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What is the best way to make sure a clothing piece will animate with a body mesh and not clip?
I am trying to create clothing for a body mesh of mine. I want the clothing piece to be able to animate along with the skeleton without experiencing clipping with the body mesh. What is the best way to go about this? I've tried applying automatic weight paint which was a mess trying to fix (so much clipping). I also tried data transfer on vertex groups which gave me no success. Any ideas? Thanks.

One popular way is to hide body mesh parts under cloth using mask modifier. Other is to use Lattice modifier to deform cloth. Here is a tutorial on this topic

Unfortunately I cannot use the mask modifier in this case since the clothing has random holes around it and I need the body mesh to be seen through those holes.
I'll be sure to check out that video though, thanks!

Select your clothing and add an armature modifier to it, parenting it to the same armature as your character.
Select your body mesh, then select your cloth mesh and go into weight paint mode. In Weight paint mode look for transfer weights in the menu, click it and in the options set the Source to By Name.
Your cloth should now move according to the movement of your Rig.

Duplicate your body_object Ctrl-C & Ctrl-V.
Be sure to select the new version, 'cuz it doesn't do it for you.
Scale it up by a tiny amount.
Go into Edit Mode.  Tap A so everything is deselected.
Face-select.  Tap C to circle-select
Left-click to select arms, legs, head.  Right-click to finish.
Rotate view with middle mouse if needed.
Hold Shift and left-click to deselect any you don't need.
You only want the approximate shape of a shirt.
Delete, so you only have a torso left.
Go back to Object Mode.  Add Modifier > Shrinkwrap.
Target > the name of your original body_object > offset: 0.03
Repeat process for other articles of clothing:  pants, shoes, gloves, hat, etc...
Edit with normal methods: vertex at a time, or proportional editing.
Add the Armature deformation modifier to the new clothing.
You can delete vertices that are hidden by clothes on the original body,
keeping only the head and hands, if you so choose.


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Need help with bone constraints for creating joints
I have this rig that has an arm composed of 3 bones. I have an IK bone set up already to control the entire chain. I would like to use the Elbow.L bone to create a pole target that acts as a joint, however everything I've tried so far either locks all bones in place or does nothing at all. What am I doing wrong, and how can I fix this?

check this, elbow is the same as knee: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/21385/7777

see I did that and I'm not getting the desired result. I'm not sure what it is I am doing wrong since I am following it step by step.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Export render from Cycles as floating point RGB in scene linear color space?
Is there an easy way to access (and hopefully export) the rawest output from Cycles, namely the rendered image as RGB(A) floats in scene linear color space?

"Scene linear" is not a colour space. Scene referred imaging is linearized, but is not a fully qualified colour space due to the fact that any RGB scene referred system can be linearized; it would require defining the RGB primaries to be a fully fledged colour space

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


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Follow path breaks up parent-child positions
I have a starship that I would like to go along a nurbs path. The starship is constituted by several objects (hull, lights, etc.) where the hull is set as the parent for the remaining parts so that I can move the ship easily.
When I select the ship, the nurbs path, click Ctrl+P and select Follow Path, the lights jump to the other corner of the scene, and so do other parts of the ship. What could be causing this?

I'm not sure I can assist without seeing the actual file, but sometimes it helps to parent the main mesh, in your case the hull of the ship, to an empty, and set that empty to follow the path.

Thank you, it worked :-) It could have occurred to me though :-D

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


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Object in Cycles is getting illuminated but stays black in Eevee
I am working on a space scene using a 3D model of a starbase that I downloaded online. There's a sun in the scene that illuminates the starbase. The starbase gets illuminated in Cycles, but when I switch to Eevee, it does not receive any light from the sun.

The node tree of one of the "head" of the mushroom-shaped starbase looks like this:

Am I missing something fundamental that you more seasoned pretzels can see at the first glance?

Have you tried to bake indirect light? Maybe placing a reflection cubemap around the spaceship?

it should work, as the directional light is no material emission or primarily indirect. Maby its something else? Could you upload a file?

Sure - here it is: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AohDmDW98tXLg91V8xNw6WMVLYj1Ng?e=I4ZhUl Many thanks!

@AM, did you have a chance to take a look?

sry tried to take a look, but the file is pretty complicated (many small nested parts) and i dont have much time at the moment. What i found was that there are countless lamps inside the station. Also copying the hole station to a fresh blend-file brings the error along, copying single elements doesnt. Maby this way you could narrow it down, which object causes this behavior.

I could narrow it down to the huge number of lights (134) in the scene.
Deleting all lights and adding a fresh sun restores the display of shadows. By using the new filtering parameters, lights can easily be found:
It looks like that eevee cant handle that many lights and additional ones will simply be ignored:  https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/eevee/limitations.html

Very interesting. Not what I expected, but it seems to be the right answer. Thank you!

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


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Applying glare to selected color only
I have a scene setup in Cycles that contains multiple light emitting objects on a single layer.
Is it possible to apply glare only to blue colors without having to move these to a separate layer or assigning them a special material id?

The "correct" way to do it would be to have the material to emit more than 1 in value and set the threshold so that the rest gets cut off. But I don't know your setup so here is another way to do it:
Change the color of the image to filter out other colors than blue. Feed that image into the glare node and set Mix to 1. This will create an image with only the glare. Add-mix the original image with the glare.

Thank you, that was just what I was looking for! It just didn't occur to me to use the multiply node. Thumbs up!

I know it may not be exactly what the OP is asking for, but I arrived on this page when I did my search. If you want to select the bloom on a per-material basis instead of per-color (which is, in my opinion, more precise and easier to apply), you can check this answer " One part of the render layer glowing? " which assigns a pass index to your material, apply the glare only on this material, and then combine the two using a simple Add layer.


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Remove path constraint in object linked from another scene
I have a starship model following a path in scene A. The model is linked to scene B where I would like to do other things with it. However, the object keeps the movement animation from scene A. There are no keyframes in scene B, and there is no path constraint applied in the linked object in scene B.
I also tried hitting U and chose to delete animation data.
How should remove the animation?

maybe try to deparent it?

Thank you, worked. I removed the follow path constraint in scene A, unlinked the object in B and then reapplied the path constraint in A.


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MAX to blender conversion trouble
I have a model of an oldtimer car that we're renovating. I'd like to try what colors we could use on the car and would like to do it in blender, but the model is in .MAX. I tried exporting it to FBX, but when I import it into blender, some of the car parts are rotated wrong and all the materials are black. Is there any way to solve this without having to manually re-create all of the stuff manually?
The .max model is created with V-Ray. I do have a trial version of 3DS Max, so I can re-export to DXF and can install a trial version of V-Ray if needed.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57531/fbx-export-why-there-are-no-materials-or-textures/57541

Use Alembic: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/24527/31447 (working in both directions) However, you can not convert your materials easily from vray to cycles (different engines).

I have no idea of how 3dmax works... never opened it, but when you export from blender and you have this kind of errors, its usually because you have to apply transforms, and or modificators (if applicable)

I do not know the exact procedure myself as I haven't used 3DS in years but many archviz people often haveg to export 3ds stuff with vray materials to Blender, and seem to have built quite a documentation around that specific issue.
The short version is:

convert all your vray materials to standard 3DS materials
Export into FBX or using a specific addons

Source:

ArchViz from V-Ray to Cycles (with tips) - Blender Tests - Blender Artists Community
V-ray 3Ds max to Cycles - Materials and Textures - Blender Artists Community

In addition, before exporting anything, I highly advise checking what you are exporting is ready for it. Unnecessary modifiers collapsed and transforms applied.


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How to add a white stripe to a tire
In a car model, I have a tire object that is using a very simple BSDF where the only value that's not left default is the base color, set to grey. I would like to ask someone more experienced how I could modify the cycles shader to add a white stripe to the tire like the ones old cars had. I tried playing with the ColorRamp node, but without success.

This is a frequently asked question: Add different materials to different parts of a mesh?. Usually you want a soft transition between both shaders so you'll have to unwrap it (project from view should do it in this case), then just paint a black and white mask, use a mix shader node and plug the mask into the factor as described in the second answer of the linked question.

Thank you for the comment, your advice, in combination with the linked question solved it for me. I voted to close this question.


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Camera moves as I scroll in view
In one viewport, I have a camera. However, the camera "rectangle" is displayed with a dashed red line which I see for the first time.
In the past, whenever I was looking at the camera view, scrolling zoomed the view - brought the camera view closer, without actually moving the camera. This is what I want. However, in this file, I must have accidentally turned something on because whenever I scroll to zoom, the camera actually moves forward, it changes its position. This also applies to newly created cameras.
How can I disable this?

You must have enabled "Lock camera to view". You can find the toggle in the right side panel (shortcut "N") > View > View > View Lock

Oh yeah, that's it :) Many thanks. Please add this as the answer.

I'm pretty sure this has already been asked and I remember answering exactly this question something like 10 days ago :) https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/179014/86891 Found the original question ! https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/144428/86891

Yes, it does answer it.


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What is the intended workflow to fix this UV issue?
I've made an extremely simple scene, as a pretty minimal example to reproduce this issue. I'd like to know what I was supposed to do differently to get reasonable results. To make this scene:

Make a plane.
Extrude one edge up to make a wall.
Knife a little cave entrance in the wall, touching the bottom edge of the wall.
Extrude this cave in a little.

I want to UV unwrap this structure, and I did so with the following seams (the selected edge is also a marked seam, by the way), followed by Unwrap:

From these marked seams it's incredibly clear to a human what the four islands should be. From this image it's clear that Blender messed up the complicated concave face; that's not even really my problem, I'm okay with splitting up that face with more edges (although I'd appreciate tips on making unwrap go less crazy with complex planar ngons).
The real issue is that the selected edge gets mapped down to being incredibly small for the large square ngon floor face. To see how bad it is, observe when a color grid is overlayed:

It's easy to fix manually in this case, but what am I doing wrong in general?
The .blend file is here.

What type of UV unwrap did you use?  Perhaps Smart UV Project would work?

I simply used U > Unwrap before, but U > Smart UV Project did way better, thanks! It also correctly untangled the big planar concave ngon. I didn't realize that Smart UV Project respected marked seams.

It may be result of concave Ngons. While Smart UV Project in this case will handle with that, it's best to avoid such faces because of possible problems further. It's enough to split 2 faces converting them to quads and UV unwrap works just fine.

As per Gilderman's comment, the problem is that I was using U>Unwrap. Simply using U>Smart UV Project fixed both of the issues I mention above, producing this much more reasonable UV mapping:

Observe how the concave planar ngon is correctly mapped isometrically (that is, both conformally and authalically) into UV space, and the same is true of the big square floor ngon. In fact, every single face ended up being mapped isometrically; exactly what I wanted.


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Copy time line markers to a new scene
I am syncing an animation with a sound file and I used to mark key notes from the partition to drive actions in the animation.  I would like to save the time line with the markers to build a new animation using new objects based on the same partition and keep the time line and the markers as they are.  I could not find a way to do so?  Is it possible?  I tried to link or import the time line but could not find out how..

Finaly from a new blend file, cube deleted, I shift F1 to the original file that contains the scenes with the animation from where I want to get the time line.  I open in the file browser the blend file original, go to the scene folder and there is a object called the name of the original scene.  I import that object into my new blend file.  I can then use the elements from the old scene into in my new scene.  One can see on top of the 3D view in the scene menus, that I have now two scenes, the original and the new one.  I just can use or copy from the old scene into the new one the time line.

Timeline markers are part of the scene data, you will only get the markers if you import the scene into another blend file.
Blender can have more than one scene in the same blend file, you could create a full copy of the current scene, remove the items you don't want and start your new animation. Similarly you could save a copy of your file and remove the un-needed items in the new file.
The other option is to use python to export/import the markers.
Run this in your current file to export the markers -
import bpy

markerfile = '/tmp/markertransfer.txt'

with open(markerfile, 'w') as mf:
    for m in bpy.context.scene.timeline_markers:
        mf.write('{},{}\n'.format(m.frame, m.name))

Then in your new file run this to get matching markers -
import bpy

markerfile = '/tmp/markertransfer.txt'

with open(markerfile, 'r') as mf:
    for l in mf:
        f,n = l.split(',')
        bpy.context.scene.timeline_markers.new(n.strip(), frame=int(f))

Thanks.  I could not find out how to start a script doing just the import / export.  Thank you for your script that will help me get all the markers (287) into the new scene.  Great thinking.. Thanks again

To complete my comments, once one has imported the original scene into the new blender file, one gets two scenes, the imported one with it name, and the new scene that is named scene or whatever you named it. At that step, select the imported scene, then go to the time line and select with b box, all the markers.  Go to Marker menu where you have the options 'duplicate marker to scene ' or simply 'duplicate marker'.  Select the duplicate markers to scene and then you have a sub menu proposing either scene, the imported one or the new one.  Select the new one and that's it.


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increasing density of beam light in volume rendering
I am simulating in animation a film projector with a light beam in volumetric.  On the pic attached you can see that the beam is quite light.. I want to densify the beam more like an intense light coming from the lens..  I attach the blend file http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=45259 and a pic showing my current state..
I have tried to balance volume scatter and  absorption but with no satisfactory result.. Can you suggest something
Thanks

Hi. Please use http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ for blend uploads.

Try https://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/make-atmospheric-lighting-blender/  Start a new file and make a simple setup work. You'll see you don't need the "domain" object or volume absorption.

Thanks.; did not think about increasing the light intensity..


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2.81 Render an armature like OpenGL in 2.79
Is it possible to render armature bones in 2.81, like it was in 2.79 with OpenGL?

Currently the description is a bit unclear. Do you mean "Render with OpenGL" as in rendering the viewport (View > Viewport Render Image in 2.8x) or the way the bone shape is displayed in the 3D view?

lol, I hope he means the former.

3D Space View Menu
In the View menu of the 3d view

which calls operator
bpy.ops.render.opengl(...)

Great, thanks a lot!

@joshsanfelici if the answer solved your problem, you may want to mark it as accepted.

Robert, I did it, maybe there's some refresh delay.

@joshsanfelici Perhaps it mistakenly toggled?


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How do you work with a background image in 3D view and then also include that image in the render?
I've been trying to do this all day with absolutely no useful success.
Let's say that I have a model of something simple like a chair. Now I want to add an image of a room for my chair to sit in. What can I do to have that image available in the 3D view while I am editing and positioning the chair in the room image and then creating the final render including both chair and image after editing has concluded?
I've seen mixed explanations of this that either don't work in the latest version of Blender or are incredibly complicated. I'm just afraid that the answer is going to be that Blender is, by default, very complicated for seemingly simple functions.

Do you mean you want a simple plane with a texture (image) on it?  There are several ways to achieve that but probably the easiest is the 'Import images as planes' addon.

@Xtremity What I want has been described in the question. If additional details are needed to clear up what I want please feel free to let me know. If a simple plane with a texture on it is the simplest/easiest solution to getting what I want then that is what I will try.

@cegaton I can't seem to get that to work or it isn't what I am looking for. Still no image in the 3D view.

Are you in the "Material" or "Texture" Vewport shading mode?
I imagine all 3d modeling software applications have a learning curve to overcome.

@Xtremity Actually, you got it perfectly right. Just what I needed. Didn't work for me the first few times because no one suggesting to use it mentioned that I would need to turn on texture shading.

The most correct * answer is to use the Viewport settings for one, and the Compositor for the other.
In the 3D Viewport press n to open the settings panel. Find the Background Image section, and add an image. You can specify which view you want the image to show up in, including "Camera." That image will be visible in the Viewport.
As for the render, adding a plane can get the job done, but it causes problems that you have to account for. Not the least of which is going out of your way to solve shading issues.
You only need 4 nodes in the Compositor to do this:

Render Layer (added by default)
Composite (added by default)
Alpha Over
Image

Nodes
When you open the compositor, there should already be a RenderLayer node connected to a Composite node. Press shift-a and add an Alpha Over node. Drop it on the noodle between the two existing nodes and it should automatically hook up. Do the same thing again, but add an Image node.
Settings
The RenderLayer noodle should go into the bottom slot on the Alpha Over. The Image node should noodle (yes, noodle is a verb) into the top slot. Use the Open button on the Image node to load in the image you want to put behind the render. You might have to turn on "Premultiply" in the Alpha Over node. I always forget which way that needs to go. Lastly, make sure that "Transparent" is ON in the Film section of your Render settings.
* most correct - The method that uses the tools that were designed to solve the given problem and creates the fewest new problems.

Good idea! We're having a tornado here, at the moment, though... So it might be a little while before I can get that uploaded ;-)

In this image I used a galactic photo from the Hubble Telescope, public domain, and textured it to a plane. I can animate the ship across the image. Use a Generated Texture Coordinate along with an Emission Shader set around 1.0 to your Material Output node. This will eliminate unwanted light reflections. Other scenes can be created using a Diffuse BFDS and ambient light, such as a room. With a Diffuse node you can cast a shadow. I like this better than a background image, because it's easier to manipulate with your camera to animate your scene than as a Background which always remains aligned with your camera view.

The background image (applied through the Property shelf of the 3D viewport), is visible in the 3D viewport in the specified view. If you want the image visible in a render, you have to apply the image to a plane (either automatically, by using the "import images as planes", or manually, by creating the plane, adding a material, and applying an image texture to the material created. These planes will render (assuming they are set up properly to do so). In cycles, you have to set the material and texture of the image as plane using cycles nodes.
Later Edit, for completeness:
In some other circumstances, though not necessarily the one detailed in the question, cegaton's suggestion,

adding the image as background in the world and setting the texture coordinates as window

is another way to get the background images to render.


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Dimensions of an object
I need help to find/change the Dimensions of an object. I am currently working on a Minecraft server and to make a banner in Blender, I want to size a plane to 480x60. Please help.

Welcome to the site, @ItsDubs. You might want to take the tour, and check out the help center. Your question is lacking some critical information that would enable people to answer in any detail, for example, you want your plane sized to 480 x 60 what? Blender units? Minecraft Units? kilometers? centimeters? What is the scale factor needed to convert one blender unit to one minecraft unit? (Continued)

(Continued) You might find that the video tutorial on Youtube contains useful information.

just quick, you can open the n menu and change the dimensions there. then you go to scene settings menu and change the units to whatever you like

Is there an updated answer to this? n shows me many things, but not dimensions.


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How to add a modifier to a collection?
My goal is to reduce the faces of an object using the decimate modifier.
The object I'm editing has lots of vertex groups.
Blender 2.8 only lets me add the decimate modifier to a single group at once which would take quite some time. I have already put all groups in a single collection.
How can I add the decimate modifier to the entire collection?
Do I have to add the modifier group by group?

You have to join the objects together and then apply the modifier and then you can separate by loose parts.
Or

Add the modifier to one object.
Select all the other objects and then the one with modifier last.
Then Ctrl+L to copy modifiers to all selected objects.

I wonder, Ctrl+L does Link, while to copy you'd use Ctrl+C, right?

yes, but Ctrl+L makes you copy different things as materials and modifiers..., Ctrl+C copy the object

As there are 2 options to copy modifiers from one object to another or multiple objects, I wish to point out the difference that is not so obvious when using either.
To use either method, selecting all target objects and having the object with the wanted modifier as active object (selected last, brighter outline) is needed.

Copy Attributes (Add-on) default enabled offers the Ctrl+C menu with the options to copy various types of attributes like location, rotation, object color and also modifiers.

There is a big difference between the marked 1. Copy Modifiers and the 2. Copy Selected Modifiers. The first one will overwrite the already existing modifiers on the new target-objects, while the latter will add the selected modifier from the active object to the target-objects modifier-stack(means below/after already existing modifiers).
Make Links menu opened by pressing Ctrl+L.

Here choices regarding linking are given one of which is Modifiers. The option here results in all modifiers from the active object being copied to all the target objects. While doing so, the target objects will lose all their eventually pre-existing modifiers, as the operation overrides the modifier stack with the one from the active object.

That said, both options do copy or overwrite, not link the modifiers, as modifiers are not the same as mesh-data that can be shared by objects. So after modifiers are copied, each object has their own modifier-stack which are not linked and thus do not affect each other in either direction like linked copies of objects would.

I found a workaround for this issue. Basically you can use geometry node's instance to point to solve this issue. Follow these steps

Delete all the vertices of a plane till there is one vertex left.
Use geometry node on that plane
Use the following node network.

Now you can apply any modifier to the collection instance. I used to apply curve modifier to the building :)


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Rendering Different angles of one frame
remember in the first matrix film, where Trinity does that jump kick and time stops? Yeah, and then the camera does a full 360 of here. Well I want that effect.
Now I know you're probably thinking "Why don't you just locRot all the animating for like 100 frames?"... Well because it's got a fire sim in it. And I want the the explosion to start. then "pause" while the cameras fire off in sequence down the room. So it looks like time has stopped. Yes, I could bake the simulation to a specific frame, I know. But I then want the simulation to continue when the camera gets out of the room.
One of you genius's must know a way to do it. Also, I cannot duplicate the scene 100 times (Already 238mb as it is), and then add a camera at every frame. This will cause the universe to explode, I already tried duplicating the scene at it crashed at 8. Also, each frame is on average taking about 15 mins to render. And I can't go to the computer every 15 mins and select the next scene and render the frame.
Any help would be massively appreciated and if your idea works, you'll 100% be credited for it in the animation credits. (short animation student work).
Regards,
Rich

This might help? http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1053/how-do-i-animate-time?noredirect=1&lq=1


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Cutting out a part of a plane from sphere vertices
I'm slowly trying to learn blender. I have a mini project I want to create and 3d print a catapult (just the 'ladle' part) that I could mount to a servo motor.
I would like to get rid of the part that is covering the half sphere and then connect the half sphere with the handle.
There are no vertices where the sphere and handle meet so I do not really know how to deal with it.

Here are some steps for you. (Since you'll will surely make your catapult like a solid object)

First create a Uvsphere with default options.

Now, in edit mode, Select the Top half Vertices of the Sphere.

Delete Them.

press Ctrl+A to select all the vertices , Then Press E to Extrude and immediately press ALT+S to Scale the Uvsphere. Scale it outward to get a shape like this.

Now, press Ctrl+Tab and Select "FACE" selection mode. Select the 2 faces on X axis.

Now, Simply press E to extrude and the G to move & X to constrain the movement on X axis. Move it out ward. then Press S & X & 0 to even out the extrusion.

And , Here is a link to file
Blend File

Another way for the sake of information, and admittedly, not the best way.
In edit mode, select the top ring of your catapult cup.

hit SHIFT + D, right click so it stays in the same position. After that keep the newly create mesh and hit P and select "Selection" and then exit edit mode and select your cup and hide it, then select the newly created circle and move it up, just a little.
After that select the circle, shift select the plane that hold the cup, and then go to top view, then orthographic, and then select Knife Project on the left of the menu and tick "Cut through"
Quick demonstration video:

Choose the end vertice on the handle and the vertice on the sphere you want to connect the handle to. Now merge them with Alt+M → At last (if you chose the sphere vertice last). Do the same thing on the other side.

You should get this. Now choose the merged vertices and subdivide (W → Subdivide). Merge the new vertice with the one on the sphere as before

You'll get a 5-edged face as the handle so I recommend connecting the middle vertice on the sphere to the far vertices of the handle so you get 3 triangles. You connect vertices on a face with J.
I'm sorry that I can't use more images - I don't have enough reputation to post more than 2.


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How to make a perforated plate?
I've been using blender for a few months now, but I'm new to this community. I need to design a circular plate with a pattern of round holes. Here is the plate I need to make, and the pattern.

I made a bunch of Bezier Circles and tried to Knife Project them into the plate, but that obviously didn't work (blender kept freezing and crashing). So, is there any way I can do that?

Possible duplicate of How to distribute an object to a hexagonal grid?

Creating a truck exhaust mesh may also be of help.

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/58811/how-to-create-a-circular-shaped-grid-similar-to-a-manhole-cover

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5856/cutting-a-circular-hole-in-a-hollow-cylinder-without-distorting https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/28103/creating-a-truck-exhaust-mesh/ https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/226729/torus-pipe-joint-3d-printing https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/51233/perforated-plate/ https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/65395/repetitive-carving-holes-around-sphere https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/58811/grid-similar-to-a-manhole-cover https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/30996/is-there-an-easy-way-to-

For best results you can either combine curve circles in 2D mode, then keep it as a curve object and extrude/bevel as needed OR you can create a mesh plate circle and a group of mesh cylinders and use the boolean modifier. You won't get subsurf on the inner holes this way but it's better if the plate has to be a mesh.

Option 1 - Joined Curves in 2D Mode

Create the small holes as bezier curves as well as the large plate circle. Make sure all are in 2D mode, and then select all, including the large cirlce and press CTRL J to combine them all into one Curve object. Because you are in 2D mode the inner circles will cut out the the outer plate circle. Then you can extrude the curve and add a bevel. Keeping it in Curve mode will give you the best smoothness on the inside of the hole cutouts. If you convert back to mesh, you won't have the same level of smoothness, and adding subsurf will introduce shading errors.

Option 2 - Cylinder Group with Boolean Modifier

Create a Mesh Circle for the plate. You can extrude/bevel/subsurf it to get it looking right.
Then take your group of bezier circles, join them together into one object (we'll call it "Tubes").
Reduce the curve resolution (Preview and Render) to the lowest possible while still maintaining a circular shape (2 or 3 usually works, we need lowest geometry possible and will regain our smooth curve with subsurf later on)
Make sure the Tubes curve object is in 3D mode (this is to avoid creating caps in the mesh cylinders) and then convert the Tubes object to mesh with ALTC
In Edit Mode extrude the circles vertically so that they will be greater than the thickness of your plate mesh.
Add a Boolean modifier to the Plate mesh and select the Tubes object as the target object. Select Difference as the mode. Then set viewport and render visiblitiy of  the Tubes object to off in the Outline. You'll see perfectly cut holes in your plate object. (Note: you control the smoothness of the holes with subsurf on the Tubes object)
In order to hide some viewport surface errors, select the Plate object, go to Object Data toolset, in the Normals panel, check the Autosmooth options, and change the Angle to 30 degrees.  You should now have perfectly smooth surface with smooth holes cut through.

Thanks for the reply! It hasn't worked yet, but I think I'm close. I made a Curve Circle with the same radius/origin as the plate, and joined it with the inner circles using Ctrl + J; then, I converted them into this mesh: http://postimg.org/image/vcy573wqv/. However, when I delete the tiny circle faces, the big circular face remains the same (unperforated). Did I do anything wrong?

Yes, the big circle in my demo is meant to be the plate itself. If you need more control over the mesh, you'll have to use Option 2.

My workflow is as follows:

Start with a plane and subdivide it a bunch of times to create a
mesh.  Use the Inset Polygon tool (I) with the Individual
Faces option and delete the resulting faces.
Next add a 1 level Subdivision Surface modifier and apply it.  Optionally, select the edge loops around the circular holes and apply the LoopTools addon Circle command to them.  The result is subtle but it ensure the holes appear like perfect circles.

To make alternate rows offset from one another, delete all but two rows of the mesh.  Use the Separate command (Y) and with Vertex snapping enabled move the bottom row into position.  Separate and move the end of the row so that it fits into the space on the left.

Duplicate the result several times and Remove Doubles to make a square mesh of circular holes.

Create a polygon circle above the mesh.  Select the circle first, then the mesh and Tab into edit mode.

From a top orthographic view, use the Knife Project tool to cut the geometry.  Invert the selection (Ctrl + I) and delete the unwanted area.

At this point you can either add a Subdivision Surface modifier to smooth the mesh or cleanup the resulting ngons, if you need all quad topology.

Full quad topology is achievable with a little effort.  I just merged vertices and collapsed edges of the ngons.  Left disc 1,714 verts, 1,412 faces.  Right disc 1,950 verts, 1,576 faces.

Incidentally, I prefer the look of the perforated disc with just whole holes.  The part holes around the edges look untidy to my eyes.

A lazy, destructive option, for orthogonal grids:

Create Grid
Face Menu > Poke all faces
Select a 8-way vertex, ShiftG select others by similar number of connecting edges
CtrlShiftB Bevel the vertices
Face mode, X delete the still selected faces
Modifiers: Solidifiy, Bevel(by angle), Subdivide.

If someone can make this entirely procedural, I'd love to hear it.. (I Can't get the Mask modifier to cut out the right bits.)


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How can save rendered images to a specific folder?
I tried to render an animation when it suddenly paused, I just thought it was lag so I went to my desktop to find each frame it rendered as a file (it flooded my desktop) is there a way to make it so it puts all of those frames in a folder.
Thanks

Is this question only about putting the frames in a folder?

You just need to add the output folder name in the Output file path and add a backslash at the end. Then Blender will create the folder (if it doesn't already exist), and write the new frame files into this folder.

No problem. If this solves your problem, please mark the question as answered.


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Method for drooping mesh vertices over rounded objects
So i'm modeling a gun and i want to cover the top of the barrel with a shape that droops over the mesh like a table cloth over a table.

Me being new to blender, i guess the shrinkwrap modifier is the go-to answer for this but it doesnt product the exact result i want.

How would i get the shape i want for this object without manually having to play with the vertices?

Just from the looks of it, I'd say that the object you want to shrink has a way too low vertex count to fit the model. Try to add some loop cuts and then try the shrink wrap modifier again.
Depending on what you want the end result look like, it's also possible to copy a part of your mesh, convert that part into a new object (hit P) and go from there.
There is also the possibility of using physics but I never tried it with solid objects.

Thanks mate, i thought the mesh would automatically take care of adding vertices for me. That never occurred to me.


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Cycles Render not rendering what viewport camera shows
I have created a scene and set up the camera and everything looks good through the viewport camera.

then when I hit render and the result is a warped version of what is seen through the camera.
please help

You have a Subsurf Modifier applied to the plane that you're using as a mask. Most modifiers allow different settings for preview in the viewport and at render time. You probably have the subdivisions for "view" set to zero, and the subdivisions for "render" set to 1 or 2. This is so that you can minimize impact on the viewport but still have a nice render.
Select the plane and then look in the modifiers tab. You can either adjust the subsurf settings to be more reasonable, or just delete the modifier altogether.
If you never tried to add a subsurf modifier and are wondering how in the world it got there, it's possible to add one by pressing ctrl1 or another number, up to 4 (I think). So you probably accidentally used that shortcut.

Hope that helps!


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What color space to use for EXR in textures
I've searched high and low for this, and cannot find an answer anywhere, even in the new 2.80 docs.
When you import import or environment textures in 2.80, the new texture node has several colour space options:

xyz
sRGB
Raw
Non-color
Linear ACES
Linear
Filmic Log

What do they do, and what one SHOULD be used for EXR files?
Thanks


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I have problems with UV mapping and texturing
Im trying to texture my Character using texture paint, the UV unwraps pretty good, but the node editor sets the material to black, when i klick "use nodes" and then when i enter texture paint it says missing data, anyway i do it the brush wont put color on my Model im not sure what im suppose to do?

have u tried to change the color of the material from black to some other color

Yeah i've cahnged the colors on the slider in Tools to the left, aswell as in material pannel to the right, but nothing does the trick, it just wont put color on the character :/

Click on the material panel and to right hand nodes panel under properties click new and change the color

Uncheck Use Nodes, it's better to paint texture wihtout material nodes in BI. Once they aren't active you should be able to choose the created image to use it as  a material slot.

Mr. Zak is right - you will need to not work with nodes to paint in Blender Render materials. Once you have saved your image slots to disk and saved all your painting, you can turn on 'use nodes' and reference them with a Texture node as long as they are added to your material in the texture panel in the Properties editor.


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artifacts on all my objects
All my objects in all Layers have these kinds of artifacts, anyone know why that may be?, when i hit "P" to play blender game they dissapear, but its super enoying to work with when you are texturing and so on

Probably something to do with that massive end clip value, but could also be some AO setting. Could you upload the blend?

omg thanks did not think about that end clip value! I changed it down to 1000 and now it looks normal, thanks for spotting that, feel so stupid now xD

Your End Clip value (in the middle right of your screenshot) is extremely high.
Computers have trouble calculating wide ranges of floating point (decimal) numbers with extreme precision and often end up with slightly inaccurate results. If you narrow down the range it has to calculate (by decreasing the End Clip), those artifacts will disappear.


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Cintiq pen pressure not working in texture paint
I can't get the pen pressure option to work, best way to describe it is permanently stuck at full pressure. The worst part is I was able to use it normally maybe a month ago.
I'm pretty sure it's blender and not my drivers or the cintiq itself as the pen pressure works fine in other programs. I've already tried restarting/stop and starting the tablet driver, restarting my computer, opening blender with my cintiq pen, turning off strength and only having pen pressure selected, switching to blender render instead of cycles, and I've unplugged and re-plugged in my tablet.
The best I can figure is based on the only other case I could find that was similar, where blender was registering the tablet as a mouse behind the scenes. Problem is, that case was for yiynova tablet on a linux computer, and I have windows.
Any ideas on what process might be off would be off and how to fix it would be appreciated

I have this issue with my Huion sometimes, you need to clean reinstall your tablet drivers most likely.

I reinstalled the tablet program from the cintiq disk, restarted, and that was enough. I presume it was from windows updating as that's the only thing that changed.

Agree with the solutions presented (Huion GT-191 v1 pen display): Reinstall Huion driver (but as per usual Huion, remember to uninstall ALL TABLET DRIVERS first, then install Huion drivers.)
My problem was worse. Painting with the pen applies a transparency/alpha, not paint. But using the mouse actually paints colors.
Weird.
(I've tried changing Blender stettings, tweaking painting options: nothing worked)


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Particles Hair - Size params
I study particles hair. And I can not see how the size param affects at particles. When I change it all stay the same.
Can you say or show me how does it affect?

Need to go these steps:

Set Particle Properties > Render > Render As : Object
Set object.
Play with controls.

I found the answer here.


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Texture displacement map in real-time
I want to texture the displacement map and see the change in the viewport immediately.
I use the Displace Modifier.
I try Eevee and Cycles, in both cases, Blender doesn't update automatically viewport. I need to click any settings in Modifier Properties or Texture Properties. After that all ok.
Is possible to texture displacement map in real-time?

In blender 2.92, the default behaviour seems to be for the geometry generated by the Displace modifier to automatically update after each texture paint stroke.

Not exactly realtime but hitting Tab twice (goes into edit and back) after a stroke of texture painting will update the geometry right away.

I find that [tabbing] between Edit and other modes doesn't update the texture or displacement, but switching between Material Preview and back to Render Preview does.  Using 3.0.0 release candidate


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From texture painting to UV map
I'm a newbie and I have a hypothetical question that is interested in me.
For example, the man has a 3D-model and texture painting therefore he has a UV map.
The man detects a mistake in UV and decides to remake the UV map fully.
The question: Are there tools to help the man go back and remake UV, and transpose all textures (doesn't redraw them) to a new UV map?
Let's say, it would be nice if the man can transpose texture paint to vertex paint. But it can be not so quality if 3D-model has less resolution than an image of texture paint. And I have no ideas it possible or not.
Any ideas are welcome.

Have you looked at baking? You can bake from one UV map to another I think....

@CraigDJones cool idea, I try it. I think I need two same models with different UV. Do I right understand?

No, you can bake from one texture image to a new one using two different UV map schemes using a Cycles Emission shader. I will try to set up a simple example when I can take a break, or you can look for existing examples here on SE.

I will start the example with creating a texture from a box mapped image texture set to blend as a way to get something baked to the initial uv map.

I've set up an image texture to bake to as a target and am using an emission shader to avoid shadow

I leave the image target disconnected and selected before baking Emit

Here you see in the UV editor the newly baked pixels on the target image in relation to the UV map, save this image now to disk

Here we set up a New UV map and set it to viewable, then unwrap to a new scheme

Here we check the new mapping to a new image texture target so you can see we are not dealing with the previous UV map - reference the new map in the UV node

We need to reverse the connection so that we leave the target image node disconnected and still selected and then press bake emit

Our result on the new UV map is visible now, and we have gone from generated texture coordinate image texture to UV mapped image texture to a second UV mapped image texture. Save you result image to disk if satisfied with the mapping.

I see. Thanks. Two questions if I can: 1. Why we certainly use Emission node (not Diffuse in that case or other shader). 2. In your case, you use one object for bake if to use two objects as I said before - what will happen? Is it a mistake?

Emission eliminates the need to create a light scheme that will not adversely affect the diffuse texture - try to bake the diffuse instead, and you will get either solid black or badly shadowed image texture instead of the exact same texture. 2. If you bake from one object to the other, then you also deal with distance and baking from selected to active object - which introduces more problems switching between selections. If you don't have to, then it is less work this way.

Thanks a lot for fully explain. Unfortunately, I still can't vote up this answer.

I try to bake through Diffuse Shader. I set Bake Type to Diffuse (not Combined) and turn off Direct and Indirect (set only Color) and use Diffuse Shader (not Emission Shader). The result is good. It looks like I am baking albedo (no shadow, no light). It seems direct/indirect light interfere correctly bake. What do you think about this method?

Unfortunately, in both cases (Emission Shader, Diffuse Shader) some color lost. I bake mono color. Original color is #41FF6A after bake color at new UV is #40FE69.

If your color is changing, then you need to look at your Color Management. Settings there will affect your bake.


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Blender - Diffuse color change by color "picker" popup
I unfortunatly to stupid to make it work.
I need to change a diffuse color of active material by selecting it by COLOR_GAMMA popup - color picker.
I did this:
import bpy
class MaterialColorPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "3dView Material Color"
    bl_space_type = "PROPERTIES"
    bl_region_type = "WINDOW"
    bl_context = "material"
    bpy.types.Scene.color_Material = bpy.props.FloatVectorProperty(name="color_Material",subtype = "COLOR_GAMMA", default = [1.0,0.0,0.0])
    bpy.context.object.active_material.diffuse_color=(1,1,0)

    def draw(self, context):
        self.layout.prop(context.scene,"color_Material")

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

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

bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

But I do not know how to make that picked color value by bpy.types.Scene.color_Material will be copied to bpy.context.object.active_material.diffuse_color and will change it.
Could somobody show me how to do it ?
Thank you!

Ok...at last I have figured it out!
Probably I am not so stupid as I thought.
I made this that works perfectly:
import bpy

class MaterialColorPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "3dView Material Color"
    bl_space_type = "PROPERTIES"
    bl_region_type = "WINDOW"
    bl_context = "material"

    def color_update(self, context):
        col_R=self.color_Material[0]
        col_G=self.color_Material[1]
        col_B=self.color_Material[2]
        bpy.context.object.active_material.diffuse_color=(col_R,col_G,col_B)
        print(">UPDATE:", col_R, col_G, col_B)

    bpy.types.Scene.color_Material=bpy.props.FloatVectorProperty(
                                        name="Material Color",
                                        subtype = "COLOR_GAMMA",
                                        default = [1.0,0.0,0.0],
                                        update=color_update)

    def draw(self, context):
        self.layout.prop(context.scene,"color_Material")

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        print(self.colMat)
        return{"FINISHED"}

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

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

bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)


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Glare on transparent background using Cycles
In a Cycles scene, I need to render glare around the warp engines, however, the resulting PNG always has the glare cut off when it leaves the body of the ship. This problem is present in the output PNG and is therefore not just limited to the viewer.
I know this is possible to overcome somehow with PNG as I have done it before, but I do not have the node setup anymore. Can anyone please point me in the right direction?
This is the node setup I have at the moment:

Read: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57816/how-do-i-get-the-glare-node-to-output-transparent-instead-of-black-background/57824#57824

That is where I started. As you can see above, I am using the node setup they have been suggesting, but the saved PNG still does not contain the glare on transparent background.

Read the whole page linked.PNG is a terrible format to save pixels that are emissive and transparent (as glows, halos or fire). Having said that, the viewer problem was fixed on 2.92

I have read it several times completely. I am using OpenEXR, but the problem is still there. I also know about the viewer being fixed in the newer version, but as I said above - the viewer is not the problem I'm trying to solve. I need the ability to save something - EXR, PNG or whatever, that when opened in photoshop will have the glare on transparency.

1n 2.92 there is no need to do anything else than a glare node.

I don't use photoshop (or any products by Adobe), so I have no clue how Photoshop is misinterpreting the associated alpha or what you need to do to fix that. I figure there might be an option to associate (or "premultiply") the alpha channel. You can do the compositing directly in blender, or use Natron, Nuke, Fusion or any other software that can deal with alpha channels properly.

I am now able to achieve this, thanks to switching to 2.92. What format do you use for saving?

I'm asking because when I save this into OpenEXR (RGBA) and open it in photoshop, it asks me whether to take the alpha information as alpha channel or transparency. The first results in glare outside the ship on black background while the other results in transparent background without glare.

This is not my solution, I have this saved on my drive, but I cannot find the original post either.

This isn't it - the resulting image always has altered colours, which is a natural result of this method. I think the one I was using before was working with the Alpha Over node.

im angeldart. I was able to make it work propertly, just needed to add a mix rgb node, with 1. Alpha from render layers, mixed in 2. with glare output in screen mode, and that node conected to the compositor alpha output.

This is something I've been working on for a while! Here's a method I came across today (almost by accident):
The secret is to...

Crank the Mix field in the Glare node up to a value of 1, so we just get the additive overlay.
Then we use the Color->Mix node and set it to Add in the output from the Glare node.
We take the output from the Glare node, run it through a Power node for intensity (<1 values equal more intense), run it through a ColorRamp (with an elevated black handle value) to make sure at least some of it remains purely transparent after the intensification, and then use that as the Factor input on the Alpha Over node.

Hope this helps any passersby! Peace and God bless! ✌


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Applying gradual transformation to multiple objects
I need to prepare an abstract still image that is going to include numerous little cubes, let's say 100, organized in a stream-like order. While on the left, they should be disorganized - meaning various rotation and distorted location, the cubes on the right should be perfectly aligned. I suppose this should be somehow possible to achieve in Blender without having to manually position each cube, but I'm not sure how. I realize I could use a modifier to change the rotation and position of cubes in an array, but do not know how to make the cubes get into "orderliness" on the right side.
If someone more versed in Blender could point me to the right direction, I would be very grateful.
The picture below is a simple PowerPoint illustration of what I need to achieve. Of course, we're talking about cubes and not rectangles, but the idea is hopefully clear.

so do your cubes intersect or are they at different Z levels?

It can be either way. Ideally, they could intersect AND be on different Z levels, if there was enough of them.

linear

Cubic

Rotate effect

import bpy, random

objs = bpy.data.objects
# select and delete all object
if objs:
    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = objs[0]
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    bpy.ops.object.select_all(action = "SELECT")
    bpy.ops.object.delete(use_global=True, confirm=False)

# create 12x6 cube
x, y = 0, 0
ran_fac = 0

def ran_fn(n): # random function for modify random number
    return n*n*n

for a in range(12):
    y = 0
    for b in range(6):
        bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(size=2, enter_editmode=False, align='WORLD', location=(x, y, 0), scale=(1, 1, 1))
        cube = bpy.context.object
        cube.name = f"cube({a},{b})"
        # offset position
        ran = random.uniform(-1, 1) * ran_fn(ran_fac) # ran_fac = 0 at first, not offset for first 6 cube
        cube.location[0] += ran
        cube.location[1] += ran

        # rotate
        cube.rotation_euler[0] += ran
        cube.rotation_euler[1] += ran
        cube.rotation_euler[2] += ran

        y += 2.4
    ran_fac += 0.2
    x -= 2.4

Excellent, thank you :)

Using Geometry Nodes on Blenver v3.1.2

Node tree

That is very impressive. Any way to affect rotation as well?


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Apply lattice to multiple meshes with same Empty parent
I have a starship model that is made up from several meshes parented to an Empty. I need to deform the entire object using a lattice. The problem is that I cannot apply a lattice modifier to the empty. How should I proceed?

Blender doesn't allow adding modifiers to an object in order to affect the children objects.
There are feature proposals on RCS about different forms of "container objects" that could allow such systems, but it hasn't caught the devs' attention yet.

Add the lattice modifier to one of the mesh objects and set it up as you wish.
Select all the models you want to be affected
⇧ Shift LMB the object with the modifier to make it active
press ⎈ CtrlL > Copy Modifiers

This will only copy the modifier "as is" from the active object to the other selected objects. If you need to make any change in the modifier settings, make sure to first select all the objects with the same modifier and then hold down ⎇ Alt while changing the modifier so that it propagates to the selection.
Changing the lattice object's shape won't require anything special though.

Thank you! Just what I needed.

Also wanted to point out that Blender doesn't allow adding modifiers to an object in order to affect the children objects


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Making volume clouds sharper
I am creating a nebula-like environment. This is my workflow: I create a simple mesh with displace modifier applied to it. I then create a volume empty, apply mesh to volume modifier to it using the mesh I created and then simply do volume displace with a cloud texture.
This is easy to do and not excessively demanding on computing resources. The problem I’m facing is that the clouds in the distance seem blurred / unfocused for some reason. I would like them to be sharper/crisper if that makes sense. Is there anything I could do?
No depth of field is used in the camera settings. The clouds in the scene are not made by a single mesh/volume, there are 4 of those, with practically identical settings. The UI screenshots are from the purple-ish one in the middle with torus-like shape.

Obligatory warning that anything you do to increase volume precision will also increase render times, perhaps massively.
Volumes are highly probabilistic, and any rendering shortcuts tend to decrease detail.  Turn off Adaptive Sampling/Noise Threshold, you may also consider turning off Denoising and running more samples but that one probably doesn't hurt as much.
More volume density at the edges (ColorRamp) and more density in general (Math -> Multiply) helps some.
Step Rate is analogous to the number of volume slices in Eevee.  The ray will march a shorter distance before checking for a probabilistic collision event.

Max Steps may need increased in conjunction, if your volume is deep and the end of it can't be reached in that number of steps.
Here's a noise volume going from a step rate of 1 to a step rate of .1

Many thanks for the response. I have disabled noise threshold and denoising, set step rate to 0.1 and max steps to 2048. I have also decreased voxel size in the more distant clouds, which helped a lot as well. The details are definitely more pronounced, which I like. You mentioned I could get more density at the edges using a color ramp. I think this is what I'm missing. How should I do that?

Well I looked closer and you're generating your volume outside of the shader graph, so I don't think that part is relevant to you, sorry

True, I'm not using any nodes, but I have nothing against switching to using them. Out of curiosity - if I would do that, I would have a principled volume node, and the color ramp connected to the density? Or did you mean something else?

Yes, color ramp and then probably multiply the density

Thank you. It is getting late here so I will try it sometime tomorrow, but I think you got me on the right track. Thanks!

really cool nebula, hope it goes well

How should the color ramp setup look like exactly? I tried connecting it to density, with Texture Coordinate node (Generated) connected to its fac, but it just makes the nebula fade from right to left. This is the setup: https://imgur.com/a/sGNr7By


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Custom properties in shaders zeroed out when I make a copy of the view layer
I am working on a complex scene with many different starships in it. This is a recreation of an old PC game poster, and since each starship was lit in a bit different way, my idea was to have each ship in its own collection, with its own lights, and to then put it all together in compositor. Nothing complicated.
However, I am using custom view layer properties to control various properties of each ship - I make new drivers from them and paste them inside some shader value like roughness, metalness, etc. This allows me to achieve the look I need very flexibly since each starship has a large number of shaders on it, and I can use the custom property to adjust the value in them centrally. It works nicely.
The problem: I want to create several different view layers, each of them showing only one collection with a starship. The plan is to then put all of them together inside compositor. When I create a new view layer, I select the option to copy the settings of the main one. This also copies the custom properties I mentioned in the paragraph above. However, for some reason, even though the custom properties are there, the shader values using them as drivers now read as 0.
My wild guess is that blender is still trying to load these properties from the main view layer but cannot access them, so they're zeroed out. Do I have any options how to solve this aside from having to re-assign them in each view layer?

Are there any errors shown in the system console after values are zeroed? The system console can be called from Top Menu > Windows > Toggle System Console on Windows, or if you use Mac or Linux Blender should be launched from Terminal and the Terminal will act as Blender System Console. It is not quite clear for me what you mean by custom view layer properties: which panel exactly do you use to add custom properties to a View Layer?

Thanks for the comment. I see no errors in the console. I am creating custom properties in the view layer properties tab. Screenshot: https://1drv.ms/i/s!AohDmDW98tXLiqsxIlbXxSK3nuFIuQ?e=5NH3uP

I've checked in 3.5, and definitely error occurs in driver and for some reason it is not shown in the Console. If you right-click > Edit Driver on the property with driver, you will see that the Path tab is red and the View Layer it tries to use is the View Layer it was added at. I'm afraid the only way for this system to work is to fix View Layer name in the Path tab of each driver in each material and not to use objects with wrong View Layer in material drivers. Pythonically there is no mistake, it should work from other View Layers, but it doesn't, so I think it can be considered a bug.

OK, thank you. Not the answer I was hoping for, but you don't always get what you hope for :) Please post this as an answer so that I can award the bounty to you.

Thank you! Sorry, I am currently a bit out of time, have no possibility to compile a valuable answer. And the answer suggested by @Luis Quintana seems to be a great solution )

If you want to access View Layer Custom Properties from the material editor, use Attribute input node (type: View Layer) instead of drivers.

The View layer properties will be copied into a new view layer and the material will always read the current layer values.

Thank you, Luis!

You`re welcome!


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Navigate/Measure real objects in real space - possibly with Blender's Motion Tracking
Can Blender be used for solving such a kind of task?
Navigate a (real) small boat to the four corners of a (virtual) rectangle on a (real) water plane. The rectangle is about 300 meters long and about 50 meters wide along the water plane.
Perhaps, there is a (real) camera - static/moving, located on the bank of the water plane and streams live video into Blender. An operator navigates the driver of the boat using a radio.
This is just an idea based on what I've just seen it's possible with Motion Tracking in Blender.
Regards,
Jiri

Blender's motion tracking system is designed for offline tracking on recorded footage; it often requires carefully placed markers etc. and probably just wouldn't work well for real-time streamed data.

Can Blender display a composite scene - live stream from camera + (semi transparent) overlay: the 300x50m rectangle (model) inserted into a frame of the solved motion tracking task based on previously recorded footage of the same scene which is now being live streamed?

Not really, but you could pre-render the overlay with an alpha channel and overlay that on your streamed video with some other software

I see. The overlay pre-rendering can be done in Blender and composing that pre-rendered overlay image over live stream has to be done in other tool - is that correct? What tools can do the composing?

Yes. Depending on the nature of the livestream, perhaps something like OBS might be appropriate. However this is really a question for another site, perhaps Software Recommendations

Cool. OBS does the image overlay quite easily. Thanks! I'll get back with some kind of solution if any :-)

One more comment. Can OBS itself live broadcast the composite scene? It looks like the live broadcasting needs an external server.

All I know is OBS is often used for livestreaming to services such as twitch, which then broadcasts the stream to viewers. Perhaps there are other ways it can be configured, but I don't know much about it.


text:
GPU compute not working in Mac Book Pro with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB
Blender 2.77 not rendering with GPU compute in mac book pro with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics and Intel Iris Pro Built-in graphics.
2.5 GHz Intel Core i7 and 16 GB 1600MHz DDR3.
after starting the render its shows--
first for about 2 minutes the status line shows --'Loading render kernels(may take a few minutes the first time)’  after that a message is displayed -
' cycles render GPU Compute. Calculation is finished.'
then in the status area it shows-  'OpenCL build failed: errors in console.'
is this graphics card not supported in blender?
what can I do to use the GPU render.

It sounds to me like you're trying to use OpenCl as opposed to CUDA. Change your render option to CUDA in Blender Preferences. If that doesn't work, try updating blender to 2.77a.

I have the same setup, and don't see a CUDA option even after installing the CUDA drivers from Nvidia's website. Is there something else I have to install?


text:
Moving Cylinders into specific points
I've been trying to model molecular structures on blender using coordinates I've gotten off scientific papers.
The only problem i've been struggling to form bonds between them consistently. When I use a cylinder mesh and set the faces to the centre of the spheres it cylinder itself has been distorting, as shown here.

Moving cylinders manually into place is very inconsistent. I would like some help figuring out how I can achieve something looking like this.

Like is there a way to snap each cylinder face to the centre of each sphere without affecting the cylinder shape? Or is there something else entirely I should be doing?

There's a plugin for modeling molecules: http://www.bioblender.eu/

This answer may be helpful

Poly Curves and Bevel Object
You could try to take advantage of curves instead of meshes.

This way you'll just have to control the cylinder main axis with two control points for each connection, you don't have to worry about the deformation because the cylinder is being built automatically and it's much easier to change the section size/shape.

To set up the curve like in the shown image sequence, choose a "Poly" Spline type once in edit mode and fill the Bevel Object field with the wanted section shape (in my case the little black bezier circle you can see near the origin).

Note: it's not your case, but if needed the cylinder ends can be capped by enabling the Fill Caps option in the Geometry panel of the Curve tab.


text:
Lighting not updating on every frame
The lamps in this scene are stationary. Only the lit object is moving.
However, in this render, it seems like the lighting is being baked onto the object for several frames (perhaps 8 or 10) at a time, instead of being smoothly updated on every frame. Is that a bug?
If not, what could I be doing wrong?
Help greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
https://youtu.be/0drCC_cSPOc?t=4s

It almost looks like it could be a result of too much compression on the video. Does this effect appear when rendered out to an image sequence or a less-compressed video?

I think you might be right, @gandalf3.

I have since made the video with vastly different rendering settings, different rendering engine, different materials and with rendering to PNG frames. The problem is gone.

What render engine are you using to produce this animation, and what technique did you employ to make those 'bumps' or voxels in the surface?
Is it actual modeled geometry, or is it just bump mapping? Perhaps a or normal map or use of displacement?
How did you model the underlying sphere geometry?
It looks like it is updating lighting in real time, what you are seeing is just an artifact of smooth shading on a low number of subdivisions.
It looks like you are using an icosphere and since this sphere seems to have an insufficient number of subdivisions what you are seeing may be the result of Blender shading a larger flat face, and light just seems to 'stick' to it instead of accompanying the curved surface our eyes are led to believe is there through smooth shading.
With the rotating motion light just seems to jumps as reaches or stops reaching these large flat faces.
Can you post a blend file we can look at, it's hard to tell for sure just looking at the video. Or perhaps a wire-frame image of your viewport.
I would recommend trying to increase the number of subdivisions on the base geometry of your sphere and see if it improves.

Thanks very much for your reply. Blender Render was used. The exterior 'bumps' are modelled geometry (icospheres). The apparent underlying sphere is actually nothing, so there aren't any big underlying facets/faces there to create lighting artefacts. Only the tiny exterior icospheres exist. The blend file is about 17 MB. I will try to attach it, if possible.


text:
Grease pencil problem, Can't see the keyframes
So it's bugging me a lot right now, I can't seemed to see the keyframe added in grease pencil but it's animating, now I can't move and copy certain keyframes, any fixed for this? is this a bug?

Can you send a pic?? You can also try right clicking on timeline and selecting keyframes

See Josh's answer here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/251442/why-do-grease-pencil-keyframes-show-up-in-the-dope-sheet-grease-pencil-mode-b/251477#251477

You won't see the keyframes in the timeline. Instead you have to use Dope Sheet > Grease Pencil.


text:
Can't move the viewport after updating from 2.69 to 2.78
I just updated Blender to 2.78, and now I can't move the viewport with Option-Click and drag. I can select objects but I can't move the viewport.
Does anyone know how to solve this?

It's possible that not all of the settings were copied over from your old blender version into 2.78 when you installed it.
As far as I know, the option to move the mouse with Option (or Alt)+Click and Drag isn't enabled by default, but can be enabled by checking the 'Emulate 3 Button Mouse' box under the Input panel of the User Preferences.

authors: Алексей Бумагин


text:
Fresh Install Blender Lag/Delay
I just installed Blender for the first time, never used this software before and when I tried using it, it had a big delay between when I click something and the response, everything is lagging, moving the cube in the scenery takes 5 seconds before showing on screen. I get this error :
 Failed to set 44100hz, got 48000hz instead

I don't think this is the cause of my problem, but I hope it helps.
Thanks for helping.

Maybe this helps: http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2261/blender-is-currently-unusable-on-nvidia-gpus-m-mx-family?cb=1

The Failed to set 44100hz, got 48000hz instead is just a Python message and is totally normal, happens at every Blender launch. It is unrelated to the lag you are experiencing


text:
Blender to unity fbx export comes out destroyed
So the problem is as follows, I got a model with a rig and animations attached and just saving it as .blend and opening it in Unity works wonders, but when exporting to FBX hell happens.
The model shrinks and goes upside down, and animations dont work. Exporting to OBJ seems to be fine but animations can't be exported on obj. so that wont work.
I'm not sure if its fine to continue using .blend files on a project we're going to port on android? Anyway its somewhat pain in the ass since it requires everyone on the team to have blender installed.
Any clues?

In the second image the crouching one is .blend and the messed up one is .fbx.
I've also applied scale and everything, and tries "Experimental apply transform" on fbx export but it didnt seem to do anything.

In Blender:

Important step: First in the Dopesheet, Action Editor tab, before you do your animation you have to name it accordingly and hit little F icon there to add a Fake user otherwise the animation is not being saved when you close Blender.

-Then you select the mesh itself and the armature that you want to export. Go to Export option in File/Export/FBX
-You can see the option for 'Export BFX' at the bottom-left corner, leave everything as default only check the 'Selected Objects' checkbox. Also choose only Armature and Mesh to export down below.

In Unity:
-Select the FBX file in the Project panel that you just imported in (I assumed you already know how to import it in)
-In the Inspector panel:

with Model make sure scale factor is 1.

in Rig make sure Animation Type is Humanoid for your character. If it is a thing or anything not full body human, pretty much choose Generic.

Animations down below at Anim. Compression. Choose Optimal.

Now anything left is to create animation controller and assign animations to the character :) If this does not work or I'm not clear in any step, please don't hesitate to leave a comment so I can help you. Goodluck!


text:
Animation node set growpoint of instances
How how can I set the growpoint of the instances?
It seems to always grow from the center.

Change the origin point.

That doesn't seem to work

It worked out by applying both SCALE and LOCATION (object) before setting the origin point and the number of instances.


text:
Hollow Mesh with Grid Surface
I have a model of a mountain that we want to use for 3d printing, however we want it to be a "wire frame / grid like" mesh when printed so its full of holes where plants can grow out of
Thoughts?

How about giving a thickness to your model by 'Solidify' modifier, and make the holes in appropriate places with Boolean. You need to be sure that your mesh is watertight at the end though.

Welcome to the site. It could help if you add some images of what you'd like to achieve because e.g. do you want all the mountain to be wireframe-like or only certain parts, how big those holes should be and should they be located only where plants are supposed to be or not etc.


text:
Is it possible to merge two vdb caches into one?
I want to produce a fire animation in Blender that cycles, the first frame being the same as the last.
I've tried following a youtube tutorial Looping Smoke-sims in Blender | Quick Tip on Simulations but I can't get the procedure to work.
I'm wondering if it's possible to manipulate vdb caches, either from within Blender or via stand alone tooling.
Suppose I have a cache of 250 *.vdb files, corresponding to 250 frames of animation. Frames 1-50 animate the fire starting up and frames 200-250 animate the the flame dying out. These effects I achieve by keyframing the fuel for the Flow object.
What I'd like to do, within Blender, is to take a create a volume
Add>Volume>Import OpenVB
and import to it frames 50-250.
Then somehow 'merge import' frames 1-50 into that same newly created volume, but starting at frame 200 of the volume. That way, the start of the volume should be identical with the end without any discontinuity in between.
I can't see any such menu in Blender to do that however. Nor can I see any option to join volumes, in the same way that objects can be joined.
Blender 3.3.1

I don't think blender can merge (mix) two VDB files ... only one harakiri I can imagine :) Import two VDBs (or for loop just Duplicate with changed Start frame), add Cube with modifier Volume to Mesh - target first VDB, do the same for duplicated, then for first Cube add Boolean modifier > Union ... this creates merged two meshed VDBs ... now add Geometry Nodes modifier > Mesh to Volume ... sure, this is not serious A, but it did something :) ... If you are looking for stand alone  tool your Q could be closed here, since this site is maintained to Blender.

Speaking to the Tutorial ... I became confused ... I thing just Import VDB, duplicate, make unique data block and change Start frame in properties should be enough (sure in Repeat mode).


text:
Inverse Kinematics locks ignored
Here is a very simple leg.

Leg.lower.L has an ik constraint applied, of chain length 2.

Foot.L has no ik applied but copies its rotation from IK_Foot.L
As discussed here here  this enables the Inverse Kinematics fields of Leg.lower.L & Leg.upper.L
I want to limit the rotations of the upper leg hat may be caused by ik. To test the extreme case, suppose I attempt to prohibit rotations of Leg.upper.L completely. I have applied Lock IK for X, Y & Z.

However, as you can see, those locks are ignored.

Why are the locks having no effect?
Blender v2.83.0 on Linux

A Pole Target interferes or takes president over the Inverse Kinematics constraining in the Bone Properties tab for the last bone in the chain.
Some info here and (more or less accurate info with a bunch of links) here
I think that sadly there aren't any (easy) workarounds. Non that I'm aware of in any case.

That bug report & attached demo file describes my problem exactly. Seems you have to tiptoe around stuff that broken when trying to use ik.

Yes, it helps to be aware of it. : ) I guess it is an old problem rooted in certain foundations that makes it hard to deal with.


text:
How to change a material texture per object?
A simple task. I have hundreds of objects with the same material, but they must have an individual image texture on each. What is a correct way to get it done? I know the "ObjectInfo" node's "ObjectId" property. But how can I use it for choosing an image texture?
There are properties "StartFrame", "Offset" in the "ImageTexture (image sequence)" node. But they have no inputs. And I cannot put drivers there. Maybe an object's driver can change the value by changing material's '''nodes["Image Texture.001"].image_user.frame_start''', but it seems to be very unreliable hack.
Another idea is to duplicate materials for each object, but for now it seems as a nightmare.
What do you think?
Also if there is a way to get the same in Blender render, I'd be glad to know it.

are the texture images supposed to be randomized or do you need to control which image goes to which object? if you need to control you could make a group with your current material (except the Image Texture node), and use the same group for each material, the only thing that will change is the Image Texture plugged into the node group? If you don't need to control there must be a way to randomize

I need to control which one is used. Moreover, they don't change during the animation. Your answer assumes having a dedicated material per object anyway. It seems that is the simplest way. So it seems it's time to dig how to create those materials and images duplicates from a script.

So, I ended up with a script which clones all the materials, both cycles and blender internal (all the materials in the scene render ok in both engines). To set image id I used custom properties. The actual image id calculation seems complicated, but there are tiles in the scene which are parented to some hosts, and they all are duplicated within their respective parents, so it's much easier to handle only parents' properties instead of each child. When resetting materials back it just clears all the extra references, so blender will kill those orphans itself on save / revert.

Here is the script, in case somebody will face the same problem.
#----- scene-tools.py
'''Some tools to automate this very scene tasks.
   @author (c) LV A.S. Mechanic. Kharkov city
'''
import bpy
import glob

# base names of objects of interest
TILE_NAMES = ('tileCA','tileCB','tileCC')

IMAGE_PATH = r'//textures\img'          # blender notation
IMAGE_MASK = 'img_*.jpg'

PROP_ID_PARENT = 'host_id'             # custom property name for image Id calculation
PROP_ID_OBJECT = 'image_id'

# (Cycles)
TILE_MAT_NAME = 'tile-face'             # tile material (cycles)
TILE_MAT_SLOT = 0                       # material slot id to work with
NODE_IMG_NAME = 'ImgTex'                # image texture node name in the material
IMG_NAME = 'img_'                       # image base name

# (Blender Internal)
TILE_MAT_NAME_BI = ('tile-face-bi')     # tile material (BI)
NODE_MAT_BI = 'MatBi'                   # BI material input node name
TILE_TEX_SLOT_BI = 0                    # texture slot id within Bi matertial to work with

def get_my_tiles():
    ''' this returns a list of tuples for all the tiles in the scene.
        (0 - object; 1 - parent id; 2 - object id; 3 - real image id)
    '''
    _res = []
    scn = bpy.context.scene
    _maxs = {}   # here we store max obj_id within parent_id
    _pids = []   # parents' ids
    for obj in scn.objects:
        if (obj.type == 'MESH'):
            for _base in TILE_NAMES:
                if (obj.name.startswith(_base)):
                    # create descriptor and get everything (no real id yet)
                    try:
                        _pid = int(obj.parent[PROP_ID_PARENT])
                    except:
                        _pid = 0
                    try:
                        _oid = int(obj[PROP_ID_OBJECT])
                    except:
                        _oid = 0
                    # update maximums
                    _maxv = _maxs.get(_pid)
                    _maxs[_pid] = (_oid if _maxv == None else max(_maxv, _oid))
                    # update pids
                    if not (_pid in _pids): _pids.append(_pid)
                    # store values
                    _d = tuple((obj,_pid,_oid))
                    _res.append(_d)
                    #print('found object: {}'.format(obj.name))
                    break
    # now we calculate the real image id for each object
    # get sorted _pids
    _pids.sort()
    # replace _maxs values with start offset
    _offset = 0
    for _pid in _pids:
        _maxv = _maxs[_pid]
        _maxs[_pid] = _offset
        _offset += _maxv + 1
    # and calc real id with id offsets
    _res1 = []
    for _d in _res:
        _res1.append(_d+(_d[2]+_maxs[_d[1]],))
    '''
    print("--------------- final tiles")
    _n = 0
    for _d in _res1:
        print(_n," : (", _d[0], _d[1], _d[2], _d[3], ")")
        _n += 1
    '''
    return _res1

def error_stop(msg):
    ''' show message and exit with error '''
    raise Exception(msg)

def get_filenames(path, mask):
    ''' returns sorted list of files matching the mask in given path '''
    _path = bpy.path.abspath(path)
    #print('path: ', _path)
    _files = glob.glob(_path+"\\"+mask)
    if len(_files)>0:
        _files.sort()
    return _files

def name_with_id(name, id):
    ''' composes indexed name with a base name and an id (name.00N)'''
    return name + "." + "{:03d}".format(id)

def reset_tile_materials():
    """ Resets materials to defaults for all the tiles in the scene """
    # first find the defaults
    mat_default = bpy.data.materials[TILE_MAT_NAME]
    if (mat_default is None):
        error_stop('Material {} not found!'.format(TILE_MAT_NAME))
    mat_default_bi = bpy.data.materials[TILE_MAT_NAME_BI]
    if (mat_default_bi is None):
        error_stop('Material (Bi) {} not found!'.format(TILE_MAT_NAME_BI))
    tex_default = mat_default_bi.texture_slots[TILE_TEX_SLOT_BI].texture
    img_default = tex_default.image
    # get all the tiles
    my_tiles = get_my_tiles()
    if (len(my_tiles) == 0):
        print('Tiles not found. There is nothing to do.')
        return
    # set default material for all
    print('Setting defaults for {} found objects'.format(len(my_tiles)))
    for _d in my_tiles:
        obj = _d[0]
        # reset all possible references
        mat = obj.material_slots[TILE_MAT_SLOT].material
        mat_bi = mat.node_tree.nodes[NODE_MAT_BI].material
        tex = mat_bi.texture_slots[TILE_TEX_SLOT_BI].texture
        tex.image = img_default
        mat_bi.texture_slots[TILE_TEX_SLOT_BI].texture = tex_default
        mat.node_tree.nodes[NODE_MAT_BI].material = mat_default_bi
        mat.node_tree.nodes[NODE_IMG_NAME].image = img_default
        obj.material_slots[TILE_MAT_SLOT].material = mat_default
    print('All tile materials'' defaults set.')

def find_or_create_image(name, img_ref, filepath):
    ''' it finds the image by name. (if not found it's created by copying img_ref),
    then given path will be set as the image filepath '''
    img = bpy.data.images.get(name)
    if img == None:
        img = img_ref.copy()
        img.name = name
    img.filepath = filepath
    return img

def find_or_create_material(base_name, base_name_bi, id, mat_ref, mat_ref_bi):
    ''' it finds the material by name. (if not found ot's created by copying mat_ref),
    then the image will be set as the image material's image '''
    # image is already ok, hust find it
    img = bpy.data.images[name_with_id(IMG_NAME, id)]
    # first handle Bi material
    tex_ref = mat_ref_bi.texture_slots[TILE_TEX_SLOT_BI].texture
    # find or create a texture
    tex = bpy.data.textures.get(name_with_id(base_name_bi, id))
    if tex == None:
        tex = tex_ref.copy()
        tex.name = name_with_id(base_name_bi, id)
    # put needed image to the new texture
    tex.image = img
    # now find bi material
    mat_bi = bpy.data.materials.get(name_with_id(base_name_bi, id))
    if mat_bi == None:
        mat_bi = mat_ref_bi.copy()
        mat_bi.name = name_with_id(base_name_bi, id)
    # set new texture
    mat_bi.texture_slots[TILE_TEX_SLOT_BI].texture = tex
    # now cycles
    mat = bpy.data.materials.get(name_with_id(base_name, id))
    if mat == None:
        mat = mat_ref.copy()
        mat.name = name_with_id(base_name, id)
    node = mat.node_tree.nodes[NODE_IMG_NAME]
    node.image = bpy.data.images[name_with_id(IMG_NAME, id)]
    # and set bi material to Bi node
    node_bi = mat.node_tree.nodes[NODE_MAT_BI]
    node_bi.material = mat_bi
    return mat

def create_tile_materials():
    ''' this creates a bunch of materials for the tiles, and sets images from the img directory '''
    # first get all the image file names available
    print("Getting available images' names")
    img_files = get_filenames(IMAGE_PATH, IMAGE_MASK)
    if (len(img_files) == 0):
        error_stop('No imahes found in '+IMAGE_PATH)
    print("Found {} images to process".format(len(img_files)))
    # find all the tiles
    my_tiles = get_my_tiles()
    if (len(my_tiles) == 0):
        print('Tiles not found. There is nothing to do.')
        return
    # count images needed (with max image id)
    _max_id = 0
    for _d in my_tiles: _max_id = max(_max_id, _d[3])
    print("It's needed {} images for {} objects".format(_max_id + 1, len(my_tiles)))
    if (len(img_files) < (_max_id + 1)):
        error_stop("There is not enough images ({} of {})!".format(len(img_files), _max_id + 1))
    # create images copying from the orignial one
    ids = []
    for _d in my_tiles:
        _id = _d[3]
        if not _id in ids:
            ids.append(_id)
    ids.sort()
    # find the original image to copy
    mat_ref = bpy.data.materials[TILE_MAT_NAME]
    img_ref = mat_ref.node_tree.nodes[NODE_IMG_NAME].image
    # Bi
    mat_ref_bi = bpy.data.materials[TILE_MAT_NAME_BI]
    # actual creation
    for id in ids:
        find_or_create_image(name_with_id(IMG_NAME, id), img_ref, img_files[id])
    # and materials creation
    for id in ids:
        #base_name, base_name_bi, id, mat_ref, mat_ref_bi):
        find_or_create_material(TILE_MAT_NAME, TILE_MAT_NAME_BI, id, mat_ref, mat_ref_bi)
    # assigning materials to the objects
    for _d in my_tiles:
        obj = _d[0]
        id = _d[3]
        # cycles
        mat = bpy.data.materials[name_with_id(TILE_MAT_NAME, id)]
        obj.material_slots[TILE_MAT_SLOT].material = mat
    print("Materials created and assigned to the objects.")

class CreateTileMaterialsOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Creates new materials with different images for all the tiles in the scene"""
    bl_idname = "scene.my_create_tile_materials"
    bl_label = "Create tile materials"

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

class ResetTileMaterialsOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """ Resets materials to defaults for all the tiles in the scene """
    bl_idname = "scene.my_reset_tile_materials"
    bl_label = "Reset tile materials"

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

class MySceneToolsPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Scene properties window"""
    bl_label = "Scene tools"
    bl_idname = "SCENE_PT_MySceneTools"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "scene"

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

        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("scene.my_create_tile_materials")

        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("scene.my_reset_tile_materials")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ResetTileMaterialsOperator)
    bpy.utils.register_class(CreateTileMaterialsOperator)
    bpy.utils.register_class(MySceneToolsPanel)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ResetTileMaterialsOperator)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(CreateTileMaterialsOperator)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(MySceneToolsPanel)

register()
#-----/scene-tools.py


text:
How do I update Blender?
I notice the latest build is 2.77, and I only have 2.76. Do I just download the latest version from the blender website, or is there a way to update from within Blender, or what?

Installing it via Steam should provide auto-updates for you...

Yeah, just download the new version from the blender website. If you're using for example linux and a package manager, then the package manager will update blender automatically* for you, though depending on your distro it may take quite a while from the release date till this update gets pushed through. So it's always best to just grab the latest version from the blender website.


text:
Stuck on start on blender please help!
How do I fix blender because it is stuck on the terminal start thing please help!
Btw I am running Windows 10 just in case.

Here it shows what you need to make blender work https://www.blender.org/manual/getting_started/installing_blender/windows.html


text:
How do I convert a mesh and curve into just a mesh?
I have a cylinder that I made into a fish for a fountain ornament.
I made it out of a cylinder and a parent curve.
I want to make that into just a mesh now so I can import it into Unity.
Currently if I import the curve + cylinder mesh it doesn't work.

Just select the mesh then press alt+c. select "Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text"

Thanks. But as soon as I press Alt+C I get two options:
Curve from Mesh
or
Mesh from Curve
If I select Mesh from curve, the cylinder which was bound to the curve goes back to being flat (not curved).
This is not the effect I was going for.

Okay I figured out the problem. I was selecting the bezier instead of the cylinder. If I [alt] + [c] on the cylinder and convert to mesh, I can delete the curve and keep the curved mesh.
Thanks!

Convert the curve to a mesh with Alt+C
then select the cylinder and the curve (which is now a mesh) by pressing shift and then join both objects by pressing Ctrl+J

thank you, im new to stack exchange so i dont new how to format

Thanks. But as soon as I press Alt+C I get two options:
Curve from Mesh
or
Mesh from Curve
If I select Mesh from curve, the cylinder which was bound to the curve goes back to being flat (not curved).
This is not the effect I was going for.


text:
Is there a way to display the view of an active program/screen as a texture on a 3D object?
I'm looking at making a Rainmeter skin to look like a Game UI, however the program only works in 2D, and so I'm unable to add any sense of perspective or depth to it. (I should note that the design is meant to be contextual, as if the HUD is a part of the game world)
So I was wondering if it was possible to have a live view of the desktop or rainmeter window (since they are linked) put onto a surface in blender to give a 'wraparound' appearance.

Rotating live data out of view is what it sounds like you are after.
You can create a screenshot of the static elements you want to animate and turn them into a gif from frame by frame files. But live data would not be possible, not without extending blender with a new plugin.  Even then, the best place for this kind of transformation to take place would be within rainmeter.
You may want to approach the rainmeter community with questions about how to take a screen cap, and use lua to apply rotation transforms on a flat screen capped image.
Hope that helps.


text:
Can't remove object via python once grouped
I'm writing a script that is adding and removing about 50 objects every frame. That part is working fine, but once I add the objects to a group, it creates odd errors.
In tracking down the error, I simplified my project and ran into the same issue
I could understand if the group were one of the users of the object, but the object.users count doesn't increase when grouped.
Try it yourself:
import bpy

scn = bpy.data.scenes['Scene']
ob = bpy.data.objects['Cube']

scn.objects.unlink(ob)
bpy.data.objects.remove(ob)

works fine, but:
import bpy

scn = bpy.data.scenes['Scene']
ob = bpy.data.objects['Cube']

testgroup = bpy.data.groups.new('testgroup')
testgroup.objects.link(ob)
testgroup.objects.unlink(ob)

scn.objects.unlink(ob)
bpy.data.objects.remove(ob)

throws the following error:
RuntimeError: Error: Object 'Cube' must have zero users to be removed, found 1

What's going on? Am I missing something, or do I need to file a bug report?

yes it could be a bug, tested after adding user_clear() and got the same result, please add your blender version ( mine is 2.77 a )

Same, I'm on 2.77a

try it on older version if you have one or wait for some to do  ( to make sure it's )

So, I submitted a bug report, and got a same day response from Bastien. Turns out, the problem is related to the Fake User restructuring that is going on and there isn't a straightforward way to do it. Here's a link to the bug report: Blender Bug Tracker
He also pointed me in the direction of an effective workaround that I thought I'd share. Here is the working code:
import bpy

scn = bpy.data.scenes['Scene']
ob = bpy.data.objects['Cube']

testgroup = bpy.data.groups.new('testgroup')
testgroup.objects.link(ob)
testgroup.objects.unlink(ob)

scn.objects.unlink(ob)

ob.user_clear()    #manually clears all users, frees the object to be removed

bpy.data.objects.remove(ob)

I have tried that see my comment and got the same error

This results in the following error:
AttributeError: 'bpy_prop_collection' object has no attribute 'objects'

No you don't appear to be missing anything. I just tested it here with versions from 2.70 to 2.76 and they do not show this error, so it is a regression introduced in 2.77.
You should report it as a bug at developer.blender.org


text:
Bend the Extrusion of a text
here is what I want to achieve:

As you can see the Extrusion of the text is bent and twisted. Can I achieve that WITHOUT converting it into a mesh? I tried Lattice, Curve, Deform etc...
Thnx,
Cheers

I don't think there's any other way than CTRL + ALT + C. You just have to set up every bit of text and later make the curves.

What if you could keep it a curve, just not a text curve, would that be okay?

Convert the text to a regular Curve object(Alt+C). Add another curve, and make the text that curve's bevel object. Select "Fill Caps" option for solid text. Add Edges Split modifier for sharp edges. You can control (and even animate) extrusion with Bevel Factor Start/End.

Add a subdivision surface modifier and a curve modifier to the text in this exact order. Crank up the subdivision levels to see proper results.


text:
Fill with water and stones
I am trying to build a meadow scene (based on Andrew Price's tuts) and I want to fill the riverbed with sticks and stones and in the end with water.
Referrence>
But I want to see through the water surface. So whats the best way to achieve that? With multiple particle systems or with a plane that I give a water effect? Any Thoughts?
Thnx

My choice would be.

For the river, Mesh Plane with animated water material.
Particle system as a tool to randomly distribute the stones and branches.


text:
"OpenCL build failed" error when rendering with GPU
I am trying to render my Images in GPU Computer but after 1 Minute or so this message pops up:

OpenCL build failed: errors in console.

Now whats with that? Anyone experiencing that as well?
Working on:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

As the message says, did you checked the console?

BTW as far as I can see, your card is compatible with Cycles

Try to render it on the cpu. It is posible that it is somthing that buggs the gpu in the scene.

I have had the same problem. I got the latest blender build (19 Jan 2017) from https://builder.blender.org/download
and I can now render using my GPU (R9 280), without any problems.

As I just investigated in https://developer.blender.org/T48842 - if no errors was really produced (despite msg "errors in console. ") try to run blender with "--debug-memory" option - it enables "fully guarded memory allocator" which magically does things.

Nvidia Graphic Cards don't really work with OpenCL on OSX.
You have to install CUDA, restart Blender and chosse in the
User Preferences --> System --> Compute Device --> GPU
CUDA.
Then it should work.