text:
How to create a mesh from a ramp image without discontinuities at the edges in the Y direction
I created a plane mesh and subdivided the plane by 100. I then applied a Displace modifier with the following image (0 to 1) as the height map. It works except for the edges in the y direction (see mesh below). I'm not trying to create a simple ramp. This is just one tile of a large map. Does anyone know how to generate a mesh from the below image with the discontinuities at the edges?

In the Texture panel, change the Mapping>Extension to "Extend" instead of "Repeat". However the top edge still looks a little ragged after I do this...

If you slightly scale down the UVs in the UV Editor it should work fine but I'm not sure why

@scurest It works and the edges look smooth.


text:
How to generate seamless tile meshes from height maps?
I split the following height-map image into 4 equal parts in an image editing app and generated the 4 tile meshes below by applying a Displace modifier on 4 planes. It works well except I can see the seams when I import the tiles into an app I'm developing. Is there a way to generate tile meshes from height maps without visible seams?
Things I've tried (that failed): moving each tile closer to the next tile, making each tile slightly larger

I think what causes the seams is a discontinuity in the normals where the tile objects meet. When I worked on a similar problem, I believe I found that creating a single merged version of the underlying tiles, and Hiding it from Viewport/Render but using it as the source of normals for the tiles with a Transfer Data (https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/modify/data_transfer.html) modifier, could be used to fully remove the seams

@NeverConvex I think I understand what you're suggesting, but I'm subdividing each plane by the max amount (100) before applying the Displace modifier. If I subdivide the merged, larger plane by 100, wouldn't the combined mesh be at a lower (vertex) resolution than the individual tiles?

Yes, I think that's right; you could probably work around that by applying an extra level of subdivision to the larger plane, first, to give it a vertex at each of the same positions as the vertices of the tiling planes. Or, you may be able to build a normal map directly from the source image, and maybe can use that to control the tiling object's normals; I have not tried that. Still another normals-centric option would be to make the tiling object boundaries overlap a bit, then to manually remove the overlap from renders as post-processing (assuming you render each tile object separately)

As an aside, 100 levels of subdivision is an incredible amount; the I'm not sure what a nice formula for it is, but verts in a plane grow exponentially with subdiv levels, like 4, 9, 25, 81, 289,.... 100 subdiv levels sounds like it would crash Blender even on some of the world's largest supercomputers! Oh, but maybe you're doing this with Number of cuts in the Plane object creation menu, not with subdivisions? That grows more reasonably

@NeverConvex I meant number of cuts. In Edit Mode, Edge -> Subdivide -> Number of Cuts = 100. If I create a larger, overlapped image for each tile and cut the mesh to the right size, would that generate the correct normals at the edges?

I think for the overlapping tiles approach to work, you'd have to (A) make sure neighboring tiles match exactly on any overlapping vertices, and (B) remove the boundaries only from the rendered images (which would require doing some vertex-to-camera-space calculations to figure out which pixels you want to replace with transparent ones; or, post-process the image files to display the average pixel whenever they overlap), not from the meshes themselves. The workflow assumptions are a bit different there, and I think it is probably more complicated than building a single big normals object

Your image doesn't seem seamless if you open an image editor (Krita for example) and repeat it. Use a clone brus hto make it repeatable

@moonboots I'm probably using incorrect terminology. I just want tiles without discontinuities at the edges

yes, but your original image is not repeatable, therefore the seams we can see

@moonboots I divided the image into 4 parts in an image editor and used the parts to generate the 4 meshes

Oh ok, could you please pack your image (File > External Data > Pack Resources) and share your file?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Is there a shortcut for Viewport Render Image?
I am wondering if there's is any way I can set up a shortcut or a faster way to access to the Viewport Render Image. It seems not in the hot key binding option. Thank you!

Same as any operation in Blender: RMB on the function and add your own shortcut, or add to the quick favorites (then the shortcut will be Q):

Thank you so much!!

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


text:
How do I add an new object to an existing group?
Hi I am wondering if there's a way to add new object to an existing group.
I tried ctrl + shift + G but it only adds object to the collection instead of the "grp" unit. I can also ungroup and regroup again with the new obejct included, but I just wanna make sure if there's a faster way too add new things in the group.

A 'Group' in Blender is a Collection! If you want to add a new object to a collection, select the object in Object mode, hit 'M' and then either select the collection you want it in, or New if you want a new collection. You can drag and drop it from one Collection to another in the outliner too.

Groups don't exist anymore in the latest versions, they have been replaced by collections

Without knowing how your scene is set up or what objects and collections exist there, I don't even understand what the "grp unit" is or which one is "the" collection the object is added to.


text:
How to Edit properties for Linked Rig
I purchased a rigged character with custom properties like an IK/FK switch. However, I found it impossible to edit when I linked the rig to another scene where I typically animate. Is there a way I can edit the custom switch with the linked rig? Or should I try another method to import my character, such as simply copying and pasting it from the original scene instead of linking it?

I just figured it out. So I need to export the ui.py file and loaded to the linked file, then the UI would show up.


text:
Can we trust the blender alpha or beta versions API?
Does the API of a blender alpha or beta version remain the same or does it change until the official release of a new blender version?
I am concerned about the compatibility of my add-ons. Sometimes I am already ready for a next blender version, before the official release. But then I am always unsure if I have to test everything again with the official release.
How do you do that?

As far as I know versions are called alpha and beta because the api could be changed…

I will only speak for the beta versions, or more precise the bcon3+ releases, the blender developer cycle has 5 phases, bcon1 to 5;
In bcon3 all the changes get frozen and the branch of the release changes from master to blender-v<x.y>-release, so all new features, breaking changes and features not ready to ship get "scraped" and will wait to the next release (in master) and the current release will only receive bug fixes and optimizations, so... the beta (bcon3+) releases of blender should not contain breaking changes of the api, but I cannot speak of the alpha versions.
Source: Blender release cycle and of Bcon phases


text:
Preset System Error
I'm trying to combine Render-Presets with Camera-Presets. Why is this script causing an Error? What does it mean:
"Python: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\startup\bl_operators\presets.py", line 166, in execute
exec(rna_path)
File "", line 1, in
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'data'
location: :-1 " ?
This Error is coming also if a Camera is selected.
How can I make it work?
Here is the script:
import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator, Menu
from bl_operators.presets import AddPresetBase

class OBJECT_MT_display_presets(Menu):
    bl_label = "Object Display Presets"
    preset_subdir = "object/display"
    preset_operator = "script.execute_preset"
    draw = Menu.draw_preset

class AddPresetObjectDisplay(AddPresetBase, Operator):
    '''Add a Object Display Preset'''
    bl_idname = "camera.object_display_preset_add"
    bl_label = "Add Object Display Preset"
    preset_menu = "OBJECT_MT_display_presets"

    # variable used for all preset values
    preset_defines = [
        "render  = bpy.context.scene.render",
        "data = bpy.context.object.data"
    ]

    # properties to store in the preset
    preset_values = [
        "render.engine",
        "render.use_stamp",
        "data.cycles.fisheye_lens",
        "data.cycles.fisheye_fov",
        "data.shift_x",
        "data.shift_y"

    ]

    # where to store the preset
    preset_subdir = "Test_Folder"

# Display into an existing panel
def panel_func(self, context):
    layout = self.layout

    row = layout.row(align=True)
    row.menu(OBJECT_MT_display_presets.__name__, text=OBJECT_MT_display_presets.bl_label)
    row.operator(AddPresetObjectDisplay.bl_idname, text="", icon='ZOOM_IN')
    row.operator(AddPresetObjectDisplay.bl_idname, text="", icon='ZOOM_OUT').remove_active = True

classes = (
    OBJECT_MT_display_presets,
    AddPresetObjectDisplay,
)

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)
    bpy.types.RENDER_PT_context.prepend(panel_func)

def unregister():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)
    bpy.types.RENDER_PT_context.remove(panel_func)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Use context.active_object
The issue, re that error message in question,  is with the preset operator in question is it is recognizing only context.active_object rather than context.object, which it sees as None.  Perhaps context.object is used for the pinid object if set, where there is a pin object. Test
context.scene.camera
Anyhow, for the context members being set we can instead look at the scene camera.  Have added a poll method to the operator to have it only poll when the render engine is cycles and the scene has a camera.
Otherwise change poll such that, in addition to being cycles render engine
ob = context.object
return ob and ob.type == 'CAMERA' and ...

and in preset
"camera = bpy.context.active_object.data"

Made the preset_subdir same in menu and operator.  Another mixin class could be used for this.
Wrapped the base class menu draw method into draw. This way can append prepend a menu item.
Only enabled preset row when it polls to avoid trying to save / set when not polling.
import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator, Menu
from bl_operators.presets import AddPresetBase

class OBJECT_MT_display_presets(Menu):
    bl_label = "Object Display Presets"
    preset_subdir = "Test_Folder"
    preset_operator = "script.execute_preset"
    #draw = Menu.draw_preset
    def draw(self, context):
        self.draw_preset(context)

class AddPresetObjectDisplay(AddPresetBase, Operator):
    '''Add a Object Display Preset'''
    bl_idname = "camera.object_display_preset_add"
    bl_label = "Add Object Display Preset"
    preset_menu = "OBJECT_MT_display_presets"

    # variable used for all preset values
    preset_defines = [
        "scene  = bpy.context.scene",
        "render = scene.render",
        "camera = scene.camera.data",
    ]

    # properties to store in the preset
    preset_values = [
        "render.engine",
        "render.use_stamp",
        "camera.cycles.fisheye_lens",
        "camera.cycles.fisheye_fov",
        "camera.shift_x",
        "camera.shift_y"

    ]

    # where to store the preset
    preset_subdir = "Test_Folder"
    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        scene = context.scene
        return (
                scene.camera
                and scene.render.engine == 'CYCLES'
                )

# Display into an existing panel
def panel_func(self, context):
    layout = self.layout

    row = layout.row(align=True)
    row.enabled =  bpy.ops.camera.object_display_preset_add.poll()

    row.menu(OBJECT_MT_display_presets.__name__, text=OBJECT_MT_display_presets.bl_label)

    row.operator(AddPresetObjectDisplay.bl_idname, text="", icon='ZOOM_IN')
    row.operator(AddPresetObjectDisplay.bl_idname, text="", icon='ZOOM_OUT').remove_active = True

classes = (
    OBJECT_MT_display_presets,
    AddPresetObjectDisplay,
)

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)
    bpy.types.RENDER_PT_context.prepend(panel_func)

def unregister():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)
    bpy.types.RENDER_PT_context.remove(panel_func)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Can Python Operator Presets be shared between Operators?

Thank you so much batFINGER! Now it works everything fine. And finally I can release my first Addon. Hurray :D


text:
Load Preset and execute Function or Operator
I googled now for hours and hours, but couldn't find something near to this Task.
When I make a Preset-System like this here:
import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator, Menu
from bl_operators.presets import AddPresetBase

class OBJECT_MT_display_presets(Menu):
    bl_label = "Object Display Presets"
    preset_subdir = "object/display"
    preset_operator = "script.execute_preset"
    draw = Menu.draw_preset

class AddPresetObjectDisplay(AddPresetBase, Operator):
    '''Add a Object Display Preset'''
    bl_idname = "camera.object_display_preset_add"
    bl_label = "Add Object Display Preset"
    preset_menu = "OBJECT_MT_display_presets"

    # variable used for all preset values
    preset_defines = [
        "obj = bpy.context.object"
    ]

    # properties to store in the preset
    preset_values = [
        "obj.display_type",
        "obj.show_bounds",
        "obj.display_bounds_type",
        "obj.show_name",
        "obj.show_axis",
        "obj.show_wire",
    ]

    # where to store the preset
    preset_subdir = "object/display"

# Display into an existing panel
def panel_func(self, context):
    layout = self.layout

    row = layout.row(align=True)
    row.menu(OBJECT_MT_display_presets.__name__, text=OBJECT_MT_display_presets.bl_label)
    row.operator(AddPresetObjectDisplay.bl_idname, text="", icon='ZOOM_IN')
    row.operator(AddPresetObjectDisplay.bl_idname, text="", icon='ZOOM_OUT').remove_active = True

classes = (
    OBJECT_MT_display_presets,
    AddPresetObjectDisplay,
)

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)
    bpy.types.OBJECT_PT_display.prepend(panel_func)

def unregister():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)
    bpy.types.OBJECT_PT_display.remove(panel_func)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

I want to add an Operator or a Function that is called every time a Preset is loaded. It should not be called, when a Preset is added or removed - only when its loaded.
But because there is no execute() method in the Preset-System, I got no Idea where to put the Operator-Call in to.
I was also searching to append something to an execute-method but I didn't find anything.
Any Ideas?

If its written in python can be found with a little digging.
The key here is in the menu, you are defining which operator to use to execute presets
    preset_operator = "script.execute_preset"

If we can find it in bpy.types then it has a python module
>>> bpy.ops.script.execute_preset.idname()
'SCRIPT_OT_execute_preset'

>>> bpy.types.SCRIPT_OT_execute_preset.__module__
'bl_operators.presets'

and there it is in 2.91/scripts/startup/bl_operators/presets.py
class ExecutePreset(Operator):
    """Execute a preset"""
    bl_idname = "script.execute_preset"
    bl_label = "Execute a Python Preset"

    filepath: StringProperty(
        subtype='FILE_PATH',
        options={'SKIP_SAVE'},
    )
    menu_idname: StringProperty(
        name="Menu ID Name",
        description="ID name of the menu this was called from",
        options={'SKIP_SAVE'},
    )

    def execute(self, context):
        from os.path import basename, splitext
        filepath = self.filepath

        # change the menu title to the most recently chosen option
        preset_class = getattr(bpy.types, self.menu_idname)
        preset_class.bl_label = bpy.path.display_name(basename(filepath))

        ext = splitext(filepath)[1].lower()

        if ext not in {".py", ".xml"}:
            self.report({'ERROR'}, "unknown filetype: %r" % ext)
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        if hasattr(preset_class, "reset_cb"):
            preset_class.reset_cb(context)

        if ext == ".py":
            try:
                bpy.utils.execfile(filepath)
            except Exception as ex:
                self.report({'ERROR'}, "Failed to execute the preset: " + repr(ex))

        elif ext == ".xml":
            import rna_xml
            rna_xml.xml_file_run(context,
                                 filepath,
                                 preset_class.preset_xml_map)

        if hasattr(preset_class, "post_cb"):
            preset_class.post_cb(context)

        return {'FINISHED'}

re-write another operator, using same properties,  to do whatever floats your boat when your preset is loaded, and tell the system to use it instead
preset_operator = "script.execute_preset_float_boat_version"

Ok, since we are no longer using the default operator, we can set the defaults for the operator in the draw preset method of menu class
>>> bpy.types.Menu.draw_preset(
draw_preset(self, _context)
Define these on the subclass:
- preset_operator (string)
- preset_subdir (string)
Optionally:
- preset_add_operator (string)
- preset_extensions (set of strings)
- preset_operator_defaults (dict of keyword args)

Define the callbacks
Looking at the operator code, notice two callback functions are run, one before the preset is loaded reset_cb and one after post_cb.  Have added these two classmethods to Menu to print to console when called.
so in full
import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator, Menu
from bl_operators.presets import AddPresetBase
from bpy.props import StringProperty

class ExecutePreset(Operator):
    """Execute a preset"""
    bl_idname = "script.execute_preset_float_boat"
    bl_label = "Execute a Python Preset"

    filepath: StringProperty(
        subtype='FILE_PATH',
        options={'SKIP_SAVE'},
    )
    menu_idname: StringProperty(
        name="Menu ID Name",
        description="ID name of the menu this was called from",
        options={'SKIP_SAVE'},
    )

    def execute(self, context):
        from os.path import basename, splitext
        filepath = self.filepath

        # change the menu title to the most recently chosen option
        preset_class = getattr(bpy.types, self.menu_idname)
        preset_class.bl_label = bpy.path.display_name(basename(filepath))

        ext = splitext(filepath)[1].lower()

        if ext not in {".py", ".xml"}:
            self.report({'ERROR'}, "unknown filetype: %r" % ext)
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        if hasattr(preset_class, "reset_cb"):
            preset_class.reset_cb(context)

        if ext == ".py":
            try:
                bpy.utils.execfile(filepath)
            except Exception as ex:
                self.report({'ERROR'}, "Failed to execute the preset: " + repr(ex))

        elif ext == ".xml":
            import rna_xml
            rna_xml.xml_file_run(context,
                                 filepath,
                                 preset_class.preset_xml_map)

        if hasattr(preset_class, "post_cb"):
            preset_class.post_cb(context)

        return {'FINISHED'}

class OBJECT_MT_display_presets(Menu):
    bl_label = "Object Display Presets"
    preset_subdir = "object/display"
    preset_operator = "script.execute_preset_float_boat"
    preset_operator_defaults = {
            "menu_idname" : 'OBJECT_MT_display_presets'
            }
    draw = Menu.draw_preset
    @classmethod
    def reset_cb(self, context):
        print("Reset")
    @classmethod
    def post_cb(self, context):
        print("Post Callback")

class AddPresetObjectDisplay(AddPresetBase, Operator):
    '''Add a Object Display Preset'''
    bl_idname = "camera.object_display_preset_add"
    bl_label = "Add Object Display Preset"
    preset_menu = "OBJECT_MT_display_presets"

    # variable used for all preset values
    preset_defines = [
        "obj = bpy.context.object"
    ]

    # properties to store in the preset
    preset_values = [
        "obj.display_type",
        "obj.show_bounds",
        "obj.display_bounds_type",
        "obj.show_name",
        "obj.show_axis",
        "obj.show_wire",
    ]

    # where to store the preset
    preset_subdir = "object/display"

# Display into an existing panel
def panel_func(self, context):
    layout = self.layout

    row = layout.row(align=True)
    row.menu(OBJECT_MT_display_presets.__name__, text=OBJECT_MT_display_presets.bl_label)
    row.operator(AddPresetObjectDisplay.bl_idname, text="", icon='ZOOM_IN')
    row.operator(AddPresetObjectDisplay.bl_idname, text="", icon='ZOOM_OUT').remove_active = True

classes = (
    ExecutePreset,
    OBJECT_MT_display_presets,
    AddPresetObjectDisplay,
)

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)
    bpy.types.OBJECT_PT_display.prepend(panel_func)

def unregister():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)
    bpy.types.OBJECT_PT_display.remove(panel_func)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Sounds great, but for now it looks like I made something wrong. What I did:

I made a new Operator with a copy of the ExecutePreset Operator, renamed it.
registered it
made a new Menu with the new made preset_operator.
Put the new menu into the row.menu() in the Panel

But now there is an Error when using it that way in blender :
File ... 2.91\scripts\addons\Render_Preset_Addon\addon\operator\RPA_Execute_Preset.py", line 28, in execute
preset_class = getattr(bpy.types, self.menu_idname)
AttributeError: 'RNA_Types' object has no attribute ''

No, it doesn't looks like. I've changed the preset_menu in the operator. Still the same Error.  But there is a bunch more of Stuff in the presets.py file. Maybe something from there is missing. I will looking for that Tomorrow. Thank you for your help!

Yesss! Thank you so much :) There was just one line you wrote in the next Answer: preset_operator_defaults = {"menu_idname" : 'RPA_MT_Render_Preset_incl_Camera_Presets_Menu_to_all_Cams'}    Now it works everything how I expect it to. For now, I have now idea what that line means, but I will search for it.   Once, you wrote me, I should not use Operators in an Add-on. But, what if the Operator is written from my self in the same Add-on? Should I call that Operator from bpy.ops  or is there a smarter way?

it puts that into the operator call. bpy.ops.foo.bar(filepath="path") --> bpy.ops.foo.bar(filepath="path", anotherthing=the_dict["anotherthing"])  or more consisely bpy.ops.foo.bar(**the_dict)

Hopefully, there will be a day when I can find those things by myself ^^ . If I understand you right, you say, that "preset_operator_defaults"- line puts the modified preset_operator into the right place of Blender-Ops as a Dictionary. Great! And what do you think about the self written Operator-Call inside of the preset_operator with bpy.ops ?
Is there a smarter way for the call or will that do well? It works fine at the moment, just asking to avoid Errors in the future.

gives the values to assign to props when calling the operator. Another perhaps simpler method is to make  a default for the property. It was having bpy.ops.foo.bar(classname="") since there is no property with no name bpy.types.<nothing here) is getattri(bpy.types, classname)`.

Seemed to lose the comment re operators:  99% of time require operators when interfacing between user and UI.  IMO  These are the types of things  (using existing pre set code) that if you find yourself going nuts trying to bend blender to your will using existing code tools, re-writing makes all clearer.  Fan of pathlib https://medium.com/@ageitgey/python-3-quick-tip-the-easy-way-to-deal-with-file-paths-on-windows-mac-and-linux-11a072b58d5f would be in a new one, or option to save presets to and load from text editor.

Added info to add the reset and post load preset callbacks to menu class.


text:
selecting vertices with the alt key
I selected a UV sphere cut it in half in the edit mode then tried to select all the vertices on the lower rig by holding down alt key and clicking on one vertice. Can't select all the
vertices.I am using blender version 3.2.2

If you want to select a whole part, put your mouse over this part and press L, or if you've already selected on vertex of this part, press Ctrl L, not sure about the Alt click you're doing

Clicking with the Alt key held down is used to select a loop of verts. As @monboots says you need Ctrl-L to select the whole part.


text:
Is there a way to rotate UV islands to face the same direction based on their position in the 3D space?
I have a building with many windows, that have cubemapped interiors. A lot of the UVs for the windows are facing the wrong way so as a result the rooms are upside down.
To fix this i would like to rotate all of the window UV islands so that the top of the uv and the top of the window are alligned in the same direction in the viewport.
Is this possible? There are hundreds of windows, I'd really like to not have to go though all of them.


text:
Blend curves in Blender like Illustrator does
I have two shapes - A and B - in Illustrator. I can blend from A to B in Illustrator easily. Can I do this in Blender? Preferably in a generative way, so I can later animate as you can see in the GIF. In Cinema 4D I would just use Cloner with Blend mode and put both splines in. Color is just for demonstration, it can be just white. I’ve tried a few GeoNodes tutorials on Youtube and also Google, but with no luck whatsoever. Thank you guys!

This GN group:

Resamples 2 cyclic input curves, to match resolution.
Creates a set of curve-circles at the same resolution, stashing their point indices before duplication, to get an "point index-per-duplicate"
Using Sample Index, transfers a mix of the input curves' point-positions to the duplicates. using the stashed indices as target, and a mapping of the 'Duplicate Index' as mix-factor.

The curves can be animated, and the blend will respond accordingly. The Mix Factor is also stored on the generated splines, so can be used by shaders:

.. quite hard to crunch into a nice .gif.
But here's the file:


text:
Camera follow path counterclockwise
I’m trying to do a simple camera rotation around an object - but somehow I can't get the camera to go counterclockwise.
Here is my set-up:
I created a curve circle around the object
I parented my camera to the curve circle with Follow path
Now the camera is moving around my object as it should. But it is moving clockwise. I need it to go counterclockwise. How do I do it? It seems like a simple task, but I can't for the life of me get it to work. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance for your help.

Stupid question on my behalf: do you need to use a curve? Parenting the camera to an empty in the center and making this rotate can get you the same result and there you can even switch the direction anytime you want in the animation...

@GordonBrinkmann thank you. I didn’t know that. Going to try it right away.

I agree with Gordon that using an Empty would be easier in this case.

@JohnEason I just tried this method and found it less versatile than working with Follow path, because I am additionally using Track To. A mix of Follow path, Track To and Empties works best, in my humble opinion. 1000 thanks to both of you.

It's also useful to know about that setting if you're just following a path rather than a circle. It's also helpful to show the curve normal direction in Edit mode. In Blender 4+, look to the right of old Viewport Overlays and find the new menu Curve Edit Mode Overlays. Check the Normals entry on that dropdown. In earlier versions it's at the bottom of the View Overlays dropdow.

For a simple rotation an empty as parent is the easiest way I'd say. Don't know what you meant with "because I am additionally using Track to"? You can use a Track to constraint on the camera even if it is only parented to an empty nevertheless. Of course if you want a different path than a circle then a curve might be better. But the question was just about a circle rotation ♂

Go into Edit mode with your Circle selected, select All, and then use the Segments > SwitchDirection menu.

Thank you so much! You are a true boon.

Thank you again @JohnEason. This is very helpful information.

It depends on how you did it. You can of course switch the direction of the curve. Other ways include:

If you animated the camera by clicking on Animate Path in the Follow Path constraint, you can select the Bézier Circle and go to the Graph Editor. There go to Modifiers and change the value for Coefficient from -1 to 1 and the value for x^1 from 1 to -1 to make it go counter-clockwise.

If you instead animated the Offset value in the Follow Path constraint for some reason to go from 100 to 0, animate it the other way around from 0 to 100.

A different approach could be to simply parent the Camera to an Empty object and animate the rotation of the Empty in whatever direction you wish.

Thank you again @GordonBrinkmann. This is very helpful information.


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Array modifier with rotated object
I'm trying to re-create a road layout in Blender for use in a game. I've started with a simple piece of road, rotated to match the underlying satellite image and applied the rotation to the object.
I'd like to use the array and curve modifiers to make this piece repeat along the curve.
Unfortunately, the array has a massive gap and a weird offset each time.
The only way I can avoid this problem is to keep the road non-rotated and apply the modifiers at this point. What am I doing wrong?

make sure you applied scale and rotation for your object

Thanks but I did both of those

then please provide blend file because you didn't show us all important settings. thx.

Actually there you shouldn't have applied the rotation. Look at the transform gizmo. The array is going into the gobal X direction. It's also offseting by the bounding box in the global XY plane. See https://i.sstatic.net/V6zIu.jpg

Thanks, so don't apply the rotation. If I leave it unapplied, it doesn't follow the curve. It's also offset. I can only have it follow properly by leaving it completely straight. I'll see if I can attach the blend


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"Instancing" Geometry and attach to models?
I am building a character model for a game engine.
At the moment, I am duplicating the objects the character can hold:

"pistols" in this case are identical, just with different bone weights.
I would like to have exactly one "original" pistol and carrying/holding it in different places is just a copy of it with different bone weights and exporting the model to fbx or gltf then yields a object hierarchy how it is now with duplicated but identical meshes.
(my engine does not allow attaching meshes to objects, which is why I keep them inside the model)
Is something like that possible?

Within Blender, you would do this by using a single pistol mesh data block shared across multiple pistol objects, but how to do it for exporting depends on the game engine.

@TheLabCat how do I separate the bone weights?
They are part of the pistol mesh data when I use the data block approach

Oh. Um, yeah, there's no way out of that, unless you maybe have low-poly versions of the gun with the desired bone weights to copy to it via modifiers..? But, this sounds like a problem you're trying to solve the wrong way because of a fundamental misunderstanding of how this game engine works.

Or rather Blender does not have such functionality in the first place


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How can I make a 3D model out of a set of vertices, UVs and faces using a script?
I have 1 UV .png, and 3 numpy arrays that I will describe below:

Vertices: An array that has many triplet float values eg. [1.1, 2.1,
3.1]
Faces: An array that has many sextuplet integer values. eg. [4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9]
UVs: An array that has many doublet float values. eg.
[1.1,2.1]

I am very new to Blender and 3D modeling so bear with me with my speculation.
I think that the values in the Faces array are possibly indexes that somehow map the UV values to the vertices.
What I wonder is whether if this is a common format with which 3d models are represented with, and how to parse it. If the faces are to represent indexes, why are there 6 of them instead of 5? How could I possibly parse this information into a 3D model?
To put my question more succintly, how would one go about parsing all of this data and turning it into a 3d model in blender using a python script?

6 verts per face implies the faces are hexagons. In the text editor > templates > python  menu check out  add new object re making a mesh from verts and faces based on their indices. There is also a UV example re assigning UV's on a per face loop vertex basis. eg if you have 10 faces will have 10 x 6  (u, v) coordinates

This is very useful. I must follow up with this question though. My data apparently has 4 big sub-arrays of faces. Meaning there are 4 distinct sub-arrays in the faces array that all contain integer sextuplets. What could the meaning of this be? 4 different face types?
In addition to this, the Faces Array has indexes that surpass the indexes of the vertices array, whereasin all of Faces array's indexes are within the range of the UV array. If the Faces array is to represent a mapping of faces using point indexes in the vertices array, how can these out-of-bounds values be explained away?


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UV unwrap results in non-desired size proportions
I have a low poly face mesh with ears, face and cleavage.
I have marked the seam at the back of the neck (skull potion is non existent due to hair that covers it)
When blender unwraps it, a very large portion of the resulting UV island is dedicated to the cleavage because it has a bigger area. However I would like to have the actual face the "priority" for the unwrap.
Is it possible to do it automatically?

There is no automatic way of doing it, but you can enable proportional editing with sharp falloff, select a point in the center of the area you want to favour and scale the UV, maybe repeating the scaling operation a couple of times with different areas of influence.


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How to loop rigid body simulation blender

These balls I have simulated using Rigid Body. So I need to create this simulation as a loop. The first frame and the last frame should be created in the same way. I tried to do it several times. But it is not successful. Can you tell me a way to do it?

i think you have to do this manually (maybe someone comes up with a genius idea) but since the balls are falling randomly, i think you have to manually keyframe them to the start frame positions....

Ok friend. I will try. Thank you!

For RB sim you can just a trick it by illusion - animate mix-stop-mix and crop animation by let it start from middle of the first mix and end at middle of second mix. There would be the biggest chance to trick your eye it is continuing animation (balls are at that point fast and randomly scattered, just take care the "blades" rotation to match start-end keyframe).

yes it would be easier to fix in the video sequencer


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Why does my hair look like tubes?
So I've been using the new blender hair system and the individual hair strands look like this.
how do I fix it?

Only you know what settings you used to produced that result so how is anyone here supposed to know how you did it? You'll need to include a more detailed explanation of your settings and some more images of them too if possible.

Wild guess: have you applied the Scale to the emitter object and the hair curves object? Have you set the hair curve thickness with the Set Hair Curve Profile GN modifier? (It's in the Asset Browser in the Write category.) Also, make sure to set the Eevee Render setting Curves > Shape to Strip so the thickness is displayed properly in the viewport and for Eevee. -- Feel free to add screenshots of the objects, modifiers, GN node trees, etc, or to provide a demo file here (https://blend-exchange.com/)

Oh hey, the hair curve node worked! thank you! and sorry for the lack of information, I'm still pretty new to this blender help thing.


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Volumetric objects with smooth transitions towards the outside but noise texture defining transparent and opaque parts
I am pretty much a beginner in Blender and know some basics of the software, but have knowledge of other 3d software like LightWave and Vue Infinite.
I would like to have some smooth volumetric objects as a starting point for different kind of uses and would render with Cycles (volumetric lights, nebulas, auroras etc.). The reason that I would like to use a volumetric with smooth borders is to avoid those harsh borders where an applied noise meets the extremes of the mesh/primitive that limits the volumetric.
I found this interesting discussion with examples and was able to replicate the node setup of one of the suggested methods.
https://blender.stackexchange.com/.../how-to-make...
Now I am confronted with the question/challenge how and where I should plug in a noise texture into the node setup, which should define the transparent and opaque parts of the volume.
First screenshot shows the node setup for a volumetric with smooth borders, the second screenshot an example of a noise texture (from the Procedural Noise Pack Pro) that I would like to incorporate into the node setup without harsh transitions towards the limits of the volumetric.

Could be related https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/287393/2214   https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/201083/2214  https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/287393/2214. Those links doesn't mix textures as you requested but they are using Volume Displace modifier .... If that is not what you are looking for ....just notify it in your question :) Thanks

I am not familiar with the concept of volume displacing and will have to make a few tests in order to see if it does what I was expecting. Keep you informed and thank you a lot for directing me to this alternative. With regards, Ralf Maeder.

Simply Subtract (Math node) seems to be working ...

Awesome and simple at least for those shapes that can be covered by the gradient texture node, like primitives. I'll do some testing with this setup to see how flexible it is or can be expanded for custom meshes. With regards, Ralf Maeder.

Just connecting your node-tree (last Multiplanode) into upper socket of Subtract node (instead of my Gradient node) should work for you.

If this answer solved your issue consider mark it as accepted, so others can see this answer as solved from main list. https://blender.stackexchange.com/tour Thank you keep this site organised.

I made a small change to your proposed setup and changed the "subtract node" to "smooth minimum". This allows me to adjust an inset of the volumetric filling. Thank you so much. I would add a screenshot, but apparently comments only allow text!?

Great you are satisfied :) Yes, comments are text based. You can paste only a link to an image hosted somewhere, like imagur.com is often used here for tmp sharing.


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How to run my operator on a timer or continuously?
I have a device connected to the computer over serial. I have managed to read the value from it using an operator executed by a button press, but now, I want my Blender plugin to poll for a value on an timed interval.
Modal technically works but it only runs when there's inputs present and it does so as fast as possible. So unless I constantly move the mouse, it won't run.
How can I get my operator to execute periodically? On a predefined time period?

I suggest the you tag @JacquesLuke because he made it possible for animation nodes to be executed always at intervals of a set minimum time difference.


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"Save this image" button, for the "viewer" node in the compositor, is greyed out
As additional details, this started happening at some point in my own scenes, where the compositor is already active and with node trees. It started happening with v3.6 and persists in 4.0.
If I start a new general scene, where the compositor's "use nodes" is not checked yet, the button works normally, as I activate the compositor.
Before going into details with my Blender configuration, does anybody know what are possible causes for that button to be greyed out and unusable?
Thanks!


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Is Cycles capable of generating a proper ambient-occlusion render pass?
I really hope I'm doing something wrong: the ambient occlusion, in my knowledge, should be a calculation that's more related to geometry and light direction and directional shadows.
I'm attaching two images of the same scene.
This is what a typical AO pass, calculated with other 3D applications, looks like:

This is what Cycles generates when AO pass is activated:

First problem, I can't consider the latter an AO pass, that's something else. Actually, I noticed that this happens for interior renderings. For geometry that's not enclosed, the AO looks just fine.
Second: although I activated the de-noising for this rendering, the AO pass remains unaffected.
I'm not listing any specific settings I used, since this happens with just the default Cycles' setting and the AO pass checked. Right now I just need to clear out this doubt: have I missed some parameters or is Cycles just doing AO wrong, for interior scenes?
Thanks!

Hello and welcome. You might need to check and share your settings, because that second image does not look like an ambient occlusion pass, looks more like a beauty pass with ambient occlusion

Hi Emir, I agree it desn't look like an AO, that's the point of my whole question, but that's what Blender compositor visualizes when I directly connect AO from the "Render layers" node, to an Output node. I definitely fear that's what Cycles considers AO.
I'll post more information if needed, but let's see if someone is already aware of this as an issue.
Thanks!

"This is what a typical AO pass, calculated with other 3D applications, looks like" This is not real ambient occlusion, that looks like SSAO, Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion, which is an approximation for  real time rendering. Cycles doesn't produce this because it is a raytracer, at least not without some non-trivial node trickery. The second image is probably a lot close to real AO even though it is not what you want

Yes exactly, that's more like a dirt shader applied globally, and that's what I was looking for from Cycles. I believe it's possible doing that by adding an AO node to each shader in the scene, but I don't think that's reasonable.
So, if there's no practical way to obtain a SSAO or global "dirt" pass with Cycles, that dashes my hopes. Thanks anyway!

You should really check your settings. This is the AO Pass from one of my Blender renders https://imgur.com/a/rc6BuEA and i did not add AO node to them. If thats what you are looking for, then something is not right with your AO Settings

Reading your post again, i see that you mean complete inside scene. For that, go to Render Settings > Fast GI aproximation and reduce the AO Distance. Hope that helps

Emir, you gave me the correct answer: the default settings for the AO assign a very long distance, so, for enclosed spaces, it forces the calculation for objects that are beyond the walls of a room. Setting it to about 25 cm or 10 in is enough to produce the wanted result. Also, the noise problem is gone as well. Thanks a lot for brilliantly finding the problem!

For future Reference.
You can change AO distance inside Fast GI Aproximation.
Render Settings > Light Path > Fast GI Aproximation > AO Distance


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Input a specific render slot in compositor?
Is there a way to have the compositor input specific slots from the render window?
My goal would be to achieve a very important feature I had, for example, with Vray: to render a patch over an already rendered image, without losing it.
Now, with Cycles, if you render a border (called region in vray), any previously render image will be wiped out. Yet, there are those promising slots, so that I could render an image in slot 1, then, if needed, render a patch in slot 2, and the previous render would still be in slot 1.
So, I was wondering, there must be a way to use an input a node like "image" or "render image" and choose which slot I want from the render window. That way, I could compose a patch rendering without having to re-render a whole 4K image just because I forgot about a missing brick in the rendering of a building.
But I haven't found any way to do that.
Does anyone have any hint? This might solve the specific "render patch region" that other people have been asking around, but nobody in my knowledge has found a workaround.
Suggestions are very welcome, but if it involves saving images to files, I wouldn't consider it an answer to this specific question.
Thanks!

You can't call render slots in comp, but you do have Scenes.
Render Region and other render settings are stored in the scene's data. So you can mace a Copy of your scene, linked copy might be a good option for you:

Then in comp, use two Render Layers nodes, with each a different scene:

Note that you can run each of them renders individually via the button right to the ViewLayer dropdown at the bottom of the node.

thanks, I'm accepting yours as an answer. I also confess I don't love the idea, since it's tricky and error prone. Let's say it's a step before having to save a rendered image apart.
But, I guess, this is the best solution offered by today's Blender...


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World Space vertex coordinates and cache system
Blender 3.4
Windows 10
How do you get all world space coordinates of all the vertices of a mesh?
I have created a simple cube, applied a subdivision surface modifier, and added
wave animation using a wave deformer. The code below is giving data of only 8 vertices of the cube. It's not considering subdivision modifiers and I'm not sure about wave deformation
data.
obj = bpy.context.selected_objects[0]
# Vertex coordinates
coords = [(obj.matrix_world @ v.co) for v in obj.data.vertices]
# 1d array of vertices
vertices = np.array(coords, dtype=ctypes.c_double).flatten()
print(vertices)

I need a flattened array of vertex coordinates and the above approach is costly in terms
of 2 steps to get the data. Is it the correct way?
I have saved per frame vertex coordinates of an animated mesh externally to a cache file.
Now I would like to apply this data back to mesh on per frame basis. This is my logical script:
for f in range(buffer.start_frame, buffer.end_frame):
  # Move to frame
  bpy.context.scene.frame_set(f)
  for mesh in buffer[f]:
    # Get mesh from blender scene using name
    blender_mesh = get_mesh(mesh.name)
    # Apply vertex data from buffer to blender mesh.
    blender_mesh.set_vertices(mesh.vertices)
    # Update blender mesh by recalculating normals which I believe
    # is required as I have updated vertex positions.
    blender_mesh.recalculate_normals()
    # Anoter option is to write normals also in buffer and apply
    # to blender mesh easily as vertices.
    blender_mesh.set_normals(mesh.normals)

I would really apperciate if some one can change this logical script into practical one.
In case I have to recalculate normals, this is the way I have found it's done which I'm not sure is the correct way.
def recalculate_normals(mesh):
    """ Make normals consistent for mesh """
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh(mesh)
    bmesh.ops.recalc_face_normals(bm, faces=bm.faces)
    bm.to_mesh(mesh)
    bm.free()

I think a good solution to your problem is using Shape Keys. They will modify based the mesh based on the key, which stores a mesh data.
Using Shape Keys I achieved the following result(Project: Game of Life inside Blender):

based on shape keys the set_vertices could look something like this:
I take the vertices as a list of list e.g., [[1.1, 0, 0], [5, 7, 8], ...]
Since you don't have saved any face (and edge) data for the vertices. The mesh will be some unconnected points.
def set_vertices(obj: bpy.types.Object, mesh: bpy.types.Mesh, vertices: list):
    # add missing geometry
    missing_vertices = len(vertices) - len(mesh.vertices)
    if missing_vertices > 0:
        mesh.vertices.add(missing_vertices)

    frame = bpy.context.scene.frame_current
    shape_key = obj.shape_key_add(f"Frame {frame}", from_mix= False)
    shape_key.interpolation = 'KEY_LINEAR'
    #apply to shape key
    for vert, coord in zip(shape_key.data, vertices):
        vert.co = coord
    # insert to keyframe
    shape_keys = obj.data.shape_keys
    shape_keys.use_relative = False
    shape_keys.eval_time = shape_key.frame
    shape_keys.keyframe_insert('eval_time', frame= frame, group= obj.name)

Implementation without shape keys:
def set_vertices(mesh: bpy.types.Mesh, vertices: list):
    mesh.clear_geometry()
    mesh.from_pydata(vertices, [], [])

I don't know how you want to implement normal recalculation if you don't have any faces. (maybe the faces don't change?)


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Boolean object randomly appearing in render
Very new to Blender.  Playing around with booleans.  Although an animated boolean is turned off it appears for a single frame in the render.  I'm digging around the forums to find the same issue but not finding anything.   appears about 80% of the way through the render

I would check to make sure that it isn't keyframed for any reason. You can also try adding it to a separate collection and disabling that collection. Best option is always to apply the boolean modifier if you have no reason to change it in the future and then delete the boolean object. Based on your description it sounds like a glitch. I also always render out individual frames to pngs so that I can go in and easily re-render individual frames if needed. You might have already done this, but its a useful method rather than rendering directly to video.

Could you share your .blend file? Follow the instructions here  https://blend-exchange.com/

Here's the project file.  Thanks for the replies!


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Why normals lines not coming from faces

Why do the normals line display look like this? Face orientation seems to be correct but the lines aren't coming from the faces.

Based on your image there not a lot that I can see qualitatively abnormal, but if you can share your blend file (https://blend-exchange.com/) we may be better able to help you.

Can you at least show your viewport overlay settings? Also, you've got In Front active, this will show your model over the top of all the normal lines.

It is as @Psyonic says, you have In Front enabled in the Viewport Display > Show settings, that's why the normals are hidden by the mesh.

Deactivate "In Front" https://i.sstatic.net/9hXGF.png

@Psyonic YES! Thank you.  "In Front" was the culprit. Y'all are great.

I think you may have uncovered a bug.. ( at least, on my system )
I was going to suggest just toggling 'On Cage' on your Mirror modifier

.. but it looks as though you have it on already..
However, when I do that on a model displaying Vertex and Face Normals (in Cyan), this is what I get:

the Vertex Normals are correctly displayed, but the Face Normals look to be having some trouble.

Thanks...the problem was I had "In Front" turned on under viewport display

@Vicki thought so... out of interest, do you see your Face Normals (ahem) normally?

That is a weird one... Happens on my system too

@Psyonic  might report .. haven't looked for dupes yet. Your system / version ?

Linux 5.19.11-200.fc36.x86_64  - Blender 3.5.0


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Fill Select tool
Any idea how i can select inner polygons on this screenshot?
I'v seen a video where a guy used "Fill Select" and i wannna know if its an addon or not.
link on the vid with the timing:
https://youtu.be/p2VQ81jGWv4?si=ceFsLO0kxBW01YB-&t=665

I don't think it's possible by default so he probably uses an addon

Thank you, it might be the Smart Select addon. But i think this dud wrote the "Fill Select" script himself

Here someone has written a script, maybe it will work? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/180113/how-can-i-select-all-inner-faces-of-a-current-selection-of-faces

Wow, this was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!


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Seam and Sharp Edge color (both)
do you guys know by any chance any addon that blend colors so i can see seam and sharp at the same time? Thanks

I doubt it, but you can put both settings on the Quick menu so that you can easily turn them on and off. Hover over each checkbox on the Viewport Overlays menu (Mesh Edit Mode Overlays in Blender 4+), right-click, and select 'Add to Quick Favorites'. Pressing 'Q' will make the checkboxes instantly available. Your suggestion could easily be confused with the default Edge Crease colour.


text:
Advanced selection Keymaps settings
Half a year ago i was browsing this forum and i found a topic with the "selection keymaps".
A man posted a screenshot with keymaps settings but it was some advanced selection settings. It wasn't some "mesh.loop_select" stuff, it was some deeper select keys. Under that setting he opened a minimised window with more settings like on my screenshot with "Box Select".

I can't remember what it was. I was looking a whole day trying to find this page. Im sorry, but maybe someone will understand what i mean and help me.

If you click on the little right-facing triangle beside the 'Gesture Box' heading the settings section will be expanded below it. The same applies to all the 'Box Select' settings below it.

What is it exactly that you are asking? Are you looking for some specific setting? Or do you just want to know how to expand the hierarchies to expand the advanced settings?

I was searching how to change my select keys, coz im a Maya user. Now in looking to change my select setting, because they are not the same in UV window.
Maybe its the "select" keymap. i mean just a select (like lmb) where do i find this key?

What do you mean by "they are not the same in the UV window"? What exactly is not the same in the UV window?

Selection keys are different in sticky UV section. So im trying to set it identical keys as in 3d section. Sorry to bother you, im gonna go look for this topic

Ok. I've never used that mode in the UV editor. The Blender manual section about it is here if it helps.


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How to select between edges?
can i select the edges (red) between the blue edges on the screenshot somehow by one key? I've tried inner region selection, but it didn't help. Are there any script or addon that can help?

Hello and welcome. You have to manually select them, but there is a quicker way to select columns of edges. Select one edge of one column, the upper left edge and then hold down Ctrl while selecting the bottom edge of that column. Then press and hold Shift to select another edge of the next column and then press and hold down Ctrl and select the bottom edge of that column. Repeat for every column of edges.

Found it.
Check out the addon MaxViz Interactive Tools for Blender, there is an option to select "between edges"

Not one click.. but without thinking too hard, my method would be something like:

CtrlShift Left-click, face-select the region by its corners
ShiftH Hide the rest
ShiftG Edge-select by direction
AltH Unhide

.. unfortunately the 'Unhide' operation has to be set not to select the revealed elements, but that only has to be done once. I wish the default was the other way.

Thank you Sir! I wish there could be a sctript for that...

Hi, @Eno, Thanks! It's a bit too specific for a tool, IMO?  One of the reasons I enjoy Blender is that it at least tries to keep its tool-set minimal and complete, rather than drowning me in buttons, like, say, 3DS. (That's a personal preference.) :)


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ray_cast in blender 2.93
I am new to Blender, and I use Blender 2.93 with Python. I have a sphere and camera in my scene. I want to detect if the sphere has a direct ray_cast hit or not. I tried to use both obj.ray_cast and scene.ray_cast, but I did not know which coordinate system to use.

2.93 is a very old version. What's the reason for using such an outdated version?

I have some  functionalities  (from my seniors) in 2.93 which are hard to migrate to the latest version

I would recommend finding a way to move to current version. You will run into problems with outdated software. For example, answering questions about this old version would probably require downloading it to check how things used to work so a lot of people might be discouraged from looking into your problem. I know I am.

Version 2.93 is officially supported as Long Term Support until June 2023 so I don't think it's fair to say it's an outdated version. https://www.blender.org/download/lts/

Could you post your script so we have a base to work from ? I don't think the raycast code has been changed much since 2.93.


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Why my mesh is deforming using curve? I want it to be stationary and plain cube?
All scale are set to default which is 1, What I'm trying to do here is to make an escalator but I need a concept first so I'm trying to do it with a cube but it is not stationary I want it to be no deformation but just to follow the curve. No Deformation, No Rotation, only the location if that is possible?

Is a vertical variation on this what you're looking for? If not, an illustration would really help clarify your question..

Might also be interested in https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/165628/lamp-posts-correctly-oriented-instances-on-a-3d-curve/165691#165691

If you assign a Curve modifier to an object, the object will deform. What you can do is create a single vertex, give it an Array modifier (with the Constant Offset option) and a Curve modifier with the curve as Curve Object:

Also in the Object panel > Instancing, enable Vertices:

Parent your stair step to the vertex object, the step will duplicate:

This works if the step stays straight, if the step is supposed to rotate on Z you'll need to use another method.


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How do I fix beveling edges?
When I try and bevel these edges, the curve always goes towards something and not just stay in it's same place.

Hi, R Stepper.. welcome to Blender SE. I think this one can be closed as a simple slip-up.. object-level scaling is a very common cause of questions here on BSE, so has been covered quite extensively. If you disagree, go ahead and edit with an explanation.Thanks. :)

I’m voting to close this question because It's a simple slip up, covered extensively elsewhere, and self-answered.

@RobinBetts Just a question for my understanding: why was it closed as off-topic instead of being a duplicate? Because people who see this might be confused if the question about a Blender tool they are going to ask is off-topic as well although it's not...

Hi, @GordonBrinkmann the tools don't give us much scope, do they? The problem has arisen so many times i'm at a bit of a loss to choose which example to call a 'duplicate'. So this closure is Community > Other, partly because it was so quickly spotted and self-answered by OP. But the form-message still says 'Off-Topic'.. unfair. Do you want to pick a dupe, and we'll go again?

@GordonBrinkmann .. cheers

okay uhh i found out that i needed to put ctrl a in object mode and press scale before bevelling


text:
How to create an arch on a beveled cube
Seeking advice on how to create an arch at the top of this shape. When using bevel I cannot achieve a full arch.

Trying to replicate the below sign

Any advice would be much appreciated.

From the image in the question, it seems that the sides are rounded but the top is a flat arch.
You can start with this house like shape:

Bevel the edge loop (4 rings are enough):

Bevel the sides, and push it until it reaches the previous segments:

Removed the doubled vertices created above. Then add bevel weights to all the needed sides:

Add modifiers, bevel (based on the weights) and subdivision:

Eventually refine the topology, removing the ngons by making quads:

File with all steps included:

You should redo it another way, first create the general shape, then bevel:
Create a cube, scale it, create some loopcuts:

Move up the top face(s):

Select the edges that need to be round:

Bevel:


text:
Wrong proportion when Unwrapping
After some research, I know this question has been asked before.
But first of all, I specify that yes, I applied the scale with Ctrl+A and "All transform" or "Scale"...
Let me explain, I have a texture with grass on it, and I try to create planes of the same size as the grass, to then do my unwrap on my texture.
The problem is that after having unwrapped, even with "Project from view", the proportions of my plane is not respected in the UV Editor...

As you can see on the image, in UV Editor, the rectangle does not have the same ratio of my rectangle on the right in my edit view...
The scale of my object is 1,1,1.
In addition to that I modified the proportions of my object in Edit mode , and not in object mode, that was already in 1,1,1...
If anyone has a solution I would really appreciate it!
I'm completely lost ..
Maybe i'm doing this to the wrong way ?..
Have a nice day!

If there is no Image Texture in the object's material, the UV is projected with the correct aspect ratio in relation to a square space. A UV map is always normalized from bottom left at (0, 0) to top right at (1, 1).
If you now add an Image Texture node in a material on the object which has a different aspect than a 1:1 square, the UV map still goes from (0, 0) to (1, 1), only that the aspect ratio now fits the one of the image which means the UVs get stretched on X or Y depending on the image.
If you want the faces to have the correct aspect ratio on the non-square image, you have to either repeat the unwrapping with the image texture selected (which would be the simplest solution) or - if you already arranged the UVs in some way which you don't want to have to recreate - scale the UVs on Y by the factor X/Y of the image ratio or scale on X by the factor Y/X.
When unwrapping the UVs again after selecting the image texture with Project from View it could be that the aspect ratio does not change correctly, in this case it is best to first choose U > UV Mapping > Reset and then try again.
Note: As mentioned above, the aspect ratio of a selected image texture will be used as reference. So if your material has multiple image textures, the UVs will be fit to the one selected - no matter which image might be visible in the UV Editor background.

Can you please expand on what you mean by "with the image texture selected"?  i.e. Selected inside a specific editor window? Selected in the document tree?

@ChristopherPratt Sorry, I thought this would be clear since all my explanations were in regard of using the Shader Editor and the UV Editor. I mean the Image Texture node containing the image which you want the UV proportions to match - that's why the last paragraph says, if the material has multiple textures, the UVs are fit to the one selected, no matter which image might be visible in the UV Editor background. So of course it has to be selected in the material, when the one in the UV Editor is irrelevant. I thought this would be clear.


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Mirror modifier is not working properly and showing me this weird line on Blender

I have this mirroring problem and clipping turned on. What can I do to get rid of this line?

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

Hello, maybe an inner face? Please share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/

I think you can tell it to merge by distance as well.

Thank you @moonboots :)
So I hid the faces at the front and then deleted the faces inside that I chose on the picture. The problem is solved !!


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How to make an object "stick" to another even after resize?
I'm trying to make a model of a coin with numbers on its face.
Lately, I had to change the coin thickness but the problem is that the numbers just sink into it, instead of staying "glued" to its face.
Original:

More thickness:

Sure, I could manually move the numbers but I'd rather make it so that they always stay "glued" to the face.

You could make your text out of a plane, use Shrinkwrap modifier to stick it to the surface, and then after that give it thickness with Solidify:

It's also possible to parent objects to vertices of a mesh. You need to select the object you want to be the child, the parent object, enter edit mode, select vertices you want to use and hit Ctrl+P:

It would have been easier for someone to help if you could have attached your .blend file to your question using: https://blend-exchange.com/
I'm not sure if what I suggest is what you want to do. You have to convert the text to mesh for it to work.
I started with this setup:

It looks like your second image shows the origin in the middle of the Z axis, similar to what this image shows:

I used the method in this image to convert the text to mesh:

My text is .4 inches high. I raised it .2 inches on the Z axis, so that the bottom was aligned with the bottom of the cube and the 3D cursor:

I used the method in this image to move the origin to the 3D cursor:

With this result:

Then with these settings:

I used G->Z to snap to the corner vertex with this result:

Or, using this setting, I used G->Z to snap to the face:

I didn't know I could attach files, thanks! But the other answer seems easier to implement.

I'm glad that you got a solution.


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Why geometry node setup 2 doesn't work like setup 1?
Why geometry node setup 2 doesn't result in radial aligned cones like setup 1?
I am new to Blender geometry nodes and use Blender version 3.4.1 .
Setup 1:

Result of setup 1 (radial aligned cones on a spere):

Setup 2:

Result of setup 2 (vertical aligned cones on a spere):

Points do not have normals. But to use the normals of the previously existing points anyway, you would have to capture these normals with Capture Attribute before the Mesh to Points node. Then this information remains in the point domain.

ty, I got ur idea and it really worked. I post the new setup with the capture node to my original post ..-

realizing quellenform's hint resulted in fixing setup 2:


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Problems with multiple calls of Geometry Nodes from a Python script?
Each one of the following scripts (which provide different collections as input for the Geometry-Node) work as expected on their own and output different values:
Script 1 (Isometric Reference Collection) :
import bpy

from bpy import data as D
from bpy import context as C

# specify input for Geometry Node (i.e. collection):
D.objects["Floor Plane"].modifiers["GeometryNodes"]["Input_15"]\
    = D.collections["Isometric Reference Collection"]

# retrieve comptuted output (via Named-Attribute) from Geometry Node
H_REF = D.objects["Floor Plane"].evaluated_get(C.evaluated_depsgraph_get())\
    .data.attributes["H_MAX"].data[0].value

print("H_REF = " + str(H_REF))

Script 2 (Isometric Render Collection):
import bpy

from bpy import data as D
from bpy import context as C

# specify input for Geometry Node (i.e. collection):
D.objects["Floor Plane"].modifiers["GeometryNodes"]["Input_15"]\
    = D.collections["Isometric Render Collection"]

# retrieve comptuted output (via Named-Attribute) from Geometry Node
H_MAX = D.objects["Floor Plane"].evaluated_get(C.evaluated_depsgraph_get())\
    .data.attributes["H_MAX"].data[0].value

print("H_MAX = " + str(H_MAX))

However, I need both values H_REF and H_MAX in a single script, but if I combine the two above scripts to a single one then both values are the same.
Script 3 (evaluating both collections):
import bpy

from bpy import data as D
from bpy import context as C

# specify input for Geometry Node (i.e. collection):
D.objects["Floor Plane"].modifiers["GeometryNodes"]["Input_15"]\
    = D.collections["Isometric Reference Collection"]

# retrieve comptuted output (via Named-Attribute) from Geometry Node
H_REF = D.objects["Floor Plane"].evaluated_get(C.evaluated_depsgraph_get())\
    .data.attributes["H_MAX"].data[0].value

print("H_REF = " + str(H_REF))

# specify input for Geometry Node (i.e. collection):
D.objects["Floor Plane"].modifiers["GeometryNodes"]["Input_15"]\
    = D.collections["Isometric Render Collection"]

# retrieve comptuted output (via Named-Attribute) from Geometry Node
H_MAX = D.objects["Floor Plane"].evaluated_get(C.evaluated_depsgraph_get())\
    .data.attributes["H_MAX"].data[0].value

print("H_MAX = " + str(H_MAX))

I just could duplicate the corresponding Geometry-Node with providing specific collections, but how to fix this via Python, any ideas (I use blender version 3.4)?

Please provide a (MINIFIED) .blend example for testing. How to upload a blend file on BSE - good practices and advice Maybe you need to e.g. update the view layer...

I will try to upload a simplified blend-file which reproduces the misbeahviour, but it will take some time ...
The hint with updating the view layer is a good starting point I guess, also see this answer relating to my problem
Dependency graph API changes, however neither solutions
with updates of depsgraph or view layers work.

Update : below a link to a minimized blend-file to reproduce this "misbehaviour" ...

After some research I finally found a similar problem here Evaluate a geometry node tree in python
As we assumed, it is some update or evaluation issue.
The given workoround also works for me, i.e. setting a new input-value for a Geometry-Node Group needs an update in order to take effect immediately:
bpy.data.objects["Result Object"].update_tag()
So adjusting Script 3 results in the following workaround with different output values:
D.objects["Floor Plane"].modifiers["GeometryNodes"]["Input_15"]\
    = D.collections["Isometric Reference Collection"]
# needs update:
D.objects["Floor Plane"].update_tag()
H_REF = D.objects["Floor Plane"].evaluated_get(C.evaluated_depsgraph_get())\
.data.attributes["H_MAX"].data[0].value

print("H_REF = " + str(H_REF))

D.objects["Floor Plane"].modifiers["GeometryNodes"]["Input_15"]\
    = D.collections["Isometric Render Collection"]
# needs update:
D.objects["Floor Plane"].update_tag()
H_MAX = D.objects["Floor Plane"].evaluated_get(C.evaluated_depsgraph_get())\
    .data.attributes["H_MAX"].data[0].value

print("H_MAX = " + str(H_MAX))


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Externally running Python Script as module : ModuleNotFoundError
So far I successfully run my Blender Python scripts externally in the PyCharm-IDE like this:

However if I try to run the script iso.py as module via the external script render_buildings.py I get an error :
Python: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1027, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1004, in _find_and_load_unlocked
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'iso'

The module iso.py is actually in the same directory as the called script render_buildings.py and it also contains an empty init.py script like the Python specification demands.
How to fix it, any ideas ?

there are 2 python versions on your computer, one "normal", one "inside" Blender. If you are using a python lib, you have to install it inside Blender. A tutorial is here: https://youtu.be/2zGIERHU2mk?si=q9mFRNVL3RGCmoca

@Chris unfortunately the script does not work on my windows system as it was written und tested originally for MacOs. But at least I have an idea why this would not work.

so your pycharm IDE run on a Mac?

UnboundLocalError: local variable 'python_exe' referenced before assignment
and
UnboundLocalError: local variable 'sys' referenced before assignment

Pycharm and blender both run on Windows

This simple python script in blender worked for me:
import pip pip.main(['install', 'iso'])


text:
How To change the order of input sockets of a node?
Is it possible to change the order/position of the input sockets of a Geometry-Node in order to avoid intersecting connections?

Short answer: No, not possible (at least not with the nodes integrated in Blender and not without modifying the source code). However, you could move the nodes to a group and do the wiring there, but that seems a bit impractical...

ah I see, you could make a "Wrapper" around an integrated node which serves as a customized fascade to the wrapped node. But this seems really impractically for the benefit of little improved style.


text:
Filter instances by name with Geometry Nodes?
Using the Blender-OSM addon I get thousands of buildings, wheras important buildings are listed by their names, unimportant buildings match the pattern "element.*" (see picture below).

To only view the named buildings, I want to filter the corresponding instances with the means of Geometry Nodes. However, there is no data-type String for the Named-Arribute Node. So I wonder how to retrieve this named attribute "Name" on instances? Couldn't find anything ... .
Is there another possibility to achieve my goal or is this only possible with Python scripting?

no, no strings fields yet. though you should know that the order ofvthe index of the instances is based on alphabetical order of their names.


text:
How does Face Snapping work after Rotating Mesh in Edit Mode
I'm trying to delve deep into Blender's 'snapping with' menu, and I got into a roadblock. I realized that with Face snapping set to Closest, if you rotate a mesh in Edit Mode, the face snapping in object mode will be skewed.
I'm not really looking for a solution, I'm trying to find out why this happens, and how Blender calculates face snapping.
Sample Video

Solution!
In object mode, using 'closest', whether it be for face snapping or even vertex snapping, uses the closest vertex of the bounding box around your mesh, not the mesh itself. You can view the bounding box of your mesh in the object properties submenu, under viewport display.
So, what happens is that when you rotate a mesh in object mode, the bounding box rotates with it. However, in edit mode, since you're editing the mesh itself, the bounding box expands in one or more axis, without actually rotating. So when you go ahead and try to snap using closest mode, you'll actually be trying to snap with the closest vertex of the now expanded bounding box.
I highly suggest you play around with it and view the bounding box of your mesh to really understand what I mean.

By golly.. you're right! Learn something every day... :D


text:
Help with baking

How do I bake these "colours"?
When I follow a tutorial, the UV editor window where it shows what I bake ends up all black.
I want to export this so I can use in Spark AR because materials wont import so I heard I must Bake/unwrap the "colours". Blender noob .

In short: Add an image node and assign a new blank image to bake onto otherwise the bake button won't do anything.

Hello and welcome. Please use a title that reflects the content of the question. It should be succinct, unique and identifying, and summarize what the issue is so that users can at a glance broadly understand what your post is about before opening it. Use the [edit] link below your post and avoid any emojis salutations or extraneous text not essential to the question. Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors will see, and will weight heavily on their decision to open your question, which will directly affect the number of answers you might get.


text:
I Need Rigging help!
I have one rig that's attached to my model(unselected) and one that I imported with an animation(selected). Is there a way to move the animation to my rig or merge them? I'm really new at this.

if your armature have bones that have the same names as the animated armature, they will be animated

Hi Please use a title that reflects the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue so that users can at a glance understand what your post is about. Use the [edit] link below your post and avoid anything not strictly essential to the post. Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors will see, and makes your question findable for future users. See "What is the problem with posting an image or link and asking “How do I do this?""


text:
3D gizmo to faces and verts selected?
I have recently moved over to Blender and I am currently learning the new workflow.
I saw a video of someone selecting some verts in Blender and like Maya the gizmo automatically went over to the selected verts. I can't find anything instructing how to make the gizmos act this way. Does anyone happen to know the answer where they select verts and the gizmo follows?

if you have selected the Move, Rotate or Scale tool in the Tool bar on the left, the gizmo should come where you have selected some vertices

Note that location of gizmo depends on selected Transform Pivot Point option. If it's active element you'll have gizmo over last selected vertex, if it's median point than gizmo shows up at geometric center of selection, when it's 3D cursor gizmo is at 3D cursor, etc

As moonboot say, simply tick move,rotate,scale as you prefer under the show Gizmo button (located on the upper part of the 3D viewport window, on the left of the viewport shading option)


text:
How can I import my video properly?
I used a cellphone and it records .3gp I converted to mp4 and When I put it in the video editor it goes wrong

It seems that it triesa to put it in the computer resolution

I think it automatically scales the videos to the render canvas' resolution.  If you set it now you may have to look at your clips and change their zoom/scale settings in the N-panel.  It might be easier to set the resolution inside of blender before bringing in the clips.

From version 2.92 on, the scaling problem is resolved. So, I suggest that you upgrade your version. If you want to do it manually, you have to add a transform strip to the .3gp clip and set the scale yourself. You can find the original resolution of the clip in the properties panel under the section Source.
So, if your project resolution is 1920 x 1080 and your .3gp clip is 360 x 740, then your scale Y should be 1080 / 740 = 1.46. This will make the smartphone clip as tall as the project viewport. Of course, you should also scale the Y axis with the same amount (360 x 1.46 = 526 px) to avoid distortion (what you'll have automatically in the previous version), leaving a black bar at each side of the clip.


text:
Object is not lighting properly
Trying to make this scene and this is the first time I'm running into this issue where everything is properly lit except for the material on my character.
I have been at this for 3 hours now without any solution.
I've tried different materials and they seem to work but for some reason the base skin does not work in this blender file.
Examples are shown here

I would recommend using some kind of shader (BSDF) between your image texture and the material output (Principled BSDF would be a good place to start).

I've tried the Principled BSDF between the image texture and the material output. It still not lighting properly I'm afraid. :/

I'm not sure where this comes from, but I just saw this on my neighbour's PC when I tried to teach him something in Blender. It was on a model he bought somewhere. I selected all parts with A, then hit Tab to go into Edit Mode - there the objects were not black. I went back to Object Mode and they stayed normal, I could save the file and after reopening everything still looked normal. I will not give this as an answer because I have no idea what happened there and why the solution worked or if it will work for you. I just put it here because his problem looked the same.

Please share the character or at least a part (make sure that you've packed the image: File > External Data > Pack Resources): https://blend-exchange.com/


text:
When i try to add a new mesh it dosent show up
when I try to add a mesh it does not show up in the viewpoint it only shows up in the scene collection. The only thing that shows up in the veiwport is a cube. The viewpoint and the render view are both checked.

you might be in local view - hit / key to toggle between local and regular view.

Try Shift+F1 with Shift+RMB and select all the objects you want, then hit Enter.

Thank you for replying. It did not work do you have any other tips?


text:
Spherical Rainbow Glitter material in Cycles?
Does anyone know how to replicate this pattern in cycles?

I've been keeping it simple by just saying that every one of these flakes is a perfect circle (though they clearly aren't) and generating these circles with a voronoi texture. I was generating a wave texture with a color ramp to use for the rainbow effect, but I have very little control over which flakes are emissive/highly reflective, and which are not. I've played with plugging the circles into a normal map, but I'm still not getting the contrast in reflectivity.

I don't think the normal input slot can use the black & white input that you provide. If you want to create a custom/artistic normal map to simulate tilted flakes you need a Normal Map node and modify then the color input - or use a Bump node.

I had an idea that was bugging me, and it took three tries. Here is the final version. It's still not a perfect match because unlike the reference the dots are not monochrome but multicolored if you look closely. But I think it's very close to the reference.
Example render (Cycles)
I used your idea to create the dots/flakes through a Voronoi texture. Then they are stacked in 5 layers where each background layer is a bit darker to simulate 3D depth.
The dots can be created using Voronoi > Distance output and the help of a Color Ramp or Map Range node. This is also a mask for the Mix node. The Voronoi > Color output gives each dot its own color. The problem with this is that I want the individual dots to be solid colors, but in the overall image I want them to match the background texture (the "rainbow"). I have no idea how to realize this, so I leave them multicolored, that is, I just mix them with the background.
Glittering dots shader
So mix the background with the created dots and the result is again used as background for the next layer. Darkening is done with the help of a Hue/Saturation/Value node. The dots of the last layer are lightened and slightly desaturated to make them shine more.
To organize the nodes, group the nodes that will be used to create a single dot layer. Now it is better to use a Map Range node instead of a Color Ramp because you want to control the values from outside the group.
Glitter Dots shader group
The "artistic" normal map is generated by separating the color channels, keeping blue at 1 and randomizing the red and green channels. Here is a similar question for even more glittering: Orange peel effect does not work
The color of the default "flat" normal map is HEX 8080FF.
Glare nodes for the compositor
Last but not least, use a HDRI as world background, and activate the Bloom effect for Eevee. For Cycles, it's better to use one or two glare nodes in the compositor.


text:
Object that is not in preview is in render
I am new to Blender, and decided to try making a short animation of a metal monkey head exploding.
I wanted to export it as an MP4, so I followed the instructions( going into the render tab, setting it to export as MPEG video with h264 in mp4 encoding), however, when it renders, the MP4 file is complete blackness with a tiny picture of a green and orange checkered cube that undergoes several light changes.
At first, I thought it was because I didn't have enough lighting, as that is what problems like these usually are. However, it is not, because first of all, I added a sun to the project and got the same result, and second of all, the green and orange checkered cube has had visibility turned off. The camera is also facing the monkey object, I made sure of that by setting my perspective to be from the camera's POV.
Why does it appear to be cropping the green and orange cube, and why is it showing that cube in the first place?
A portion of the exploding monkey animation preview

Render

EEVEE Engine

Cycles Engine

Let me know if you need more info.
Thanks!

I should have updated this more, but throughout the day I have seen the problem evolve, and just solved this. A lot of the problem had to do with render vs. workspace visibility. More of the problem had to do with random project settings, so much so that I had to copy the stuff over to a new project. From there, I really just had to find the show emitter setting in Particle Settings -> Render, and turn that on.

I think the problem is that while visibility is off for workspace, it's not off for renders. There are a lot of objects in the scene that are rendering. Go to the Outliner window, and up in the upper right hand corner you'll see what looks like a funnel. Click on that, and up pops different visibility and selection toggles. You'll see the "render" setting (a little camera) is lit up for all those cubes and planes you have left in the scene.
Blender isn't like photoshop, where if you turn off the visibility of a layer, it's not active. So make sure you click those cameras to turn off what you don't want to see in the render, and see if that works.
Good luck!


text:
One of my half round can't bevel
My mesh has one of half round that can't bevel.
I don't know how to fix it

Hello, probably the faces are overlapping so it doesn't let you bevel, but maybe share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/

all ready upload bro .

you have double vertices, as moonboots assumed right.
Just select all vertices in "vertex select" mode -> M -> merge by distance.
Then you will get:

thank you so much


text:
Rrounded surface between I have a closed loop of vertices. How do I approach this?
I've established a loop of vertices however I have no clue how to create a rounded/curvy surface between them such that it bulges outwards slightly and meshes naturally.

Would  Ctrl-F > Grid Fill do it for you? ( you may have to arrange for an even number of edges)

Not really but thank you! While Grid Fill would work to fill the surface between them, it won't really help me get a rounded surface (sorta like a half-sphere looking structure). At the very least i have no clue where to take it from there.

The question is hard to answer because it's not clear what this should look like. Ok, it should be a half-sphere. But why is there a mesh line? Well, you can use another sphere object, sculpt it so that it fits the hole, and then shrinkwrap the grid-filled area to this sphere object. Assign the vertices to a vertex group to control the shrinkwrap modifier.


text:
Color Management Folder Location?
Trying to find the 4.2\datafiles\colormanagement folder but it is nowhere on my system. I downloaded 4.2 from Steam, so is that interfering?
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\4.2 only has three folders: \config, \extensions, and \scripts
Just trying to get control over color mgmt from Cycles -> AE...

I think that you want to look under C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 4.2\4.2\datafiles\colormanagement

Sadly I do not have C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation. I'm thinking it's maybe because I downloaded Blender through Steam?

Answered my own question. Blender downloads to the steam apps folder this way.


text:
How to copy a bone world space location to an empty on all frames?
I have a bone that is animated. It has keyframes on all the frames of the timeline. I need to add to that bone an IK target (empty object) that plays the same animation of the bone before it was assigned to that IK.
So I added an empty object, and parented it to that bone (bone parenting only, not IK). Now that object moves with that bone.
Now I want to insert a keyframe on all the frames for that empty so that its location is tracked (while being parented). In other words I want to copy the bone world space location to that empty object on all the frames.
After that I want to unparent that empty object in the hope that it remains animated. Then I can assign it as an IK to the bone.
But I am not able to copy the animation of the bone to the empty.
I tried copying the keyframes of the bone to the empty object (in the graph editor), but the empty snaps to the world origin because the copied keyframes are relative to the bone local position which is (0, 0, 0,).
I tried to bake the empty object while being parented. It is inserting a keyframe on all its frame like i wanted but when it's unparented it's staying in it's place and not recreating the bones animation.
How to copy that bones animation to the empty object without it being parented to the bone ?

The solution was to bake the animation on the visual keyframes. It added a keyframe on all the timeline for the empty object based on its visual location and rotation.


text:
Segment mesh based on vertex colors. Vertex Colors / Geometry Nodes
How would one segment or divide a large complicated mesh based on vertex colors.  I have some large mesh files that were generated from a point cloud and the color data does a great job of showing where I need to divide this mesh up.
Are there any geometry nodes that could enable something like this?

It might be helpful to people trying to help you if you uploaded an example blend file to the site https://blend-exchange.com and add that link in the question.

You could do that with a script, but it's tricky. if you select a face and limit vertex painting to selection, you will see that each vertex can have as many colors as the number of faces it belongs to. If you imported the mesh, then good news, those vertices will be split for you.
Geometry nodes would create an overhead in this case that could even impact performance if the meshes are heavy enough.

related: Splitting object into multiple parts, performing operation on them, then joining them back using geometry nodes Here instead of position you would use vertex color. If you make the separation discriminator change per frame, then on each frame you can duplicate the object and apply the modifier, or automatically use python to evaluate the object and save it as a copy.

Thank you so much for the replies everyone.  I will upload an image today.  I think my main concern is the size of these mesh files and the face count.  These were created in Sequoia utilizing its reduce face count feature, but even then, reducing to the lowest amount possible while maintaining forms is still a super heavy mesh file.  When I post images I will include detailed stats.  Thank so much!!!!


text:
Error on Exporting to MSFS
In the past I have exported many objects to Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) and not had this problem - see attached screenshot.
Granted I am considered new to Blender but as I said I have not had this issue before.  I have not made any changes to Blender still using ver. 3.1.0 as it is said to work best with MSFS.
The glTF 2.0 is ver 1.8.19 and the Microsoft Flight Simulator glTF Extension is ver 1.3.0

If 'MSFS' is an external addon, you'll have to ask the addon author. The LTS version of Blender 3.x is 3.3.6 so you could try installing that version to see if it helps. (Both versions can be installed and run at the same time.)

I just fixed my problem after doing extensive research on the internet.  By removing the addons folders as well as the models folder, then closing Blender, then adding back in those two folders, then opening Blender and installing the addons again.   Did an export and all went very well.  It seems there must have been some corrupt file or files.


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How to rotate the pivot axis from vertex group named attribute
From reading from here manage to rotate the axis but it is in the wrong end  as you can see from the gif it's pivot is in the hand not in arm end....the geonode has a vertex group named attribute and want to rotate it in the arm end.....

the center of the vector rotate is what you want to change

want the pivot relocate to the upper end not in the palm...want to rotate it like regular arm...


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Can't get node editor to add volume scatter for smoke domain in 2.71
I downloaded the latest stable (2.71) after seeing a slightly older tutorial on smoke in cycles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSiV5gg_lCs).
After adding a mesh and then hitting Space to add "Quick Smoke", I cannot get the smoke domain in the node editor to allow me to add a Volume Scatter like the tutorial.  As a matter of fact, I can't find any "Attribute" nodes either.
I found volume_scatter in the source code as shader options in the node editor's include files, but I can't seem to get a shader to apply to the quick smoke.
Any ideas on what I'm missing?
3-days frustratedly yours,
--Josh

Make sure you are in the cycles material node editor and that use nodes is enabled. Is it possible you could upload a screenshot?

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


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A node to assign a random color to the roof tiles
In order to assign a different color to each roof tile (and each brick) I used this node:
but it ONLY works on separate objects... Therefore (at least for the moment) to be able to visualize the result I was hoping for, I was forced to separate EVERY single tile of the roof.. we are talking about thousands and thousands of objects... (despite weren't instantiated, separating them weighed down the project enormously..!)
I wonder if there is a node that can achieve the result I want, without having to separate the roof tiles..

In the shader workspace, Geometry -> Random Per Island

@Allen Simpson I guess this is the right answer, but does it work only for separate meshes of the same object or does it also work for the separate UVs faces of the same mesh?

random by island I tried last night... but it didn't work... or am I the one who didn't insert it correctly? Could you explain in which position of the node you would have inserted it? (the i tried instead of random item, random for island)

Random per island only works with Cycles Render engine

Does this answer your question? Is there an alternative to Random per Island for EEVEE?

I don't get result..can you figure out what I'm doing wrong?
https://i.ibb.co/vPvv4h8/123.jpg (i have changed in 1d sorry for wront screenshot)

You could help us out, here, by telling us how the tiles are instanced.  Maybe share a toy, stripped-down, bit of roof on  https://blend-exchange.com/, with the tiles instanced in the same way as your entire file.

Hi Robin! thank you so much! i have upload a small model now! https://blend-exchange.com/b/GWD2nsW6

basically separating all the roof tiles couldn't be a wrong solution...but in fact when i did it, i created THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of objects that are not needed... check this photo:
https://i.ibb.co/fnzqgDj/Cattura.jpg
consequently I must have done something wrong when I disconnected the tiles...


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using curve gemetry /bevel/object
I will change the curly beziercurve into a solid rectangel schape 20mm on5mm.
To obtain a correct size on the beziercurve I have to make the section approchemately 5 times bigger.

Is there a straight relation bewtween section and curve possible?
Is there an other way to shape the curve exactly ?

You likely have a smaller scale on your curve object, select it and clear the scale with Alt+S and it should then match the scale of your rectangle bevel object.
Alternatively, in Object Mode you can scale your curve object until it matches the rectangle bevel object's size, then do Ctrl+A > Apply Scale. From that point you can adjust the bevel object's size and it will match your curve.


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why do I get the shearmode instaed of the edit mode. bl3.4/3.5
When I select a point in edit mode I come in the shear modus. Cannot select points are surfaces. So when I click on a point, the shear symbols appears.

Use 'T' key and select the top icon to come back to select mode.

Please add an image of your Blender screen to your question so that we can see what you're talking about. In Blender, Window > Save Screenshot then follow this: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491/how-to-upload-an-image-to-a-post.


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Blender eats up +8gb of storage on my C Drive when on material preview
I've got a blender project where I'm using a bunch of textures, and whenever I go to material preview or render preview I start losing a lot of storage on my C Drive. This is making the project difficult to work on since I don't have much space on my C Drive.
I used space sniffer to find out what exactly was eating at my storage and it looks like it's the pagefile.sys file. I'm not sure why my project is eating up so much space. My textures folder is only around 2gb and I'm not trying to render anything. I've checked online, but couldn't find anything on it.
Is there a setting in blender I can change to reduce the amount of storage it takes?

The Question Is Similar and has a possible Answer: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/112359/blender-eats-space-on-c-drive

Has your computer a dedicated graphic card or an onboard/integrated GPU? While graphic cards have their on memory (VRAM) the onboard GPUs share the memory (RAM) with the CPU. The pagefile.sys is Window's swap file. It's used when programs require more memory than the PC has RAM. Then Windows begins to write the RAM content to the swap file. Check the RAM usage in the task manager. You can't tell from the size of the textures on disk how much memory you need, because the files are compressed while the data in memory is uncompressed.

If you can't get more disk space & can't upgrade your PC's RAM or get a better graphic card then you need to reduce the texture size. Keep in mind that 2k textures require 4x more space as 1k textures because length and width are doubled. Use low-res textures for objects that is in the background or far away from camera. That's basically what game engines do to improve performance.

I believe my laptop has an integrated GPU, but I'm not sure. The project is taking up all of my RAM though.
I've replaced some meshes with a seamless texture instead of a baked set, and that's reduced the amount of storage it takes. I'll probably do some more texture optimization to reduce this more.
Now that I know what's causing this issue, I can plan around it for future scenes.
Thanks for the help.