendering-a-stereoscopic-image-in-blender-2-77/57870#57870


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Shaping Bezier objects and applying Physics collisions?
Logo animation project
First part is dropping chromed tubes on a floor, let them bounce and roll a bit. The rolling stops at frame 90.
Second part is for the lighting to go dark, and the tubes emit a neon glow.
Tubes then animate shape into an outline of a frog.

The problem is that I am using Mesh Objects for the falling tubes, but cannot shape them like a Bezier Line.
Alternatively, I can shape Bezier Tubes for part 2 as I wish, but cannot apply a Collision physics to them so that they bounce and roll on the floor in part 1.
My current solution is to create part 1 until frame 90 using Mesh Tubes. For part 2 I create duplicate Bezier Tubes in the same precise orientation as the Mesh Tubes at frame 90. I then animate the Bezier Tubes to change their shapes from frame 90 to the end. Any suggestions for a better solution are welcome. Placing the Bezier Tubes is quite tedious.
A partial solution is to use >both<. First the mesh object for the bounce and roll. I put these on a layer. Second the bezier objects for the shape animations. I put these on a second layer after alignment with the mesh tubes on layer one.

Could you use non-rendering physics bodies that bezier curves track using hooks?

Possible duplicate of Create a shower hose with correct physics

You could also use a cylinder mesh object with a curve modifier for the tubes

Apparently you can have soft body physics on Bezier Curve Objects as detailed on the Quick Noodle Physics in Blender Tutorial Youtube Video
According to the video the trick is using a highly subdivided curve, there must be lots of actual vertex (display subdivisions are insufficient), many of the settings are ignored.
You should turn off Soft Body Goal, and tweak the parameters under Soft Body Self Collision like Ball Size and Stiffness.
Some other object set to Collision Physics type must be present at the scene for interaction.

Also see related Are curve physics possible?


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Bouncing tubes not behaving
This is an animation question.

I have made a chrome tube, and set the Active Rigid Body settings for it to bounce on a concrete floor (passive Rigid Body) once or twice, then settle and stop rolling. (1.3 feet diameter, 19 feet length, mass = 8lbs., Shape: Cylinder, Friction: .5, Bounciness: 0, Collision Margin: 1.6)
I then duplicated it 15 times. However, some of the duplicates, despite having the same settings and belonging to the same Rigid Body World, and applying the transformation (adjusting x/y/z coordinates and size) do not behave the same way. They bounce like they're on steroids, and some of them fall through the concrete floor. The ones that stay on the surface refuse to stop rolling despite working with the friction settings.

I need them to stop bouncing, stop rolling after about 3 seconds (24fps), and then I'll proceed with the next part: changing shape.
Floor settings:
Type: Passive; Shape: Mesh; Source: Base; Friction: 1.5; Margin: 1.575; Bounciness: 0
EDIT 10-27-16
Thanks for your suggestion. The floor has 100 subdivisions. Tubes #1 - #4 have 50 subdivisions.
I turned on the Copy Attributes Add-On. This allows the familiar Copy/Paste, and includes all attributes or selections as available. It performs better than the Duplicate for this animation. NONE of the copied/pasted tubes have the bouncing problem, or the falling through the floor problem.
However, getting them to stop rolling is tricky. It seems to involve a careful tweak of the Friction and the Bounciness and the Collision Margin settings.
The number of tubes will be tripled to 15 for the next version. That seems to greatly change how they interact and bounce.

are the floor and tubes subdivided enough?

If you can't solve this as I couldn't in another app, I finished up abandoning the physics engine and emulated the bounces with plain ol'  keyframes.  Looked convincing too.  The extra objects were just duplicates of the first "AFTER" I'd done the bouncing keyframes.  Their individual animation Keyframes were then offset a little from each other to give them individuality.


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How do I prevent particle objects from intersecting each other and going though the floor?
The first step is to "throw" a group of steel tubes at a floor. They should bounce, and roll a bit. When they come to rest the next animated step begins: They will use shape keys to morph into an outline shape.
I am using an emitter, particles and a mesh cylinder. I've tried this with Collisions, and Rigid Bodies, looking for something that works.
Problem #1: The tubes come to rest but they intersect each other instead of resting on each other at odd angles. They should treat each other as impenetrable objects. Yes, I've set them with collisions.
Problem #2: The tubes pass partway through the floor, any axis, and appear to use their origin point to determine how far. This is more dramatic and more undesirable if they are rotated.
Problem #3: this is a variation of problem #2. The tubes bounce and stop >above< the floor.
Screen shots of problem 3. Settings are for the floor.

This seems like rigid bodies alone could solve the problem to get the desired effect if I understand it correctly. Is that not acceptable?

I'm going to give this a shot as I think that rigid bodies are a viable solution. Start with a cylinder, scale it as needed but keep in mind that sometimes Blender can act strangely with objects that are too small with rigid body sims.
Next, add an array modifier, I used a count of 8, with an offset of 1.5 on the x and y axis, respectively. We are adding two identical arrays before applying them. The stack will look like this:

Apply the array modifiers in the order they were added, and Tab into edit mode, press A to select all, then P by loose parts. Now go back to object mode, it's time for physics.
Start by selecting your ground plane,add collision and then set it to passive in the rigid body settings(you can also go to the tool panel (T) physics>add passive).

Now select one of the cylinders, and again go to physics>rigid body> and set it to active. Now select the rest of the cylinders, and select copy from active in the rigid body setting in the tool panel.

With all of the cylinders still selected, press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+C>origin to geometry.

Before you go any further, press Ctrl+A and
apply scale to your objects to help prevent intersection between the collision object and other active objects.

Finally, place the group of cylinders where you want them to fall from/ be thrown from and start the animation. It may take some tweaking the rotation to get the perfect effect as they hit the ground, but it works pretty well. Don't forget that the mass of the object influences it's role in the simulation also, so you can play with that too if you like. After following these steps, you should be able to get something like the following .gif:

Here is the .blend if you would like to reference it.