text:
How can I rename value node animation references in the dope sheet editor?
I made a simple material animation, and the animated value nodes are represented in the dope sheet and graph editors as Default Value (Value)
which is not very specific, I had renamed and relabeled my nodes, but it did not effect the dope sheet editor?
So how I can rename the Default Value (Value) lines?

I don't know how to rename the "Default Value (Value)" labels directly. However, you can put them in a group. Select the references then press Ctrl+G to create a labeled group.

The groups are highlighted green in this image


text:
How to detect mouseup event in a blend4web sensor manifold
Blend4Web's documentation is not really clear how you can detect a mouseup event inside a sensor manifold. At its official forum I find a suggestion to compare the elapsed time against the delta time, which would be highly over convoluted.
Is there any simpler and safer solution?

Thankfully there is a simpler solution. The mouse click sensor passes a 1 to the manifold's logic function on mousedown event and a 0 value, when the mouse button is not pressed. So we write a logic function which returns its value inside a CT_CONTINUOUS type manifold, which according to the documentation behaves like this:

Manifold control type: continuous. Such manifold executes the callback
  with a positive pulse (+1) each frame when the result of evaluation of
  its logic function is non-zero. It executes a callback with a negative
  pulse (-1) once the logic function evaluates to zero.

So your callback function will have the 1 pulse on every frame when the mouse is down and the pulse -1 on the first frame after the mouse button is released.
function registerMouse() {
  console.log("mouse registered");
  var clickSensor = m_ctl.create_mouse_click_sensor();

  function logic(triggers) {
   if (triggers[0])
    return 1;
   else
    return 0;
  }

  function cb(obj, id, pulse, param) {
   console.log(pulse);
   return;
  };

  m_ctl.create_sensor_manifold(null,
                               "mouse",
                               m_ctl.CT_CONTINUOUS,
                               [clickSensor],
                               logic,
                               cb,
                               );
 }

Notes
In this simple example it would be sufficient to use the default logic function (pass null instead of a function), however you should definitely use this scaffolding, when you have multiple sensors in your manifold.
You can also use CT_TRIGGER type manifold

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Blender fail to close if a process is forked from it!
Hello I am writing an addon to ease the addon development with Emacs(and other editors... when it works well) and Blender. The goal isto make Blender reload  the addon on saving.
I use ipv4, TCP sockets for IPC. I had to fork a process from blender for the socket communication, because I could not close the socket any other way, the reason: I do not know a way to make a handler for closing in Blender (however it would be very handy).
With the child process I worked around it, when Blender (parent) terminates, the init process (pid = 1) will "adopt" the child, which can be detected with os.getppid(). It works now, but It has a side effect: Blender can not be closed from the GUI, but with SIGTERM. It is funny becuse blender is the most badass software when it comes to closing :) .
My questions:
1. Why is this hapenning?
2. Are there any more suitable ways for IPC or socket closing?
I use 2.76b offical build on Gentoo Linux(kernel version 3.18.12)
I am not an expert programmer so maybe I miss something important

Well, I solved it with daemonizing the child process.
class serverProcess(mp.Process):
    def __init__(self, port=9012, timeout=5.0, host=socket.gethostname(), daemon=True):
        mp.Process.__init__(self, daemon=daemon)
        self.port = port
        self.timeout = timeout
        self.host = host

# many other stuff

RPCserverProcess = serverProcess(port=9010, timeout=3.0)

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


text:
Weight gradients not mirrored in weight paint mode?
I am currently weight painting my mesh and would like to take advantage of the x-mirror functionality to make things consistent. The mesh is symmetrical and the bones are correctly named with the proper L/R suffix. My problem is that while the x-mirror option works with normal brush strokes, it does not seem to work with weight gradient strokes (hold alt or ctrl+alt while making the stroke). Is this simply a problem with Blender or am I missing something that may be keeping it from working properly...?

I'm sure gradient strokes are not working with x-mirror with the current version of blender.

Ah, thank you for confirming that. It's unfortunate that it is not working, since I really prefer to the consistency and smoothness that the gradient strokes allow.


text:
Modeling the replacement of a conveyor belt
Im new to blender and im trying to animate the replacement of a conveyor belt, the model has the new rolled belt (which i modeled creating a spiral curve, then transforming it into a mesh and then applying solidify), and a group of rollers (cylinders), so the tip of the rolled belt pass through the rollers following a curve.

I tried using cloth simulation and collisions (internal and to the rollers), pinning the center of the rolled belt and assigning a hook to the tip of the rolled belt, then making keyframes to move the tip through the rollers, but the belt looked wrinkled and the movement looked unstable and fell of to the sides.
I also tried creating a spiral curve and a curve that follows the path through the rollers and joining them to apply a curve modifier to a plane with the dimensions of the belt, but the belt only follows the path of the spiral, and then it completely ignores the rollers curve.

Im open to any idea, i will like it to look as high quality and realistic as possible but im absolutely new to blender and animation. Any suggestions? What am i doing wrong?

Can you share your Blender project file? Instructions for sharing.

Ok I unloaded it, sorry if its a mess, any tutorials on general good practices are also welcomed. Thanks!

Worth looking for 'rolling carpet' tutorials which you might be able to modify for your use. There are several on YT.

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


text:
Weird "wrinkles" appearing on textures on cycles rendering
I have come across this problem a few times already, where those odd looking wrinkles appear on my textures (like shown in the screenshot from rendered view) when rendering on cycles. The texture should look way smoother like shown in the viewport shading picture.
what could cause it? Thanks! :)

Please [edit] your question to add screenshots of your material nodes and settings. It would also be nice to crop your existing screenshot to make the issue visible without having to open the pictures in a new tab to see them fullscreen.

Judging by the look of the materials in the viewport, I would say it's probably just a matter of difference in lighting between the Material Preview Shading Mode, which is pretty neutral and flat by default, and the Rendered Shading Mode which uses your scene's lighting, and which clearly you didn't make as neutral and flat, making your material's normal and displacement effects more visible with darker shadows.
Bear in mind that by default, the Material Preview uses no light objects, and has an HDRI. If you lower the blur and turn the world opacity to 1, you will see exactly what lits up your Material Preview. A pretty flat lighting, but well populated reflections:

In fact, if you enable Scene Lights and Scene World in your Material Preview's options, you will likely get a very similar result as in Rendered (Especially if you render with Eevee):

Plus if you use mesh displacement (with subdivision modifier, especially adaptive), the Rendered Shading Mode will actually deform the geometry, making an even greater difference with Material Preview.
From there, the solution depends on what really is the issue for you: if it is just understanding or reducing the difference between the two shading modes, you already have the answers. If you want your material to render as flat as in the preview, you can take different approaches: either lower your Normal Map Strenght and Displacement Scale, or change your scene's lighting to be flatter, with less strong shadows.

Hey, thank you so much for taking the time to respond to this, i lowered the scale on the displacement node and now it looks a ton better. And yes, i could make the scene's lighting more flat too. Thank you very much! :)

My pleasure. Please hit the upvote and ✔ in the top left corner of my answer to mark it as a solution to your question.

@Lauloque OP needs 15 rep to upvote XD +1

I see only one (mine) upvote on the question, i say you can fix this

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


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Why don't API-defined properties automatically get overrides on edit?
After linking an asset and making a library override, built-in properties (like parent) and Custom Properties (when "Library Overridable" has been checked) have overrides automatically set (UI turns teal) on edit, but API-defined properties do not. The API properties have override={'LIBRARY_OVERRIDABLE'}, and I'm able to RMB > "Define Override", but editing those fields without explicitly clicking "Define Override" results in a transient change only which gets reverted when the .blend file is saved. In other cases, the linked object (not the override object) seems to receive the edit and all override objects then see that change.
Is this a bug? Is it by design? Have I mis-configured something?

Hello, could you elaborate on the last sentence of the first paragraph ? The original object in the linked file gets modified ? That shouldn't be possible. Cheers

Not the linked file, but the linked object in the current file. If you look in the Data API, the linked object (non-override object) has this api property change when a single override object exists. If multiple override objects exist, then the api property changes but it gets reset on save to the last value it had when a single object existed

Turns out this is a result of PropertyGroup subclasses needing an additional PointerProperty. The properties within the PropertyGroup were marked with override = {'LIBRARY_OVERRIDABLE'}, but the PointerProperty also needs to be marked as such! Without it, the API properties in the property group behave very erratically. With it, they behave just like built-in properties w.r.t. library overrides.
The offending line: bpy.types.Object.propgroup = bpy.types.PointerProperty(type=MyPropGroup, override={'LIBRARY_OVERRIDABLE'})
Edit: thanks to the blender dev who added this note to the docs!

Wow, nice find. I don't remember seeing this documented anywhere either. Cheers


text:
How do I assign random colors to points?
How can I assign a random color to points created using the Mesh to Points node on the default cube? I found a similar problem but the user used the Instance to Points node and the solution provided doesn't work for me.
Here is the node setup

And the material setup

And finally, the output

Try switching the attribute domain to Point in the Store Named Attribute node, because you don't have instances here, but points.

Here's how you randomize color of your points and display it:

Store a named attribute in "Point" domain of "Color" type, and connect something to it, for example a "Random" node in "Vector" mode:

Remember to set the material and to use a different seed for color and position, otherwise it won't look random.

Use the same name of an attribute in your shader:

Use "Material Preview" or "Display Render" preview to see the effect of the material:

Thanks @StefLAncien - corrected.


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Brick Texture: feed image texture for tiles
I am a bloody beginner, please bear with me.
I am trying to feed images into the brick texture, as user Carlo provided there Combining image texture and brick texture. But I am not succeeding. It is based on https://blenderartists.org/t/cycles-brick-tricks-0-1/685934
I want recreate those tiles.
Basically i want to plot this image onto each brick.
This is the are my note groups
This is the result
Any help is greatly appreciated.
I have managed to do it with a single image. This is how my node group looks like. The panel where i applied the tiles has physical dimensions of 2034mm by 600mm. The tiles are 100mm by 100mm
Therefore, the brick height is 1/6, the width is 1/20.34 the division number are needed for the scale too. I have added a roughness, normal and displacement settings too.

this is how it looks like.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

@Phrogz I added an image with the tiles that i want to recreate for clarification.

Checking the Brick Trick thread you provided, it seems that a basic way to use this setup with an image texture would look like this:

Note that the brick wight/height needs to be the same ratio as your texture's X/Y resolution, and the texture's scale adjusted. Otherwise, the texture gets deformed and/or truncated. If you use a perfectly square texture, it's really easy to figure out. I think that's the only thing you are missing.
This is the only thing to do in order to get one image into each tile.

That being said, in your example you seem to try to mix two different textures according to Blender's brick texture, I guess so that different tiles get either one or the other texture?
You could try to match the two as close as possible, but since Blender's brick texture outputs tiles of an infinite amount of shades without the two tile color values, your result gives exactly that: a more-or-less strong mix of the two textures at the same time, not "either one or the other".
To get that, you would need a pure black OR white output. I'm not sure how to get one that looks "satisfying", but you can get one by passing your brick texture (with mortar size to zero) through a Math node with the Greater Than mode before going into the mix' factor:

There are definitely ways to get a better looking result, and I guess there are probably nice things that can be done using BrickTricks' cellID output, but I'm not that good at nodes, so I leave it to others, if you are even interested into that part.

Did you use the blend file or install the addon? I am a bloody beginner and not able to rebuild this. Could you please share detailed instructions. Thank you.

I used the addon, just as instructed there. How did you get your uv_map_brick_wall node?

I finally managed to set this up using the node form the addon. I have had to add texture and a mapping node to the uv_map_brick_wall node. I updated the post.

could you show an expanded detail of the "Brick Texture" and the node driving the input?  I get image1 on the brick surface, and image2 for the mortar

Set the mortar to zero, you want only different shades for the tiles.


text:
How would I go about aligning an object exactly like the 1st location at other areas?

Am I attempting this in a way thats more complex than it should be? Also is there a way to specifically place the curved object at exactly 1/3 the length of the indentation?


text:
(MacOS) Is it possible to have two Blender Instances (especially with working addons?)
Question
How do I open up two instances of Blender with both of them working with addons?
Context

I come from a Windows 11 background, where it is possible to do the above question in this environment
I understand how to create two instances of Blender via Terminal
After making two instances of Blender, one of the instances do not have working addons.

I use Better Pie Addons, and realized the instance that was opened first have the addons working while the second instance that was opened later does not.

Intention

I have a Main and an Experimental/Tutorial instance.

In my current case, I wish to reference the shaders nodes that I have done for the tutorial since the connection are very complicated
Sure, taking a screenshot is nice, but since I only have one screen, it is nice for me to scroll around the shader screen!

Theory

Is the second instance of Blender reading the same addon file? Does that mean I need to specify another configuration file? I assume that some resources (such as the addon) are locked in read, write and execute?

Conclusion

Thank you in advance for those who choose to help me!
I am really new to the Mac ecosystem so any help will be greatly appreciated!

References
This similar question seemed to already have been answered a long time ago but was wondering if anyone has any updates to this! Here is the link below:
Is it possible to work on two or more files at the same time (or open multiple Blender instances?)

You can have multiple separate Blender.app, which can be launched independently, but you’ll need to install add-ons separately in both.

@Phrogz Thank you very much for your helpful reply! You are right, I was able to copy and paste another Blender application and it worked flawlessly!

Hi @DuarteFarrajotaRamos and thank you for correction suggestions. May I ask of you to check if everything is in order?

Thank you @Phrogz for your helpful solution!

Summary
Duplicate Blender in the Application window and rename.
Workflow

Navigate to Applications

Locate Blender application, copy/paste and rename.

It is now possible to open two isolated Blender applications! Have fun! (Note: You may need to reinstall and re-enable your addons)


text:
shatter an object?
I made fractures in an object, I thought it would shatter by the liquid in side the object (the liquid is moving wildly) but it didn't. I tried to make a projectile that would collide with the object to shatter it, but it goes through the object (I checked both objects whether they have collision properties).
How do I let an object (which already has fractures) actually shatter apart by collision?

The collision system and the fluid sim system are using different math and are separate isolated systems as far as I know. Maybe someone else can elaborate more. It's physics, but it's still faked physics, in order to be manageable by your computer's processor. I think you'll need to explode that fractured object first, bake that, then splash the liquid against it.

There are a couple ways to get the desired result.
Using the Explode modifier.
Using the Cell Fracture add-on.
Both options have a number of settings that can be defined & tweaked.
Edit:
Sorry I misread a little bit. Depending on how your fractures were made Part 2 of the Cell Fracture tutorial should help. Otherwise you may need to explode your mesh.

thanks! that tutorial helped me. Ironically he's making exact the same thing I'm trying to do.

Glad to be of assistance. Happy blending!


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Fluid not appearing in object mode or game "play" mode
Why does the fluids in my model only appear when I press render? I see video's where the person who's recording can see his fluid in object mode. But I only get to see the object that's supposed to be the fluid.

Fluid is not supported in game mode

@NoviceInDisguise and in other modes then?

Blender Internal and Cycles do support it

@NoviceInDisguise and how can I see fluids in edit mode then?


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Armature deformation behaviour with shape keys
I have a gum squeeze bulb rigged with an armature (simple two bones), when I turn the bone the top of the bulbs vertex group is attached to I get a nice bending of the whole bulb. Please see the attached images.
Now I want to have the same behavior accomplished by shape keys.
I found the Corrective Shape Keys addon, but can't get it doing a good job. The resulting mesh is a mess.
Also I found the option to apply the armature modifier as a shape key, which gives me exactly the same result as with the armature, but instead with a single shape key. That's too good to be true. So I found, that when I want to bend the bulb in +X/-X and +Y/-Y after the first time using the armature modifier as shape key, my rigging has gone and I can't do the -X/+Y/-Y motions with the "use armature modifier as shape key" process...
Help is greatly appreciated!

Is there any reason you need this to be done with shapekeys? Shapekeys are a bad fit for this kind of motion, an armature is probably your best fit here.

I got this working by using the "Corrective Shape Key" addon. So I posed the armature in the end position I wanted. Then I selected the mesh object (bulb) and hit the "create duplicate for editing" in the Shape Keys group of the objects data tab.
Selecting both (copied first and then original) objects and hitting "Join as Shapes" from the same menu creates a new shape key with the copied objects shape as final mesh deformation of this shape key.
I then did this with all four directions the bulb is able to bend.
This work nicely with one nasty exception. The motion is not exactly a copy of the armatures motion, the top of the bulb changes length during bending, which in the armature is forbidden. The bulb is actually attached with top and bottom lips to metal parts. So now when I make the angle sweep, a gap between the bulbs lips and the upper metal part opens and closes again. I hope to get around this issue soon...

The reason for the change in motion is that applying shape keys performs a simple linear interpolation between the points in each shape key that is applied, so any rotational motion will be distorted. This is a fundamental limitation to how shapekeys work, so generally with large ranges of motion, other options are used or combined with shape keys.


text:
How to stop seeing throught the object
So I'm following a tutorial about topologizing a character and I see throught the object im doing the topology for. The tutorial doesn't specify anything about it and its quite infuriating when i snap the vertices. Any help please?

Hello, could you please elaborate, where do you see through?

So, my topology is supposed to snap on the surface of the hand, But it doesn't do that because, as you can see in the wrist area, it shows me the inside of the palm (that applies to every position i look at ) .And so when i try to snap a vertice on the back of the hand, it goes to the palm. I'm sorry for the description, but english is not my first language. I will edit the post and put another picture with the vertice.


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Automatic weights won't work for figure model
Context:

I'm trying to rig a model (this is for figure drawing reference so a rough solution is fine).

The original model was a bunch of loose parts (lots of overlapping/intersecting parts, internal geometry)

this made rigging via automatic weights impossible.

What I've tried:

made a duplicate of the model and added a bunch of modifiers (geometry nodes: mesh to volume + volume to mesh, displace (?), shrinkwrap, decimate)

I applied these and was able to get a rough mesh that was one continuous skin (i.e., not loose parts).

The problem:

I tried rigging this new mesh with autoweights but could not get it to work. Lots of "melted cheese" when moving limbs

All help appreciated, TY!
Here's the blend file if necessary: https://file.io/UrWTfpuXarPA

Hello, your mesh is super high-poly, it's going to make any animation very tedious, the best idea is to create a low-poly version (retopologize)

That Blend file has already been deleted from the download site.


text:
does the latest version of blender work on flame25 using rocky linux 9.3?
I went to blenders website and was not able to obtain these details through their FAQ, nor through their pdf manual, I had option to reach out to developers and report a bug but this isn't a bug issue. I'm just being tasked with identifying whether or not Blender software will work without issue on a Autodesk Flame 2025 on rocky Linux 9.3?

No idea what 'Flame 25' is. - It doesn't even appear if you stick it into Google. - Try it and see?

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Apologies for this, i just edited my post to be more understandable, So i use Autodesk Flame 2025 on Rocky Linux 9.3 or at least ill be attempting this soon i decided to just check in here to see if anybody else has tried using the software with this specific linux OS. Autodesk Flame is a Video editing suite and 2025 is the latest version.


text:
Is sub-d modeling a good workflow for low poly models with baked high poly details?
As a blender newbie I'm investigating the best way to create models for my game. I have tried low-poly character which is nice and have seen other methods like sculping.
Sculping is nice, you can work with more freedom compared to modeling but the problem is that you need to retopologize the mesh if you want to use the model in games.
Today I discovered sub-d modeling. It seems very nice because you can work on a very low poly model but keeping high level of detail. I have noticed you can convert the subd model to the base low poly mesh by reducing the subdivisions to 0. So, a question comes to mind. Are artists creating low poly models really using this workflow? The advantage I see is that I could have the low poly and the high poly version without any retopology and working with a bit of care the mesh is very easy to manipulate and in the end have: The low poly model, and a texture with all the details in a normal map for example.
Is this possible? I'm just missing something important?

This forum is not meant for questions with opinion-based answers, generally. With everything in game dev, the answer is "it depends". There are dozens of workflows for making literally any single thing in a game. I would recommend trying something and seeing what you like and don't like. Don't get hung up on picking the "correct workflow" just try a few out and see if they work for what you need. Watch tons of tutorials to get an idea of how other pro artists are working. I would recommend checking out Artstation Learning for insight into pro workflows.

I can only agree with Jakemoyo. If you feel one day somewhat limited in your creativity, then it will be the time to think about changing your workflow.


text:
Get vertices in a chunk like manner instead of strip (indices count)
I need some help rewriting a piece of code that takes a mesh and iterates over its indices to store indicies in arrays for later use while limiting itself to under 2**16 vertices and keeping faces intact (unless I misinterpreted the code).
    def _split_meshes_for_vertex_limit(self, divided_meshes):
        new_meshes = []
        limit = 2**16
        for mesh in divided_meshes:
            if len(mesh.vertices) > limit:
                start_index = 0
                while start_index < len(mesh.indices):
                    vertex_index_mapping = {}
                    new_indices = []
                    for i in range(start_index, len(mesh.indices), 3):
                        start_index += 3
                        face = mesh.indices[i:i+3]
                        for face_index in face:
                            if not face_index in vertex_index_mapping:
                                new_index = len(vertex_index_mapping)
                                vertex_index_mapping[face_index] = new_index
                            new_indices.append(vertex_index_mapping[face_index])
                        if len(vertex_index_mapping) >= limit-3:
                            break
                    verts = [mesh.vertices[v] for v, index in sorted(vertex_index_mapping.items(), key=lambda k: k[1])]
                    new_meshes.append(Mesh(mesh.material_id, verts, new_indices))
            else:
                new_meshes.append(mesh)
        return new_meshes

The problem with the current code is that iterating over indices will cause the "submesh" to become a long strip, which is not efficient for culling. Instead, I would like to process the data in 2×2 chunks (with infinite height), and if one chunk exceeds the 2**16 limit, it should be divided recursively into smaller 2×2 chunks.

This is an example image with colored faces that would belong into a chunk, just for better visualization (not using the same mesh as above)

My mesh represents a map, similar to what you might find in a game. The decimate tool has been heavily used to optimize the vertices, so they are not uniform.
Keep in mind that I do not want to split the actual mesh. I only want to store the data in my array (with the faces intact) so I can use it later. Since the faces need to remain intact, the chunks do not need to form a perfect grid but should closely resemble one.
I am new to Blender and am learning as I go. I have tried searching online and asking ChatGPT for help, but I haven't found a solution yet. This code is a bit overwhelming for me, to be honest.

Hi and welcome! The chances of getting a satisfactory answer increase if you give a complete example. What do you have (an in-game map?) and what do you want to do (culling? splitting into virtual sub-maps?). The example should include a screenshot or a sketch, as well as a description for a sample setup (e.g. add default plane, subdivide it 2x, ...) or a blend file, and a small, complete and executable script that tries to solve the task. Finally, a description of the result and what does not work.

I kind of thought that i explained everything well enough, especially with the given code example. I can not share what i am actually working on because it is confidential but i will update my initial question

Sorry, it was not clear at all. Thanks for the update & the images meanwhile. Unclear things: 1) What are "2×2 chunks (with infinite height)"? -- I guess those are the red sections, right? The mesh is quartered, only X and Y of the position are relevant, and Z is ignored, right? 2) " it should be divided recursively into smaller 2×2 chunks." -- It should be quartered again, right? 3) The mesh seems to be triangulated -- clear now. It is. 4) Blender does not guarantee a certain order of the verts. Can you guarantee it? If not, it's chaotic. 5) What about the faces that is in 2 sections?

Take the meshes bounds and divide them by 2 (while not chunking in the height dimension) and choose everything within. So yes, you are right with your assumption. 2) yes, just like in my image. However i dont like how its worded. The mesh is not supposed to be cut, i just want to get the faces/verts within this "imaginary" boundary. 3) yes 4) i do not care about order, just about intact faces 5) I answered that in my post. Check the penultimate paragraph. If a face is within 2 chunks, it can be placed into the chunk that the average position of all verts is in (or randomly chosen).

but the order is crucial here ;-) You get these strips because the indices are in natural order (1,2,3,4 ...). If you mess up the order by a modifier or DynTopo (43, 1, 99, 17, ...) you will get a few random "shreds" of the mesh and they are not even in the correct section. So I wonder why you rely on the indices at all if you actually want to divide them into sections. In this case, it's the positions that matter, not the indices.

Another question: 6) how do you want to store the result? This "divide and conquer algorithm" creates a tree and I guess you need to identify the sections somehow. A dict, where the key is the id for the section and the value is a list of vertex indices should be possible. 7) how important is performance? A limit of 64k verts indicates that the mesh has a lot of vertices (200k+) so the script will take a while to complete (10-20 sec for 200k verts) -- 5) there is one edge case where a face with 3 verts can have 1 vert in a different section/quarter. That's hard to detect. Just saying.


text:
Apply rigid body physics to armature
I have a fully rigged human character and want this guy to lay flat on a cube with the back. The lower legs should be pulled downwards by gravity at the knees.

How can I add physics to the armature itself, not the whole object as one body?

sounds like a job for hooking

I am not able to add hooks to the armature itself, right?

i don't think so, but you can parent the vertex groups from the armature to rigid bodies.


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How can I avoid colored light reflections?
so I'm sorta new to Blender and stumbled upon a problem which is probably easy to fix. So I realized that the color of the ground gets reflected onto other surfaces during the render, as seen on this picture:

How can I prevent the green color from appearing on other things than the ground?

Yes, by decreasing the number of bounces in Render settings > Light paths:

However, note that this is a phenomenon in the real world, and disabling it may make your renders look more fake or unrealistic.

gandalf3: I think that you'd know more about this than me so perhaps you could elaborate on this idea that I saw somewhere recently in some video that may have been Godfried(BlenderDiplome)???  Anyways, I vaguely remember the setup uses two shaders and a Light path node to control the mix so that when the rays are camera rays then one shader is used and when the rays are indirect then the other shader is used.  Maybe this is only good for Glossy but perhaps you might concoct something that helps with a diffuse setup as well since you do seem to have skill with these types of setups.Cheers.

@MarcClintDion I'm not quite sure what you mean.. You can mix shaders based on ray type so one shader appears to the camera, and a different shader appears to the objects. But I'm not sure what you want to do with this?


text:
How to move selected UV Island?
I want to move the island in UV Editor, but it moves the faces in the 3D View
bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(0.0192062, 0.49296, 0), constraint_axis=(False, False, False), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1)

in Blender 2.71 with python

You need to set the context's area type first, run the folowing script from the text editor not from the console:
import bpy
area = bpy.context.area.type
bpy.context.area.type = 'IMAGE_EDITOR'
bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(-0.209548, 0.232831, 0), constraint_axis=(False, False, False), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1)
bpy.context.area.type = area

Related

Python - move UV for selected items


text:
refine rounded face
I have model, imported from STL a file, and cleaned up the mess with triangles a little. I removed all doubled vertices and edges.
So I clicked together all linked faces manually and made one out of them using "Make Face".
Now I have a rounded face that looks not that nice, see the screenshot, please.
What went wrong there?

I appreciate your help.
Cheers
Stefan

To make this face rounded, you'll need to add several loopcuts to it, so it to have some supporting geometry helping it become that rounded.

The problem with using "Make Edge/Face" in this case is that the resulting face is an n-gon. Since the resulting face can't make that kind of smooth curve it will look strange depending on the angle from which it is viewed. Instead, you can try using "Bridge Edge Loops". Just be sure to only select the curved edges and not the two edges that connect them like this...

And you should get this...

If it doesn't work it's most likely because the number of edges on each side are unequal which you can check in the info panel on the upper right side of the screen.

Worked like a charm. Thanks for making the point clear, that using only the "guide edges" is a crucial point.


text:
Playback Rate Suddenly Changes
I am a total newcomer to using Blender, so I probably have something not adjusted correctly.  Here is my problem.  I will be editing videos using the video editor, and all of a sudden, the video will jump to playing 3-4X the normal rate.  I am not making changes to the frame rate or anything else.  In one instance, I watched a section of video and it was working fine, but then I got up and got someone to come look at it, and when I got back to the computer it was playing faster.
I have yet to discover a way to fix this issue.  I will try adjusting frame rates and other items, but it still flies over the video in the preview window at probably somewhere around 100-120 fps.

Could you add some info on your video files, rendering options, etc?

Make sure to use "AV Sync" and "Frame Dropping" from the Timelines Playback menu...

There is a pretty good explanation from Mikeycal Meyers.
It's about the "Refresh Sequencer" function and the MPEG Preseek option (set to its maximum of 50) in each video Strip Property. If this won't help you, try to use Proxies which take some time to be built, but they should not only improve your cutting workflow but eliminate your issue as well.


text:
Extruding solid mesh
I 3d scanned an object, and built a nice mesh. I want to create a piece of plastic that holds this object, but that lets you slide it in and out. I could do this by taking the object, 'extruding' the solid along a path, and then using the result as a tool to cut into a rectangle.
I cannot figure out a clean way to do this in Blender. I can load the mesh, then in edit mode extrude the faces, and it looks approximately correct. But the resulting mesh has all sorts of problems, and is very complicated, and won't load cleanly in other software.
Is there a go-to method of extruding a solid? It is as if you are moving a 3d object through space, and keeping track of the outline of where the object was. It is just a simple line that I want to use right now.
[Edit: Added more details below, thanks for the feedback.]

I inserted a mesh after aligning in CloudCompare (by fitting a plane) from my scanner software's output (CrealityScan)

I remeshed (voxel mode) using the object data properties (ie, not a modifier), to reduce the detail
Turned on x-ray

Hit A to select all points
Extrude edges
Select Orientation: Global
Enter coordinates for desired extrusion

Remesh, again, in voxel mode to try to normalize the shape

When prepping this example, that last step seemed to be crucial, in terms of what I am exporting to other programs. It helps a lot if I remesh. But that leaves this problem/issue:
There is weird pitting in the top of this shape, which shows up after the extrude, but not before.

What is the cause of this, and is there anything I can do to fix it? It looks like some holes in the mesh. It looks like a shrink wrap of another surface above this one would help, but I did a bunch of experimentation with that, and it seemed like it would result in weird distribution of points over the surface.
So, final questions:

Please critique the steps I took, and let me know if I am missing some concepts or details in my approach
Is there a cleaner way to accomplish something like this
Why are there weird artifacts on the side, before the last remesh?
Why are there weird pitting artifacts?
How could I get rid of these artifacts?

It appears like it is something to do with inverted normals (which I can see by enabling "Face Orientation" in the view. The remesh seems to fix lots of the inverted normals on the sides - except where the pitting occurs. Any insights on this?

Why don't you just use all sorts of solutions to fix those "all sorts of problems"?  :D What I am trying to say is you should provide all the specifics, share screenshots and sketches of desired result if you want any meaningful help. I think you should edit the question and provide more info about the specifics for this question to be possible to answer.

Hello and welcome. As it stands this question is unanswerable and was put on hold for lack of essential details to understand the issue. Risking stating the obvious, only you have access to your scene, so unless you describe it thoroughly you alone know your exact setup, settings and what steps you took to arrive where your are now. Describe the issue in detail, add images of relevant settings and user interface, with the [edit] button above. Don't post comments or ask a new question, editing will automatically queue it for reopening review.

Thanks for the gentle and helpful guidance! Resubmitted.

How does this differ from using a 2d shape?

Why not just grab half of the object and moving?

@DanielMöller how would that help? I want the full volume of the mesh that the 2d inhabits at any point along the path. You will notice in the final result in the final screenshot above, that there is a full 3d shape that is not the same as a 2d profile extruded.

You're describing a 4d shape. That makes little to no sense. If you select half of the model (which is symmetric) and grab it, you create a 3d shape that fills the entire path with the entire volume.

@DanielMöller no, I am not describing a 4d shape. If you cut the shape and then merely joined in between, that would not achieve my goal.

So I guess you still haven't explained what you want properly.

Start by making a flat outline of the section you want to extrude:

Click "object" menu at the top, "convert" to "curve" (or draw it as a curve instead of a mesh)
Then create a path curve:

Go to geometry nodes for the "path" and use this node setup (where "cube" is the name of the outline object):

The shade flat is optional.
Alternatively, instead of geometry nodes you can use the "bevel" option in the "data" tab of the path:

Thank you for the kind guidance. I am comfortable if the initial object is 2d, like in your example; my question is how you extrude a 3d object along a path like this. (This may not be the correct concept; it is more like a sweep perhaps.)

It's hard to tell exactly what your process is from your description, but I think you may benefit from using a convex hull conversion.
Let's say you start with this:

After you've extruded the solid along a path, as you say, you end up with a non-printable mesh:

We can already see some planes clipping through each other.
Now we apply the convex hull by going to edit mode and selecting Mesh -> Convex Hull from the tool bar to the top-left of the editor.

This creates a sort "imprint" of the mesh as if it no concavities anywhere. Think of it like stretching a rubber sheet very taut over the entire surface of the mesh.
This convex hull mesh should be printable.
There is probably some tidier way of creating a "sheath" for your mesh, but this may be a good-enough quick and dirty way of getting what you want.

Thanks for the info. This is indeed a good way if the object itself underneath is convex. But if you think of something like a spoon, the convex hull here will bridge between the tip of the handle and the rounded edge, which will result in a very not-spoon like spot at the bottom of the hole. I since added a lot more detail to my question.


text:
Script to automate process of duplicating multiple instances of a mesh, each one with a shape key applied

I need help to do a script able to automate the process of duplicating a mesh that has lot of shape keys, then applying as basis one of the shape keys or a combination of shape keys to the duplicated mesh and name it the same as the name of the applied shape key. I use blender 3.6.9 LTS.
the script shows the following commands as i do those actions
bpy.ops.object.duplicate_move(OBJECT_OT_duplicate={"linked":False, "mode":'TRANSLATION'}, TRANSFORM_OT_translate={"value":(0, 0, 0), "orient_type":'GLOBAL', "orient_matrix":((0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 0)), "orient_matrix_type":'GLOBAL', "constraint_axis":(False, False, False), "mirror":False, "use_proportional_edit":False, "proportional_edit_falloff":'SMOOTH', "proportional_size":1, "use_proportional_connected":False, "use_proportional_projected":False, "snap":False, "snap_elements":{'INCREMENT'}, "use_snap_project":False, "snap_target":'CLOSEST', "use_snap_self":True, "use_snap_edit":True, "use_snap_nonedit":True, "use_snap_selectable":False, "snap_point":(0, 0, 0), "snap_align":False, "snap_normal":(0, 0, 0), "gpencil_strokes":False, "cursor_transform":False, "texture_space":False, "remove_on_cancel":False, "view2d_edge_pan":False, "release_confirm":False, "use_accurate":False, "use_automerge_and_split":False})
# this command shows when i duplicated the mesh. Is it the same as [bpy.ops.object.duplicate(linked=False, mode='TRANSLATION')] ?

bpy.context.object.active_shape_key_index = 76
 # here i selected the shape with index number 76, which belows appears without the "Shape Key Lock" setting on the shape key panel as bpy.data.shape_keys["Key.017"].key_blocks["KK Mouth_default_cl"].value = 0.5

bpy.context.object.show_only_shape_key = False
# False or True are both Good posibilities for applying the modified shape key, with the difference true will make to abolute value of 1.0, while false gives more control over the amount of shape key effect i need applied to the mesh as basis, for example for half closed eyes i would need this setting set to false and the shape key with a value of 0.5. This  appears when i do that
bpy.data.shape_keys["Key.017"].key_blocks["KK Mouth_default_cl"].value = 0.5

bpy.ops.object.shape_key_remove(all=True, apply_mix=True)
# I apply the selected shape key with the given value as basis to the mesh

bpy.context.object.name = "7_-face eyes op|mouth default op.face"
# I name the mesh the same as the shape key applied to it. (which command is able to name the mesh the same as the applied shape key, better yet using wild cards if possible, that way tell the script to name all the duplicated meshes with "7_-face eyes op|mouth "PICK NAME FROM SHAPE KEY".face"

Given these commands, which ones should be present in a python script that is able to duplicate the mesh a given amount of times according to the given index shape key range, say from index 48 to 73, and applying the shape key to each of those copies. I tried doing a very basic script myself, but it doesn’t work the way i want, it only does it right with only one duplicated mesh. This script tries to duplicate the original mesh and apply a selected shape key to this duplicate, naming it and then reselecting the original mesh again to repeat the process but with another shape key.
import bpy
bpy.ops.object.duplicate(linked=False, mode=‘TRANSLATION’)
bpy.context.active_object
bpy.context.object.show_only_shape_key = False
bpy.context.object.active_shape_key_index = 77
bpy.data.shape_keys[“Key.028”].key_blocks[“KK Mouth_default_op”].value = 1
bpy.ops.object.shape_key_remove(all=True, apply_mix=True)
bpy.context.object.name = “7_-face eyes op|mouth default op.face”

bpy.data.objects[“7_+face eyes op|mouth closed.body.001”].select_set(True)

bpy.ops.object.duplicate(linked=False, mode=‘TRANSLATION’)
bpy.context.active_object
bpy.context.object.show_only_shape_key = False
bpy.context.object.active_shape_key_index = 78
bpy.data.shape_keys[“Key.029”].key_blocks[“KK Mouth_smile_op”].value = 1
bpy.ops.object.shape_key_remove(all=True, apply_mix=True)
bpy.context.object.name = “7_-face eyes op|mouth smile op.face”

bpy.data.objects[“7_+face eyes op|mouth closed.body.001”].select_set(True)

bpy.ops.object.duplicate(linked=False, mode=‘TRANSLATION’)
bpy.context.active_object
bpy.context.object.show_only_shape_key = False
bpy.context.object.active_shape_key_index = 79
bpy.data.shape_keys[“Key.030”].key_blocks[“KK Mouth_smile_sharp_op”].value = 1
bpy.ops.object.shape_key_remove(all=True, apply_mix=True)
bpy.context.object.name = "“7_-face eyes op|mouth_smile_sharp_op.face”

-The following error appears
Python: Traceback (most recent call last):
File “C:\BAKED TEXTURES\CONVERTING2.blend\Text”, line 13, in
File “C:\BLENDER\blender-3.6.9-windows-x64\blender-3.6.9-windows-x64\3.6\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py”, line 113, in call
ret = _op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.object.shape_key_remove.poll() failed, context is incorrect.
Thanks in advance for the valuable help and for your time.

Are you sure you want to use "shape_key_remove"? This doesn't seem to be something you want in your description.

Instead of the bpy module operations (bpy.ops.), I would use the bmesh module because the bpy.ops work with a context object that must be set up correctly and rely on Blender's UI. Many of the operators require that a specific UI area, window, and region is open (e.g. the 3D viewport or the UV editor) because they interact with and update the UI. This is also defined in the context object along with the active object and selected objects and all the other stuff.
If you call a bpy.op. operator you often need to overwrite the context. Have a look here A comprehensive list of operator overrides
If the context object is not properly initialized you get the
poll() failed, context incorrect? - Example: bpy.ops.view3d.background_image_add() and it is hard to figure out why it happens.
Here is a script that uses bpy.ops to deal with shape keys: Apply Modifier for Object with Shape Keys Add-on
bmesh and shape keys
With the bmesh module you can create a copy of the mesh, including all shape keys. Then you can mix the shapes. In the example, only one shape is selected (weight=1) and all others are removed from the copy.
The following script splits an object with shape keys into separate objects.
import bpy
import bmesh

# replacemnt for bpy.ops.object.shape_key_remove(all=True, apply_mix=True)
def remove_shape_keys_and_apply_mix(obj):
    key_names = [kb.name for kb in obj.data.shape_keys.key_blocks]

    for k in reversed(key_names):
        shape_key = obj.data.shape_keys.key_blocks[k]
        if shape_key.value == 0.0:
            obj.shape_key_remove(shape_key)

def switch_to_shape_key(me, index):
    for i, kb in enumerate(me.shape_keys.key_blocks):
        kb.value = 1.0 if i == index else 0.0

def create_objects_from_shape_keys(obj):

    # Get the object's mesh
    me = obj.data

    # check for shape keys
    if me.shape_keys is None:
        print(f"Warning: object '{obj.name}' has no shape keys.")
        return False

    # loop through the shape keys
    for i, kb in enumerate(me.shape_keys.key_blocks):

        # filter the shape keys, e.g. process only 48 to 73
        #if i not in range(48, 73+1):
        #    continue

        # activate nth shape key (#i)
        switch_to_shape_key(me, i)

        name_shape = kb.name

        # create new object for the shape key
        me_shape = me.copy()
        me_shape.name = name_shape
        new_obj = bpy.data.objects.new(name_shape, me_shape)
        bpy.context.collection.objects.link(new_obj)

        # remove all other copied and now unused shape keys
        remove_shape_keys_and_apply_mix(new_obj)

    return True

if __name__ == "__main__":
    obj = bpy.context.active_object    # get active object from context
    if obj:
        create_objects_from_shape_keys(obj)
    else:
        raise Exception('Object not set. Have you selected an object?')

Animated shape keys

Separated shapes

Related:

Copying shape key animations from one object to another (python)
Set active object with python

Thanks a lot @Blunder - Blunder. the script works wonders indeed. And to add a Filter Range Index filter of Shapes?

You're welcome. If you want to filter the shape keys you can do this in the # loop through the shape keys block and check if i is in the given range. The end index is not included so you need a +1. I've edited the answer and added an example filter code. Remove the # that is in front of the lines "if i not in range..." and the "continue" to activate it.

Thanks, a lot, you are awesome!!!


text:
Blocky light and shadow artifacts all over any lit model rendered in EEVEE

I decided yesterday to start messing with light, low-poly rendering on my very-light-duty college laptop using a DS-game model I ripped a while ago, but I found that the light source that comes with the general startup looks absolutely broken! Blocky shadows fill the entire lit-area of the mesh, irreverent to the strength of light. The thicker shadow blocks seem to follow the wireframe, but for cubed faces, it follows triangulated edges that don't exist on the cube.
I thought it was the .Dae import, but when I actually checked the default cube, it looked exactly the same.
Flipping, recalculating normals doesn't work. Clamping light just removes the light, not the problem. Ambient occlusion doesn't change anything.
Cycles doesn't have this issue, but I didn't want to do thousands of samples per frame on models made in 2008 with fewer polygons than Ghost's left-asscheek.
Replacing the light source (all types cause the problem) with giving the space background texture color (global illumination? I'm not sure what to call it) eliminates the artifacting in the final render, but the material-preview shader for the viewport still has it!
Maybe it has something to do with how EEVEE calculates lighting, and my hardware just can't do it.
I'm on version 4.2.3 LTS

This kind of bug is common with EEVEE in versions from 4.2 and above (they got a new eevee renderer).
While no other solution is known, you can unfortunately stick to Blender 4.1 if you need to use EEVEE.


text:
Python - draw custom panel in UI region only for 1 object
I hope this one wasn't ask before (can't find anything here though).
With a script, I'd like to draw a panel ("My panel" for example) in the UI region but I just want the panel to appear for a designated object : for example the active object when I generate the panel/run the script. Is this possible ?

You would do this with the poll() method. It's a function within the operator class which returns true or false whether the operator can run within the given context. I can't remember for certain if the UI becomes visible/hidden or just active/inactive as a result... Could be either or.
The 'operator_mesh_uv.py' template has a pretty straightforward example for how it's used. It tests if the user is in edit mode, but it could just as well check if the active object is the correct one.
class UvOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """UV Operator description"""
        bl_idname = "uv.simple_operator"
        bl_label = "Simple UV Operator"

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

    def execute(self, context):
        main(context)
        return {'FINISHED'}

You could store the active object in a variable when the operator is registered and poll against that. Or you could manually add a custom property to the designated object. That way the information is stored within the blend file across sessions.
    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return ("mycustomproperty" in context.object)


text:
Python - Baking vertices position for a frame range
I wrote script that create a custom deformer to a mesh over time. Using python is very slow so I'd like to be able to bake the position of my vertices deformed over time and be able to play it back at a better frame rate.
So, I'm trying to find a good solution to bake the position of vertices of a mesh over time like the physics/rigid body system in Blender.
I guess there is no direct access to create my own internal point cache (but if somebody knows how to do that I'm interested) so what I plan to do is to have a list that store the position of my vertices for a range of frames.
As I'd like to be able to cancel while baking (using 'ESC'), I guess using a modal operator is the best way to go but i can't get my head around how to set up the modal operator particularly with the return values.
Here is what I get so far:
import bpy

##some code##

##store global
class G:
    pass

## bake deformer
class JDEF_BAKE(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "wm.bake_jdef"
    bl_label = "Bake deformer"
    bl_options = {'UNDO', 'REGISTER'}

    _frame = 1
    _bake_mat = []
    _index = 0
    obj = None
    _endframe = 0

    def __init__(self):
        self.obj = bpy.context.object
        G.baked=False
        G.baking=True
        self._frame = bpy.context.scene.frame_start
        G.ls_bake=[]
        self._bake_mat = [0.0,0.0,0.0]*len(self.obj.data.vertices)
        self._endframe = bpy.context.scene.frame_end

    def __del__(self):
        G.baked=True
        G.baking=False

    def execute(self,context):
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        context.scene.frame_current = self._frame
        JDEF(context) #execute some function to move the vertices
        self.obj.data.vertices.foreach_get('co',self._bake_mat)
        G.ls_bake.append([self._frame,self._bake_mat])
        self._frame += 1
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    ## bake deformer
    def modal(self,context,event):
        if (self._frame <= self._endframe):
            self.execute(context)

        elif (self._frame > self._endframe):
            return {'FINISHED'}

        elif event.type=='ESC':
            G.baked=True
            G.baking=False
            G.ls_bake.clear()
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

So this doesn't seems to work and blender freezes each time I launch the operator. It doesn't come from the function JDEF because even if I comment it blender will still froze. I think I'm not handling the return values and execute/modal functions the right way.
Sorry if the bad code make you tear blood but I'm still a learning noob :D
Thank you for your help.

First try to rename your __init__(self) to invoke(self,context,event). Invoke is what is called when the modal is invoked. Inside that fce move the context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self) - you want to run that only once. Erase the execute and move it under modal. Execute don't return Running modal and you are using it only there under modal. If this works for you I will post it as an answer, cant test your code.

Thx! I'll try that and let you know. I wonder what would be the use for the __init__(self) def then in comparison of the invoke()?

Ok, unfortunately @Jerryno solution didn't work so I ended up trying something else.
I successfully made it wok by triggering the animation with bpy.ops.screen.animation_play() in the __init__ function, then doing my action in the modal function and finally stop the animation when 'ESC' is entered or the action is finished (in the __del__ function).
The handler is added in an invoke function running modal.


text:
How can I delete polygons with negative y coordinates?
I'd like to delete the polygons which normals have negative y coordinates. With this script I can have the vector representing polygon's normal displayed:
import bpy

current_obj = bpy.context.active_object

print("="*40) # printing marker
for polygon in current_obj.data.polygons:
    verts_in_face = polygon.vertices[:]
    norm = polygon.normal
    print("face index", polygon.index)
    print("normal", polygon.normal)

My problem is that I simply can't check for y coordinate of this vector: I've tried:
polygon.normal[1]
polygon.normal.y

etc. I'm getting "Syntax error: invalid syntax" pointing at [1] or .y. In this case, it isn't possible to check vector's y coordinate against 0 in if statement, so I can't pick up the vectors which y coords are >=0.

what is the full error message.

Your problem is somewhere else, the code works for me. I can even check polygon.normal.y > 0. There is a syntax error in your code, can you show the code?

@Jerryno - my full code was posted above except if(polygon.normal.y > 0) above last two lines.

What you're asking for is this:
Using ops
import bpy

# if named..
# obj = bpy.data.objects['IcoSphere']
obj = bpy.context.active_object
me = obj.data

# must be in object mode, to refresh face selections and data
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'OBJECT')

faces = me.polygons
for f in faces:
    f.select = (f.normal.y < 0.0)

# to remove using this method we switch to edit mode, and back after removal.

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')
bpy.ops.mesh.delete(type='FACE')
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'OBJECT')

This is essentially a scripted walk through of what you would be doing if you inspected each face normal and selected only those that had a negative y coordinate, then at the end it would delete the selected faces.
There are other ways to do this, but this might give some insight. This is the after shot:

Using bmesh
See:

TextEditor -> Templates -> Python -> Bmesh Simple
bmesh.ops docs.

warning, the context parameter of bmesh.ops delete is a little undocumented, but is described here
import bpy
import bmesh

obj = bpy.context.active_object
me = obj.data

bm = bmesh.new()   # create an empty BMesh
bm.from_mesh(me)   # fill it in from a Mesh

faces = [f for f in bm.faces if (f.normal.y < 0.0)]

bmesh.ops.delete(bm, geom=faces, context=5)

# Finish up, write the bmesh back to the mesh
bm.to_mesh(me)
bm.free()  # free and prevent further access


text:
Making a cylinder glow

I want to make my cylinders glow like the image but I don't know how to do that

If you want to do it procedurally, you could mix a Diffuse node (with a brown color) and an Emission node (with a bright yellow color) and use a Noise Texture as factor, use a ColorRamp to better control the contrast:

If you want to make the light glow, increase the emission Strength a bit and in the Compositor, activate Use Nodes and Backdrop, create an Output > Viewer, plug a Filter > Glare (Bloom mode for example) between the Render Layers node and the outputs:

Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on [meta], or in [chat]. Comments continuing discussion may be removed.


text:
simulated 3d print with geometry nodes
i want to simulate a 3d printed object with geometry nodes. Basic idea is to "slice" the object into different layers, get the bounding/surrounding edges and draw along them a profile.
First i get a vertical line, from center top to center bottom of the bounding box of the object.
Then i generate planes (grids to be truth) along the created line. the planes have the size of the x-y-bounding box of the object.
My logic tells me, when i intersect these planes with the original geometry with a boolean, i have to get slices of the object.
But intersecting gives me an empty result, while difference does the job... kind of... half of the mesh is missing.
Why does intersect not behaves like i thought?
Why is half the mesh missing?
thanks
Lks

...maybe a duplicate of https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/279201/how-to-cut-a-mesh-into-a-flexible-number-of-pieces-along-a-certain-axis/

Thanks, with the link above I managed to build my own version. I left out the option to define the axis and resolution. But more or less the same.
Thank you.


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Why does adding a new keyframe turn my old keyframe into the new keyframe?
File:
I am completely new to blender and I have no idea what's happening with my animation. I keep trying to create two keyframes, but every time I try, adding the second keyframe turns the first keyframe into the second keyframe. I've seen other people with this problem on here, but I have no idea what the comments on them are talking about, so if anyone seeing this knows how to fix this and can explain it like you're talking to a monkey, that would be greatly appreciated!
Here's some pictures of what's happening if it helps:[

Hello, it would be helpful if you could attach your blend file: https://blend-exchange.com/

It seems you have autokey turned on, and this might be causing unwanted changes (it changes keypoints automatically when you move). It's the whit circle to the left of the play/pause/advance buttons in the timeline

Saying it changes keyframes automatically can be misleading. It simply keys down the changes you perform to the current frame your scene is at. If you make your changes meant for frame 20 while being at frame 1, you are overwriting the keyframe at frame 1. Always move to the desired frame first, only then make your changes. Or if you want to always manually write your keyframes, disable autokey entirely.

@DanielMöller "It seems you have autokey turned on" - Why do you think it seems like that? Just because the button is there? The Autokey button would be blue, not grey if it was turned on.

@GordonBrinkmann, autokey on is not blue, it's filled. Off is a hollow circle

@DanielMöller Yes, I see that the circle is filled. But I guess you are talking about version 4.1 and above where you have a hollow circle (but the button is still blue when turned on). In previous versions the circle is always filled, only the button color changes from grey to blue: autokey from 3.6.9 to 4.2.3. The filled light grey/white circle with grey/blue button exists since 2.80, up until 2.79b the filled circle was red, but the button color switched from grey to blue back then too. If yours is different, you might have a custom theme installed...?

DragonNuggets: The file you've uploaded to your question has no keyframes at all, the Timeline window is not even showing in your layout like in the screenshot. So if there would be anything to inspect it is all gone. But I doubt there was anything to see after it happened. Most likely you are doing things in the wrong order like Lauloque already suggests. The order is "select frame", "edit the location and rotation", then "add keyframe" as @DanielMöller says in his comment under this question: keyframes not working in Blender


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Show BOTH the base cage AND the subdivided mesh
I'm trying to follow some chair design tutorials and I see it in every single video: they're somehow able to tab into EDIT MODE and view the solid mesh with a subdivide modifier with the BASE (not-subdivided) cage on it.

I searched the internet far and wide and I can't seem to find the combination to do this.
I'm on 4.2.1 LTS.
I tried "optimal display" checkbox, "wireframe" option in overlays, and the small controls near the subsurf modifier on the modifier stack.
My scene always looks like this: Either i'm viewing the base cage, OR the subdivided model.
Is there an extension/plugin for that that nobody mentions in their videos?
thanks!
EDIT: This is how my scene looks after applying the wireframe overlay:

Enable Wireframe in the Viewport Overlays panel:

I already mentioned I did that. The viewport stays the same and shows the subdivided cage instead of the base one.

Oops ok sorry...

I had a Normals > Smooth By Angle modifier on top of my stack with the On Cage turned on. I turned off On cage and it's all good now.


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The background color affects the mesh of the weapon!
And the skin of the mesh of the weapon comes from a Image-Texture node.

The world background isn’t just a decoration, it illuminates the scene. So, since the world background is green, you are effectively shining a green light on your object from all angles.
Since this is green, I suspect you’re trying to chroma key out the background. You can have it be transparent automatically with Properties -> Render -> Film -> Transparent. If you need it to be a video, you can then use Alpha Over in the Compositor to place the render over a green background, or just go with your current approach, fixing it as follows.
To make the background appear different than how it illuminates objects, you can use the Light Path node in the World shader, and use its Is Camera Ray output to drive a mix factor somewhere (like Mix Shader or Mix Color). When the camera is looking directly at the world background, the value will be 1, and otherwise (like in reflections) it will be 0. Have the second option of the mix node be the solid green background, and the first be something like white or an HDRI.

Thanks! I'll do that as soon as I figure out the second half of your message. You can tell I'm new to this "Blender" stuff

Sorry, I did leave it was kind of confusing. I’ll try to get a screenshot of an example node setup in the morning.


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What is an object's "location" exactly (in script and transform panel)?
What is an object's "location"?
In all apps that I'm familiar with, there are straightforward local and global locations. If I move the parent object, the child's local location stays but its global location changes. If I move the child, both its global and local locations change.
But in Blender, the child's "location" remains the same when moving its parent, so it's not global (because the child is moved with parent). But its value doesn't change after changing its parent to another object. So it's not local either. What is it then?
I assume whatever this "location" is, it also applies to "rotation", right? Also, it will have the same usage in python?
Thanks

You can view the transforms (location rotation scale) as deformations. About location, it's also kinda deformation from the origin of the scene. Without any parenting, it's simply the location in global coordinates. But with parenting and such, it's closer to a deformation (or local coordinates as you said). For example if the child should be at the same location as the parent, then location is 0. You have 3 shortcuts to reset location rotation and scale : Alt+G, Alt+R and Alt+S. And no, the object rotation doesn't affect the object location (for one object with no parent).

Official documentation here https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/4.2/scene_layout/object/properties/transforms.html.

Thanks. But I got what's happening. It has something to do with "keep transform" option when assigning or changing parent. With just shift(+alt) dragging on Scene Collection panel, the location remains unchanged. But if I do it via the context menu or Ctrl+p and make parent without inverse (keep transform), then it becomes the familiar "local" location. I don't understand the point, because the movement hierarchy seems the same in both cases.


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Animations moved after setting them as Actions (Mixamo to Blender)
thanks for reading. I'm a beginner in Blender. I imported several animations from Mixamo (1 with skin, 3 without skin) and the animation looks good with the armatures.

Then I go to the Dope Sheet --> Action Editor, Then NonLinear Animation, push down the animations, and delete the armatures (except the skinned one). Then I add the new animations to the track but they all are moved and seem to depend on the hips.

How can I fix this so they behave like with the original armatures? I'm following this tutorial, just for reference. Any help is greatly appreciated!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLfjHzJy2A0&t=210s&ab_channel=MKGraphics

I noticed that the armature where I'm putting these actions is called "Hips". This might be the reason. But the I don't know why It's setup like that... What I'm trying now is working without that skin and only armatures and maybe import a model to attach them too...
Here are the project files! Thank you so much in advance!

Maybe simply edit the 2nd and third action and move the spine or root bone to the exact same location as in the first action? or please share your file so that we can test (only keep the armature)?

again please share your file so that we try it

Sorry @moonboots I uploaded the file now! It's my first time using the forum so I'm learning how to use the tools.

The root of the armature is probably the base of the spine, although most rigs have another bone with no deformation at the feet of the skeleton, with the spine base parented to it (disconnected). I recommend you do this in Mixamo if possible.

in the shared file I can see only one moving action, the other ones are still. That said i think that if you want to make all your actions match, change the location of the spine so that they match and keyframe

@TheLabCat Thanks, I will try this!

@moonboots hmm I wonder why the other actions are still... I think that what TheLabCat said regarding the base of the armature is the problem. I will see if I can make it the feet instead.


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Rigify - pitchipoy Imported mesh collada or wavefront - no mesh movement
The models are imported
I set up the armature and then let pitchipoy generate a rig.
Rig moves nicely but
in Pose mode the mesh doesn't move at all.
The mesh has vertex groups that have been automatically generated.
If I click on "select" for a vertex group nothing lights up in the 3D window. (I expect the vertex groups to show up selected, but they don't)
Any ideas?


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What should I do to stop blender freezing on start-up, when its okay starting from a double click .blend file
I was animating and asked blender to do a 15% render. It crashed. (2.73 with some add-ons activated)
Trying to re-launch Blender double click the Blender (windows7 start list) icon it showed a featureless grey screen and then freezes. (No splash screen)  (2.73  and 2.72b equally bad)
But if I double click a .blend file then 2.72b launches with old preferences and runs normally.
After using that method for a day I retried launching from the start menu.  This time 2.73 launches correctly and then freezes as soon as I try to do anything.
2.72b still goes immediately grey screen freeze.
I don't even know where I should be asking the question to try to find a solution.
W7 pro 64bit   Blender 2.73  and 2.72b  both 64 bit.  nvidea quadro   i7  -had been working noramally for last month, many many hours.

startup file can be messed up.
Open with a file that's ok, reload factory settings and save starup file.
If preferences (addons or anything) are messed up, do the same but open prefs and click save user settings.
If something's wrong in program data or manually added scripts/addons, explore C:\Users\ [userName] \AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender and delete everything (or move).
After a crash, blender files could be corrupted. You can uninstall-reinstall blender to fix them.
If nothing helps, you can check your disks (all where windows, blender and .blend files are) from explorer RMB on the disk you want to check, properties, tools tab, check now. In the pop up, check automatic repair, uncheck search and fix defective sectors (or something like that, translating). This won't last long.
If this fails at fixing, try to check fix defective sectors but it'll take more time and for windows disk, you'll need to restart (and wait).


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FBX import from Mixamo has arms up
I downloaded a model and animation from Mixamo and when I try to import it to Blender 3.4 it gets imported with its arms up. When I import it with Blender 4.2 it looks good. I'm using the same import settings. I need to use Blender 3.4 to use the Mixamo plugin. Any idea how to fix the posture? Thanks!
3.4 looks like this:

4.2 looks like this:

import setting for both are:

Edit: downloaded Blender version 3.6 and it works!

The Mixamo plugin has been updated so that you can use it with Blender 4.2 if you wish. You can download it here: https://gitlab.com/x190/mixamo_blender4.

@JohnEason wonderful! Thanks!


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How do I make geometry nodes instances exhibit the same UV behaviour as "traditional" instances? (Blender 4.2 LTS)
I have setup a very simple blend file with two equivalent scenarios, one using "traditional" instancing, the other using geometry nodes. The geometry nodes instances have no UV data for the "Texture Coordinate" node.

There are a couple of workarounds that I know about, but both have drawbacks and exhibit different behaviour to the traditional method:

Use the "Attribute" node in the shader and specify the UV map manually.
Use the "Realize Instances" node in geometry nodes.

Is it possible to change this setup so the geometry nodes behave the same way as the traditional method?
Blend file is here:

I've just found this bug report: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/129604 so I'm wondering whether this is a simply a bug in the Blender renderer.

It's a bug
I don't know if it's properly reported yet, I thought it is, but then Blender 4.3 was released and the bug is still there, so I'll have to spend some time writing up the bug report...
Workaround
Apparently "Join Geometry" node fixes the problem, when it's not a no-op, that is it actually joins something. Immediately afterwards you can remove that temporary thing:

Imgur mirror (SE image hosting has problems)

I opened your linked bug report and actually it has all information needed it seems, so no need to report another one.


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Model badly deformed after opening the blend file again
I started making a table using reference photos yesterday. I just added 3 photos, the plane(which i worked on it), and a mirror modifier. I saved it, closed my pc, and today i opened the project and the model looks like this.
It happened again in a previous file i made 2 days ago, but i thought that the blend file may be corrupt.
Is there any way to solve this? I haven't lost a lot of work. But it will be nice the reason it might happened, and the way to fix it.
Thank you!
Edit:I uploaded the blend file. And the model was fixed somehow when i reopened for 3rd time the blend file. So now it's ok.

I think we'll need to see your Blend file. You can share it via https://blend-exchange.com/ following the instructions there to copy the full link on that page. Then edit your question here and paste the link into it. It would also be helpful to see a screenshot of the whole of your Blender window which you can do via Window > Save Screenshot in Blender and then edit into your question.

Hello thanks for your reply!
I edited my question and added the file.
Although i reopened the blend file and for some reason it is now fixed.

Ah ok. It certainly looks ok although you might apply the Scale and Rotation to it in Object mode (Ctrl-A > Rotation & Scale) just in case that was causing problems.

Thank you very much!
I will have it on mind!


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Why are small objects melting into the surface?
I have been working on a wine bottle render for some time, and i did not find a better way to create a silver gel texture on top of the label other than moddeling the text and illustration as a very thin object and parenting it to the surface of the label. When I am checking the viewport display to see the results, everything seems normal.
Viewport_display

When i start rendering, the gel is absorbed partially by the label it is attached to, and i could not find any solutions to this problem.
The objects do not have any kind of modifiers.

Has anyone encountered this before? I really need some help =(((

hello if your label has a Subdivision Surface make sure that the viewport and render levels are the same? If it's not the problem maybe share your file?

Hi! Sorry, forgot to post it: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Lx8PZxm1w1MdvGd3ymyiWQMgqlUM3r4Q?usp=drive_link
The objects do not have any modifiers applied to them, so that is not the case :(

your link asks for an authorization    ;)

Man, I think i managed the deal, sorry again ;D
Sometimes when duplicating objects and moving them to create another set, the duplicate still ends in the same place if you cancel the move operation. The duplicate had a solidify modifier on it, which was visible in the render but not the viewport display. My mistake)

oh ok, nice that you've found the problem   ;)

The render Camera has its own depth resolution, which can be different from the viewport Camera depth resolution.
If the resolution is poor you get Z fighting between surfaces close to each other.
To increase the depth resolution you can try to reduce the gap between clip start and clip end, enclosing only the area of the useful render objects (including environment, if present).


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VSE-Background image behind foreground video. Alpha over, alpha under don't work
A png image to be used for background.
A video sequence of numbered png files ( which were rendered in Blender with alpha.) is to be the foreground.
Selected backgound png, then video sequence, add effect strip alpha over. No background visible. (Tried every combination I could think of. If use alpha over the background is the only image visible. Use alpha under the foreground is only image visible.  display is sRGB)
Tried with single .png file as forground. Same results.
I am wondering if the video sequenced pngs have lost the alpha channel. On the video display there is no checkerboard as there was within the 3d scene for the background. (The black part of the video looks solid black on the display rather than checkerboard)

I looked. No didn't use RGBA used RGB.

I looked. No didn't use RGBA I used RGB. There always seems to be another setting that a user has to know about, but which is   'secret' within Blender.  Shame because I had set the display to show the background as transparent and it displays as such in 3D render mode. I assumed that that was all I needed to do.  Thank you for explaining. So, is there a way to turn the solid black in the png into transparent?


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H.264 exported video stutters in windows media player & won't load in Premier editor
When run in Windows media player or the W10 TV&film player there are duplicated frames ...f21,22,22,23  or even freames in the wrong place. I have loaded them back into Blender and stepped through the frames which appear to be in the right place (when viewed inside Blender's VSL)
Does anyone know anything about this, experienced the same problem, found a solution?
Also, I prefer to edit in Premiere, but when it loads these Blender h.264 files the frames come in some strangely partially random form... 1,1,1,1,2,3,4......18, 19, 1, 20,

(I uploaded the special test clip to youtube and it ran smoothly.)

Yeah, the FFMPEG Plugin is a bit rough. You need a proper decoder for H.264 providing you every exact single frame. Most likely the video should be indexed before to be read out properly afterwards by the decoder. L-Smash is doing a great job here. See my answer here.


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Missing OpenAL32.dll After installing 2.79
I had 2.76 which I was using an hour before downloading the installer for 2.7.9.0 11/09/2017
It seems to have deleted 2.76, but I still have 2.73 folders but no exe
When clicking the on desktop new icon the missing dll message comes up.
W10, Nvidia Quadro K2000
Don't know if I should find a Open32AL32.dll to download into the blender foundation/blender folder or do something else.
There are two exe - blender.exe and blednderplayer.exe
Any suggestions?

Have you tried a clean uninstallation, and then a reinstall of 2.79a? That should provide you with all the files you need. If that still produces an error about a missing file, please file a bug report about this at https://developer.blender.org/

Solved I have downloaded the .zip version of blender. Opening the folder I found an OpenAL32.dll Copy and pasted into the blenderfoundation/Blender folder (where the blender.exe file is) Now clicking the exe icon runs the program Only problem is that it doesn't know the user preferences or start file Found those in the old Blender version folder in Configs Copied and pasted UserPref and Startup to the config folder of new version All seems okay now


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Can motion tracking and Video Stabilization constrain to y axis only?
Is there a way to remove or ignore the tracking data of x or y axis? I just want to stabilize the up/down motion in a video because I'm doing a panning shot (rolling on wheels). As you can see, the red track seems to move the film to the left (outside) which is unwanted. Thanks.

Indeed. Only reason I made this post was on the slight chance that the update since that post.

In the compositor the Movie Input nodes has x and y offset values, once you add a tracker to the 2D stabiliser these become active. Just use the correction you need and plug it into the node distort>transform.
In your case just use the y value.

I'm not sure I understand. Could you elaborate?

I use little different setup - shown in the picture - eliminates x axis movement by inverting it and adding it as transformation
(scale node is not used intentionaly)

Kinda of outdated due to Blender Blender3 but the idea is right. Thanks.


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Modeling filigree type of geometry
I am trying to understand what would be the best way to model such filigree type of geometry:

There are many tutorials how to make such ornaments on flat surfaces but I am struggling to find a good way to model it on any type of more complex 3d objects. What would be the best technic and tools?

Why did you remove the image? My answer was aimed at that.

Hi, its back now

There is really nothing preventing you from modelling this on any surface, it's just a whole lot of work.
You could model a simple surface then work from there, maybe sculpt or if you choose traditional modelling, painting a texture or using some existing pattern texture might be helpful as reference. Changing the topology with something like a knife tool or inserting sliding and connecting vertices and then extruding could work.
You could just use techniques similar to retopology to snap new geometry to existing reference making topology follow along your desired patterns and then extrude detail in various ways.
It's also possible to flatten a surface according to its UV map using Python scripts, Geometry Nodes or add-ons like TexTools to get a shape key that transforms the mesh from flat UV representation to 3d. You can then model anything around the flat surface and use the flat surface to deform your geometry with Surface Deform modifier, then if you deform the original mesh into 3d again your geometry will deform to 3d sticking to that surface as well. Some add-ons may have functions to make this easier., but they are not really needed to do it. That might in some cases be helpful, but might as well be too much trouble for this. You would still need to use various modelling techniques to join parts of the patterns together.

Thank you for detailed explanation


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Smoke simulation: vdb file import loses details severely in Blender
I am seeing a behavior where the openvdb files imported using add->volume->import openvdb when matched to the exact original scale is losing all the volumetric details when rendered compared to the original simulation render from which the vdb files were created.
I am trying to create an animation of moving smoke, so need to use openvdb import option as else the smoke domain stays fixed during animation after the domain is baked. Hence, I need to use import vdb so I can animate smoke and also interact with other objects.
I disabled adaptive domain as I observed severe scaling issues in the imported vdb file as the simulation was replayed after importing vdb sequence as the domain location and scale kept on changing. On disabling adapting domain this issue seemed to have gotten fixed.
I observed in the cache directory of bake, separate data and noise directories with separate vdb file sequences, so initially I only imported vdb from data, and when I saw the details were lost, I also imported noise vdb separately keeping exact same scale, and let both data and noise overlap. I did apply shader to match exact color of the smoke as well.
See attached the images. The first one is original render and the second one that looks flat is with imported vdb with both data and noise imported separately but rendered together in the same position and scale to match original simulation style.
I did try playing with the vdb settings like render options and others for interpolation and other settings, but nothing seem to be changing the details as the renders look completely flat.
Is this normal where so much details are lost compared to the original simulation render when vdb is imported and rendered again? Seems I am doing some thing wrong, but cant understand what exactly.

Another question on the same line is, is it possible to create the volumetric feel for the imported vdb file around the sphere, the way it is seen in the original simulation render because in the imported vdb rendered the smoke is not wrapping around the sphere volume making them appear two different objects. So can this be improved to ensure the sphere and smoke wraps nicely in imported vdb as well.
Cycles renderer I am using with Blender 3.6.2 on Windows 10 with an old Lenovo laptop with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M/PCIe/SSE2
Thank you
Mrunal


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How to create .exr file with customized point light?
I want to create a illumination condition for neural network with the format of '.exr' and I want to use point light as direct light source.The example is below, I want to get the .exr file(at the bottom of left) and the chrome ball image(the main image),and I also want to change the number, color, intensity, position, etc of the point light, how can I do this with Blender Python.
To more specific，I don't know how to use the python blender api to meet my need temporarily. The image above is one of the diagrams from paper called switchlight,maybe it is because I don't read the paper carefully, I don't know whether it is a mirror ball or not.
Borrowing the py code envmap2ball, I can project a '.exr' file to a 2d ball. I just create a simple blend file here, I can get a digarm which is similar to the image in previous display. But now I don't know how to project two point light(I will change the point light into other types in the further to create various lighting) to 2d plane to create a '.exr' file in bledner.

That’s not a question, that’s a free dev labor request. Did you research this at all? It can be done, but there’s nothing you can’t find yourself quite easily in the Blender Python API Docs if you’ll go looking, except universal (I.e. off-topic) Python skills.

I don't think it's off-topic. Too broad, too vague. Liliazhen, what have you tried as far? Could you edit the question and add the code you have as far? What part of it do you struggle with? Also if it's a chrome ball, it's a mirror ball basically, so you just need equirectangular projection of the environment as the small image and then mirror ball projection of the same environment as the main image? Your shared image doesn't look like mirror ball.

I feel sorry about the stupid question I asked.Because I am a green hand of blender and I am not familiar with CG, I don't know how to use the python blender api to meet my need temporarily. The image above is one of the diagrams from paper called switchlight,maybe it is because I don't read the paper carefully, I don't know whether it is a mirror ball or not.

Borrowing the py code envmap2ball, I can project a '.exr' file to a 2d ball. I just create a simple blend file here, I can get a digram which is similar to the image in previous display.
But now I don't know how to project two point light(I will change the point light into other types  in the further to create various lighting) to 2d plane to create a '.exr' file in bledner.

@liliazhen Hi. Please don't post essential information like links, file downloads or additional details in the comments section where it can be easily missed. Instead edit them into your original post with the [Edit] button above. Comments are transitory by nature, are hard to index or search for, and may be erased at any moment.

Sorry, this might be a bit rude, but I suspect that this is a large scale XY problem. You seem to be trying to do something quite complex with AI at which task you don't seem to know what you are doing at all and in order to do it you think you need to do another very complex task that you also have no idea about. So, chances are: if anyone tries to help you with this complex Y problem of automating rendering, that doesn't even mean they will actually help you with the original X goal. This would make this whole situation an enormous waste of time.

In order to avoid this situation I think you should attempt to form this whole problem in a very specific way and think it through very carefully. You should read the paper carefully and then read a dozen more papers and decide what you want to do exactly.

Thanks for all you useful comments, I also feel confused about what I want and what I should do at many times, I will read the relevant paper carefully and then decide what I should do further.


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Textures facing inside instead of outside
I'm very inexperienced with Blender. I've only learned enough to place textures on an object and save it as a file that I need for other programs. I have added textures to other 3d objects in Blender with no problem, but this file is giving me issues.
I purchased a 3d file through TurboSquid. All the textures appear to be facing the inside of the object rather than the outside.  I've tried to follow directions on mirroring, recalculating normals, but it doesn't seem to make the texture face the outside.
Would some one mind explaining in layman's terms how to get the textures to face the right way? I would appreciate it so much. Thank you!
The 1st image is what it's supposed to look like, the 2nd image is the top of the object after adding textures, and the 3rd image is the bottom of the object after adding textures.

EDIT: I attempted to subtract Y on all textures as AAA Yerus suggested. Still appears the same.

Can you make a minimal case with e.g. just the front of the fuselage (from the cockpit) or the tip of a wing, and share it using https://blend-exchange.com/ ? Do not forget to pack texture files (see File>External Data). It seems to me that you have some issues with UV mapping between top and bottom...

That's because the texture probably have DirectX format, and Blender operates with OpenGl. The difference between the two is that the 1st one has what is called the 'inverted green channel'. So, to invert it back, do this, and don't forget to use 'non-color' as Texture Space:

Or you can simply export the texture in the OpenGl format, depending on what platform you intend to use it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I copied what you have there on all the textures and unfortunately it did not change the look. Did I do something wrong, or is there something else I could try? I edited the post with new pictures. Thank you again!


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SVG Exporter in Blender: Z-Index Issue?
I have designed a triblock shape, as the combination of 3 simple overlapping cubes with different colors. I hope to render it in SVG file along XY, XZ and ZY views using one orthographic camera for each view. These are very simple cubic volumes, but I am facing a rendering issue and I am not sure how to fix that.
The SVG files (last column) obviously have a drawing order issue for filled shapes (at least). Please find the blender file attached to blend-exchange. (EDIT: I also tried without overlaps by moving along Y axis the red and cyan blocks and the issue is the same)
Any help would be very welcome. It seems SVG Exporter Plugin is good for outline and very simple independent shapes, or maybe I just didn't computed my volume as expected.
Thank you for your feedback in advance!

PS: Needless to say I am new to Blender :)


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How to stop Origin & 3D cursor from affecting my object
So I'm trying to fatten the middle vertex of this object, and before I messed with the origin & 3D cursor, they didn't affect when I fattened the vertex. But after the scaling(?) the vertex follows the origin & 3D cursor and I couldn't get them back.
P.S. sorry for my lackness in terms I'm still new to Blender & thanks a lot!!
left is before I messed around, right is after.

In the image below I've circled a button, if you click on that there will be a dropdown, and in that dropdown you will see some options which determine where the selected thing's (in your case the vertices') Transform Pivot Point is, independent from the actual origin. If you set this to 3D Cursor and scale the vertices, it would look like the object on the right of your picture, but if you set it to Median Point then it would look like the object on the left.

Omg okay thank you so much!!!

@jrylim if this solved your issue could you kindly tick the checkmark to the left of this post under the vote buttons so we can close this question.

@jrylim Additionally a quick note, what you are actually doing is most likely using the Scale tool with shortcut S as samuel assumes in his answer, although in your question you say you "fatten" the vertices. However the Shrink/Fatten tool has the shortcut Alt+S and it will actually not use the 3D Cursor even if you had set it in the Transform Pivot Point menu.