text:
I need help to smooth a part with a bevel

It's my first time using Blender and I'm not that good, however I'm doing pretty well. I make FNAF meshes and I made a bevel on this part, and when I try to smooth the surface it makes these weird markings you see in the image
I try my hardest to try to fix this and nothing is working. Now you may ask why  I want to smooth this part, and that is I am exporting this Blender project, and in the the program I'm gonna import it in, there is a limit of polygons, so I obviously need to smooth this one part.

hard to understand what your mesh looks like and what you're trying to achieve, please show more screenshots, give more details, maybe share your file here: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Definitely need more screenshots

I'm really just trying to smoothen out the face with the marks you see, and I'm just trying since im new i don't know much, just help me smoothen the markings on the face and not on the back.

There made a download link

what do you mean by whole loop?

I don't understand please give me a download link

You can use the smooth tool, just select the area what you want to smoothen and click on the vertex menu and select Smooth vertices.

Exactly i tried that and the part got those marks, i smoothed the faces and that exactly happened, can you help me?

I even tried smoothing out the vertices and nothing happened its not the vertices i want to smooth its the faces so i don't those markings , maybe your misunderstood

You have some duplicated loops overlapping other ones.
Select them using Select Edge Loops and dissolve them.
Image below:

thank you it worked but there are still a little bit of markings


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I can't remove dark blue lines is't mark sharp?
I got a problem with the dark blue line, I thought this was a sharp sign, but after I pressed the Ctrl + E Clear Sharp button, but nothing happened, the dark blue line was still there.
I'm using Blender v2.81.16

With the default theme, "mark sharp" is a lighter blue.  That dark blue is probably a Bevel Weight on the edges.
The easiest way to set them all to zero is to select the edges (or just all edges) in edit mode, and look under the "Item" tab in the right-hand sidebar (the one toggled with "N").  Look under Edge Data -> Mean Bevel Weight and set it to 0.
You can also use Ctrl-E -> Edge Bevel Weight, but that does a relative adjustment, so if you want to set it back to zero with the keyboard, you need to enter "-1 Enter" rather than "0 Enter".

Thank so much.. bro.. u help me

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Some materials aren't rendered in the Blender Game Engine
As I described in the title, some materials aren't rendered. I'm not sure, but I think it only happens if I "copy paste" or append objects with their materials. I can solve this problem by recreating the broken materials (but this is a tedious task).
The materials are visible in textured viewport. Only when I  start the BGE they are invisible.
Here you can Download the .blend:
Download
(it is a car game. on the left is a text editor where I describe the problem again)

in this picture you can see the Material which disappears.
Thanks

Could you give us the example .blend(s) or some more precise recreation steps? Because I didn't noticed such thing myself yet.

Which object's materials are you referring too? I did not find any materials to disappear.

@Lev it's the object 'Luftauslassheck' the mats are ChromeGE and BlackPlasticGE all normals pointing outward.

Yup, I asked before the edit. Since it wasn't the normals I only thought that something that is not supported by the GE , but is only supported by the Internal renderer. But someone more capable should answer.

I am having the same problem. Best solution I could find (more like a workarround) is to apply all the modifiers of the object which is causing trouble (in our case, it is Luftauslassheck).
Should you find out what is happening, please let me know. Here is a link to my blend if you want to take a look at it. The object is Support.Cover, which only has the material PlasticMaterial.002, used in other objects as well.
Nice car model by the way

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


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Why is some code being skipped in the BGE?
This is my code:
def textanim():
    print("GOGO")
    print("end")
    scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()
    print("end")
    scoreAnim = scene.objectsInactive["scoreAnim"]
    print("endNach anim")
    scoreSpawn = scene.objects["TextSpawn"]
    print(scoreAnim)
    print("end")
    c = scene.objects["Cube"]
    newText = scene.addObject(scoreAnim,scoreSpawn)
    newText["anim"] = True
    print("all lines were ececutet (hopefully)")

This is my result:

As you can see, not all the lines are executed, but there aren't errors either.
As Chebhou said the problem is the line where i try to load the FontObject:
scoreAnim = scene.objectsInactive["scoreAnim"]
I copied this at the beginning of another function and than this function isn't executed anymore.
So there is any problem with loading Font objects. Although I have it on an Inactive layer
This function should duplicate a score text object. The duplicated object than should then play an animation and slide to a corner. The score is saved.
Here you can download the .blend
2D car Game

Can you share the blend with the code or at least the full code (for example how and from where do you call this function)?

probably an error at the line scene.objectsInactive["scoreAnim"] which is ending the function, be sure that "scoreAnim" is on inactive layer

but shouldn't i get an error than ?

After some time i now found the solution.
The problem was that this code was executed in a Try execept function. thats why i got no error (my bad). But the actual problem was that the object i was looking for wasn't in the list. this is caused beacause the object was parented to an object on an active layer but the object itself was on an inactive layer. I searched in both lists (scene.objectsInactive and scene.objects) but the object wasn't in any of them.
fazit: you shouldn't parent objects on different layer when one of those layer is Inactive.

A good example of catching unexpected errors (=always tell what error you expect). Yes, objects parented to objects that are not loaded with the scene will not be loaded as well (e.g. parenting to curves)

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


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OpenCL build failed on AMD R9 290 - Insufficient Private Resources
I'm running Blender on windows. Recently I tried to use GPU rendering with my AMD R9 290, but upon rendering, I get an error reading "OpenCL build failed: error in console."
Meanwhile, in the console:
Device init success
Compiling OpenCL kernel ...
Build flags:
OpenCL kernel build output:
Error:E013:Insufficient Private Resources

OpenCL build failed: errors in console

CPU rendering works fine.
I'm running Windows 8. Driver version is Catalyst 14.4.

Are you running out of memory?

I don't think so. I've got another good 11GB of RAM it can use. As for the video memory, I don't know for certain, but there's nothing serious loaded and I get the same error with an empty scene with just a cube, light and a camera.

Yup. Running 2.75a.

Sounds like you might want to try a report to the tracker

I opened a ticket. Will report back if it's of any use

The solution is the update the drivers. Version 15.07 works fine with 2.75a.


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blender --python-console result in a blank Blender window
I wished to use gnome-terminal running a python shell to do things in blender. Is this normal?
Ubuntu 14.04, Blender 2.69, installed from Ubuntu software center.

Interesting, never tried that. But why do you need that without other interface (at least text editor to save scripts and possibility to have more than one interactive console)?


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How to create a Boolean Vector property that is "single selection"?
☐ x
☐ y
☑ z
class MyAddon(bpy.types.Operator):
    ...
    axis =  bpy.props.BoolVectorProperty( subtype="XYZ" )
    ...

This operator is added to menu, now the BoolVectorProperty is multiple selection by default, how do I make it single selection? I want only one value to be True at one time.
I have tried getter and setter, but cannot make it right.

Both seems not possible with a BoolVectorProp, (not easy at least). I'd suggest use an EnumProperty: https://gist.github.com/p2or/c40e33ca6f524198e120d9b48463d2f2 with expand=True to get this: https://i.sstatic.net/MDhY4.png

Can you access user input(sorry, I don't know anything about bpy so I can only guess)? Try force setting it all to False and than applying True to the user selection.

Should be possible with an update function and saving the previous state of the bool vector, but as @poor said, it'll be easier to achieve this with an Enum.

I managed to create a "single selection" boolean vector. It use getter and setters. An auxiliary variable is used to store the value of the property, otherwise setting the property inside the setter would recursively call setter which calls setter which calls setter...
AXIS_VALUE = [0,0,1]

class Foo(bpy.types.Operator):
    #...
    #...

    def getter(self):
        return AXIS_VALUE

    def setter(self, value):
        for i in range(3):
            AXIS_VALUE[i] = {
                (False, False) : False,
                (False, True) : True,
                (True, True) : False,
                (True, False) : False,
            }[AXIS_VALUE[i], value[i]]

    axis = BoolVectorProperty(
                subtype="XYZ",
                default=(0,0,1),
                get = getter,
                set = setter
            )
    #...
    #...

Yuck, I'd avoid this.  If I set blah.axis = (True, True, True), then it sets it to (True, True, False) and if set to all true again it gives me (False, False, True).  (via the console, single UI press might be Ok-ish-ish)  Would go with @poors enumprop suggestion.  If the enumprop has 'X', 'Y' and 'Z' as values, the boolvector is simply  [ep == axis for axis in "XYZ"]

Yes it is confusing. But setting (True, True, True) does not happen in "single selection".


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Motion Tracking
why does the message "some data failed to reconstruct" come up when i solve camera motion? Im working on a gaming montage, so what i did was use the dolly camera from Call of Duty Black ops 2  to create a cinematicand recorded it using a Hauppage. Now i followed the tutorial from blender guru https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVPcT0dJmoY and at the part of adjusting focal length and sensory width i did not know what to do because the dolly camera is not an actual real camera with camera specs.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is asking about the focal length of camera, and is not specifically about blender.

how does that not have to do with blender...i'm trying to motion track on blender.

Blender related motion tracking questions are more than welcome, but requests for information about the lens parameters of a specific camera is not about blender. Such a question would likely be a better fit on a forum about the video game (in this case), or maybe photography.se in the case of a real camera.

its not a real camera its a digitally animated camera created by a game...where do i ask that?

You could try on arqade.se, but I'm not sure if you'll have any more luck there. For future reference, it's best to create an entirely new post when asking a different question

last thing...can i do the motion track with a 4.3 solve error

Well, pretty sure you'll get some odd results with that high of an error. That said, feel free to post a new question where more people will likely see it, I haven't done a lot of tracking..

okey dokey..hold up.


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Water drop, slows down after 100 frames
I tried to following several different tutorials, which show how to simulate water drop. So I made simple scene:

domain
water pool
drop

Nothing fancy, just basic tests. 250 frames length.
When I was playing it on the viewport I noticed that the drop goes to water, and causing the waves and everything goes quite expected way. But then, after 100's frame, the animate goes to "slow motion mode". When the bake was completed and I was able to run it, that looks like waves started to move very slowly after 100s frame.
I found some old discussion about that, but looks like Blender has got new design and those were not valid anymore.
What parameter on fluid could cause this?
Blender 2.92
The blender file could be found from here: WaterDropTest.blend

please provide blend file

Hi @Chris,
I added the link to share.

i downloaded the file and had no problems. But i changed a few things. Just for testing and that it works faster, i decreased resolution to 50. I also changed to Modular, resumable. Then i hit bake data - bake mesh - and it worked. Did you also hit bake mesh after bake data? please try with modular/resumable and tell me, whether this works better.

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


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Is AMD's RX 5700 suitable for Blender?
I have the following setup:

On the scene I'm able to select GPU Compute as device:

But the issues start when I start the rendering, it seems to be building a new kernel and having this as the last text on screen:

And after that Blender is crashing.
Object does not need to be hard, basic starting box is just enough.
Blender version is 2.83.4 on Windows 10.
"Compiling render kernels"

... why do you have a problem with that? It does what it needs to before rendering so what?

I'm sorry @MartynasŽiemys, my question was incomplete. The problem is that Blender is crashing with that setup.

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT appears to work properly with the Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.11.2 Optional (WHQL).

As far as I know, AMD GPUs take some minutes the first time you gonna render something. Indeed it has to compile kernel every time you open a new instance of blender.

Yes, that seems to be case @eduklafke, but in my case Blender never ends that, but crashing without any warning.


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Blender collision export primitives issue
I have just started learning blender, and I am having trouble exporting a few very basic collision shapes. I would appreciate any pointers where I might be going wrong
I exported to .bullet using PhysicsConstraints.exportBulletFile
1. Cones are exported perfectly (verified by recreating programmatically)
2. Cylinders are exported with the wrong scale
3. Boxes are exported with correct position but AABB only wraps original unrotated shape
I have a very simple Blender scene with two cylinders, a cone and a box:

In Blender:
All have "Add Active" and are green when selected
All have radius = 1.0
All have "Rigid Body"
All have "Collision Bounds" ticked with the correct shape selected
Thanks in advance

Maybe try Ctrl-A (Apply transform menu) -> Scale for the cylinder?

Thanks, this was part of it. The origin location and rotation value was also important.

I found that blender .bullet export (for primitives) does not export correctly if:
1. “Apply Object Transform” for Location or Rotation is performed. This is not reversible quickly
2. The “origin” is not at the object bounds center (i.e. 1a was performed, location reset to 0)
3. Rotation in blender != value you want (i.e. 1a was performed, rotation reset to 0)
4. Scale in blender != 1.0 (i.e. 1a for Scale was NOT performed)
5. Something moved in the scene before the script ran


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Mesh does not follow armature
So I've made a pretty fancy hand, that I want to attach to an armature. The thing is, I've tried everything, but the mesh doesn't want to follow the armature. I've removed the double verticles (I had 8) and watched lots of tutorials, but I just can't fix it, at least it looks like. I'm not new at Blender. I'm working on models for a game, but I never tried to use a single armature. I'm new on the forum, but I'll try to add the .blend file, and if you have time, and you feel helping me, you could try to make the mesh follow the armature, because I'm st*pid for it right now, but I'm trying. Yet I'm not planning to do any animations for it, just want to move the fingers the correct way.
PS: If we finish the game and you keep helping us, you may get displayed on the credits. If you want to help us contact me on Skype, and I send you the file: szabo.jozsef501
Here is the link for the model: http://www.mediafire.com/download/dwh3bvw5rir4d5w/HandV2.blend

you used NGons the bad way.

Everything is fine after triangulation of the faces (Edit mode Tab, select all A, Ctrl+F and "triangulate faces" in the face menu or Ctrl+T)

Recalculate normals (all selected and Ctrl+N)
Back in object mode Tab, select the mesh RClick, then the armature with Shift+RClick, then Ctrl+P and choose "armature deform"/"with automatic weights"
Then parenting the hand to the armatures works fine.

So, I'm done with that triangulation, and I'm parented the hand to the armature, but still not following. Did I missed something? I'm in the noob stage of this armature thing, so can you please make a step by step "tutorial" with pictures? I've made a printscreen about my parenting. I can't share a picture on this comment, so I attach one to the question.

recalculate normals (Ctrl+N) after triangulation and then parent armature

Thanks man! You saved me from 48 hours of YouTube searching. You're the best!

glad to help :) have fun!


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Blender Unwanted Bouncy Physics
So I have made a wall out of bricks with rigid body, with Convex Hull enabled on every brick, and what I want is to have it collapsing into a big pile of bricks. It is sort of working except, that the bricks just can't stop bouncing, even though there is no external force acting on them. They just can't stay in one place. Bouncing is set to 0, Friction is beyond imaginable, it is technically maxed. Raising the Friction from 1 to that almost infinite number did help a lot, but didn't solve the issue fully.
I tried every possible setup combination in the Rigid Body settings, but it is still not working properly.
Also, I have a second question, regarding if I am able to bake rigid body physics or not?
Download: https://mega.nz/#!otBDWZDI!YvbpjFBP0dlo_eLxB57QCEpd3g2M9oJtBZ_B0W-Mvv0
Alternative Download:
(Just run the simulation and watch the damaged building)

Please use https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ to upload blend files.

I think I just did, but what is the point of over complicating it? I mean, I have no idea, if it has been added to the thread or not. I have no idea if it is even visible for you or not. The Mega link is just a copy-paste solution, really.

You need to copy the link gived after upload and copy it to the question.. Use Edit at the bottom of your question to paste the link.

Done. Just added it.

It seems like enabling Split Impulse in the Rigid Body World tab under the Scene tab just solved this issue. Increasing the Steps Per Second to 300 almost solves the bouncing 100%.

For me increasing Steps per second to 300 just made it more bouncy


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Blender Cycles - Smoke not rendering with AMD GPU (2.78)
So, I wanted to create a scene with smoke, but this time to render with my AMD GPU. As I saw in the "feature comparison" chart, it SHOULD be supported for AMD by now (2.78).
What is happenning to me, the smoke is not rendered AT ALL. Not a single bit of it. With CPU, it would take about 6 minutes/frame for a 30 frames/second, 11 minutes long movie. It would take for ages to render it all in CPU, so that's why I want it so badly with GPU rendering. I could spare 60-70% of time with GPU, according to simple image renderings, with no smoke, so it should be the same case with smoke too.
So to be clear: CPU render works 100%, so material setup must be good. In the same time, GPU render simply hides the smoke completely, which is quite annoying. I am using Cycles.
If it is a problem with my composition, could you tell me what I did wrong?

Which AMD GPU do you render on? They are still beta-testing support so probably on some cards something won't work even if it should.

I render on an R9 280X

Is rendering speed up at all with the card? It was already mentioned but things likely changed although officially that card is kind of not supported according to its architexture. Also btw are experimental features enabled?

It renders waaaay faster in normal cases, as it was mentioned as well. I tried it with Experimental as well, but did not do anything differently.


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Hand is not glued to gun as expected
I have a character mesh with a 2 handed gun held in his right arm and supported by left arm. IK and constraints are set properly as suggested here: Rigging two handed weapon
Still, it seems like the left hand can't keep up with the gun, making it feel like it is lagging. If I set Time Remapping from 100-100 to 100-900 (making the animation run slower), it is a lot better, but it really isn't the right way to fix it. The general concept of IK is there, the hand follows the gun nicely, but this issue completely ruins it for using it in animated renders.

I am looking for a solution to effectively glue the left hand to the desired place on the gun. Iterations are set to maximum in case of every IK constrain.
If you need any more informations let me know.

It sounds like you've got a conflict there - 2 modifiers or constraints etc fighting over  control of the hand or gun?

I'm not sure, but if yes, I don't know where exactly. I'll attach more pictures of the armature, the gun and each constraints as soon as possible so you will have a better overview of the issue.

Solution: The gun and body armatures were separate, so I deleted the original gun armature and created one inside the body armature. Using IK that targets the last bone of the gun and uses the gun mesh as a pole. I could achieve an almost, if not completely perfect result.
Took me way too long to find it myself, so I'll leave it here for others, who suffer from the same problem.


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Strange artifacts on Blender painted texture after re-opening
With some reason I've got strange lines on my finished texture. When I made it I didn't see it. When I re-opened the projects I saw the strange black/white lines on my object.

Can you add a screenshot of the UVs and the texture, it looks like you needed to increase Bleed beyond the UV faces while painting.

I think it isn't the problem, because the lines weren't there when I draw it, and the UV was there too. It only appeared when I re-opened it. Now it is appeared in Unity aswell. One more thing: It can be only seen from relatively far. If you stare it from close, you won't see them.

This is a mipmapping issue.
When painting the texture, Blender disables mipmapping (so everything looks shaper) so you don't notice the problem.
When you view the object from a distance, it's actually using a scaled down version of the texture, which shows the black background bleeding through, hence the wires. The solution is to increase Bleed.
You can also fix it in a 2D software using the 'maximum' filter.


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Importing SVG images to Blender
I'm having trouble with imported images in Blender, they don't respond the same way as the native images on Blender do. I save .svg files with Illustrator and it is vector art. I'm just trying to get an embossed look on these images.

maybe this tutorial will help? http://www.cgmasters.net/free-tutorials/other/importing-vector-graphics-to-blender/

What is it about them that isn't working as expected?

I tried importing the .jpg files as Planes and all I see is a square, the image I want is nowhere to be seen. I was wondering if there is any way that I could convert the curves in the SVG files to meshes that I could extrude? That's the problem I'm having with the SVG files.

Try this tutorial, I found it helpful for my needs. Inkscape to Blender

I think you will run into problems with such complex paths/curves. Extrude might work but I think beveling wont work well.
For an embossed look I would use the image as a bump map/texture/heigh map:
Add a plane in blender, UV-unwrap it and add your image as a bump map. You should unsharpen your image for a smooth beveling effect.

You could even mix differently smoothed images together for a more distinct look.

Blender imports svg files as curve objects. If you're trying to use the art from Illustrator as an image texture, you should export it from Illustrator in a raster format (PNG, JPG, etc).

I thought Blender didn't import raster images, I'll try it. Thanks.


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Blender Crashes when trying to start applying materials is there a fix or workaround?
so whenever I try to begin applying materials to an object in blender it crashes. The object is about 5"x2"x1" so its not big at all and when I click on materials and click new material it instantly crashes. So I know its not the image I am trying to apply as a texture because I cannot make it that far before it crashes. Also there is no error or crash report that I have found so if one is generated please tell me where it is located and I can upload that. Is there anyway to fix this problem or a workaround that fixes it? Thanks for the help.

Can you add the blender version, operating system, video card?

I'm assuming you're using Blender Render,try applying material while using Cyles Render

Version 2.75, windows 7, & amd radeon hd 5470...i am trying to use cycles render

please reopen this question...i just started trying to learn blender and this is making it near impossible to do so.


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Cannot figure out how to rig a flexible strap
I'm trying to rig a long, high-poly rectangle object so that it will be posable/deformable to behave like thick strap or belt. I don't need it for animation, just static renders.
I've created a multi-boned armature and tried adding it to the rectangle as a modifier, but when I then pose the armature the rectangle remains rigid, i.e., nothing changes in the rectangle when I pose the armature bones.
I've successfully employed armatures to pose segmented "hard" objects, but this deformation thing has me baffled. The rectangle mesh is composed of multiple polygons along its length so there are plenty of places for it to "bend".
I've spent several days working on this and have viewed multiple video tutorials and read multiple guides, but in the end I'm just as confused as ever. It appears that there may be several approaches to this, none of which have worked for me yet. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
UPDATE: Here is a screenshot from my project. The chamfered rectangle is currently selected and it is what I want to make flexible, like a strap. Above that are objects that are to be a carabiner that will be articulated and (hopefully) all a part of the same armature. Nothing has been parented to the single armature yet.
I know how to bone the carabiner; what's stumping me is making the chamfered rectangle deformable. One tutorial I saw stated that parenting (Ctrl+P) does not result in deformable meshes.

could you add a screenshot? Maybe you could use a curve?

The mesh needs to be bind to the bones and has to have vertex weight groups. If If parenting the mesh to the Armature with Ctrl-P > Automatic Weights doesnt work, you will have to post the blend file so someone can have a look whats wrong

Yay!! Parenting with Automatic Weights works! Thank you Jerryno!

@Jerryno Can you write an answer.

I guess I really don't have an definitive answer yet. What I'm discovering is that Blender offers a variety of solutions to my quest for a posable strap. Sci Fi Animator has some great tutorials, including Make a Curved Armature with Spline IK.
I've got a lot to explore here.


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Mysterious highlight generated by material + mesh combo?
SOLUTION: It was simply a matter of selecting the mesh and Object Context Menu > Shade Flat; it was previously set to Shade Smooth.

Here's the file: Blend file
I've got a nice material for solar panels, but the problem is that when combined with a the solar panel mesh a triangular highlight appears that I cannot make go away.
At first I thought it was a glint of sunlight, but the unwanted highlight remains regardless of the sun angle.
If I apply the solar panel material to a simple plane, there is no unwanted highlight, and if I apply a generic glossy material to the solar panel mesh, there is also no unwanted highlight. It seems the problem stems from the combination of the solar panel material and the solar panel mesh.
I can't figure it out. Any suggestions? Thanks. Blender 3.0/KCyclesX 3.01, Windows 11

pls provide blend file

@Chris thank you for the response. I attached a blend file to my OP.

Fresnel is a value that goes from 0 to 1 based on viewing angle. You are choosing between two materials based on the angle between the viewer and the viewed plane.

@RonJensen thank you. The Fresnel node is pretty cool. What I'm trying to figure out is why it's creating that highlight artifact on one corner of the mesh. I'm assuming it has something to do with the mesh itself? (The highlight is independent of the orientation of the mesh to the camera and light source.)


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Does Frame Rate choice make a difference when rendering animations as individual images?
I have been rendering animations as single PNG images and then importing them into an external video editor to create videos. Does the Blender Frame Rate setting make a difference in how the frames are rendered? Are 1800 frames rendered at 30 fps the same as 1800 frames rendered at 60 fps? Does Frame Rate affect how motion blur or Composite post-processing effects are applied? Thanks. Blender 3.10, Windows 11

I am pretty sure it doesnt.
I mean, fps is just a measurement for videos, so you actually can "set" your own fps when you combine the pictures.
On the other hand, it seems smart to set the fps equivalent to the end result, so that you can watch your animations in real time inside blender.

Yep, for animation previews within Blender it makes sense to set the fps to whatever you want the final output to be. ThankS!


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How to put a background onto its own Render Layer?
I'm working with a 3rd-party product that allows you to create custom skies via Blender's World environment. The documentation states:
"To render fast you can separate the background on a render layer and use 1 sample per pixel to speed up render times. This way you get a Full HD Image in a matter of seconds."
QUESTION: How do you put the background (World Environment?) onto its own render layer?
I know how to separate collections onto render layers, but this background thing has me stumped. I've researched it to no avail. Any suggestions? Thanks. Blender 3.1.2, Windows 11.
product documentation

if you disable all the collections for a given view layer, it will render only the background, is it what you want?

Thanks for the response. No, I want to render everything, but according to the product's documentation I can put the background onto its own layer with its own render settings for faster overall rendering.

what do you mean by "put the background into its own layer"?

That's what the product documentation says, and that's what I'm trying to figure out. :)

Hi :). Just FYI - This approach was useful in previous versions, but now Cycles automatically renders world background with one sample thanks to adaptive sampling :)

(and the docs seem poorly written, since both environment and sampling are set per scene, not per render layer :))

Thanks everybody for the responses. I think I understand now. Much appreciated!

It's been a while - since this thread ended on "Environment is per scene set", (which very well might have been so around 3.1), it is now (as of 4.2) possible to render the background/environment on a separate layer.
(Not sure if important) Have your assets in Collections (to have no assets laying around in Scene Collection.. besides Camera maybe.) Helps to control assets' visibility in batch via Collections.

Create new View Layer
Turn off render flags for all the Collections
View Layer tab, Filter, only Environment [x]
On the other View Layers, View Layer tab Filter > Environment [0]


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Lights in collection rotate when linked to from another file?
I've encountered a problem I've never seen before. I have a collection that contains a model and lights (point, spot and area). Looks good, however, when I link to the collection from another file, the model is correct, but the lights are rotated about 100 degrees to the right relative to the model. Why? Blender 3.2, Windows 11
UPDATE: I think it may have something to do with how one or more empties are parented to the lights, but why this should matter when linking is a mystery. All parented empties are included in the linked collection.

Problem solved: There was legacy animation data in the empty parented to the lights, so when the model was linked to, the destination file had a different position on the timeline so the empty rotated, as programmed. Deleting the animation data from the empty fixed the issue.
Question for admins: Should I leave this post here for reference? Or should I delete it since I solved it myself? Thanks.


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Light wrap meshes for animation?
I'm working on an animation where I have a moving object pass in front of a bright emissive billboard image and I'd like the light from the image to "spill", aka light wrap, around the object for a kind of glare effect. Can Blender do this?
I found several light wrap video tutorials for Blender, but they all apply the effect to static billboard images; I'm hoping there's a way to apply this to moving objects too. Thanks. Blender 3.10, Windows 11

What you're looking for is most often called "bloom".  In Cycles, this is done in compositing; in Eevee, this is done natively via render properties.  In neither case does it at all matter whether the objects move or not, because it is a post-process on the final rendered values.  Searching for "bloom" for either of your desired rendering engines will get you what you want.

@Nathan thank you for the reply. I've tried the Glare > Fog node in Cycles, and while it adds a beautiful bloom to the object when front-lit, there is no bloom when the light source is behind it, as in the screenshot where the red sun billboard and a sun lamp are the sole light sources. Even when the fog value is maxed out, there is no effect when backlit.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't understand the full problem.  You probably want to be using a volumetric object to get that kind of effect.  Make a cube surrounding the scene, with a principled volume shader plugged into volume output (and nothing plugged into surface output) and play with settings.

Thanks for the clarification. I played with your suggestion, as well as all the other compositing filters, but none come close to achieving the effect I want. If I were creating a static image then I'd do it post-render in Photoshop, but this is an animation.


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Why won’t Bool Tool create a hole?
I have been using Bool Tool lately with success, however occasionally I run into a situation where it refuses to do what I want. Here I'm trying to create a square hole in the larger beveled cube, but no matter which Bool Tool operation I apply, or order of selected objects, I cannot get a hole. What am I doing wrong? Thanks. Blender 3.01, Windows 11
Note I converted the larger beveled cube to mesh thinking that would help, but no joy.
Blend file

It looks like one face normal is inverted ? Try SHIFT N in edit mode

The normals are ok. It's just not manifold. The Boolean modifier works fine but the Bool Tool does strange things with this object. The Union and Difference operations do the opposite... ?

@Blunder I forgot about the Boolean modifier; I'm such a modelling noob. Using the modifier, I got it to work by selecting the small cube as the Object and choosing Union.


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How do I smooth a loop in a Bezier curve?
I'm trying to animate a jet flying a loop by having it follow the path of an animated Bezier curve. The problem is that each time the jet passes over a vertex in the curve it pitches just a bit as though it's running over a bump, which is unrealistic. Is there a way to smooth the loop so the jet flies more smoothly?
I've tried everything I can think of, including applying Smooth from the Bezier context menu, but that just makes the loop smaller, and manually tweaking the vertices can make the bumps less noticeable, but they are still there. Thanks. Blender 3.5.1, Windows 11
Blend file example

Hello, could you please tell at what frame it is particularly noticeable?

200 and 240. I replaced the jet with a cube in the linked example, and it is not quite as noticeable with the cube. Thanks.

Don't you need to scale up or down some of the vertices (like scale down the vertex that is before the one the object reaches at frame 200)?

I did not know you can scale the vertices. I am new to this curve stuff. :)

so do you get what you want with a bit of tweaking?

I'll have to play with it. Sometimes the issue seems obvious, other times not so. I've seen a lot of air shows so I want to get this reasonably right. Thanks again for your help! :)


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How do I vary speed of object parented to animated Bezier curve?
I am trying to animate an airplane flying a simple loop. The problem is that the airplane in my animation moves at a constant speed along the Bezier curve, whereas the speed of a real airplane would vary over time--slower on the climb and faster on the descent. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out a way to vary the speed of the airplane along the path. Maybe I set this up wrong? Can anybody help? (blend attached) Thanks. Blender 3.5.1, Windows 11
Blender project file

This YT video is for Blender 2.8 but the technique is the same for later versions.

Thanks! I tried this video once before, but could not make it work. I am trying it again and now I am getting good results. Thanks again! :)

Good to know! :^)

To add to Chloa's answer, if you do a CtrlP> Follow Path, it will automatically assign a Generator modifier to your curve that will determine the speed of the parented object along the curve and will prevent any keyframe on the Evaluation Time. To remove the Generator modifier, select your curve, open the Graph Editor, open the N panel, click on the Modifiers tab, close the Generator modifier (or as Chloa says, right click on the Evaluation Time and Clear Keyframes):

Now you can open the Object Data panel and under Path Animation you can keyframe the Evaluation Time:

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, when I do a Ctrl+P > Follow Path, no Generator modifier is added. I went through this with another video tutorial, but I can never get the Generator modifier to appear--Nevermind. The Generator appears in the Graph editor, not the 3D Viewport. :)

The animation of your object is tied to the curve's "evaluation time" under its properties panel. By default this value expands at a linear rate, but if you right-click and select "clear keyframes" you can animate it manually.


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Some materials rendering dramatically different under Blender 4.0; is there a quick fix?
I recently upgraded from Blender 3.6.5 to Blender 4.0 and I've noticed that some of my existing materials are rendering differently, some subtle, some dramatically different. Is there something fundamental I can tweak to get my materials looking the way they used to?
For example, in the attached screenshot, under Blender 4 the lunar surface looks darker and is lacking the contrast seen under Blender 3.6.5.
I think the problem is the lunar surface normal map being mixed with the bump map. Works fine in 3.6.5, but makes things look way dark in 4.0 Any suggestions? Thanks.

I think they have slightly changed the Principled BSDF settings, not sure you can do anything except tweaking the values until you get what you want

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I see that the Principled BSDF node has been reorganized, and in some cases now existing materials using textures look very different. :(

In some cases I find I can fix a Blender 4 material issue by replacing the existing Principled BSDF node with a new default Principled BSDF node. Suppose it could be I had an unnecessary setting in the existing Principled BSDF that was inconsequential for Blender 3.6.5, but causes issues with 4.0?

see what they say on this page: "The order of the different layers has been adjusted to allow for more flexibility when mixing between them." https://www.blender.org/download/releases/4-0/#reel it looks like the inner organization of the different shaders within the Principled has been changed. Maybe in some cases you should use simple shaders instead of the Principled BSDF.

I updated the OP. I think I've traced the issue to the normal map (see above).

ok thanks, good to know   ;)

The quick fix is to render the project in the version it was authored in. There has been many fixes that are known to change the look of renders in Blender 4.0. If you want to use these materials in new projects in Blender 4.0, you will need to edit them one by one to get the look you want again. The more complex your shaders are, the more time this is going to take.


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Legacy Layers (now Collections) in older project are grayed out (invisible)?
I'm reacquainting myself with Blender after a hiatus of several years. I see that Blender 2.93.5 now has Collections instead of Layers. I've opened this legacy file where the Layers are now Collections. Problem is that all but one of the Collections is grayed out--and invisible. How do I make the grayed out Collections visible? I've researched this and nothing I've tried works. Any suggestions? Thanks. Windows 10 Blender 2.93.5

This might not work so I won't add it as an answer yet, but it's worth a try: Above the list of collections, there's a filter drop down (looks like a funnel). Try clicking the Selectable icon (second from the left) which will add a selectable icon to each collection and object and see if the invisible ones are disabled. If they are you can drag the mouse right down the list of selectable icons to enable all of them at once and then do the same with the viewport visibility (eye) icons to hopefully make everything visible.

John Eason, thank you for your suggestion. That worked! Much appreciated! :)

Glad to help! The question has been closed now so I'll just leave my comment there.


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Why does camera shake when parented to animated circle curve?
I'm trying to animate a camera orbiting a sphere. Everything works great except the camera appears to shake when moving around the sphere and I can't figure out why.
The camera is parented to an animated Bezier circle in order to make the camera orbit an unanimated sphere. When the animation is run from the camera view, the sphere appears to bounce a little. I think it’s the camera that’s shaking, but why?
Any suggestions? File attached. Thanks! Blender 4.1.1, Windows 11

Hello and welcome. While files, images, and external videos or links may be helpful additions they should not be the only way to obtain information about your issue. Don't make understanding your question rely on downloading a file, watching a video or visiting an external site. Use the builtin tools to upload images or gifs, along with thoroughly explaining the problem in written form so it can be indexed and searched for thus helping future visitors with similar issues.

I didn't open the file. I'm just guessing. Ive faced this in the past. Have you tried upping the resolution of the path the camera is following?
Properties Editor > Object Data > Shape > Resolution Preview. Try something like 64. I think you can adjust it down in the Active Spline panel too.


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How to make a clean install of Blender 4.2?
I recently updated Blender from 4.1.1 to 4.2.0. During the installation I selected "Load 4.1.1 Settings." I then learned it's recommended to start with a clean install of 4.2.0 rather than install previous settings, so I uninstalled 4.2.0, rebooted my Windows 11 PC, and then installed Blender 4.2.0 again, but this time the installer added the 4.1.1 settings by default, i.e., it never gave me the option to opt out of the 4.1.1 settings.
How do make a clean install of Blender 4.2.0? Does File > Defaults > Load Factory Settings accomplish the same thing? Thanks.

Blender doesn't "install" in the same way other programs do. It's a portable file with it's own dependencies and executable you just unpack into a folder wherever. Your addons and config are stored in C:\Users\jmobl\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\{4.x}. If you delete the folder for whatever version you're using in the AppData folder then it will basically be a factory reset.

Your user preferences are stored at %appdata%\Blender Foundation\Blender\4.2\(you can paste that in the address bar of file explorer or run menu( Win  +  R ) to quickly get there. It might be a good idea to make a backup of that before deleting or after you set everything up the way you like it. You could also reset all the settings directly from Blender from File -> Defaults menu:

You would need to go to Preferences(Edit -> Preferences) and hit Save Preferences to make that permanent:

Thank you for the responses! I uninstalled Blender 4.2 again, and deleted the 4.2 folder, but when I reinstalled 4.2, it again did not give me the option to load 4.1.1 settings, and it appeared to have loaded some 4.1.1 settings anyway, so I went to File > Defaults > Load Factory Settings and saved those preferences. I'm going to assume this is enough of a clean start. Thanks again!


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Cycles: Complex material looks different when applied to plane versus object; why?
I am testing a complex material I created to simulate lunar regolith (terrain). I tested the material using a simple, undivided plane. I then applied the material to an object imported as a Wavefront OBJ (which is what I want to use for the final render).
Problem: The material looks significantly different (smoother) when applied to the terrain object. I have never seen this before. How do I make the material look the way it does when applied to the plane?
I cannot see any difference between the plane and terrain object; neither the plane nor the object have any modifiers. Same material, different results. Any suggestions? Thanks. Blender 3.6, Cycles, Windows 11

plane and object blend file

Hello could you please share your file (only the plane and the object)

Hi @moonboots. Thank you for your response. I have added a link the file in the OP.

If moonboots is on the right track in his answer, you might also consider switching on the 'Experimental' checkbox of Cycles, and using Adaptive Subdivision

Also, the material uses UVs coordinates, so you can't expect the same result from one mesh to another as they don't have the same UVs. If your shader is a repeatable texture, consider either playing with the Mapping Node's scale input, or using the Generated texture coordinates.

Your problem is consistent with an object scale issue.
Try to apply the scale of your imported terrain object. Ctrl + A then choose Scale.
Often imported models come in with a scale that is too big or small by a few orders of magnitude.

Thank you everybody for your suggestions! Ctrl+A Scale on the terrain object made a huge improvement (I added a screenshot of the result). The object comes from a third-party app called Daylon Leveller, and then I Decimated it in Blender with a ratio of 0.1. I also included a snapshot of the regolith material I cobbled together (it has some proprietary nodes I can't share). Trying to combine texture map footprints with procedural regolith.

One of your object is subdivided, the other is not, the Displacement node can only work on subdivided mesh. Also, you didn't share the images but there seems to be several problems here like nothing plugged into the Height input of a Bump node, or 2 Displacement nodes plugged into a Mix (not sure that it will work correctly, you need to plug the images into a Color Mix, then plug the Color Mix into the Displacement that is plugged into the Output).


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Quick way to apply updated workspace tabs to existing Blender files?
I recently updated my Blender default workspaces by adding several new workspace tabs. The issue is that my older Blender project files are saved with the old workspaces, and if I want to apply the new workspace to the older files I need to go through this process:

Open latest version of Blender with the new workspaces;
Go to File > Open
Press "N"
Uncheck "Load UI"
Track down the older Blender file and open it.

This is cumbersome. Is there a better way? It would be far simpler if I could load the older Blender file first and then apply the new workspaces. Thanks. Blender 3.2.2, Windows 11

Uncheck Load UI under File > Preferences and save. Your start up file layout will now be used by default when opening blend files.

That works! I was looking in the wrong place. Thanks so much! :)


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Material Utilities add-on not working
I would like to use the Material Utilities add-on for the first time, but I cannot get it to work as described here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/3.4/addons/materials/material_utils.html.
Situation:

Material Utilities 2.2.0 is enabled in Add-on Preferences;
Invoking Shift-Q from the 3D Viewport does nothing;
Documentation says Material Utilities can also be accessed via "Properties > Materials > Specials", but where is "Properties"? I have no idea what that is.

Any suggestions? Thanks. Blender 3.4, Windows 11
UPDATE: Never mind, I figured it out. You need to have the Shader Editor open for Shift-Q to work, something the documentation appears to fail to mention.

Properties is one of the main editors (windows like 3D Viewport, Outliner etc...) you have in Blender. By default it's in the bottom right corner, I'm sure you've seen it before:

When the add-on is enabled, the Specials menu is located to the right of the material slots box, with a downwards caret button. This provides the same options you get with the Shift + Q shortcut.

Never mind, I figured it out. You need to have the Shader Editor open for Shift-Q to work, something the documentation appears to fail to mention.

This is not true, it should be available in 3D Viewport as well. If the shortcut is not working there, it's possibly due to a hotkey conflict. In Preferences > Keymap, you can search for "shift q" in the Key Binding mode or for "material utilities" in Name mode to check to see if there are more than one operators assigned to that same shortcut. A normal, working setup is highlighted with green in the screenshot.

Thank you for the response! Very much appreciated. I filter add-ons by workspace and it turned out I had filtered out Material Utilities in all but my Shader workspace.
Thanks for the tip regarding Properties. If I understand correctly, when the documentation referred to Properties, technically it was referring to Material Properties. Thanks again!

@WilburPost Not quite. That whole window (or "editor" to be exact) is the Properties Editor: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/properties_editor.html The vertical column of icons in that Properties window are each a "(Something) Properties" tab. Material Properties is one of them: https://i.imgur.com/HOnUzP2.png


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Can entries in the Asset Library menu be sorted? Or searched?
I love Blender's built-in Asset-Browser, but as I add more assets I'm realizing that there doesn't appear to be way to sort entries in the Assets Library menu. And unfortunately, with every new instance of Blender the entries appear to be in a different order. It would be so much easier to find the library I need if these entries could be sorted alphabetically, or at least searched; is there a way to do either? Thanks. Blender 3.3.1, Windows 11

Hello ! as an aside, I don't think you're supposed to have that many different libraries, even if it's supported. At first sight I think you can merge some of them (kitbash items, HDRIs, ...) and instead use catalogs to further differentiate between your assets.

Asset Library entries are displayed in the order you entered them in your file paths preferences.
I think the reason you see them sometimes ordered differently, is because when you click on an enum property field, the items are sorted in reversed order depending on if the popup opened towards the top of the screen or toward the bottom of the screen.
I implemented a solution to sort the library names using python  in my asset batch-operations addon.
Run this script in the text editor, it will sort your asset libraries alphabetically. You may want to backup your preferences somehow because if something goes wrong you might have mangled asset library names (it won't affect your files, just the name of the asset libraries).
import bpy

asset_libraries = bpy.context.preferences.filepaths.asset_libraries
asset_libraries_sorted = asset_libraries[:]
asset_libraries_sorted.sort(key=lambda al: al.name)
names = [a_l.name for a_l in asset_libraries_sorted]
paths = [a_l.path for a_l in asset_libraries_sorted]

for asset_library in asset_libraries:
    asset_library.name += "__temporary__"  # Two libs can't share the same name

for i, (name, path) in enumerate(zip(names, paths)):
    asset_libraries[i].name = name
    asset_libraries[i].path = path

How it works : Since you can't actually reorder the asset libraries in your preferences, the script makes a double ledger copy of the asset library names and their path to disk, sorts them, then overwrites each entry accordingly.

Thank you! I use your Asset Browser Utilities all the time. Amazing add-on! Issue: I just updated my version of ABU with your linked version, but when I attempt to enable it I get a Python error: No module named 'asset_browser_utilities'

Make sure you download the latest release instead of copying the source directly, github messes up the zip name and the dev branch is a bit buggy :) : https://github.com/Gorgious56/asset_browser_utilities/releases

That works! Very cool. Thank you! Yes, Github can be a tad confusing. Thank you for the script; I'll give it a go when I've worked up some courage. :) Thanks again!


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Strange Cycles render artifact with some meshes starting with Blender 3.1, Windows 11
UPDATE: I have added a link to an example of this issue; I think it may have originally been created in SketchUp. (As this is a 3rd-party creation, I have deliberately "broken" the object, but the artifact remains.)
blend example
I have some 3rd-party payware models that I purchased a year ago. They look fine when rendered in Cycles under Blender 3.0 and earlier, but render in 3.1 and later and the objects have these strange "zebra" line patterns.
The artifacts exist independently of the materials (changing or removing materials makes no difference), and sometimes it seems that the artifacts are "floating" above the meshes. I have never seen this before, and no matter what I try I cannot make the artifacts go away. Any suggestions? Thanks. Blender 3.4. Windows 11

First thing I would try is updating your graphics drivers.

@ChristopherBennett Thanks for the tip. It does look like a graphics issue, however, I have the latest graphics drivers installed: ZOTAC GeForce 8GB RTX 3060 Ti v528.02

As you've noted below... the topology is a nightmare :) . Double-faces everywhere.

Looks like z fighting. Basically, looks like there are double meshes, of double faces. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix, other than manually removing the duplicates.

Thanks for the insight. It does indeed look like Z-fighting. Interesting that for this mesh it only becomes an issue in Blender versions 3.1 and later. I passed this on to the creator who's still trying to figure it out.


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Frame rate extremely slow in 3D view port. Why?
I'm working with a 3rd-party payware Blender file and I set up a simple moving camera animation to test render time. The problem is that when I run the animation in the 3D viewport the animation runs at less than 4 fps, despite the fact that it's set for 30 fps. I've never seen this before.
I thought maybe the complexity of the scene was the issue, but the view is set to Viewport Shading and all scenery elements are hidden, but still the viewport animation crawls at less than 4 fps; this makes it impossible to preview the pacing of the camera movement. I'm baffled. Any suggestions? Thanks. Blender 3.0, Windows 11

The fps given are: 1. an indicator for Blender when simulating physics and fluids how time passes in relation to frames, 2. the framerate with which movie files are created if you render animations directly as a moviefile instead of an image sequence and 3. at last the framerate with which animations are played in the viewport. But for number 3 the problem is, if for example simulations are not baked (or even if they are) or the scene contains many complex meshes, than realtime playback is often not possible. Blender "knows" it's playing to slow, therefore the lower framerate is shown in red.

I've run out of space in my last comment. Nevertheless, of course the ideal situation would be that the viewport playback is at the right speed of the set framerate and as the answer shows, there are ways to achieve it or at least come close. But sometimes you cannot simplify models, scenes etc. enough to reach that framerate. Especially high-res smoke simulations for example. In some YT tutorials the tutors even tell you, you should always make test renders with less samples or viewport renders and playback the rendered animation to check if the movements look right at the desired framerate.

I'm running into a similar problem, but with, seemingly, rather primitive meshes - linked buildings with no furniture. Vegetation is off. Simplify is all the way to 0. The viewport is moving fast, but the camera animation crawls with .4-.8 fps! Also, rendering takes 4 hours preparation time only, before rendering the first tile (which goes quite fast then). I understand, in the render all particles are on, but in solid mode viewport... I don't get it! Especially since viewport OUTSIDE camera is really fast!

Try enabling Simplify option in render tabs, with viewport max subdivision set to 0.
One single complex character with subdivisions level 2 is enough to slow down viewport realtime rendering.

That's it! Thank you!

I got sped the playbook up by going to to bottom left and select Playback, under Sync select Frame Dropping is selected.


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Why is this v2.7 rigged low-poly model slugglish in the Blender 3.0 viewport?
I purchased a rigged low-poly model created in Blender 2.7 (the file is 8 years old) and when I try to move it or rescale it in the Blender 3.0 viewport it is extremely slow to respond. When I try to manipulate it, it's as though it's choking my PC, but my PC is new and very capable. Something to do with the rigging maybe? Am I missing something basic? Thanks. Blender 3.01, Windows 11

Could you share the .blend file with us? To check anything out of the ordinary about it.

@Throndronis Thank you for the response. I can't share the blend file because I purchased it from a 3rd-party.

maybe the mesh is high-poly? in that case it makes any animation very tedious

@moonboots Is the mesh high-poly? Good question. Surprise! According to Scene statistics, a Blender scene with just the rigged model alone is 418k vertices and 833k triangles, while the Collada (unrigged) version of the model is just 2k vertices and 3.5k triangles. Okay, something wacky about how Blender 3 is handling a version 2.7 armature?

I don't know why it came from 2k to 418k, it should not have anything to do with the armature

@moonboots I don't know anything about rigging, so it's a mystery to me. The file size is only 12k, however if I convert the object to mesh and delete the rigging, the file size jumps to 130k and Edit Mode reveals a model that's changed from a few to a zillion vertices.

When you say that you converted the object to mesh, what was it before?

@moonboots I don't know what it was before. Looked like a normal mesh to me. The workflow that's working for me now is 1) Create pose; 2) RMB > Convert to > Mesh; 3) delete armature; 4) Edit Mode > Mesh > Clean Up > Decimate Geometry, ratio = 0.01.

I'm not sure why you are doing all this, maybe go back to the original file and show how the mesh looks like

@moonboots I just posted a screenshot of views in Object & Edit modes. I'm going through all this to get me a model that I can append into my other projects. There's surely a better way, but I haven't figured it out yet.

what you show is the difference between Object and Edit mode face number, but in Object mode it also counts the other objects of your file while in Edit mode it only counts the faces of the selected object. If the topology you show is the current one, it is ok in terms of face number, so I'm not sure why the animation is so slow, hard to tell

@moonboots There are only 3 objects in the file: the astronaut aka "cube.000", 3k vertices; the visor, 280 vertices; and the armature. That's why I was thinking the armature accounted for the remaining 800k vertices.

An armature is not a mesh so will have few vertices; something like two for every bone (one at each end of a bone), of which there are generally not many many bones.  One thing I have done when sharing proprietary blend files is to try and edit the mesh and delete many vertices (like the whole top half of the character mesh), so it becomes unusable to anyone else as a complete character.... So long as the general problem persists in the reduced example file.

Usual culprits for low performance imported models, in my experience:

Subdivision Surface modifier: This is supposed to be fixed in the near future, but using subdivision surface modifiers on armatures, at least in the viewport, can be slow and fiddly.
File hasn't been told to use your hardware for Render views: Preferences for Cycles/EEVEE and the render device are per-machine/per-file, so remember to use the GPU if you have one up to the task.
Poor modifier order: having the Bevel modifier BEFORE the armature, and orderings like this, can send your computer into fits.  Some modifiers assume they are working on relatively low polys (like armature, bevel, boolean), so if they are after modifiers that add a lot of geometry, that will cause problems.
Material Deformation:  It might have got/ been made better, but materials that use the deformation output tend to slow my machine down.

Yep, the Multires modifier was the culprit. Never run into this before. Thank you!


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Why are these mesh objects visible in Blender File, but invisible in View Layer?
I've run into a situation I've never seen before: I deleted the Screws Kitbash Payware mesh objects from the View Layer display, but they are still visible in the Blender File display. Why? Is this by design? Or is the file corrupted? Thanks. Blender 3.1.2, Windows 11.

If you delete objects from your scene, they still remain in the file. They are simply no longer assigned to a scene.
So the objects listed here were obviously part of your scene at some point.
Normally you can delete this data if you really don't need it anymore.
You can do this either via the main menu (File -> Cleanup), or by clicking on Purge in the upper right corner.

Thank you for the response. I had purged the orphan data, but that didn't remove these legacy objects. That confused me, until it occurred to me that they weren't purged because they were marked as Assets. (That's how I realized these legacy objects were still in the file--they showed up in my Assets library.)


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Why is Boolean “hole” filled with stripes?
I'm new to using Booleans in Blender and I'm trying to add cylindrical holes into a solid ceiling to accommodate recessed lighting. The problem is that some of the "holes" I created are solid? Or capped? When rendered in Cycles, the blue ceiling material turns into blue & gray stripes in the Booleaned region. Something's going on, but I can't figure out what. Any suggestions? Thanks. Windows 10, Blender 3.0.0

Update #2: As I research this I'm realizing that there's a lot to learn. I'm doubting that there's a simple answer to this issue. :)
Update: I've tried this by using cube and cylinder primitives, but no matter what I try, the cube seems to be hollowed out in the interior, but the surface of the cube has circular "caps" over the hole. I tried solidifying the cube before the Boolean operation, but the result is the same.

It looks as if your boolean cutter isn't actually going through the ceiling. Try moving it down or scaling it on the Z axis and see what happens. If you still don't have any luck, upload your Blend file here so that someone can have a look.

John Eason, thank you for the response. I think I've figured it out. The Boolean operand was plenty long enough; the problem was that I wasn't hiding it after the Difference operation, so I didn't think it was doing anything. The other thing that confused me was Justin Geis' informative 2020 video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNvbz-lz4ho) where his Blender Boolean modifier interface is different from my version 3.0.

If you install the built-in Bool tool addon (Edit > Preferences > Addons and search for 'Bool') you can then use CTRL + Numpad keys to automatically add a boolean modifier and the modifier object's viewport mode will be changed to 'Bounds' at the same time which makes things much clearer. There's a video here which shows how to install and use it. That's for Blender 2.8 but it works the same way in 2.9 and 3.0.

John Eason, thank you again for the tip and for the link!

No problem. Happy Blendering!


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Dark horizon line between ocean and bottom of HDRi sky
I want to create a simple animation using the camera to fly through clouds (cloud panes, in this case) over a simple ocean. I've never used Blender to create an atmospheric scene before, so I'm starting with a blue plane (the ocean) and an HDRi sky. The result thus far features an annoying black line running between where the HDRi sky begins and the ocean ends. How do I get rid of it?
I have experience with Vue and Bryce and I was hoping I could just dial in some volumetric atmosphere, but with Blender it seems a bit more involved than that. Also I was hoping to add an infinite plane for the ocean, but Blender doesn't seem have them. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks. Blender 2.93.5 Windows 10
UPDATE: Looks like this is peculiar to HDRi environments in Blender. As an alternative, I'm working with Wolf's Real Sky now. Results are great so far.


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Node Wrangler does not load images
I'm working with Blender's built-in Node Wrangler for the first time. Unfortunately, contrary to the tutorial videos, I can't get Node Wrangler to do anything. No errors, just nothing happens when load the PBR files. I configured Node Wrangler to recognize "NormalGL", but still nothing happens when I load the files. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Thanks! Blender 3.0, Windows 11

You need to have an active node in the shader editor so that Node Wrangler knows what node to hook the images too.  Try selecting the Principled Shader and then adding images.

Hi. Please don't add "Solved" to your question or title. Instead we encourage you to post an answer below with a short description of the solution and what steps you took to reach it. Perhaps add a few images illustrating the workflow and final results. See How do I write a good answer?

Marty Fouts, thanks for the suggestion. That works!

FYI here's where to look for information if nothing's happening : https://i.sstatic.net/m05U1.png

You need to have an active node in the shader editor so that Node Wrangler knows what node to hook the images too. Try selecting the Principled Shader and then adding images.
Be sure that you only have one node selected as Node Wrangled can be a bit too enthusiastic when multiple nodes are selected.

@WilburPost you might want to read What should I do when someone answers my question? and perhaps accept my answer.


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What's going on with these objects?
This is a 3rd-party Wavefront OBJ (a spaceship) I imported into Blender. The object appears to be composed of hundreds of individually-named entities visible in the View Layer, each with a material icon. I haven't seen this before; anybody know what's going on?
I think the source file is probably at least 20 years old and maybe came from a native Lightwave object. I tried importing this OBJ into other apps, but they report the file as being corrupt; Blender is the only app that will import it.
The OBJ appears to be salvageable, but I'm not understanding what's going on. Any ideas? Thanks. Blender 2.93.6 Windows 10

Those appear to be only materials, assigned to object "Mars 2' mesh '3'.  There are probably different materials assigned to different face sets (vertex Groups).  If you put the object into EDIT MODE,  Deselect all, and then select the Materials Tab.   If you then select a Material Name and click on the Select button beneath,  it'll highlight the Faces or Vertices that this material is assigned.   You can also select the Object Data Properties tab, and view Vertex Groups, you'll probably be able to select a group, and then click on the Select button beneath to show that grouping also.

Also, If when you render you don't see anything but some gray material, then you did not import the actual material itself, and you could clean up (remove) all of these materials.

These are not objects, they are materials assigned to your object.
You should be able to see the same list in the Properties Editor > Materials > Materials slot list.
In edit mode, you can select a material in the list, and click the Select button in order to select the mesh parts assigned to that slot.
This is usually important to keep these as is if you don't want to lose the object's materials. But sometimes, some importers create a lot of duplicates. Or mistakenly convert mesh layers from CAD softwares into material slots or vertex groups into Blender. If you don't have a use for them, you can remove the material slots one by one using the - button on the side of the material slots list.

Thank you for your responses everyone! I think I understand, and this gives me the confidence to invest more time in this file.

This has been answered correctly already, but just wanted to say I had this laying about as well.
It dates from around 2014 and does indeed appear to be a natively Lightwave object:

And those are indeed surface (material) names with textures allocated to each one.
The actual object is made of many layers, which are unnamed.
There are no vertex groups assigned and one generic uv map that seems unassigned.

hth


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How do I apply a separate material to an object in a vertex group?
I'm working with Juan Pablo Bouza's beautiful rigged skeleton model for the first time and in the process I'm learning all about working with rigged models for animation in Blender. One thing I would like to do is color some of the bones individually in the model, but I cannot figure out how to apply a material to just one object in a vertex group. Is there a way I can do this without messing up the rigging?
In the attached example, I would like to shade the clavicles green instead of blue, but again there doesn't appear to be any obvious way to do this; materials behave as though the entire vertex group is a single object. Any suggestions? Thanks. Blender 3.3.1, Windows 11

I contacted the creator of the skeleton model, aka "Ferdegund", and he provided me with the solution:

Select the object;
Add a second material slot;
Switch to edit mode and select a vertex in the bone you wish to modify;
Press Ctrl+L to select the rest of the connected geometry of the bone;
Assign the second material slot to the bone.

Works great!


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Strange Cycles Area Light artifact when using Motion Blur in animation
I've discovered a strange Cycles artifact when using Area Lights in combination with Motion Blur in an animation.
Per the attached screenshot, two astronauts are at the windows of a moving spacecraft. There are four Area Lights inside the spacecraft between the astronauts and windows acting as fill lights for the astronauts. The strange artifact appears when Motion Blur is enabled, causing the Area Lights to appear to be moving at a different velocity from the spacecraft. The result is that the Area Lights themselves become visible, especially the green light at the far left window; in reality it's behind the post between the windows.
Is this a known issue? If yes, any way to fix it short of disabling Motion Blur? Thanks. Blender 3.6, Windows 11

I've just tested it with a simple scene, the motion blur does not make the area lights appear from behind the posts. So maybe there is something specific in your scene which creates this effect, hard to tell without your file.

Thanks for your response. I submitted a bug report to the Blender developer's forum: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/110972#issue-101160. Appears it may be a known issue.


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How to create independent instances of shader node groups?
I'm using Armzep's beautiful "Smartedges" shader node. It's working great!
I want to create separate instances of Smartedges for different materials used in the same Blender file with Smartedges having different settings for each material. The problem is that when I open and edit Smartedges in one material, it affects all other materials that also use Smartedges. How do I create separate and independent instances of Smartedges for use in different materials? Copying and pasting the Smartedges node group from one material to another doesn't fix the issue. Thanks. Blender 3.2.2, Windows 11.

I figured it out. Where it shows the number of users for the node group (in this case "4" on the attached screenshot), click on that number to make a "Single user copy." Works like a charm. :)


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Is there a way to access N-Panel items without going through the N-Panel menu?
I have over a dozen add-ons that are accessed via the N-Panel. Is there a way to access these add-ons without having to go through the N-Panel?
Like a lot of Blender users, my N-Panel has become messy with too many add-ons taking up too little real estate. I've tried several N-Panel managers with varying degrees of success (the biggest problem is that they tend to mess up when it comes to add-ons that dynamically create panel menus, e.g., Blenderkit). It would be great if I could access these N-Panel menus without having to hunt and peck through the N-Panel. Any suggestions? Thanks. Blender 3.2.2, Windows 11

You might check this Q&A too, you could hide some of the panels on some workspaces https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/248211/hide-n-menu-panels

@Luciano Thanks for the tip. I wasn't aware of Blender's built-in N-Panel filter. Beyond that, is there a way to access add-ons without having to deal with the N-Panel at all, maybe in the same way F3 allows you to search for Blender operators?

I don't think there is another way. It all depends on how the addon developer coded their addon. some operators in the addon may be accessible with F3. you just need to know how they named the operator.

Maybe the add-on SIMPLE TABS will also help you to get a little more overview of the add-ons in the panel.

I like the name N-Panel. Maybe blender should formally call it that way in their documentation :)

Thanks for all the responses. I used Simple Tabs for a while, but it can't handle Blenderkit's dynamically-generated panels. I'm currently using Horizon Panels, which I love! but it too can't handle dynamically-generated panels (the creator is currently working on a fix for this). I'm going to assume the answer to my question is no. :)


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Configure a camera to chase a flying drone with realistic lag?
I'm animating a flying drone, adding noise via the graph editor to make it wobble and such like a drone flying through shifting air currents. Now I'd like to add a chase camera a few feet behind the drone with it's own realistic motion.
I know how to make the camera track a moving object by parenting or adding a tracking constraint, but the results are too rigid, looking as though the camera is attached to the drone via a rigid pole. I want something more elastic, as though the camera is attached to the drone via an invisible rubber band or bungee cord. Is there a way to do this? Thanks. Blender 3.2.2, Windows 11


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Why do objects sometimes have outlines in Render Preview?
Sometimes in 3rd-party Blender files, objects will have black outlines in Cycles Render Preview. I want the outlines to go away, but I can't figure out how. What's causing them? Thanks. Blender 3.3.1, Windows 11

blend

Probably because under object properties you set them to display was wireframe

Thanks for the suggestion. However, when I look at Object Properties > Viewport Display, the only checkbox enabled is Shadow. Display As is set to Textured.

maybe share your blend file?

Have you enabled Wireframe in the Overlays for the 3D Viewport? Although, then all objects should show wireframes...

@GordonBrinkmann, I'm not sure what you mean. I added a link to the partial blend file in my OP above.

I can't find any settings that are responsible for the wireframe. Although they can be turned off with the Overlays, they don't seem to be in any of the settings there. But if I select all objects, press Tab to switch to Edit Mode and then Tab again to go back to Object Mode, the wireframes disappear. So to me it seems this is a kind of bug, either in Blender itself or the files are broken in some way, as if they were stuck in Edit Mode display although being in Object Mode.

@GordonBrinkmann, that's it. Select an object, toggle the Edit mode and the outlines disappear. Thank you! The file is 10 years old, so it's probably a version issue. I've run across this with other legacy Blender files too. (I'd mark your answer as the correct one, but there is no option to do so.)

No, because this is just the comment section, not an answer. I actually think this is too specific to be very helpful, since many beginners have problems with wireframe or not wireframe, but the reasons are mostly some settings, display modes etc. while your case might not apply very often. But you can answer the question yourself and accept that answer (after some time, usually to give others time to answer).

@GordonBrinkmann IMO, others might  have this problem, with older files? Maybe it's preferable to post a brief answer and have it accepted, than to close the question.

@RobinBetts I don't mind anyone writing an answer and get it accepted. I'm very often opening old files from the past years and never experienced this problem so I wonder how common it is.


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How can i select by number of vertices?
I have the latest version of blender and i downloaded a script called mesh_face_info_select.py which lets me select all tris quads or ngons of the mesh but i get an error when i use the script where the operator bpy.ops.mesh.select_by_number_vertices is not found. I assume that it was removed from blender? I have searched in google but didn't find anything.

Sounds like the script you downloaded has a bug or is used differently.
You can try contacting the author and describe the error, s/he might fix it.
Anyway, you can paste this to your text editor, change the value of vertCount and press "Run script", it will select all the faces with the number of verts specified in the vertCount variable.
import bpy, bmesh

vertCount = 3 # <-- Faces with this amount of verts will be selected

bpy.ops.object.mode_set( mode = 'EDIT' )
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh( bpy.context.object.data )

bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode( type = 'FACE' )
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all( action = 'DESELECT' )

for f in bm.faces:
    if len( f.verts ) == vertCount:
        f.select = True

bm.select_flush(True)

Also you can use while in edit mode: select > select faces by sides.


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How to make Blender remember STL export settings as default
I model in millimeters inside Blender, for 3D printing.
Every time I want to Export STL, I have to untick Scene Units and change the Scale to 10.0. These settings aren't remembered.

How do I save them as defaults?

Solution
Manually

To remember unit settings make your adjustments then File > Save Startup File (Ctrl-U)
To change STL Export defaults navigate to
C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.74\scripts\addons\io_mesh_stl
and open the __init__.py file.
global_scale is at __init__.py#L166, change default=1.0 to 10.0
use_scene_unit is below at __init__.py#L172, change default=True to False

Windows PowerShell Script
Configure Blender STL Export default settings - GitHub Gist


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bezier curve with bevel object: nice corner
A bezier curve with a bevel object and a bend with a free vertex.
How is the bend made nice with a continious width?
The increase of resolution (Data > Geometry > Bevel > Resolution) smoothes the bends of 2D curves, no effect on 3D curves.

Thank you for any hint!

If you go to the Data of your Bezier Curve > Shape > Resolution and increase the Preview and Render factor, it will improve the angle

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/53475/how-can-i-extrude-curve-shapes-onto-curve-without-tapering and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/56079/how-can-i-make-a-perfect-sweep-with-bevel-object-in-bezier-curve3d-pipe/

Hi there, I am involved in addressing this issue in Blender. This is still in development but closing in on a solution and that'd be great if you could provide some feedback here: https://devtalk.blender.org/t/curve-to-mesh-node-even-thickness-feedback-thread/27271  - Thanks in advance!

As Duarte Farrajota Ramos commented, it isn't possible as a 3D-curve at the moment.
However, you can use seperate 2D-curves (see the links in the comments) or make at least the left joint of the corner horizontal:
Use shrink/fatten (alt+S) to fatten it by the factor $\sqrt{2}\approx1.41421$

This solution might look correct in the Top View right now, but unfortunately Shrink/Fatten scales on all 3 axes, so when you look at it in Front View or Right View that part is stretched on the Z axis and thicker than the rest.


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How do I bring back the little menu under the main window?

So I'm working in Blender and I've just learned how to use shape keys through this awesome tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1KntZJCFUo
Except now that really helpful menu section(highlighted in red in the screenshot) is now gone and I don't know how to bring it back. I'm getting better with Blender but I would still count myself as a beginner/learner, so any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

Near the upper and right corner of the red box in your 2nd image there is a small + click it and the small section will restore ;).

Holy Molly thank you so much, I was really stuck on that XD Goes to show even the smallest things are so easily overlooked, thanks again! :D

authors: Сергей Смирнов


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HDR Images I pack go missing in render
I am using an HDR to light my world in a .blend file. It works fine normally, but when I pack it it mysteriously goes missing during render time. Why is this?
Here is a .blend file demonstrating it:
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/37691
Notice how you can unpack the HDR and it loads fine in the UV Editor, but rendering it's gone!

Your example file worked just fine for me when rendering. Maybe try it again?

No, doesn't work for me. Could you see the HDR, or did everything turn out pink?

I could see the HDR image. No pink. http://i.imgur.com/xeyCuJ1.png?1

Could it be a problem with my computer? I always seem to get random problems no one else does.

Try opening a new blender file, switch to cycles, open an HDR for your environment lighting, and pack it. Let me know if that works.

Strange thing is that it doesn't. Did you have to unpack the HDR?

Nope. Packing just takes the files from your computer and adds them to the .blend file.

The problem was solved when I switched to the CPU renderer. I am guessing that OpenCL is at fault, because it happened during GPU rendering. More information here.
Looks like GPU OpenCL is lacking many features, so I recommend using CPU renderer for now.

You could read in the wiki about no support for HDR textures on OpenCL

In the Render View window, select Display > Color Management... The viewColorManager Attribute Editor appears.
Select the color profile for your image source and your display output using the Image Color Profile and Display Color Profile drop-down menus.
Specify your custom calibration file or color transformation file in the LUT file attribute. You can also use this attribute to apply a color grading effect.
What editor are you use? try out aurora
Is it mac or win?


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Dragonfly Wing - combining / cleaning up
I have been working on some dragonfly wings for a character and am a bit stumped as to the best way of combining the elements and cleaning them up into one.
The wing cells were created by drawing out a flat grid and adding a skin modifier.  The heavier struts are made of extruded and tapered curved tubes. This leaves me with a bunch of randomly intersecting and overlapping objects with varying density of meshes.
What is the best way to combine them into one object without any extra geometry?

A membrane filling the spaces between wing structure will be added separately and does not need to be part of this object.
The .blend file can be found here:

I would suggest doing this by adjusting the Mean Radius in Edit Mode. This way you can make the outer parts thicker while still having them connected as a single mesh.
Mean Radius is a vertex attribute that is AFAIK exclusively for the Skin Modifier, to control the thickness of the resulting mesh.
With the vertices you want to adjust selected, click and drag-down to get both input fields selected. Then you can hold shift while moving the mouse to make fine adjustments, or type in a precise value.

And unless this is for an extreme close-up, you might want to just make a normal map out of this on a separate lower-poly mesh. That's a lot of geometry for something as small as a dragonfly wing. But this of course depends on the shot.
Update
Here is a .blend of just one wing for demonstration, based on the original file provided:

See if I understand this.  You're suggestion is to throw out the original struts, redo them as part of the geometry of the cells and adjust their thickness by applying a Mean Radius modifier to specific vertexes?

Yeah, but before throwing out the struts you can use them as guides to save time when rebuilding - set their display type to Wire and use X-ray if needed. Or maybe you already have a reference image you're tracing over, in which case, just use that. It's not that there's a Mean Radius Modifier - it's that the Skin Modifier uses the Mean Radius of the verts to determine thickness. And if you look at dragonfly wings you will see that the struts are not the only place thickness varies. So really this is the only way.

Also, since you're going to be using the Skin Modifier, notice that for a mesh to utilize this modifier it must have one "root vertex". One is designated automatically when you add the modifier, but if that vert gets deleted the modifier's effect will disappear until you select a vert and click the modifier's Mark Root button. This is all in the manual, but I mention it because it confused me the first time I encountered it.

Mean Radius is giving problems for this. After applying the Skin Modifier I pick out the verts that need to be increased. What I get is those vert disappearing to be replaced by this mess.
This is done without adding a Subsurface modifier to smooth things out so the Skin Modifier is just showing a series of cubes. Instead of

You shouldn't have applied the Skin Modifier yet. You need to adjust the Mean Radius first. Please check the screenshot I posted in my answer again. Notice that it shows the Mean Radius for the selected vertices being adjusted in Edit Mode, with a Skin Modifier on the object, but not applied. Once you apply it you are left with the resulting mesh, which cannot be altered in the same way. It's a destructive edit. I hope you saved a version of your file (or made a duplicate backup object) before you applied that modifier.

Poor wording on my part. I never hit APPLY.  The Skin modifier was added to the Front Wing Cells in Object Mode.  Then immediately switching to Edit Mode the vertices to be changed are picked . Finally the Mean Radius numbers are adjusted as in your example.  Wait for the program to calculate and BOOM.  The result is as shown.  I'm obviously still missing something.

I see. In that case, could you upload your .blend using Blend Exchange and post the link in your original question? Then I will take a look.

The blend file has been posted.

I don't know how you ended up with the result in that screenshot. I took a look at your .blend. Nothing was buggy, but the scale of all your objects is ridiculously huge, so maybe that had something to do with it. Anyway, I scaled down the wing (Front Wing Cells object) * 0.001 , applied scale (Ctrl A), and reduced the Mean Radius of all verts by the same factor. After that I selected the strut region, gave it a thicker radius, selected the back part of the wing and gave those verts a thinner radius. Everything looks as expected here. See the .blend I added to my answer.

@Rivercoon So did my answer adequately address your problem? If not - what else would you like me to add? If so - please accept my answer.

Yes.  So far so good.  Thank you.


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Texture Paint trouble
When I open an object in Texture Paint mode and set the view to Solid the colors show up as inverted in the 3D view. The colors show correctly in Render or Material view. This is something new as I was Texture Painting this file yesterday and was able to see the right colors with the view set to Solid.

And if that wasn't bad enough now a new complication has crept up.  When I switch to Texture Paint the color portion of the UV Map is switching to that of another object. The outlines however stay the same, just resized to fit over the other UV map. In the 3D view this is only visible with Solid View set.

PACKED BLEND FILE
Any help sorting this out will be appreciated.

there is no image in your blend file because they are all in your harddrive. To make the things easier, could you please compile them into your blend file? Go in the File menu > External Data > Pack All Into, then share again.

The original Blend file has been replaced by a packed version.

In the Tools panel > Slots tab, you need to disable the Mask option, and come back to the Canvas Image you're using in your material (called AliBody-Color Diffuse Color)

Thank you.  That solves the problem with the inverted colors.

However when going into Texture Paint the color file in the UV/Image Editor reverts to the one from the last object opened and is shown overlaid by the current grid.  It is then is overlaid onto the current object in the 3D View until the file in the UV/Image Editor is manually changed.  Leaving Texture Paint and then returning to it repeats the error.

The correct color file is never shown in Texture Paint with Solid view.


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How to keep sync between Canvas and UV Editor
When switching between objects the mesh from the picked object will change in the UV Editor only if I go to Edit Mode, but the Canvas Image remains the same as the last object edited.  Node Editor will update by itself.  If I go to Texture Paint the correct image is shown overlaid on the object in 3D View with Material View turned on but it does not change in the UV Editor or Canvas Image selection.  Going to Solid View shows the old image overlaid in the 3D View.  In order to get the correct Image shown everywhere I have to go to Texture Paint to manually change to it.
How can I get everything to sync automatically with an object when it is picked?

PACKED BLEND FILE

If I understand correctly you ask why image shown in UV image editor remans the same even if another object in 3d viewport with another image texture was selected. In short this is a feature which was introduced in around 2.6x versions. Somehow related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/18830/automatic-update-of-the-image-in-the-uv-image-editor. In 2.8 after entering Edit mode image will be changed if there's another one selected in material

I was asking because until a few days ago I did not notice the UV Texture and Image falling out of sync whenever I changed to a different object.  Now I have to check five places every time I go to another object to verify that the mesh and artwork files are properly aligned before I dare make any changes.

Almost a year passed, did you solve it?  This is irritating.

The solution (in Blender 2.8) is to click the unpin button in UV Editor. Then you will get the assigned texture whenever you select an object and turn it to Edit Mode.


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Can not edit object after failed Normal Map Bake
Using Blender 2.79 I am attempting to create a ferret to animate.  The body has been created in two versions. Both low poly and high ply objects which are located in the same space.  The low poly has been UV unwrapped.  I was trying to follow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOYRCI-dtjU to bake a normal map of the high poly object to apply to the low poly version.  I selected the high poly and low poly objects, set up the bake controls as instructed and hit BAKE.  This came back with an error saying NO VALID SELECTED OBJECTS.  I went back and fiddled with various controls for a while with the same results before giving up for the night and closed Blender without saving.
When I opened it today to try again I found the hi poly version can not be opened in edit mode or seen in the 3Dview. Cycles Render shows it just fine.
Any ideas what might have gone wrong and how to get back into the hi poly model?

The file can be found at WeTransfer

perhaps share your file? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Would share if I could.  At 62.9 MiB Stack-Exchange will not take it.

maybe here? http://pasteall.org/blend/

That has a 30 Mb limit also.  Any other suggestions?

then, wetransfer?

No valid selected objects usually means Selected To Active is or is not used when it should be, i.e if baking with it checked and selecting only one object or with it unchecked and selecting 2 objects. Hard to tell about what happens with highpoly there, at least some screenshots together with file uploaded to Google drive could help

Link to file and screenshots added.

Opened the file again and hit / in the number pad a couple times.  This was one of the first things I tried but for some reason this time it took.  The high res. object can be edited again and I was able to bake a Normal Map. The Normal Map pointed out some problems that need fixing but everything seems to be working again.


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How do I reset a specific bone's "Stretch To" Rest Length, via code?
I'm trying to automate some processes. How do I "Reset" a "Stretch To" constraint in Blender, using python scripting. I copied the code that appeared in the "Info" window after executing the action manually. but when I used
bpy.ops.constraint.stretchto_reset(constraint="Stretch To", owner='BONE')

it does not work. Is there specific code references I need to import?
(I.E.:
    import bpy,
    import mathutls
, etc.)
Or is there some qualifiers I need to add? Maybe about the specific bone? If so Where?
Signed, Greenhorn

When running from the properties constraints panel context.constraint is defined.  To run in script elsewhere we need to override context ie add constraint to the context dictionary and pass it to the operator.
c = context.copy()  # copy the context returns dic.
# add constraint to the context dictionary
c["constraint"] = context.active_pose_bone.constraints['Stretch To']
# override context by passing dic as first argument
bpy.ops.constraint.stretchto_reset(c, constraint="Stretch To", owner='BONE')

Note: the code above is using the selected and active pose bone. There are numerous otherways to select and send a particular pose bone to the operator.