text:
How to quickly place text cursor in long 3D Text?
For a 3D text object, especially with many many characters in it, how can I place the cursor to the right position in order to edit the text around it?
Here is an example to show what I mean:

Here is two methods  to edit the text object in the text editor :
1- Link the object text to the text file :

2- Convert text object to a file, then back from a file to an object :

1- For the first method, run this script once and select your text object to see the live update.
import bpy

#this is one way link ( object to text file )
def link_object_to_text(context):
    obj = bpy.context.active_object
    if obj.type == 'FONT':
       if None == bpy.data.texts.get(obj.name):
          bpy.data.texts.new(name = obj.name)
          bpy.data.texts[obj.name].write(obj.data.body)
       text_file = bpy.data.texts[obj.name]
       obj.data.body = text_file.as_string()

bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_pre.append(link_object_to_text)

2- For conversion run the following script once

you will find it in 3D_View -> Object -> Convert text
OR type Convert Text Object in the Space menu

.
import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator
from bpy.props import *

def object_to_text():
    obj = bpy.context.active_object
    if obj.type == 'FONT':
       if None == bpy.data.texts.get(obj.name):
          bpy.data.texts.new(name = obj.name)

       text_file = bpy.data.texts[obj.name]
       text_file.clear()
       text = obj.data.body
       text_file.write(text)

def object_from_text():
    obj = bpy.context.active_object
    if obj.type == 'FONT':
       if None == bpy.data.texts.get(obj.name):
          bpy.data.texts.new(name = obj.name)

       text_file = bpy.data.texts[obj.name]
       #clear text_obj
       obj.data.body = text_file.as_string()

class   text_object(Operator):

    """text file from&to text object"""
    bl_idname = "object.from_to_text"
    bl_label = "convert text object"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    #parameters and variables
    convert = EnumProperty(
                name="Convert",
                description="Choose conversion",
                items=(('T2F', "object to file ", "convert text object to text file"),
                       ('F2T', "file  to object", "convert text file to text object")),
                default='T2F',
                )

    def execute(self, context):
        if self.convert == 'T2F':
            object_to_text()
        else:
            object_from_text()

        self.report({'INFO'},"Conversion is Done")
        return {'FINISHED'}

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

def addObject(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(
    text_object.bl_idname,
    text = text_object.bl_label,
    icon = 'OUTLINER_DATA_FONT')

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(text_object)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_object.append(addObject)

def unregister():
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_object.remove(addObject)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(text_object)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

The solution very nice for now. Man, you really should make them as an addon to share. :) BTW, When accidentally run script Two twice, the menu will also be created twice. Anyway to solve this?

@LeonCheung thanks , and for the menu i have no idea for now ! I'll see if i can find something in the tomorrow

Script two is an addon, best to disable/enable it in prefs. To work better running from text block add unregister() before register() after if at the end.

You can just type what you want
in the text editor and then convert
it to a text.and it is so easy to do
just toggle to the edit panel and press
convert to 3d text and choose what you want.you can also use an original text for this.
Have fun.

Yes, it works, though I think it is a one way trip. Each time I need to edit something, I need to recreate as a new object and delete the last one. Anyway, it seems to be something about workflow.

While I would recommend using the text editor to edit large amounts of text, it really doesn't take too long to get around with just the arrow keys, at least in a situation like your example:

Using ⎈ Ctrl← Left arrow and ⎈ Ctrl→ Right arrow you can jump between spaces, allowing you to travel much faster horizontally. Home and End are also useful.

So far as I can see, there is no faster way than using the arrow keys and moving to the correct position. Unless you're writing a small novel, you should be fine with this. Once you use the arrow keys even once, you can use the options found in the tool bar to jump to next page, previous line ect. and then hone in on the particular place normally.

PgUp and PgDn function nowadays.

The original question asked for placing the cursor at a certain position in a text, using Page Up and Page Down will only make you skip a couple of lines instead of having to go through each line like with the Up or Down Arrow. It goes a bit faster but isn't really adding much of a solution to the already existing answers: it's still just moving through the text instead of placing the cursor.


text:
How to subdivide a mesh where it intersects another mesh
I have a grid mesh and two arc meshes. The vertexes in the two arcs and the grid are not connected to each other, it is 3 different meshes in the same object.

I want to "merge" in the two arc meshes into the grid mesh, by adding vertexes where the arc and grid overlap, dividing each grid square face to the shape along the arcs.
Any ideas of how to do this?

One way is to use the Knife Project tool.

Make the arches one object and the square a separate one.
If necessary, scale up the arches so they are definitely crossing the border of the square object
In object mode, shift select the arches object and then the square object
Tab into edit mode (you should now be in edit mode for the square)
From the toolbar (T) choose Knife Project. The arches will be projected onto the square, sometimes creating n-gons (although by the appearance it looks like the objects have just been merged, the faces have in fact been subdivided)
You can now delete the original arches mesh in object mode.

Alternatively, another way you could do it would be to remove all but 2 sides of the original square resulting in 3 sets of edges, the edges of the square and the two arches:

With the arches and the square as a single object select them all and then press W> Bridge Edge Loops:

Both methods require some form of clean up afterwards, the bridge edges method needing slightly less. With the bridge method the clean up will also be less if the number of vertices in the arches are the same as the number of vertices in the square's sides.

I tried knife projection but I did it in the wrong way. How ever, when I separated the arcs to a single object and then did a projection it didn't cut the outer edge grid correct. So I ended up in manually build up the faces, as you pointed out. Thank you.

@MaxKielland I think if you scale up the arches a bit so they are definitely crossing the outer edge it should work. I have edited the answer with an extra step to hopefully account for this.

@RayMairlot for the second method you could just do http://i.imgur.com/815nQRz.png by halving the square's vertices

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to select overlapping objects
If you duplicate an object in edit mode with Shift+D, and then hit P to make it its own object, it deselects and remains in place over/with the original object. What’s the keyboard move to determine/select the duplicate object from the original one (not using the outline)? Andrew Price does this too fast to figure out.

Link to the video would be helpful

In Object mode, you can determine them by names (written in the bottom left) or you can right click on the object while pressing Alt. Objects' list located in that place will appear

video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lNoOZGF3x4 video link

starting at 11:16 when he duplicates an edge.

In that case it can be selected (and it seems to me it really was) just by RMB - if you remember where it's placed, you can easily find it like that

I tried that. But since it's now placed over/with the orig. edge I get the "wrong" one most of the time. Was hoping for an easier method.

If multiple objects are very close together or even overlapping entirely and visually indistinguishable from one another, you can use Alt + right click to get a drop-down menu that allows you to choose from a list of objects in that area.
In the screen shot below there are actually two identical cubes overlapping. The menu lets us choose which one to select.

More on this and other selection methods in the Blender Reference Manual.

I am/was aware of the Alt + right click. However, the video shows no use of the RMB, so something else is happening, or, he's moving so fast the display doesn't show it. All for now, still hoping for Andrew's secret move.

No secret move.  :-)  After selecting the edge loop he duplicates it, then hits Esc so it jumps back to its original location. Next he hits P to separate only the duplicated edge loop into its own object. Then he tabs out into Object Mode and can select either of the two objects.

"can select either..." Agreed, but  aside from the Alt+right click layer menu, which he "apparently/visibly" does not use, he quickly selected the edge he wanted. Question: when making a duplicate is the duplicate placed on top or behind the original object? IOW, will I get one or the other when selecting after a duplication or is it hit or miss?

btw, forgot to ask in prev. comment. When he hits Esc, is that the actual Esc key, or is it simply a right click?

He didn't need to use Alt+RMB because there were only two objects to pick from. Blender is smart enough to guess you want to select the one you don't already have selected. Esc key and RMB both cancel an edit (while Enter key and LMB both accept an edit). Take your pick of mouse or keyboard. Hope this helps.

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


text:
Can the mesh select mode menu converted to a pie menu in Blender 2.72?
The release notes mention that it is possible to add pie menus. But I'm not sure how to do it.
How could I convert the mesh select mode menu's appearance:

to this?

Some Basics are documented in the Blender Wiki, see:

Creating Pie Menus
Coding Pie Menus

Below you find a complete, briefly commented and fully working mini example addon. Just place the code below into a file named
whatever_name_you_like.py

and then Install/Enable this python file as a regular Addon.
Notes:

The name of the file is not important, however the appendix '.py' is essential to mark this as a python file.
You do not need to enable the "Pie Menus Official" Addon in order to get your own Pie menus to work properly!

Begin of the code:
bl_info = {
    "name": "My Pies",
    "author": "My Name",
    "version": (1, 1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 72, 0),
    "description": "My Pie menu",
    "category": "Object" }

import bpy
from bpy.types import Menu

# Implements an edit mode selection pie

class VIEW3D_PIE_template(Menu):
    # label is displayed at the center of the pie menu.
    bl_label  = "Select Mode" # Appears as Pie title
    bl_idname = "mesh.mypie"  # Used to refer (see below)

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

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

addon_keymaps = [] # Store keymaps to use in unregister()

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

    # Define a keyboard shortcut (for Mesh Edit mode)
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name="Mesh")

    # Open the pie when you press CTRL SHIFT E:
    kmi = km.keymap_items.new("wm.call_menu_pie", 'E', 'PRESS', shift=True, ctrl=True)
    kmi.properties.name="mesh.mypie"
    addon_keymaps.append((km,kmi)) # Store keymap

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

    #use stored keymaps to unregister
    for km, kmi in addon_keymaps:
        km.keymap_items.remove(kmi)
    addon_keymaps.clear()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

you can add icon_only=True to not have the text

I know this has being answered correctly by Gaia Clary , but I needed to do a similar thing, and it took me a little while to find the exact code needed, so here it is.
I wanted to be able to pick some (but not all of the mesh select menus).The code below shows how I achieved this.
    bl_info = {
    "name": "Yomi_Pie_Menus",
    "author": "Oluwayomi Longe",
    "version": (0, 0, 1),
    "blender": (2, 73),
    "description": "Custom Pie Menus",
    "category": "3D View",}

import bpy
from bpy.types import Menu

# Pie Select Mode - Tab
class PieTabMode(Menu):
    bl_idname = "pie.tabmode"
    bl_label = "Select Mode"

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

        #4 - LEFT
        # use the commented line below if you want to toggle Edit and object mode
        #pie.operator("object.editmode_toggle", text="Edit/Object", icon='OBJECT_DATAMODE')

        pie.operator("object.mode_set", text="Edit", icon='EDITMODE_HLT').mode='EDIT'
        #6 - RIGHT
        pie.operator("object.mode_set", text="Object", icon='OBJECT_DATAMODE').mode='OBJECT'

        #3 - BOTTOM
        box = pie.split().column()
        row = box.row(align=True)
        box.operator("mesh.select_mode", text="Vertex", icon='VERTEXSEL').type = 'VERT'
        box.operator("mesh.select_mode", text="Edge", icon='EDGESEL').type = 'EDGE'
        box.operator("mesh.select_mode", text="Face", icon='FACESEL').type = 'FACE'
        #8 - TOP
        #pie.operator("sculpt.sculptmode_toggle", text="Sculpt", icon='SCULPTMODE_HLT')
        pie.operator("object.mode_set", text="Sculpt", icon='SCULPTMODE_HLT').mode='SCULPT'

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(PieTabMode)
    # or any other classes you add

    wm = bpy.context.window_manager

    if wm.keyconfigs.addon:
        #Select Mode
        km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name='Object Non-modal')
        kmi = km.keymap_items.new('wm.call_menu_pie', 'TAB', 'PRESS')
        kmi.properties.name = "pie.tabmode"

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(PieTabMode)
     # or any other classes you add

    for km, kmi in addon_keymaps:
        km.keymap_items.remove(kmi)
    addon_keymaps.clear()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Try this video: http://vimeo.com/103321600
The actual tutorial starts at about two minutes. Hope that helps! :)
By chance the video describes exactly how to create the mesh select mode as pie.menu.
With the pie-menus a new python script template has been added, it is accessible from the text editor:

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference.  Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes.

Thank you, I will keep that in mind. In this case though, I thought that it would be too complicated to explain in a text answer and would be better to link to the video.

And here another, using the icon field of the bpy.types.EnumProperty(). I think the template provided now in TextEditor is a little sparse, this might help.
import bpy
from bpy.types import Menu

class VIEW3D_PIE_SV_ops(bpy.types.Operator):

    bl_idname = "nodes.pie_menu_enum"
    bl_label = "Add Quick Node"

    mode_options = [
        ("option1", "option1", "", "CURVE_DATA", 0),
        ("option2", "option2", "", "", 1),
        ("option3", "option3", "", "", 2)
    ]

    selected_mode = bpy.props.EnumProperty(
        items=mode_options,
        description="offers....",
        default="option1"
    )

    def execute(self, context):
        print('added ', self.selected_mode)
        return {'FINISHED'}

class VIEW3D_PIE_template(Menu):
    # label is displayed at the center of the pie menu.
    bl_label = "Select Mode"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        pie = layout.menu_pie()
        pie.operator_enum("nodes.pie_menu_enum", "selected_mode")

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

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

Just find it, and I think i have a nice code from my project for it.
I wrote also one for bone selection and one for selection in object mode

# Pie Selection Edit Mode
class PieSelectionsEM(Menu):
bl_idname = "pie.selectionsem"
bl_label = "Pie Selections Edit Mode"

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    pie = layout.menu_pie()
    # 4 - LEFT
    pie.operator("view3d.select_border", text="Border Select",
                icon='BORDER_RECT')
    # 6 - RIGHT
    pie.menu("object.selectloopselection", text="Select Loop Menu", icon='LOOPSEL')
    # 2 - BOTTOM
    box = pie.split().column()
    row = box.row(align=True)
    row.operator("mesh.select_less", text="Select LESS", icon='DISCLOSURE_TRI_DOWN')
    row.operator("mesh.select_more", text="Select MORE", icon='DISCLOSURE_TRI_RIGHT')
    box.operator("mesh.select_nth", text="Checker DESelect", icon='DOTSDOWN')

    # 8 - TOP
    pie.operator("mesh.select_all", text="Select All/None",
                icon='RESTRICT_SELECT_OFF').action = 'TOGGLE'
    # 7 - TOP - LEFT
    #pie.operator("mesh.select_all", text="Select All Toggle",
    #            icon='ARROW_LEFTRIGHT').action = 'TOGGLE'

    pie.operator("mesh.select_linked", text="linked", icon='LINKED')
    # 9 - TOP - RIGHT
    pie.operator("mesh.select_all", text="Invert Selection",
                icon='FULLSCREEN_EXIT').action = 'INVERT'
    # 1 - BOTTOM - LEFT
    pie.operator("view3d.select_circle", text="Circle Select",
                icon='BORDER_LASSO')
    # 3 - BOTTOM - RIGHT

    box = pie.split().column()
    row = box.row(align=True)
    row.operator("mesh.select_mode", text="Select Vertex", icon='VERTEXSEL').type='VERT'
    row.operator("mesh.select_mode", text="Select Edge", icon='EDGESEL').type='EDGE'
    row = box.row(align=True)
    row.operator("mesh.select_mode", text="Select Face", icon='FACESEL').type='FACE'
    prop = row.operator("wm.context_set_value",
                           text="V&E&F Select",
                           icon='OBJECT_DATA')
    prop.value = "(True, True, True)"
    prop.data_path = "tool_settings.mesh_select_mode"

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


text:
Why does the mirror modifier sometimes give me an overlapping mesh?
When I add a mirror modifier it sometimes doesn't mirror correctly, giving me an overlapping mesh. How can I fix this?

The reason you're getting an overlapping mesh is because the Origin point of your object is offset from the center line of your model. The Mirror modifier uses the origin to determine the symmetry line, so to fix the overlap, you need to move the origin back to the centerline of your mesh.

You can do this one of two ways.
Method #1. Move the mesh back in line.
You can move the mesh manually back to the center by grabbing it in Edit Mode and moving it along the respective axis (in this case the X-axis) until the center vertices are lined up with the object origin.
This is not generally an ideal method, though, as it can be difficult to align the center vertices perfectly without employing other steps. I recommend method #2.

Method #2. Move the object origin.
The second way to correct this problem is to move the object's origin back to the center of the object. You can do this in a couple steps:
1. In Edit Mode, select the center vertices and press Shift + S and choose Cursor to Selected.

2. Next exit Edit Mode with Tab.
3. Now press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + C choose Origin to 3D Cursor.

4. Problem solved!

Preventing this in the future
What you need to keep in mind is how the object origin moves. Anytime you move the object in Object Mode the origin will move with the object.
However, anytime you move the mesh in Edit Mode the origin will stay put. The reason for this is because moving the mesh is not actually moving the object, you're simply moving the data that belongs to the object.
If you rotate your object in Object Mode make sure you apply rotations, and your origin remains where you want the symmetry axis to be.

second method worked great and easy thanks

You can also add an Empty and place it where you would like the mirror to be, then set the mirror object variable to that empty. But keep in mind it is convenient to use the origin as a mirror point for most simple mirror behaviour.
I coded an 'add empty at selected vertex' script a while back, it's pretty handy.

Nice script! That's similar to my Add Target functionality in my Quick Tools add-on: https://github.com/CGCookie/script-bakery/blob/master/scripts/addons/quicktools/quick_operators.py

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


text:
Partial Rotation
I want to rotate the house. When I rotate on the Z axis, only house frame moves as one object. Other house assembly remains (actually rotates on different origin? How to remedy?

Select all of the objects by pressing 'A', then rotate by pressing 'R' + 'Z'.

Can be caused by many things, rotation in individual origin mode , scale dimension, pareting, locked rot  .... post blend is fastest way.

or https://www.dropbox.com/s/htakvyorgsaq4fn/house_rotate_alan_01.blend.zip?dl=0

Your transformation orientation is set to local. Set it to global (https://i.sstatic.net/qxLJW.png), make sure you only select  the objects you really want to rotate (there also is a camera in the scene) and let's go rotate them @NeverGiveUp

@brockmann solved the issue, i.e., transformation set to global. tks.

Unable to load your Blend file (still operating on Vers 2.77a) and probably not seeing what your helpers are referring to.

Going on your pic and on the face of it, the problem you appear to be encountering, might well be solvable by simply parenting all components to the one common parent and moving/rotating that instead.
I see 'parenting' has been mentioned in the comments/answers but would this make it a little clearer? ...
By making every separate component a child of a common parent, using the parenting feature, (CTL-P) not the child-of constraint, that parent (the Circle-Empty) should "localise" and hold all the bits & pieces together, with respect to the Empty. (and the house)
It's the empty you move/rotate around the scene, not the house or it's components.
The house and components would be forced to move with the Parent-Empty and importantly, their relative positions are maintained with respect to the house.
Individual components can still be moved around, scaled etc without affecting the 'bond'.
I apologise if I'm barking up the wrong tree here, I cannot see the Blend file, but if it helps...  If not, say so and I'll delete this.

Similarly by parenting objects to the house, or via some hierarchical logic with a common parent.

Select all of the objects by pressing 'A', then rotate by pressing 'R' + 'Z' to rotate on the Z axis. If you want to reset the origin of the other house to the same as the first part you have rotated, then set the cursor to that part of the house, then select the other part you want to reset the origin on. Go to Objec > Transform > Origin to 3D Cursor. Now it will rotate on the same origin.

Using 2.81a, In Object Mode. Select all. I set origins > mass > center, to both "houses". Then went to Object >Transform >, but there is no "Origin to 3D cursor" at that point. When I rotate z axis, parts of the "2nd" house go flying. I get what you're teaching, but for some reason I can't select all. Happy so send a blend file, but not sure you get materials, etc.

Weird since in all Blender versions, there should be a Origin to 3D cursor. I do not know what version of Blender you are using, but there should be an "Origin to 3D cursor option. Try looking again in the transform tab, or look in the tabs around it.


text:
Spiral filament with straight ends
Please see attached.

Making a spiral coil with straight/centered ends. To attach ends I used Bend but can't get a good fit to the spiral coil to make it look like one "filament". Another approach/idea?

Could you use a curve to model the spiral?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/177343/how-to-model-coiled-cable


text:
Using knife_tool from python api
Hello I'm quite new in this api. I want to use knife_tool from bpy.ops.mesh on the selected face. When I just call (like in tooltip):
bpy.ops.mesh.knife_tool()

I get error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/t/blender-2.71-linux-glibc211-x86_64/2.71/scripts/modules/bpy/ops.py", line 188, in __call__
    ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.mesh.knife_tool.poll() failed, context is incorrect

I tried in edit and object mode. Maybe is any other way to cut face in my own points from console?

The knife tool is an interactive process that relies on the location of the mouse cursor and button clicks to perform it's task. This interactivity would make it hard to control from a python script.
To automatically edit a mesh through python you want to look at the bmesh module which is the underlying foundation to all mesh editing operations.
The issue with incorrect context indicates that the operator only works while the 3dview is active.


text:
Proper way of attaching bones to the model
Newbie here. This is my first time on 3D modeling, rigging, and Blender. I followed an old tutorial on how to make a simple mech and make it move. Because of it being old and lots of things already changed on v2.7, I resolved on following other tutorials.
So this is what's happening - the whole mech/mesh is just only one entity, I joined multiple parts of it using the shortcut CtrlJ before I added armature. Then used CtrlP > Armature Deform with Automatic Weights.
On Pose Mode, few bones works properly, but most are not. Based on the image I attached below, some parts were left out or others are getting stuck/stretched.

The automatic weights calculation takes normals into consideration. Since you joined multiple meshes together, typically the normals become inconsistent.
What you need to do is go into edit mode, hit Mesh - Normals - Recalculate Outside. Then unparent the mesh (Alt+p), remove the armature modifier, and do it again (select mesh, select armature, Ctrl+P with automatic weights).
Also another method is leave all meshes separate, and parent each piece to a bone (select mesh, select bone in pose mode, ctrl+p and select bone), which is good for mechanical type armature deform. The downside to this is I find this method VERY slow in game engine if you are using that.

I tried the first method but the result is still the same. The second one might be a good choice but it may become a performance issue on the game I'm trying to develop. Anyway, instead of joining them, is it fine if I attach each part as parent-child?

The best method for you, doing game engine style, is to join all as 1 mesh. Then do the assign with empty vertex groups option. Next you manually assign vertices to the vertex groups (Use the "L" key to selected linked mesh parts, and assign them 1.0 weight to one of each of the vertex groups / bones (the vertex group has the same name as the bone)


text:
Get tooltips data from python?
I am writing an addon popup that shows all the current shortcuts. This is context sensitive and I have it mostly done. However, I am not able to get much information from the other python addons.
Below is some of CoDEManX's code that collects a lot of the info I need.
However, it does not seem to collect anything for Python addons.
Is there a way to collect the same info that the tooltips do from within python?
mod, opname = idname.split(".")
idname_c = "{!s}_OT_{!s}".format(mod.upper(), opname)
idtype = getattr(bpy.types, idname_c)
description = idtype.bl_rna.description

You might try idtype.__doc__ to get the documentation string.

I am unsure from which information you want to derive what.So do you have the idnames of the operators or do you want to get them ? if you have the idnames then what exactly do you want to get from the operators ?

The tool tip. ie a description of what the op does.

thanks pink vertex that got a few more but there are still dome to go. It is very helpful I will be able to follow that lead a bit more.

The code is here (http://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=332167&d=1410283515) If you try it you'll see what's missing.

i still do not understand what your intital data is. i mean, do you have the operator at hand, or its bl_idname, or do you need a way to find all operators of a specific addon, or do you need a way to find all addons first ? when you already have the idname of your operator then i do not understand what the problem is with the code above as it already solves your problem... So i must clearly not get what you want.

CoDEManX's code works for many of the operators. However it doesn't work for all and it doesn't return the """tooltip""" info this is the standard way that python addons seem to store the description of the function. I can find no way to get the info in the """tooltip""" of each op as the tooltips do.

Just to be a little more clear the above code works fine for the internal stuff but addons seem to return an empty string. The tool I have built list the shortcuts and what they do so I need a description from every op. This is not the case. As far as I can see so far the C code collects the """tooltip""" header info to create the tooltips however these don't seem to be available through python. What I am wondering is, Is this the case or can I access the info and how do I find where it is. Thanks for your interest

Also the doc returns stuff when description doesn't but the shortcuts/ops in say the node wrangler return an empty string. So even though I have the shortcut I can't show what it does (apart from showing what op it calls and what arguments it assigns).

I'll stick to this comment line and reply to the answers after some more exploration. This is what I did last night after pink vertex's input
idtype = getattr(bpy.types, idname_c) description = idtype.bl_rna.description + ". " if idtype.__doc__ is not None:     description += "idtype.__doc__ " + idtype.__doc__  This occasionally adds the doc information but not always. I am going to track this down. Everyone's input has been fantastic help. Thanks HEAPS

Sorry about the code I can't get the hang of the textarea input here

Thanks for the edit CoDEmanX my English is lazy. I usually try a bit harder with my code though.

Wow Blender/Python is really like an onion ( a rather large on at that ) and my eyes have been watering like made getting through the layers :)
Ok I finally ran grep in the scripts directory as I should have when pink vertex first sugessted it. Duh.
Line 340 in bl_extract_messages.py gives it up (code below). So it looks to me that if it doesn't have a bl_rna.description (or bl_description) then it uses the __doc__ part.
In the process I realised that the bulk of what I need is directly in the keymaps them selves as .name attribute of the individual keymap. This is derived from the bl_label that is in the op that is called by the new keymap definition line.
So I went round in circles when it was right under my nose.
Thanks again everyone.
    if bl_rna.description:
        process_msg(msgs, default_context, bl_rna.description, msgsrc, reports, check_ctxt_rna_tip, settings)
    elif cls.__doc__:  # XXX Some classes (like KeyingSetInfo subclasses) have void description... :(
        process_msg(msgs, default_context, cls.__doc__, msgsrc, reports, check_ctxt_rna_tip, settings)

Tooltips appear to display the __doc__ string from the operator class. The simple operator template also hints that this is the tooltip.
There is nothing in place to force an operator to have a __doc__ string so you may want to fall back to the bl_label which must be defined. In the rare event that is an empty string I would fall back to the idname.
mod, opname = idname.split(".")
idname_c = "{!s}_OT_{!s}".format(mod.upper(), opname)
idtype = getattr(bpy.types, idname_c)

if len(idtype.__doc__) > 0:
    description = idtype.__doc__
else:
    if len(idtype.bl_label) > 0:
        description = idtype.bl_label
    else:
        description = " ".join(opname.split("_"))

I assume you have the operator's bl_idname at hand. Lets say your operator's bl_idname is "avastar.shape_type_bone_hint"
Now you can do this:
# I assume you got the operator's bl_idname from somewhere.

idname = "avastar.shape_type_bone_hint"
op = eval("bpy.ops."+idname)
idtype=getattr(bpy.types, op.idname())

# Now you can get the operator's bl_* declarations as follows:

bl_idname      = getattr(idtype,"bl_idname",      None)
bl_label       = getattr(idtype,"bl_label",       None)
bl_description = getattr(idtype,"bl_description", None)
bl_options     = getattr(idtype,"bl_options",     None)

I am still unsure if this is exactly what you have asked for. but this will give you the operator's bl_description. However, maybe there is a more elegant way to get the idtype from the operator.


text:
How to use rigidbody simulation for animation?
I want to be able to add rigid body physics to my gun when my animation character dies so the gun will drop smoothly, because it is hard to animate things dropping in small areas.
I am not making a game, therefor I do not need to use the game engine instead of cycles or blender render.

So all you want to know is how to add rigid body physics to an object? Or is there something else?

yes , pretty much

As of Blender 2.66, you can press Rigid Body in Properties > Physics.
To enable and disable control of the rigid body with the animation system, keyframe the Animated checkbox.
See the wiki for documentation.

Thank you for your help , Ill check now to see if it works :)


text:
Temporarily join objects while animating
When I animate the iron sight and my gun separately, they kind of separate; the iron sights come off the gun (pictures below). What I want to do is join the objects together such that I could still move them separately (they would still be objects), but they would be able to be transformed together.

You can Parent the object together.
From the wiki:

Moving and rotating the parent will also usually move/rotate the child/children. However moving/rotating the child/children of the parent will not result in the parent moving/rotating. In other words, influence is usually descendant (parent → child/children), and not ascendant (child/children → parent).

To parent one object to another, select them with the object you want to be the parent active (yellow) and press CtrlP.
For example:

Select the sights, then select the main object last so it is the active object:

Press CtrlP> Object:

Now the parented objects will have a dashed line drawn between them and the parent:

Moving the parent will move the child objects, but you will be able to move the child objects separately:

Parenting is the way to go, but then sometimes basic parenting can be too rigid, especially when animating. When permanent parenting gets in the way you can use a Child Of Constraint, which allows you to animate the influence that the parenting has.
In the following example the gun has 100% influence by the righthand while the lefthand has 0%. The yellow shading indicates that the influence value is keyframed so you can animate the influence to have the gun follow the lefhand at any given time. Within the game environment you could use python to turn the influence on and off.
For a game environment this can also help with different scenarios, eg pick up a bayonet and clip it to the barrel, then unclip it for hand to hand combat, pick up a silencer and clip that on, then turn off the parenting to leave it behind.


text:
Copy transforms Constraint gives strange scaling and transforms?
I am using a Copy transform Constraint , But when I apply it this happens .
I am trying to avoid , of course the mag stretching . BUT I have tried using Only, copy rot and Loc. That miserably fails because it moves the armature to the middle of nowhere, and rotates it awkwardly.
I am also trying to avoid Any scaling, I have applied Scale, to the armature and mesh, but that dos not work.
I have tried using "child of", It works but it doesn't follow it. It moves with it but lags behind and just doesn't cooperate with me.

Can you add an answer as to how you solved this otherwise it will be closed as it's not helping atm.

It was the rig all along , The wrist bone was placed back at the elbow! , So i extruded a bone from the tip of the middle finger and used that , it had proper scaling and rotation.


text:
Animated object exported to fbx does not have any animation
I have 2 animations currently on a sword that I have modeled and when I export the object as a fbx into my game engine Unity it seems to not bring the animations along with it. Here are the export settings:
and here is what it looks like when imported into Untiy:
As you can tell I am very new to blender and modeling in general so any tips on where I have gone wrong would be appreciated. Thanks! I apologize for the poor resolution on the second screenshot.

Can you share the model with the animations (the blend file). I just tried this on a cube with two keyframes using the default settings and it worked.

Heres a link to the file. Thanks https://www.dropbox.com/s/qs4cj3kw9wv7znu/weapon.blend

How do you take such a high resolution screenshot of the Blender UI?

just drag and drop the blend file to unity assets folder, it'll work

When exporting, tick Include Default Take. Also, since you aren't using bones, you should apply the scale on the model before exporting (CtrlA > Scale).

The animation(s) should now come over with the selected one (in Blender) as the default take.

I had done that before but it doesnt take both of the animations over... I have two animations created called attackleft and attackright.. With this method i only get attackleft

@RileyShaw I don't think this is possible, it seems you have to export these on one timeline and split them up in Unity. See this and this.

@RileyShaw I don't think the format is the problem here. I dropped the blend file into Unity and it only came in with one animation. What most people do it seems is to create multiple files for the different anims.. character.walk, character.run etc or drop animations on a single timeline and split it up.

Ooooh ive got it now. I didnt realize that Unity has the option to split up one main animation into different animations. Thanks!

I this is a very old post but can you help me do this in blender 2.8 please? I'm trying to export a simple animation to unity but unity shows the black animation without any keyframes.

@ChiragMS You're right it's very old. See this video and the comments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjflKgMepQs. Should be of some help.

@iKlsR Thanks much. It was very helpful. I appreciate your assistance.


text:
2 different textures are overlaying (Blender Render)
My goal is to model an object with 2 different textures(one from each side).
I have an original object that represents the external side (normals pointing to the outside). I then duplicated it and flipped the normals(so it represents the internal side). I also unchecked the checkbox 'Double Sided' in the Object Data.
Can anyone please help me to remove the overlaying texture?

You are doing it wrong. Using 2 different textures for a single one sided polygon is pissible via nodes only. I think you need to read about Geometry node a bit.

Related, UV Mapping Plane Single Side.

You were correct in adding geometry. However, when vertices/faces share the exact same space in Blender, you will get artifacts that are drawn all of the mesh.
To fix this, simply adjust the geometry so it doesn't share the same space. You can scale it in (with S or AltS) or delete the inside geometry, add a solidify modifier and set the material index offset to the material index of the inside material:

(The material index is zero-based. Thus, the selected materials index is 1)

(Set the material index to 1)
Result:

(Object cut in half for demonstration purposes)

Thank you very much for your answer!! The object i will be working on is more complex than the one i put here. So a scale would cause a problem, but the solidify modifier worked perfectly. Thank you!


text:
how to keep Smooth mode from making ripples?
The smooth shading mode is nice, but often times it seems to leave ugly marks where edges are. it doesn't do that between every face, but it does for some faces.
I tried flipping normals but all that does is make it lighter or darker, but doesn't actually smooth it out. I tried making all the faces merged, but that didn't help.

Have you tried recalculating the normals? (Tab > Edit mode > A > Select all > Ctrl+N > recalculate normals)

it literally does nothing to the appearence

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/6426/599

that only addresses whether the outer edges are rounded or not. on the model I was referring to the texturing on the side

I know, but it's affected by the subserf modifier which I suspect you have on your mesh. If add supporting geometry it will also help with the shading.

As answered here and here.

I don't want sharp edges I want the faces to appear smooth.  I can see how it would be a common problem to be concerned about the edges being blurred but that was not what was asked.

You need to add an edge split modifier to make the mesh look right.
Method 1 - modifier

Select Mesh

Add Edge Split modifier

Method 2 - specify shading
Another method you can use it a bit more manual and not a one click solution but it will work just as well in this case.

Select the mesh and go into edit mode.

Select the top polygons that make up the flat surface

Set their shading to flat in the tool panel on the left (t)

you can also do this by adding edge loops this will help a bit

The reason this is shaded oddly is because  you have connected faces with very different normals. The reason it looks "wavy" is because (I suspect) you have a subserf modifier on the mesh.
You have two options to fix this while keeping smooth shading on all faces:

Disconnect the faces (edge split).
Add more faces in between to make the normals more consistent (supporting geometry).

From left to right: Normal cylinder, subsurfed cylinder, subserfed cylinder with supporting geometry.


text:
How should I deal with horizons?
How should I deal with the horizon in a scene? I have tried blocking it with fog, a hill, or even water but they all tend to look tacky.
Showing none of the sky tends to make it look flat.  What should I do to make the horizons look nice instead of just cutting off into the sky?

It depends entirely on what you're rendering. Often you might not want to have a horizon/"ground" separation at all. I don't know why, but when I saw the question I thought of the renderings of cars where you generally have an entirely black background or a featureless grey or black "room". Otherwise you might just want to look up stuff similar to what you're doing and see what the backgrounds are like there.(side note: I find it amusing how the first results from googling "car" are all sports cars).

the scene contains a vehicle, and is generally about vehicles, but the setting is not a garage. while a garage would have been easier the setting is intended to be a more natural scene

@ZCoder What about some trees or something to break it up?


text:
Transparency problem with tga material/texture
I am having a problem with a material/texture not showing up transparent as it should in blender 2.69. The material is from a tga file. I have a video showing the problem here where the hair should be mostly transparent, but instead shows the default model color of gray.
It looks like it should when I right click on it, but when I select a different part of the model, it show incorrectly again.  I followed the steps in this tutorial and it got it so that it works when it is highlighted at least which is a nice, but it is still not working as can be seen when some other part is selected.
The blend file can be found here. Thank you in advance for any help that can be offered.

Tick Transparency under Display in the Object tab. This will have the object's material display any transparency it has in the viewport sans the gray placeholder.

Hm, it seems that this doesn't fix the problem with the official 2.69 release. I notice that I have a slightly different layout in the display panel (Type is labeled Maximum draw type and in one row with Object Color), are you using a nightly build?

@stacker I was using 2.66, the panel has just been reorganized and I tested this in the latest and the official build of 2.69 and it works. It hides the outline by default so you might have to enable Wire or Bounds to select it easier after. http://pasteall.org/blend/25944

If iKIsR's solution doesn't work for your case, you may then try to tweak the OpenGL Clip Alpha value in User Preferences window to fix the display in certain cases.
The "gray" color on the hair is the 3D View background color, not the model color. Besides, I know you are talking about the 3D View display issue, but the current hair cannot be actually rendered as trasparent, btw. You need to uncheck the Face Texture Alpha in Options panel, and check the Receive Transparent in Shadows panel. Hope it helps anyway.


text:
How to exit animation mode when using physics
This is a very basic question. I'm using tutorials to learn how to use physics in Blender. I made a cube and lifted it above a plane and clicked Alt-A to run the animation and let the cube fall.
How do I exit the animation so that the cube reapers back in its position in the air? (right now it's on the plane where it fell.

You can go back to the first frame of your animation to return objects and physics to their starting states and positions.  Click the  button or press Shift+Ctrl+Down Arrow while the animation is paused.

To pause playback, press Esc, or toggle play/pause with Alt+A.

You have to pause it first, this just jumps to the first frame. So you would use Alt + A to pause before jumping back to the first frame.

Right, Alt-A again to pause, then jump back to the first frame.

Interesting, I never knew about Ctrl+Shift+Down. IMHO using Shift+Left is easier though.

I added the Esc/Alt+A to be more complete, thanks to @iKlsR.

You can stop animations and simulations in Blender by pressing escape Esc. You can pause/resume them with AltA.


text:
How to convert from high poly to low poly
I'm making a game in the unity engine and for my models i'm using blender 2.6. The thing is that i'm pretty new to graphics design (modeling, sculpting, etc) and by following some tutorials i've managed to make some very high poly meshes for my characters with the sculpt editor, the meshes have about 1.5M - 2M faces and of course a game character should be less than 30K faces so the game runs smoothly with good optimization on an average pc.
my question is how do i translate the details of the high poly stuff to low poly meshes (7k - 30k faces), i've heard about uv unwrapping and stuff but i'm not sure what is the process to follow.
i don't mind if the recommendation is very hard and for advanced users because the primary thing i want to do with this, is to learn.

Since retopology is a rather tedious task, for practicing you could strip your model of any multiresolution modifier (unless you used dynamic topology). It isn't going to be as good as manual retopology but maybe good enough for your purposes.

The following thread on the BlenderArtists forum has been going strong for the past 1.5 years and the discussion often turns to retopo. This will help with all the more subtle details after you have followed the advice offered by gandalf3 above. http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?264568-Dyntopo-tests

One way to reduce mesh density is the decimate modifier, however for the workflow you want (creating a game asset) I think you want Retopology.
This is a workflow which gives your more control over the final result, however it will take longer as it is a manual process.
Some helpful addons and built in functionality for retopologizing your mesh:

Surface Snapping (feature)
Shrinkwrap modifier (feature)
Bsurfaces (bundled addon)
RetopoFlow (addon)

Some tutorials and reference material:

Bsurfaces demo
wiki page on retopologizing

After you have a lower topology mesh you can bake normal maps etc. to make it appear more detailed than it really is.

ok, so i did a quick search about retopology and found an answer that explained it very well. one person said that he could put the same detail that a 12m polys mesh had into a 8500 polys mesh. so, i'll take a look at it and to the process of baking the normals. Any other advice?

+1 for Bsurfaces, specially for hard surfaces with well-defined curves

@Leander Thanks, fixed as well as I could


text:
How to numerically assign dimensions of a face
I would like to make a truncated cone, with the base and top of specific diameters.
First I made a cylinder mesh and input the width and length of the cylinder to match the base.
That's good.
Then I selected the top face and tried to scale it down to the width and height for the top of the cone, but I can only adjust it with my mouse or as a percentage of the original size.
Is there a way to adjust the face's absolute diameter by entering a number like I did the whole object?

A better way is to first create the bottom/top face numerically, then adjust the height, which can also be done numerically. As shown below:


text:
How to set different colors to each side of plane
I'm making an animation of origami.

animation test
It's not easy to understand overlapping portions.
I wanna set different colors to each side of paper.

I suggest you ask two individual questions instead of one. Although blender can render with double-sided material and wire material, I don't think they can be output and used in other render engine. It may depend on how WebGL renders it. So what do you really want to output, video or mesh/mat data?

Should be possible with GLSL.

WebGL can read JSON data of mesh made by Blender, so Blender has a addon to export the data. But I can't understand the structure of the data.

Possible duplicate of http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/2082/599?

I think you can do it by making it "physically" double-sided, which means:

In Edit mode, Select all faces, then ShiftDEnter to duplicate it, then CtrlN (or CtrlShiftN) to flip normals for all faces.
Add a new material and assign to the selection.
Make sure to toggle Normals when exporting.

It would work if WebGL can do single-sided render (I bet it can), which is normal-based, like GLSL. Or you can make two separate objects that overlap each other, and have their face normals completetly flipped.

If you just want to render it in Blender, here is the solution for BI:

And for Cycles:

Thank you for your advice!! I'm sorry late for reply. I understood your advice, but I couldn't success to display just a skeletal animation by WebGL on browser, so I couldn't try your advice. I will ask how to display a skeletal animation, and then I will try your advice!!


text:
Toggle measurements on/off when in Edit mode
Is there a way to toggle Measurements ON and ALSO have Edit mode ON after selecting an obj for editing?
I'm using the measurement option to create a number of measurement for what an objects dimensions should be, so it has multiple measurements based on side, top views, but as soon as I change to Edit mode to create/make/edit the obj to be built to those measurements, all the measurements turn off. Can I have/see both measurements and be able to edit at the same time on?

The rulers are part of the Annotations system. Look for it on the N panel, View tab, Annotations and click the eye icon by RulerData3D. This will make the ruler lines visible as blue lines if the measure tool is not selected.


text:
All view not "centered" when switching
This is not really a "problem", but annoying...
Everything in my model is centered around the world origin.
In Object mode, I see the model in any view using the Num pad keys correctly.
But then when I change a view like front to Back, or L to R, or Top to Bottom, the world origin (along with the model) shifts or jumps L to R or up or down.
The view is oriented along the axis's in all views correctly, but why is the world origin shifting/bouncing around like that when I change the view? I'd expect the model to simply flip but with the world origin staying in exactly the same place?  Or is this world-origin-shifts-when-changing-views designed behavior?
As said, this is not really a "problem" merely annoying. So how can keep the world origin from bouncing around when a view change is made?
Thanks.
I should mention I'm on v2.9 (for reasons, so I can't update to later versions -- if this is a bug that was fixed)
Is this world origin jump/shift when changing views normal?

I think it depends on your Navigation settings. I.E. with Obrit Around Selection enabled, when you switch viewpoint, the view tries to rotate around the active object's origin:

I'm not sure of what it does when this is enabled, perhaps it "flips the whole screen" so to speak.

This is so IF the object's origin + world origin are in the same place. But, if the obj is not centered on the World Origin, but its origin IS, then you can see the "shifting view" shifting behavior.
I discovered another thing... if I use Shift C in object mode, then the view zooms out to " some" distance, then the back front flip view stays "centered" even when I zoom in!   ALSO, in prefs:  INPUT/NDOF, changed Nav from Free to Orbit..
Seems to now lock the center view flip from back to front views.

I did not say this option makes it rotate around the world origin, I only said it makes it rotate around the active object origin, and my GIF highlights that very well when going Top viewpoint. And I gave this as an example of what Navigation settings can do, not an exhaustive list of how the viewport behaves in different scenarios ;)

If all you need is to "flip the model" as you mentioned in your question, the solution is quite simple, enable this option and don't let your object's origins get lost in the void, they need attention and love

"I did not say this option makes it rotate around the world origin, I only said it makes it rotate around the active object origin," -- this is true IF the OBJ is ALSO centered on its origin.  If Obj, and OBJ origins are centered, then yes, I see what you display.
My question is different: If OBJ + orig NOT centered, but Orgi is on World center, then I do not see your clips displayed behavior, but rather the shifting view I wrote in my OP.
How to keep view centered on an OBJs origin, when the OBJ is not centered on its origin?  (your clip shows OBJ + Orig both centered).


text:
Snapping or Shrink wrapping only a part of an object to a specified place on another object
There are many videos of snapping whole objects to another. I can snap a cube to a cube. But it all seems to fall apart if I want to do something more complex like snapping only one face of an object, to just one face on the surface of another?
As an example: How would you snap one face on the surface on Suzanne's rounded nose, to the side of a cylinder surface and then be able to drag and rotate Suzanne while still staying snapped to the surface of the cylinder AND not distorting the head-object?
I have some complex shapes that only need parts of them snapped to other complex shapes' faces but try as I might the 2 objects are snapping in the wrong places or shrinking as flattened. As an example, a curved sticking-out air scoop on the curved surface of an engine cover, whose edges need to be snapped and conform to the sides of the round surface of an engine cover.  So I need only the edges of the scoop to snap/wrap onto the surface of the curved cover, but when trying to follow the shrink wrap online tutorials, my scoop is flattening itself to the engine surface! How do I specify which surfaces to snap or shrink to, while leaving the rest of the object intact? What am I doing incorrectly?

Is this what you're looking for? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1AZybSzl8w&ab_channel=BlenderSecrets

Quick look, not tried yet, but very possible!
I'll circle back if i stumble with something, but this looks like what I need.
Thanks!!

It's a good technique, and there are many other videos out there about it if you get stuck

I tried this, worked!!
Thank you!!


text:
How to view a list of Recent files when right-clicking the Taskbar icon in Windows
After I installed Blender 4.2.2LTS (all ok) I dragged the exe to the MS Windows Taskbar to create a shortcut. If I click it, it starts Blender normally (with the cube/camera in a starter project). I then work on and save a project. So all's well so far.
The problem:  In past blender versions, if blender was closed, and I right-clicked on the taskbar icon to start it, I'd see a list of my previously saved projects to choose from. And I could then click one to open that project directly in Blender, bypassing the "new project" layout.
This is not happening in 4.2  I do not see the Recent files list when I right click -- I expect it to be the same list of Recent files that I see in the Recent Files list displayed in the opening splash screen when blender opens a new project.
Did the ability for Blender to display Recent files in the Windows taskbar icon right-click go away in 4.22LTS? If not, how do I get that functionality back so I can see the list of Recent files if I right-click the Blender icon in the Windows taskbar?
Thanks!

What Windows version are you using? - I still have the right-click Recent Files list here with Blender 4.2.3 under Windows 10. Is your version of Blender registered to open Blend files via Edit > Preferences > System > Operating System Settings > Register?

Win11.
Blender registered to open Blend files via Edit? -- yes.

Just FYI -- Worked fine in 3.8. Only in new 4.2.2 LTS install it does not display recent files. I also looked at the prefs in 3.8, compared with new 4.2.2, seems to be the same as far as I can tell.
Could it be that I still have 3.8 on the same machine as a separate install?  I don't/can't really delete the older blender version as I still need to open and work on some older projects using that older blender version -- and that 3.8 icon works fine to see the available recent files when I right click it in the task bar.
Problem is only in 4.2.2LTS

I have 5 versions installed here right back to 2.83. Every time I installed a later version it automatically became the default when double-clicking a Blend file and the Recent Files list was available from the right-click taskbar menu, including with 4.2.3.

I'm glad it is working for you.
Is there anything I can / should be looking at, or checking, to try to make it work for me too? coz its not.
As I mentioned, my previous 2.8 version displays the recent files when right clicking the taskbar Icon linked to the 2.8 blender version, but the 4.2.2 taskbar icon does not display the list when I right click that versions taskbar icon.

I can't think of any way to force it to behave offhand. I've never seen that problem before. I assume double-clicking on a blend file is launching it correctly? If so, the registry entry should be correct but that's clutching at straws!

"double-clicking on a blend file is launching it correctly?"  Yes.

Sounds like a Windows problem in that case. Search Google for 'taskbar jump lists not showing'. There are lots of links there.


text:
UV mapping - nothing shows in UV / Image Editor
When I try to unwrap my mesh, nothing shows up in my UV/Image editor window.
I have tried simple and complex parts, imported and native mesh, all same result.
Nothing shows up when I hit unwrap.

Try loading an image into the editor.

When I have this problem, I simply just have to create a new image (named whatever you like) in the UV/Image editor window. After you've done so, try unwrapping your model again from the 3D view.
Also, selecting all of your model in edit mode (A key) helps to see the map reflected in the UV/Image workspace.

You have to first select all vertices (press A) while in Edit Mode, in order to see them in the UV/Image Editor. Also, you need to select the vertices before Unrapping.


text:
Align object to view with Python
I was trying to a add a plane primitive using Blender Python and aligning it to the viewport.
I already tried setting align_view = True when adding it via Python, but it doesn't change the rotation at all.

bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_*() operators need to be run in a proper context (3D View) in order to use align_view.
Either run an operator via Spacebar menu, or use an override:
import bpy

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
        for region in area.regions:
            if region.type == 'WINDOW':
                ctx = bpy.context.copy()
                ctx['area'] = area
                ctx['region'] = region
                bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_plane_add(ctx, view_align=True)
                break

Note that there seems to be a bug, the plane appears to be in Edit mode, but the UI reports Object Mode, and the face may be missing.


text:
Rough vertex curve transform into even curve?
I made this curve in SketchUp and imported it into Blender. I am trying to figure out how I might transform the rough top section into a smoother curve that Blender can handle better... or how I might do it from scratch following the path of the one now.
I am not sure how I would make this from scratch in Blender but can do it in SketchUp so that's why I imported it.

Since the bottom curve is the way you want it, would it work to duplicate it and use it at the top too?

What username:cegaton shows is part 2 of how this issue can be dealt with.(this may be helpful for adjusting the curve before extrusion)
The folowwing image shows a Curve before Alt+c was used to convert the curve to a mesh object.

To adjust a mesh's curvature, you can use proportional editing.  There are several math function options available for doing this and they are shown using the popup dialogue.  The default setting often works well.  Proportional Editing can either be activated using the o key or by clicking the icon shown in the following image.

The Proportional Editing tool has a fallof radius that is shown on the screen as a white circle that can be re-sized either useing the Page_UP, Page_Down or the mouse wheel as shown in the following animating .gif that was made with a program named LICEcap

Now I would do what cegaton has shown in the answer posted previous to this one.

I tried this and it didn't give a good result. Any thoughts on how I might make it from scratch while maintaining the correct measurements?

Here is a way you can make an object like this without having to repair a model that was already made since this can often be more difficult than just starting over.
Start with a plane.

Now add some blocks that will be used by the Boolean modifier to cut out the holes.(make these a separate object)

Add the Boolean Modifier to the plane and set the Boolean Modifier's Object field to be the 'holes' object.

Often the Boolean operation will make a bit of a mess after you apply it.  In this case, there were extra faces that had to be selected and deleted.

Also, the joining lines were not entirely symmetrical so I made them match up by selecting point and using j which activates the Vertex Connect tool.

Extrude using e

Now activate Edge Selection mode and select Edges that you would like to be curved and use Ctrl+b to activate the Bevel tool.  Now adjust the parameters to achieve the corners that you would like to see.

You may want to also add a few extra loop cuts to some areas to help control poly flow since the nGon/triangles will cause problems with modifiers that add geometry like SubDivision/Bevel.
in the following two images I first added a loop cut to the long side of the block and then manually selected points and used the Vertex Connect tool j to even out the triangles.  Then you can select all the faces along the top and bottom and use inset to keep the messy geometry away from the edges so they won't cause modeling/rendering problems.

Here's a demonstration using the Bevel Modifier that shows why keeping a clean poly-flow can be useful.

If you want to start on something like this you can use curves to block out the main form and as mentioned in some other the other answers, you can convert the curves to a mesh and then extrude the form out.  There are many videos on how to use curves for making logos so that would be a good keyword to use when searching.
(i) You can add a curve then align the curve to an axis by pressing either x, y or z followed by 0, then press Enter to set the tool options you have choosen .  This will scale everything to the average point of everything selected so long as you have the following pivot option selected.

Now you can simply Extrude out more curve points by pressing e for Extrude(there is also a UI button in the Toolshelf t.
When you reach a corner, you can press v to access the Set Handle Type menu and if you select Vector then the handle will now be able to form a sharp corner as shown in the following image.

Here is 1/4 of a cinder block that has been roughed-out using curves.

In Object Mode Alt + c was used to convert the curves to a mesh.

Now you can add a Mirror Modifier set to mirror both the x and y axis's and Apply it.

Now in Edit mode the extra vertices which have been created should be removed.  This can be done by selecting the unwanted vertices and using xthen d for Dissolve Vertices.

If you have difficulty removing the vertices that are at the mirrored points then it could be that they were too far a part to merge so you can use w -> Remove Doubles, and also, you will likely have to increase the Merge Distance a bit.

Now you might have to use Flip Normals after the extrude operation to have all the components facing in the proper direction.

Now you can select the border edges and use Fill.  There are several variations of fill tools that can handle different situations.


text:
How to output the number of vertices, edges and faces given a polygon with Python?
So far I have written the following code. I am super new to python
class polygon(object):
    def__init__(self, edge, face, vertex='')
        self.edge = edge
        self.face = face
        self.vertex = vertex
        self.tetrahedron = tetrahedron

a = polygon('6', '4', '4', tetrahedron)
print a.edge, a.face, a.vertex, a.tetrahedron
print a

Also How can find the mesh module in Python? I am using spyder and I cant find it in the library.  Please help if anyone can.

You can get the active object for instance:
ob = bpy.context.object

And get its data (if it's a mesh object, the mesh datablock):
me = ob.data

Mesh element counts:
len(me.vertices)
len(me.edges)
len(me.polygons) # faces

Vertex count of a single face:
len(me.polygons[0].vertices)

Thank you very much. However, everytime I put bpy it says it is not recognized or no such module found. Please pardon my lack of knowledge. I started using python 2 days ago for the first time. How can fix that? I am using spyder IDE. But thank you a lot for your help

You need to run it inside of Blender, which comes with its own Python 3.x and the bpy module.

So can I use the same code to find vertices and faces in like tetrahedron?

what about find all vertices count in the scene?

@fourtwo It's pointless to sum up the vertices of all meshes in a scene IMO, because it's ill-defined. Should it include invisible objects, instantiated groups, etc.? And if you want to include modifiers then you either have to apply them (e.g. using a temporary mesh object) or rely on what Blender shows in the status bar (bpy.context.scene.statistics(bpy.context.view_layer) but beware, this is mode dependent! Old script which ensures object mode: https://github.com/CoDEmanX/blend_stats/blob/master/blend_stats.py)

@CodeManX could you check my post here tell me what could i do with my verts count.. I understand what you say about mode dependent and the modifiers and such and that's a great pointer, didn't think about that, will definitely would like to use just the scene.statistics i think..   https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/167862/create-n-panel-button?noredirect=1#comment283331_167862


text:
UV map / model turned black on saving - how to recover?
In the middle of touching up a new texture, I pressed save and suddenly my textures all turned black on the model and UV texture - just vanished.
I tried reopening the file in another instance of Blender, I tried to CtrlZ too and it just did this weird patchy thing on my texture.
How do I recover it and what did I do wrong?

As far as I know, their is no way to recover your texture. Their currently is a patch to allow for auto-saving images, but it may not go into a release of blender :(.

This is a known limitation, currently images are not saved with the rest of the .blend file. This means that reloading the .blend or even undoing in some modes will cause unsaved changes to textures to be lost (Global undo works by reloading an older version of the .blend).
To save your images, press F3 to save it to your hard drive, and AltS to save changes to an existing image on your hard drive. Or press Image editor > Header > Image > Pack to embed it in the .blend, and press Pack again to save changes to an embedded file:

You can tell when your image has unsaved changes because there is a asterisk after the image menu in the header:

As GiantCowFilms mentioned, there is a patch which adds autosave functionality for images. It has not currently been decided whether it should be included or not:

Note, I'd like to have some better way to do this then simply adding another option, it seems a but weak and doesn't really fit into painting workflow.
But doing this by default is a bit risky too.

Thanks for the patch info(external auto-save), I did not realized this was in yet.  Campbell wrote that he included this in master on the 22nd of June but I've been using a build made a week after that and I see no difference nor can I see anything in the UI or User Preferences to access this.  Do you know what's going on here?

@MarcClintDion It's not in master, but the code is written. You'll have to apply the patch yourself before you build.


text:
Get the value in a GUI field? (Redo panel)
I have a series of frames, which contain user-entered meta data. After a render I have to retrieve the user entered values.
The path shown is:
bpy.types.OBJECT_OT_paperdoll_operator.title_frame_1

Yet I get an error:
>>> print(bpy.types.OBJECT_OT_paperdoll_operator.title_frame_1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: type object 'PaperDoll' has no attribute 'title_frame_1'

In this case, it should return the string "This is Frame 1 meta"
So obviously I am missing something.

What you access via bpy.types is just the type / class, what you are after are the properties of an instance of that class.
It would be best to store the user data in global properties, but if you really want to access the active operator's properties (that's what is shown in the redo panel), use bpy.context.active_operator:
>>> C.active_operator
<bpy_struct, Operator("TRANSFORM_OT_translate")>

>>> C.active_operator.properties['value']
<bpy id property array [3]>

>>> C.active_operator.properties['value'][:]
(0.17133378982543945, -1.7650548219680786, -1.7467097043991089)

>>> C.active_operator.value
Vector((0.17133378982543945, -1.7650548219680786, -1.7467097043991089))

Note that Macro properties need to be accessed in the following way:
>>> C.active_operator.properties.keys()
['OBJECT_OT_duplicate', 'TRANSFORM_OT_translate']

>>> C.active_operator.OBJECT_OT_duplicate.linked
False

A bit THANK YOU SIR. Yes, that was it. On a separate note, can you point me to the information on how to store things in user data like you say?

See http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2075/assign-datablock-to-custom-property and http://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_72_release/


text:
Fake user ON by default in Blender materials and textures
How can I set the F button for materials and textures to be always on, even when I create a new material?
I don't know Python and I don't have time to learn it, but I have found that there is a property use_fake_user that must be set True for materials.
The reason for asking is that I sometimes loose my unassigned materials when I play with multiple objects and multiple material nodes created on the fly.

You can use an app handler to set use_fake_user to True right before saving. The following addon does it for materials and textures:
bl_info = {
    "name": "Save unused Materials and Textures",
    "author": "CoDEmanX",
    "version": (1, 0, 0),
    "blender": (2, 63, 0),
    "location": "(none)",
    "description": "Enable fake user to rescue unused materials / textures automatically before saving",
    "warning": "Make sure this addon is enabled by default!",
    "category": "Material"}

import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent
from itertools import chain

@persistent
def enable_fakeuser(scene):
    for datablock in chain(bpy.data.materials, bpy.data.textures):
        datablock.use_fake_user = True

def register():
    bpy.app.handlers.save_pre.append(enable_fakeuser)

def unregister():
    bpy.app.handlers.save_pre.remove(enable_fakeuser)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Make sure this addon is really enabled (best make it enabled by default and do that whenever you update Blender).

Yes! I'd buy you a beer if you were in Bucharest :)


text:
When extra bones are added to my rig, why don't they scale correctly?
Normal scale 1

when Enlarged to scale 1.625
I have tried using copy scale on the rib bones and its location is going for toss.

When reduced to scale 0.647

Please help find work around

Are you scaling in Object mode or Pose mode? Also, the bones you're pointing at appear to have constraints. What constraints do you have on those bones? And one further thing, do you have Inherit Scale disabled for those bones?

I am scaling in pose mode.
There are "copy location" and "stretch to" constraints
Inherit scale is enabled.

I have solved it now by adding "spine bone" as parent which is child of root. Hope that's a right solution.


text:
Edit same property of all selected objects at once?
How can I edit the same property on all selected objects at once? For example, if I select 5 mesh objects and I want to lock rotation x or I have selected 20 curves and want to edit 'Preview U resolution' of all of them at once or change the bevel depth of all of them to 2. And if they have same modifier can we edit modifier's properties at once?


text:
Script to add and remove F-Curve Modifiers to multiple selected f-cruves
I want to apply 'Cycles' modifier to multiple selected f-curves to create a  walk sequence. I want to do this with a script. How can I do this?

Would you also consider using   NLA action strip repeat?

To repeat with offset i have add f-curve modifiers.

import bpy
D = bpy.data
# We can access by action name
fcurves = D.actions['Goon_proxyAction'].fcurves
for f in fcurves :
    # TO add
    m = f.modifiers.new('CYCLES')
    #To remove
    f.modifiers.remove(m)
    # To remove all 'CYCLES' type modifiers
    for m in f.modifiers:
       if (m.type == 'CYCLES'):
           f.modifiers.remove(m)


text:
Why is Pie empty when no object in layer
Everything works perfect as long as the layer has an object, otherwise the Pie menu will be empty. Is that because I have a camera command in the pie and no object is present that could be used for the camera?
I get the following error:

mesh = context.active_object.data AttributeError: 'NoneType' object
  has no attribute 'data'

So if yes then I am curious if this is a doable Pie menu when an object has to be present for the Pie menu to work. At least the normal view commands like fullscreen or so should work and be displayed:

Pie Menu Code:
class View(Menu):
    bl_idname = "pie.view"
    bl_label = "View"

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

        mesh = context.active_object.data

        pie = layout.menu_pie()
        #4 - LEFT
        pie.operator("view3d.view_all", text="View All", icon="VIEWZOOM")
        #6 - RIGHT
        pie.operator("view3d.view_selected", text="View Selected", icon="BORDERMOVE")
        #2 - BOTTOM
        pie.operator("screen.screen_full_area", text="Full Screen",icon='FULLSCREEN_ENTER')
        #8 - TOP
        pie.operator("view3d.viewnumpad", text="View Top", icon="TRIA_UP").type='TOP'
        #7 - TOP - LEFT
        pie.operator("view3D.object_as_camera", text="Set As Active Camera", icon="OUTLINER_DATA_CAMERA")
        #9 - TOP - RIGHT
        pie.operator("view3d.viewnumpad", text="View Camera", icon="OUTLINER_DATA_CAMERA").type='CAMERA'
        #1 - BOTTOM - LEFT
        pie.operator("view3d.viewnumpad", text="View Front", icon="TRIA_LEFT").type='LEFT'
        #3 - BOTTOM - RIGHT
        pie.operator("view3d.viewnumpad", text="View Right", icon="TRIA_RIGHT").type='RIGHT'

Pie View KeyConfig
km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name = '3D View Generic', space_type = 'VIEW_3D')
kmi = km.keymap_items.new('wm.call_menu_pie', 'SPACE', 'PRESS', shift=True)
kmi.properties.name = "pie.view"

Replace:
mesh = context.active_object.data

With:
if context.active_object :
    mesh = context.active_object.data

By Chebhou


text:
How to add modifier to multiple objects via pie menu?
So here is my current pie menu. It works quite well but only on one object sadly.
What would be the best way to design a poll function so that based on what modifier type I select in the pie it will be applied to all selected objects.
Meaning is there a way to define this with one universal command?
class PieManipulateObject_Ext(Menu):
    bl_idname = "pie.manipulateobject_ext"
    bl_label = "Add Modifier"

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

        scene = context.scene

        pie = layout.menu_pie()
        #4 - LEFT
        pie.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Array", icon="MOD_ARRAY").type='ARRAY'
        #6 - RIGHT
        pie.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Sub-Surface", icon="MOD_SUBSURF").type='SUBSURF'
        #2 - BOTTOM
        box = pie.box()
        col = box.column()
        col.label("Deformations:")
        col.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Shrinkwrap", icon="MOD_SHRINKWRAP").type='SHRINKWRAP'
        col.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Curve", icon="MOD_CURVE").type='CURVE'
        col.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Deform", icon="MOD_SIMPLEDEFORM").type='SIMPLE_DEFORM'
        col.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Displace", icon="MOD_DISPLACE").type='DISPLACE'
        col.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Lattice", icon="MOD_LATTICE").type='LATTICE'
        #8 - TOP
        pie.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Screw", icon="MOD_SCREW").type='SCREW'
        #7 - TOP - LEFT
        pie.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Solidify", icon="MOD_SOLIDIFY").type='SOLIDIFY'
        #9 - TOP - RIGHT
        pie.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Mirror", icon="MOD_SUBSURF").type='MIRROR'
        #1 - BOTTOM - LEFT
        pie.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Edge Split", icon="MOD_EDGESPLIT").type='EDGE_SPLIT'
        #3 - BOTTOM - RIGHT
        pie.operator("object.modifier_add", text="Bevel", icon="MOD_BEVEL").type='BEVEL'

related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/42081/3710

Yeah this is maybe related but I mainly am curious to have one operator that applies what ever selected modifier to the selected objects. The example works on an object per object basis. I want to prevent having to wrote 10 add modifier commands for 10 pie buttons if possible.

Related because: what if the modifier already exists? BTW: What about creating a dynamic modifier enum based on the selected object from a custom dict? Note that all modifiers are not accessable for all object types.


text:
Why do scripts work when run from text editor but fail when run as an add-on
for example auto smooth set angle value fails when pie is run as an add-on

but it works when run from the text editor

this makes no sense to me or I cannot figure out what is wrong.
here is a link to the code of the complete pie script.
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/0abba8f7de314d38659b#file-pie-menu

Error message? AttributeError: '_RestrictContext' object has no attribute 'scene' ? If yes, see: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/API_Changes Blender now restricts access to bpy.context and bpy.data while register() / unregister().

Sometimes when figuring ot what causes a bug you stumble into other potential bugs, you define UV_scale_X class multiple times - make each unique.

don't have a space in your python file name. name it something like some_pie_menu.py.  it seems to work here, and does set the angle. In the event you get no warnings / errors you should start to look more carefully at other potential bugs and fixing those first.

@poor there is sadly no error message with the set autosmooth. What seems to be the issue is the step to check the angel degree and if 180 set it to 30. If I only use set to 30 anyway it all works fine. Sometimes the 180 check works but more often it does not.

Claas a common and time-tested technique to locate bugs is to remove as much as possible from your code while still being able to demonstrate the problem. You are trying to debug it as a whole, this takes more effort. If you've removed everything you can, and it works as an Add-on and a Script, then gradually add back sections of code, you might find the solution is counter intuitive.

Good point zeffii. It is not ideal to set the value back to 30 each time you turn auto smooth on off but in the end you will mainly turn autosmooth on once and be done.


text:
How to combine row + columm in a pie box?
I assumed with defining each layout type I could stack a line of row above a set of columns but it seems not to work. You can see that the column is at position 8 and not below the rows at position 2.

    box = pie.split().box().column()
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(mesh, "use_auto_smooth")
    row.prop(mesh, "auto_smooth_angle", text="Angle")
    box = pie.box()
    col = box.column()
    col.operator("mesh.faces_shade_smooth", text="Mesh Smooth")
    col.operator("mesh.faces_shade_flat", text="Mesh Flat")
    col.separator()
    col.operator("mesh.normals_make_consistent", text="Normals Outside").inside=False
    col.operator("mesh.flip_normals", text="Flip Normals")
    col.prop(mesh, "show_normal_face", text="Show Face Normal")
    col.prop(scene.tool_settings, "normal_size", text="Size")
    col.prop(view, "use_occlude_geometry", text="Hide Back Geometry")

The .split() is meaningless for pie menus, it has no effect. When you assign another item to the pie it will be at another position (so top).
To fix it you need to group everything inside a column and create the gap with .separator():
    # ...
    group = pie.column()

    box = group.box()
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(mesh, "use_auto_smooth")
    row.prop(mesh, "auto_smooth_angle", text="Angle")

    group.separator()

    box = group.box()
    box.operator("mesh.faces_shade_smooth", text="Mesh Smooth")
    box.operator("mesh.faces_shade_flat", text="Mesh Flat")
    box.separator()
    box.operator("mesh.normals_make_consistent", text="Normals Outside").inside=False
    # ...

Oh I see - I guess that I then copied already bad code and made it worse hahaha. Thank you very much!


text:
How to get the distance between two objects in the game engine?
So far I could only find the method to get the current position of the objects. I think there is a method that returns the distance between them.

I make BGE tutorials on my channel, and I have this exact solution, scripts, and .blend file in the description. Just keep watching through the video, I believe I show you how 3 minutes through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2BL9AxORec

I am not sure how you plan on telling blender which two objects. Assuming they are both selected.
import bpy
from math import sqrt

def get_distance():
    """
    return: float. Distance of the two objects
    Must select two objects
    """
    l = []  # we store the loacation vector of each object
    for item in bpy.context.selected_objects:
        l.append(item.location)

    distance = sqrt( (l[0][0] - l[1][0])**2 + (l[0][1] - l[1][1])**2 + (l[0][2] - l[1][2])**2)
    print(distance)  # print distance to console, DEBUG
    return distance

get_distance()

I think the OP means in the BGE.

How do I see the output of print in that part of the blender visualize?

in the console, aka terminal/cmd. You need to start blender form the console though as well

@Guilherme If you choose to mark this as accepted, please rephrase your question to correlate with it as this does not apply to the bge. Also, use of bpy in the bge is discouraged.

This answer isn't the game engine.

Either one of the other answers provided is the correct answer.

You can use mathutils.Vector locations
import bge

scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()
# the object the sensor is connected to
owner = bge.logic.getCurrentController().owner
# the other object you want to get the distance to
obj2 = scene.objects['obj_name']
length = (owner.worldPosition - obj2.worldPosition).length

print(length)

This allows for easier manipulation, so for example if you only want to measure distance on a map (without taking altitude into account) you can do.
length = (owner.worldPosition.xy - obj2.worldPosition.xy).length

That would be getDistanceTo. It will calculate and return the distance between two objects from their origins.
import bge

scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()
# the object the sensor is connected to
owner = bge.logic.getCurrentController().owner
# the other object you want to get the distance to
obj2 = scene.objects['obj_name']
length = owner.getDistanceTo(obj2)

print(length)


text:
Is it possible to toggle child viewport visibility from the parent in the outliner?
Is it possible to toggle child viewport visibility from the parent object in the outliner? (Can viewport visibility be applied hierarchically?)

Would anybody know how to animate the visibility of these child objects? I have more than 300 child objects in one empty and would like to hide and show them on certain keyframes.

Hold Shift (makes the command recursive) when toggling the visibility of the parent and it will also apply to all the children in the hierarchy. The same goes for all the other toggle operations.
Additionally, you can drag over multiple icons and toggle these.

I was fighting with the outliner, not knowing about this. Thank you !! As much as I love Blender, the UI is a freakin' nightmare.

It seems to have changed to Shift + LMB in newer Blender versions.

Shift click (LMB ~ left mouse button) the visibility "eye" to recursively hide & show child objects from a parent.
Pro-Tip: You'll also see this hot-key suggestion if you hover over the visibility eye icon:


text:
Gray polygon appears in render/camera view but not user perspective
I'm working on an assignment for an animation class and there is a gray polygon appearing in my camera persp view and in my renders and I cannot figure out what is causing it.
Here is the blend file: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/27989

The grey 'polygon' you see is the background colour. What is happening is your camera clipping end distance is set too low. So any geometry beyond the clip distance is not rendered. Resulting in what you see above.
To fix, simply select the camera and set the Clip distance to a higher value.

If this happens when navigating in viewport (Not in camera mode or render) then you have to change the clipping in the viewport options (hit "n" to open up the options and change end clipping under "view").


text:
Blender 2.8 - Multiple View Layers
is it possible to add new ViewLayers to current beta version, or it is work in progress? I am looking for a way to render two objects on two separate viewlayers with different compositing nodes on each and then merge them together.
I have been looking around but cannot find a definite answer how to do it, or if it is even possible.
I am using Cycles and Eevee.

View layers, that previously are been here:

Now moved in top right corner:

This animatable checks

Now presented it view layer settings:

Per layer settings for exclude, holdout and indirect only, that previously are been here:

now can be setup in context menu:

You need to know that EEVEE doesn't supports holdout and indirect only at current time.

Thank you, spent so much time looking for it yesterday and google gave me no definite answer <3

I guess this new system of excluding/masking is not animateable, right? Also, how to understand that layer is used as Holdout: some icon is greyed or something else?

@SergeL at current time, it needs some works, yes

@SergeL don't forget that it is a beta-version of software, most of commercial software doesn't posted in alpha state at all

With such major update it is a right way to do it, makes transition to new version much easier


text:
Hotkey for changing pivot center?
I frequently go forth and back between "3D cursor" and "Median point" as pivot center.
Are there any hotkeys for this?

With the UiPieMenuOfficial Addon ,pivot point menu can be easily accessed with the period "." key.

In Blender 3.0 the older accepted answer did not work. This worked for me and I did not have to enable the menu. Didn't notice your answer. Mental note. Scroll down.
Discovery path:
Edit >> User Preferences >> Keymap >> Type "pivot" in the Keymap search box.


text:
How do I select and manipulate a rig?
Downloaded this IK rigged model: http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/72307
Opened it in Blender, but I'm not able to figure out how to interact with the rig. When I try to select one rig/joint, Blender selects the whole rig/all the joints. How can I select one, and only one rig/joint(for instance, the foot)?
I've used Blender for other stuff for a couple of months. I've also animated in other software, so I'm not new to the theory. I just don't understand Blenders interface for using rigs.

Are you in pose mode?

Not sure, how do I get into pose mode? I can't see any shortcuts or buttons in the link you provided.

For other users: Ctrl + tab shifts to pose mode.

You must be in Pose Mode.
Press CtrlTab with the rig selected, or select pose mode in 3D view > Header:


text:
Armature: Bones deforming mesh objects in GLTF viewer
Hello fellow BlendMasters!
I am trying to make a simple sliding door animation for my GLTF viewer and keep running into this problem:
When i parent my objects (doors) with the separate bones (ctrl + p > Bone) in blender it all looks good, but if i export this scene to GLTF format and look at it in GLTF viewer - doors are misplaced. Misplacing happens even when there are no animations nor actions made.
My blender file looks like that:

This is what i get in gltf viewer:

My final intention is to separatelly start animations of the both doors.

imgur album:
https://i.sstatic.net/s9c6i.jpg
What am i doing wrong? Maybe it is not the right way to do this? In my final file there will be more doors like that, which i want to control individually.
My Blender sample file:

As i found out from glTF Blender Exporter github issue thread, this is exporters problem.
Workaround to this is:

...to create joints and weights for this mesh and give full weight to
  the bone it is assigned to.

That worked for me, so i hope it will help someone like me in the future.

You could then mark your answer as accepted...


text:
Measurement lines suddenly disappear
I use the Measure option to draw measurement lines in the project. The lines draw, I can angle them, I can edit and delete them. Great!
The problem however is that after I add a bunch of measurements (say 20-30 as needed by my project), at some point after I have drawn them, they simply disappear! I can't tell when, they just go poof when I am not zoomed out and looking at them but rather working on zoomed in details in my project.
Even if I save my project while I can see lines, the measurement lines WILL save, and then when I re-open the project there they are... but then at some point while I'm working (and I do not know what is triggering this) in a place where there are no measurements -- I zoom out to refer to one of those measurements but poof!! -- all my measurement lines are gone!!
What could be causing their disappearance??  is there some sort of time limit for their display? or some limit as to how many can be drawn??
(for context, in Viewport Overlays I have Annotations ON, in Mesh Edit Overlays I have Freestyle Edge and Face Marks both ON)
Why are my measurement lines drawn suddenly disappearing?
Thanks.
(Blender 4.2.2LTS, Win11.)

Hello, are you talking about the Measure option in the Mesh Edit Mode Overlays?

In Edit or Object mode, using MEASURE in the T Menu to draw measurement lines.   That working.
"the problem" is in the 2nd paragraph.
The following is just fyi, in case anyone is wondering what options I have turned on, since I've seen some other posts requiring that these be turned on, so I'm simply informing folks reading this that I HAVE the following checked ON:
a) In the Viewport Overlays dropdown, I have Annotations checked ON
b) In the Mesh Edit Overlays dropdown, I have both Freestyle Edge and Face Marks both checked ON.
Even with these checked on, I still get "the problem".


text:
Select objects using the keyboard instead of using the Left Mouse click
I know I can use the up and down arrows (if the mouse focus in the outliner window) to step through objects, but that does not actually "select" the object the way a Left mouse click does.
Is there an Object mode keyboard shortcut that mirrors what a left mouse click does to actually select an object?
Alternatively, if there is none, and if need to create a keyboard mapping to replicate a left mouse click what label/name should I be looking for in the preferences setting to be able to do this?

what do you mean by "does not actually select the object the way a left mouse click does"? i see it is selected in yellow outline like when left clicked. so what exactly did you find is different? please demonstrate.

create 2 cubes. move one; notice transform numbers of this moved (Cube#1). Compare them to unmoved Cube (Cube#0), both have diff transform data. Now, use the LMB to click Cube#0. Then use the keyboard to change the selection from cube#0 to #1.  Notice that although you have "Highlighted" cube#1, the data in the transform window still is from Cube#0.  But if you now use the LMB to click Cube#1, the transform numbers will now change show the data for Cube#1.  How to use the KBD to do what the LMB did in the last step?  KBD arrows seem to Highlight obj's, not "SELECT" them like LMB does.

what version are you using? i'm using 3.0 and it works fine. so this looks more like a bug.

This also works fine for me in 3.2.0.
In the keymaps, type "up" in the Key-Binding search and find "Walk Select" in the Outliner section, should be set to "Keyboard" - "Up Arrow"

this is in version 2.83...  I'll update, hopefully that will fix this.


text:
Method for creating a bulge in a fuselage
What method would you suggest I use to create, as best I can describe it, the "bulge" or streamlined c-shape add-on found under some commercial aircraft (see the underside of an Airbus A320, or a Citation Latitude as examples)
I have the fuselage (cylinder) modeled, and am now stuck at how to go about adding this c-shaped bulge under and attached to the the fuselage with its well-defined crease along the top where it meets the round-face of the tapering (to the rear) fuselage, and then its gets a streamlined shape at the bottom, front, and back. I have the aircraft's blueprints, so I know its size, location, dimensions, etc. but the method for adding this is my stumbling block for now.
I've added a couple of images to show what the end result should look like, so hope that helps.
What's the best method and tools you'd suggest I use in Blender to get this done?
(I have both v2.7 and the 2.8 beta -- so can use suggestions for either version)
Thanks for the help!

Hard to do it without a complete blueprint, but I guess you can do it this way:

Create the right view profile, which is basically an extruded cylinder.
Draw the wing cut with the knife.
Extrude the wing, use all the views to make it correctly.

There is an extension downward from the fuselage along the boundary (see the front view pic).The circle of the fuselage it goes into is "hidden" in this extension (which wraps around the fuselage in a box-like fashion).  THEN the wing is extruded from that vertical surface. The extension is not part of the wing. It is a (streamlined) box-like wrap around the fuselage (see the front view pic attached)..and that forms around the fuselage for that streamlined look.  I need to first create this streamline box-bulge under the fuselage. Then extruding the wing from it should be the easy part.

I dont't see a big difference, just change a bit the topology underneath so that it fits the profile you want... also, note that it would help if you could provide a complete blueprint with top, right and front view of the same plane

is the Cessna CJ4 the kind of profile you're referring to? I've edited my answers

Yep-- the Cj4 is the same idea. Refer to the A320 also -- similar kinda thing. The problem is that the wing extrudes from the bulge, its not part "the" bulge. Its almost like there are 2 separate pieces.

yes so you can either separate the wing or add some edge loops to sharp the angles...


text:
Connecting vertices in different objects
I'm trying to connect 2 adjacent vertices pairs to create 1 face, and using F does nothing. I think that's because the 2 vertices pairs are in 2 separate objects.
See the image -- the blue square is where I need the face to be.
How can that be done?
Thanks!!

As you correctly suspected, you can only create faces with vertices of the same object. Join the objects first, by selecting them in Object Mode and pressing CtrlJ. Then create the face by selecting the vertices and pressing F.