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How to Remove this cross hair?
I downloaded a lamp model from Blendswap, but there is this big Cross hair which when I move, the entire object moves. It also get attached whenever I duplicate some part of the Lamp. How can I get rid of this?

Yes that was it. Thank you so much @cegaton . God Bless


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How to prevent frequent crashes?
I am working on an interior scene of a workshop, and for it I've downloaded a lot of models from sites like blendswap etc. I want to create a detailed scene however, due to all the heavy imports, the file keeps crashing. Is there anyway I can reduce the load on the file to continue working on it.

Have you tried moving parts of the scene to different layers so you're not viewing everything all the time?

Look for Proxy-objects. They can visually replace complex mesh with cube or conus for example, but render as real mesh.

when does the crash happen? rendering? animation? simulations?

@mixrat Thats how I am managing at the moment. Working on different layers.  But it still gives me problems

@Serge L I can probably try that, but if I have to do it one object at a time, its going to take me a long long time.

@m.ardito I haven't rendered anything yet. I am still setting up the scene. I think since there are a lot of high poly meshes, its lagging and eventually crashing. I am worried at the end when I have to combine all my layers, its going to be an impossible task.

have to ask: are you sure your pc is fit to the work you're doing? can you detail specs: how many polygons/vertices? how much ram? os?

Yes, I am working on an Asus Laptop. It has 16GB RAM. The vertice count as of now in of the most heavy layer is around 9,133,601. The Operating system is Windows 10. I should probably mention that my C drive is almost full. However, all my blender related stuff is on my D drive.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Textures turn black in material and render mode
I downloaded a free shader setup from a site and after unwrapping it, the texture comes fine in the texture shading viewport. But when I shift to Material, or render shading, the object is just plain black. I cannot seem to understand where the mistake is. I am using cycles render.
When I tried using an another random image texture, there was no problem. I could see the texture in all modes. So idk where I am going wrong with this shader.
Edit: Sorry for being so vague. So I am using Blender Cycles v2.78. I downloaded a wood shader from a site called Chocofur, with the node setup as attached. This is how it looks in Texture Shading.

The node setup:

However, when I go to material, or rendered shading, this is how it turns out.

Now just to check whether I was doing something wrong, I used a plain image as a texture in one of them, and it seemed to appear fine both in material and render shading.

So I am guessing there is something within the shaders settings.The thing in red in the node setup is probably the problem since it says something isn't defined. I am not very thorough with using nodes and maybe that's why I can't figure it out. I hope I've been clearer this time. Let me know if I need to attach the blend file for reference.

And how are we supposed to answer your question with such little information? Add at least a screenshot of your shader setup. Please read this thoroughly and add more information by using the edit link below your question.

The node group marked red and named "undefined" is likely a node type which was defined by an addon, which is now inactive/not installed.

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


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Unnecessary spaces generated during Subsurf
so my problem is that I've created a model that has a parametric form, so when I use subsurf to smoothen out the edges, these sort of faces are generated that interfere with even my freestyle outlining. How do I solve this problem?

Are there any topological oddities going on there? Internal faces or otherwise non-manifold stuff? (You can select non-manifold geometry with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+M). If not, is it possible you could upload your .blend?

I used the default cube, merged it to a vertice, and then traced out a form, created a face and extruded a form. Then I used subsurf to smoothen the faces. Attached is the blend file.

This is most likely due to having n-gons or a mesh problem can we see a photo of your mesh or can we take a look at your blend file?
EDIT: It might be better to just smooth the model then add edge split. First u will need to remove doubles, select your mesh then press w and select remove doubles
Then exit edit mode and select smooth

Then add edge split

I used the default cube, merged it to a vertice, and then traced out a form, created a face and extruded a form. Then I used subsurf to smoothen the faces. Attached is the blend file.

check edit please

No problem mate, please accept my answer if u don’t need any more help

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How to transfer shaders?
I have downloaded a metal node setup from Chocofur.com and when I open their blend file, I can access all their nodes. However when I try to copy paste them into my file, it does not work. How can I get their node setup to mine?

One way is to assign the material to an object (i.e. the default cube), then save the origin file, open the new file and choose "file - append - choose the chocofur file, object (not "mesh"), cube: the cube will be imported with all its attributes, with its material node tree.
Another is select all the nodes, Ctrl G make group, rename the group, save, open the new file and append the node group.

Thank you so much....Both ways worked!!Thanks and God bless :)


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Smoke+fire new showing in viewport not render at all
I have an issue here, i was working on an asteriod project when i realized i cant view my smoke+fire whether in 3D viewport or render, what actually happens is that when i use quick smoke without editing it at first i can see my smoke in 3d view port, but when i try to switch the flow setting from "smoke"to "fire+smoke" then i can't, view anything, not in 3d view or render view at all. i am using blender 2.78

Try to save your blend file and then make a bake of your animation. Your computer can't probably calculate the simulation in time.

Select the Domain
In the Node editor
Before the material are

We need to add some color to flame (fire)

Duplicate the Attribute and change the name from density to flame
Add-> convert-color ramp
(Add the color as shown) You can tweak the color fire has Black at the corner then brown, orange, pale yellow and white (not to be perfect) adjust it.
Add a emission with 7.6 emission

Connect the nodes as show below.

And render hope you get a fire render


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Building corners: How to connect 2 walls with a straight corner
Hello I'm strugling with this task that I suppose should be quite easy :P
I've two walls with the same shapes and profiles, those two should be placed at the corner of a building, I'm looking for a way to close the gap between the walls. I could probably do it manually, but I'm pretty sure it should be done in an automatic way using some techniques or tools that I'm not aware of.
Attached you find an image with top and perspective views, in green the result I'd like to obtain (sorry... it has badly hands-drawn) probably it is not very clear from the image, but I'd like to close the corner continuing the wall shape having the two walls "merged" at 90 degs.
Any idea?

Possible duplicate of How do you make a mitred corner?

3 methods (or surely more):
1/Bridge edge loops (1):

Select the corresponding vertices
CtrlE then bridge edge loops
Select edges from bottom to top CtrlAltRMB
Scale 0 using individual origins as pivot
Remove doubles
Select the corner
Scale by 2 for X and Y from the cursor placed at the inner corner

2/Bridge edge loops (2):

Select the corresponding vertices
CtrlE then bridge edge loops
Set number of cuts to 1
Set interpolation to blend surface
Set smoothness to sqrt(2)

3/Rotation

Select the wanted vertices on one side
Place the cursor at the inner corner
Set the pivot to 3D cursor
Rotate 45 degrees
Scale sqrt(2) for X and Y
Do the same for the other side

Fantastic answer. 3 options and perfect explanations.btw, I love option 2.

How about the shear tool. (Yes there is a tool for this, but it takes some set up.)
First make sure the two wall sections meet in the corner (vertex snapping will help here).
With that out of the way, (for your example) go to top view. Set the 3D cursor location to one of the vertices in the very corner. Set the Pivot Point to 3D Cursor.

Remember to be in top view Select a whole edge (like I have in the image above) now press CtrlAltShiftS and type 1.
The shear tool is biased off of the active view. (that is why you must be in top view for it to work.) It then defaults to shear along the X axis, remember it works in screen space.

So to shear the selected edge, we have to shear along the Y axis.
Repeat for the other edge and you have a perfect corner. (Well after you Remove Doubles).

another great answer. I've accepted the @lemon answer aready but also this answer has a lot of sense.


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Change red reflection in: object mode - material viewport shading - principled shader
When viewing an object in object mode with viewport shading set to material:
Is there a way to change this red reflection to a different color?
I'm using principled shader in blender 2.79

These reflections are caused by the default Blender viewport OpenGL shading lights, which apparently becomes more visible in materias using the Principled BSDF Shader.
You can change this from the User Preferences > System tab under Solid OpenGL Lights.
The offending color is by default most likely the last Specular entry. Change it to whatever color you like, make sure you Save User Settings if you want it set by default.


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How to put thorns on the surface of a plant?
I  want to make a Spiny plant and I want make thorns on the surface of it with a specific angle .. I tried to use particle system (hair) but the thorns appear floating outside the mesh with random angles .. is there any way I can snap them on  the surface of the plant ? .

This task could be complicated by any number of details. The best way to get a useful answer would be to post your blend by way of https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com

You will need to post some screenshots as a minimum before somebody will give you proper answer.

Shrink Wrap modifier should allow you this? Otherwise, take a look how Joakim Stigsson did the spikes on his amazing procedural cactus material (skip to 12mn50s into the youtube video). https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZqldX
PS: discovered after seeing his interview on his gas station scene which is even more breathtaking at https://80.lv/articles/desert-gas-station-environment-production-breakdown/

I had the same problem, when flower pedals were floating around the scene in random directions. I played around with particle settings and found the setting somewhere in the settings panel.
But solution to the floating particles I figured out much later. You have to make sure that your particle object is sitting right on top of its origin point. (orange dot) The particle system doesn't take the mesh and put it nicely o your object. Instead it takes the origin point and slaps it on top of the object. And when your particle object is far away from the origin, at just floats around somewhere else.

So yeah. Make sure your particle object is sitting on top of its origin (orange dot) and particle rotation settings you find somewher in the particle settings.  Hope this helped. Happy blending!


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Texture in Render not right
I cant figure out what is wrong with my rendering. The texture is fine in viewport but when I render it loses the color.

What render engine? Does the object have any material? [Edit] your question with more information

Cycles Render Engine and yes it has Materials.

This information is far from enough to answer your question. What is in those materials?

can I send you email of file?

Upload your .blend file here: http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Here is file

In your material the texture is used only for the displacement input, so the color is a dull grey with bump effects.
The viewport is telling you the mapping of the texture, not the end result, which is a more complex task.
I added a copy of the image texture to feed Diffuse color shader.
Don't forget to set all color image texture as "color data" and all displacement or Black and white images as "Non color data".


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Blender ID Authentication - Issue with Login
I just joined Blender Cloud and I am trying to login with 'Blender ID authentication' add-on so I can activate the 'Blender Cloud' add-on. I am having trouble logging in however. I reinstalled and it did not fix the issue. Also I just upgraded to 2.79 on windows 10. Thanks.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it about Blender Foundation payed service

Blender cloud is a subscription service,they should provide support for any issues you are having

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about a Blender Institute paid service; just send an email to cloudsupport@blender.org

Oh, right sorry, my mistake

If you have any issues, contact us at cloudsupport@blender.org. Stack Overflow is not the place for this.


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Apply a grunge texture across an array
I am experimenting with creating a wooden plank array. The texture uses the Generated option in the texture coordinate node for texture variation on the array objects. The modifier stack includes subsurf and displace modifiers to create some mesh variations for each array object.
I am wondering: is it possible to apply a grunge texture across the entire array? For example, a drip stain from top to bottom if the array was used for a wall. Any help would be appreciated.

I figured it out with the following node setup.

The grunge texture is applied via the object option in the texture Coordinates node.


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How to remove blue dashed line with numbers attached to it
I was trying to model quickly and ended mashing some keys (at the WASD end of my keyboard) and did something to create the blue line as shown in my screenshot. The line expands and contracts whenever I move the viewport and the numbers increase from 0 to XXXX as the line lengthens. What is this line and how do I remove it? Any help would be appreciated.

Looks like the MeasureIt addon. In the Tool Shelf (T), go to Display / MeasureIt Tools and click Hide.

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


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Transluscent leaf using principled shader
I this setup as shown in the screenshot. The image transparency plugs into the mix factor, the transparent and principled nodes plug into the mix shader inputs. I'm trying to figure out how to introduce translucency into the setup. Any help would be appreciated.

Final result:

I will show you two methods, first one (Translucent) is recommended because it's a lot faster approach and also with less geometry. For both of them you will need Mix Shader with Transparent BSDF and Alpha from Image Texture as a Factor.
Example above is rendered with only 32 samples. Beneath both meshes there is a light source to show the effect.
Translucent:

Simple mix between Principled BSDF and Translucent BSDF, both with Image Texture as a Color. Factor between them will allow you to control how much light will go trough mesh.
Subsurface:
For this method to work you will need to add some thickness to your mesh. I've added Solidify Modifier with pretty low value:

And node setup:

Choose color of Subsurface to be close to the Image Texture and set Subsurface strength.

Awesome answer! Thanks! And nice tip re mesh thickness and subsurface scattering as well, I didn't know that.

@cgslav, do you have a channel or website?

@RitaGeraghty check my profile here on BSE. Also yes, I do have YT channel but still thinking about the content ;)

Why did you put Translucent shader in "Mix shader"? There should be "Add shader" and  you may change the value of transparency of the Translucent shader by increase/decrease brigthness of color of Translucent shader


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How can I link bones from the same armature? Head to Tail and Vice-versa?

Hey guys.
So I'm trying to rig the lamp in the picture(s) but I'm running into a technical difficulty with the armature. I've already read up on the other questions posted in here but they don't really apply to my problem as far as I understood them.
The bone nodes that have been circled are part of the same armature. What I want to do is close the loop of the armature and make one close loop armature as a whole. So I was hoping I could just merge the nodes that have been circled or even link them so that when I move one set of the bones the others shift automatically (I have Auto IK ON) and not disconnect like it's happening in the second picture.
Any suggestions if I can do what I want? Thanks.

Related: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21239/join-bones-in-a-armature

IK is indeed the solution. It looks similar in principle to rigging a piston, which is just a type of four-bar linkage: https://vimeo.com/25357097
I think the main insight to make your rig work is the use of IK "Target" bones. For example, where you want the spring to connect, create a small bone parented to the link's bone. Give the spring bone an IK modifier with chain length of one and allow stretching. That should be all it takes.

Thanks a bunch for the link. I solved the issue for the spring but I still need to figure out how to link the two separate parts of the lamp form disconnecting when one side moves. Will update if I find out how to do it. If anyone has an idea please let me know. The LINK was extremely helpful for it got me to think in the right direction.

Could you post a link to the .blend file for me to take a look at it?

I have no idea how to post a link to the .blend file. But I did manage to fully rig the model perfectly.
It seems that it's a lot easier to rig the lamp if I keep all the different parts of the lamp objects as separate instead of joining all the parts.
All I had to do is assign each object to its respective bone. But I had to change the setup of the bones a bit. See Last pic.

I did manage to fully rig the model perfectly. It seems that it's a lot easier to rig the lamp if I keep all the different parts of the lamp objects as separate instead of joining all the parts. All I had to do is assign each object to its respective bone. But I had to change the setup of the bones a bit.


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Fluid simulation problems
I want to do animation which starts fluid at frame 150. I get that by setting offset to -150. but till then it gives this domain with material of fluid. What should I do to do it correctly??

you could simply hide it at animation start and reveal it at 150 keyframing its visibility

I had the same idea.... BUT HOW???

As suggested in comments, you could simply hide it at animation start and reveal it at 150 keyframing its visibility.
To do this you can keyframe the domain object "eye" icon when it must change state (press the i key on it) in the graph editor you can edit this as usual but it will add a "restrict view" channel.
This can toggle visibility on/off by getting values of 0/1 (visible/invisible) as below:

which works like this

thanks for your help... it worked in 3D view... but it gave same problem in animation video....    this is my file.... please check it....     https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RuKfxHl3q60cItN3YHEBqkRVEDmZOT-J

Ok I'll.look at that soon, but you can do the same tovtoggle renderability, just add keyframes for the little camera icon, aside the "eye" one...

ahhaa..... nice idea.. I'll try that...

its working...!!!

good! sorry it was my fault, to let it show in the viewport I forgot to mention about the other icon. As you now discovered, it is really the same thing but for renderability instead of viewport visibility...

no problem.... always good to know more things... it will be useful in future...


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Is it possible to set material of one face only in Blender 2.45 (old version)?
I have to use an old version (2.45 - from 2007) of Blender*.
I'd like to change the material on one face only on an object. I understand that this can be done by clicking Assign on the Materials tab as described in this answer.
However, there is no Assign button in this version of Blender:

Can this still be done? Or is this a new feature introduced after 2.45?
*: The reason I have to use 2.45 is because I need a script written for this version. The script is VRM SVG exporter with some custom modifications. I'm exporting full-color SVG renders from all angles of an object. The built-in Freestyle SVG Exporter is not good enough for me.

Yes, from the Editing Panel
In Blender 2.45 the button to assign a material to faces can't be found in the Shading Panel under the Material section like depicted in your image.
It is instead disjoined from the Material's editor (where you edit material's parameters) but linked to the the mesh itself, and so grouped with the sections that are about face's properties like shading, editing tools...
You can see the section in the lower left of the following image.

You can find more information in the official documentation.


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Tracking recent rigify changes?
Apparently they decided to change all the pole toggle functions.
They seem to work / require a different signature then previous version - this has broken many plugins - (Why on earth would you ever change the order of a function signature on something that you need to be backwards compatible?)
Is there any way to track down these source changes to identify the new function signature requirements?
Basically, any test I throw into the console shoots out a JSONDecodeError because of one of the values either being empty.
No, the function described within Autocomplete is either Not complete, or inaccurate and produces errors.
Also note that it is Instanced on a per-rig basis through the rig_ui.py
However it doesn't appear (at a cursory overlook) to contain the specific function itself.

So, I ended up modifying limb_rigs.py @ line 1014 with the following prints
print("Dir Result", dir(self.properties))
print("ctrl_bones",self.properties.ctrl_bones)
print("extra_ctrls",self.properties.extra_ctrls)
print("fk_bones",self.properties.fk_bones)
print("ik_bones",self.properties.ik_bones)
print("pole_prop",self.properties.pole_prop)
print("prop_bone",self.properties.prop_bone)
print("use_pole",self.properties.use_pole)

this outputs the results of a signature enough to pinpoint any new bones and variables that need passing.
It seems to me that the current implementation of the function suffers from a bug when variables are left empty as they should be.
fk_bones is always empty. but a value is required for calling the function because of it's type.
As a result you need a call of this sort
bpy.ops.pose.rigify_limb_toggle_pole_wlnrc42c2a6335e5(
prop_bone="upper_arm_parent.L",
pole_prop="pole_vector",
fk_bones='[""]',
ik_bones='["upper_arm_ik.L", "MCH-forearm_ik.L", "MCH-upper_arm_ik_target.L"]',
ctrl_bones='["upper_arm_ik.L", "hand_ik.L", "upper_arm_ik_target.L"]',
extra_ctrls='[""]',
use_pole=True)

Glad I sorted it.
Still if someone from the Rigify team eventually spots this I'd like you to consider NOT changing function signatures without documenting and publishing your changes...


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How to export curved animation with Collada
I made several animation and exported them with Collada and used in my mobile application.
But my last animation was using curve animation (some objects following a curve path) and I noticed that no animation has been exported.
The interesting thing was curve was not exported as well.

I found how to do it.
By following actions below it is possible to export follow path animation.
Object ▶ Animation ▶ Bake Action...
Select "Clear Constrains", "Visual Keying" and "Bake Data" as "Object"
Then click ok.
Now the follow path animation can be exported.


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How to rotate a bone to certain way depending on an other bone?
Lets say there are two separate bones placed as V.
Lets think bottom of V as pivot point.
When I rotate left bone to the left I want to right side of V to be rotate right and vice versa.
I tried several constrains but failed.

If I have this correct you are trying to open and close the V shape using 1 bone. If this is so and the V doesn't perfectly line up with the global axis you are rotating around than first you must see if the local axis of the bones line up.
In Pose Mode go to Object Data Properties  (little green man), go to Viewport Display tab and check Axes (move the Position to get a better look). If either the X axis of Z axis are lined up create a Rotation Constraint on one bone, set the Target and Owner to Local Space and check the Invert for the Local Axis you are rotating around.
This will require you to rotate in Local Mode but if the object only rotates on this one axis then make sure that the control bone is rotation locked to only the axis you want it to use.

There is no Rotation Constrain but using Copy Rotation it could be done. Thank you for inspiration :).


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Collada Export Ruins Armature Animation
I spend some time to find solution but I could not.
There are two pictures below;
1st one from animation runs at blender and the 2nd one from preview application screen shot runs a Collada (dae) export of the same animation.
Why is it so distorted ?

The main cause of deformation armatures's origin and object's origin was not the same point. After I changed their origin as the same point deformation is diminished but not completely disappear.
If I can find more I will update the answer.


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While Using Blender 2.93 with Mac Control C works like Command C
While Using Blender 2.93 with MacBook, Control C works like Command C.
I can not copy location and rotation of an object to an other object.
This is frustrating

Ok Standard Blender :)
1st goto preferences.
2nd Click AddOns.
3rd Click Copy Attributes.
Then you can use Control C
Thanks to the https://youtu.be/f7zF1pjpc74


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How can I merge these selected faces?

I made that shape using boolean modifier and two cylinder.
But two face has been created after modifier has been applied.
I am unable to merge these two faces.
I tried "Dissolve faces" command but it did not work.

I want to do it to simplify the shape. When you want to change height of that edge you have to select both faces for example. Besides, if I import these kind of shapes to my application these separate faces creates unwanted reflections when light etc. applied to the scene. But I must add more edges like you suggested  instead of getting rid of them to get a better views at scenes, hmm.

Incidentally, a Face, in Blender, internally. is defined by a single loop of edges, anticlockwise when looking down the face's normal. So, topologically, wherever a face has a hole, it will have at least one edge connecting the hole to the boundary, to satisfy that condition.

You should delete them and create nice geometry by bridging the edge loops instead(Ctrl+E -> L):

This way you will avoid possible shading errors with automatic triangulation of concave n-gons. You can then select the face loop by Ctrl+ click, or select one face and hit Shift+G->C for selecting Co-planar faces, or you could use select linked flat faces function:

You could assign a shortcut to that by rightclicking it and choosing assign shortcut.

This answer solves my problem not the one considered asked before and answered.

OK, I voted to reopen the question so it's visible to others again since it seems to be useful. It would need more votes to be reopened though. And it sort of looks like a duplicate so it might stay closed, but I am glad my answer helped.


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how should i align the axis to the propeller center in this model.so that i can rotate it in animation

Hello guys,so i want to create a axis which is alligned to the propellor surface.i want to later animate the propellor

possible duplicate of recent https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/92774/how-to-change-the-axis-of-rotation-of-an-object (and probably many other similar)

You can parent your object to an 'empty' object.

Add an empty object (Shift+A > Empty (choose another display type if necessary)
Parent your object to the empty (first select the object, then the empty and press Ctrl+P

Now the Rotation properties of your object can be animated in the empty referential. In my example, just animate the "Z" component and that's it.

Hi,i am not sure where i am going wrong here,perhaps someone can correct me.i am attaching file link here.  https://drive.google.com/open?id=11sUb9iGLNY7-5p4bacM7Yh-fULalVpS3

Your propeller is not oriented along any of the three axis in its local coordinate system. You should reposition it edit mode. Start in object mode, Alt+G Alt+R Alt+S for clearing all transformations. Then enter edit mode, and you will see that the object is in a strange position. Align it to an axis, and repeat the process.
Another solution would be to parent your object to an armature's bone, and to let the bone rotate in pose mode.


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why is my texture repeating after UV unwrapping

after doing node editing and UV unwrapping my texture logo is repeating.i just want a single logo.How can i solve this?

The default when you make an image texture node is "Repeat":

If you set it to "Clip" instead it should only show your texture once

Hope that helps!

Worth noting that this does work, but that the texture and material view will still show the repeating of the texture, while using rendered view will show the correct  mapping of clip.


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Blender Portable 3.2 doesn't look for preferences in the installation directory
When I was using Blender 3.1, my preferences were stored in C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.1\config, which is where they should be for a portable version of Blender.

When I upgraded Blender to 3.2, I copied the config folder from ...\Blender\3.1 to ...\Blender\3.2, but I cannot Blender refuses to look there for the preferences.
Instead, Blender insists upon looking in %appdata%\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.2, even though that directory doesn't exist at all.

How do I get Blender 3.2 to go back to looking where my config info is actually stored?

It's normal behavior that portable program versions stored their data in the user's home directory where they have write permissions. Are you sure 3.1 was a portable version? I wonder why it looks in C:\program files for the preferences because usually the installed version also stores the preferences in the user's home directory.

I guess I'm confused then. Which version of blender keeps the user prefs in the install directory? Because I just tried the installer version, and that one doesn't find my prefs either.


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How do I vertex snap to loose geometry?
It used to be easy to snap to loose vertices, but ever since a few versions of blender ago, it is essentially impossible:

This behavior is consistent in both solid and wire frame mode, with little if any difference in what kinds of verts can be snapped to.
Very occasionally, you can still snap to loose geometry. This usually involves being in wireframe, ortho view, and zooming in as far as it is possible to. You get a circle X icon over the targeted vertex:

How do I change the behavior back to how it was in older versions of Blender?

The issue is probably not with loose geometry per-se, most likely the fact that is overlapping/very close to other geometry. Precision issues will make it appear occluded in solid mode from certain points of view, or far away

Are you talking about vertex which is part of a mesh but not connected to it, or one on a subdivided edge as it looks in your image? - I've found that snapping seems to be more reliable if you have it turned off on the toolbar, hover over the vertex you want to snap to, hit G then the Ctrl key and Enter.

Try with the Snap With Active option enabled, see screenshot below:

Now with the active vertex selected (white vertex in gif below) hit the G key, move the mouse towards the vertex you want to snap to and then hit the Ctrl key to activate the snapping mode.
Example with target vertex in edit mode:

and target vertex in Object mode:

Edit:
Checking with Blender 4.1 is as you indicated, not possible to snap to the loose vertices aligned to an edge:

But perfectly possible with Blender 3.6 :

I have literally the exact same settings and cannot replicate that behavior. To clarify, the problem vertex for me is NOT part of an edge. it is a free-floating vertex that happens to sit on another edge. Is the vertex in the middle of that edge part of the edge, or just sitting on top of it?

The vertex in the middle of the edge was part of the edge. I just tried with loose vertices aligned to an edge and the result is as you indicated in your question. So unfortunately other than temporarily hiding the edge I don't have a solution. I have edited my answer by adding examples in Blender 4.1 and Blender 3.6.


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How do I drive a bone's rotation based on another bone's movement?
I am trying to rig a rack and pinion, where the rack is driven by a piston. I have set up the rack/piston using an IK constraint which targets a bone rotating about the central shaft. The highlighted cyan bone represent the movement of the rack/piston. I would like the small bone at the 3D cursor to rotate with the rack's movement.

The problem I am having is that the location data for that bone is greyed out:

I have tried parenting another bone to the cyan piston bone, which does have usable location data. The problem there is that since the data is relative to parent, all of the values just remain permanently at 0.
I understand the math necessary to convert linear motion into rotation. My problem is that I cannot figure out a way to actually access that linear motion in a usable format to power a driver. How can I do that?

Could you use a transform constraint? Or an action constraint?

Good thought! It turns out this is actually doable with the Transformation Constraint (not to be confused with Copy Transform), mapping Location to Rotation. Brilliant


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Blender: Make seams and UV mapping not working
Im extremely confused as to what is going on with my file and why the seams and uv mapping are not working. can someone help me?
https://youtu.be/DB40DHK7bSU

Can you upload the blend file so I can take a look at it?

One thing I just noticed is that your mesh has a mirror modifier but is still a full mesh. You may want to delete one half of the mesh. That could be the issue.


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How to ensure all headers are at the top of the editors every time
Please let me know if headers can be configured to be at the top all the time with a setting. I have setup all my editors as much as possible to do this and saved my preferences but often it comes back so I would like to know how to banish bottom headers for good.
BTW until we found out how to use screen layouts we found the bottom header defaults unusable and extremely confusing.

This is on the roadmap for 2.8. Happy days.

Script using bpy.ops.screen.region_flip
The following script flips all area headers in all screens in window to top.  To flip to bottom instead change if region.type == 'HEADER' and  not (region.y - area.y): to if region.type == 'HEADER' and (region.y - area.y): ie remove the not.
import bpy

context = bpy.context
c = {}  # override dictionary
window = context.window
c["window"] = window
for screen in bpy.data.screens:
    #window.screen = screen
    c["screen"] = screen
    for area in screen.areas:
        c["area"] = area
        for region in area.regions:
            if region.type == 'HEADER' and  not (region.y - area.y):
                c["region"] = region
                bpy.ops.screen.region_flip(c)

EDIT: note some, and in particular 3D areas, don't flip correctly and stay on bottom, but pro-port to be on top by the "flip to bottom" tooltip in UI. (only the tooltip toggles, not the header)

Thanks I will try this. I did not think of using scripting.

I was recently looking for a solution here and I've found something that works for me. Each new window gets it's header position settings cloned from the window you split it from... Unfortunately the header setting is per editor type (3D view, timeline, etc), not per window. Fortunately though, the window remembers every type's header position setting.
So if I had one window where every editor type was set to header-on-top, any new window cloned from it would get all of those default settings. So here's what I did:

Collapse your layout down to one single window.
Starting with 3D view go through each window type, and move the header to the top.
Once that's finished, you should be able to click through all of your editor types and verify that the headers are all on top.
Rebuild your layout. Since you're cloning from this single master window, each new window should retain all of the type's header positions.

At this point I saved as startup file (ctrl + u).
Note that if you have previously made layouts they won't include these changes. I deleted those and rebuilt what I wanted.
It's a lot of work but I don't have to worry about my headers jumping around anymore.
Hope someone finds this useful.

Once you have the layout the way you like it, just press File > Save Startup File > then confirm OK.

Thanks D. Yes thats what we do today as a workaround. Unfortunately we need screen layouts for everything we do and we don't dare touch the editor setting button once its all configured.

There is unfortunately no way. The default behaviour for new created views is hard coded in the C part. So when you split a view, then the bottom header comes of course back.
The only thing that you can do is to set up your layout, then save it by saving the startup file.

Thanks. Do you know if anyone made a custom version which alters the C code. perhaps a patch is available?

That's mission impossible. We have 18 editors available. And when you need all possible combinations then you end in thousands of different possible builds ^^

Hi. Thanks for the comment. I just want to set the default and I'm not after a matrix of top and bottom settings (which can be done using the saved file). Are you saying it would be 18 patches or that each editor needs to be recoded in some complex way other than changing some define from Bottom_Header to Top_Header. BatFingers answer seemed to imply some odd reporting behavior in the 3d view. Is it something to do with that?

As told, the default behaviour is c code. You would have to change the flags in the c parts, then recompile Blender. - The mentioned behaviour sounds like a bug to me. Maybe somebody should report it ^^

Unfortunately, in 4.02 is this solution by @batFINGER is broken and causes this error:
File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 4.0\4.0\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 106, in __call__
    C_exec, C_undo = _BPyOpsSubModOp._parse_args(args)
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 4.0\4.0\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 60, in _parse_args
    raise ValueError("1-2 args execution context is supported")
ValueError: 1-2 args execution context is supported


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Impossible to cut terrain surface with knife project tool
I am struggling to cut a terrain mesh with several triangles with the knife Project tool.

I defined the auxiliary geometry and selected the two entities, but when I apply the Knife Project button, I cannos see any face selected.

Thank you all in advance.
Best Regards
Jacob

create a face for the cutting shape, how can knife know how it intersects the other shape...?

I've created a face for the cutting shape yet but I didnt get any result.

are you sure the two shapes have different Z levels (in order for "projection" to work)?

The cutting shape is plane, so it should be projected to terrain to make an efective cut?

I attach the link of the file if this can help:https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qHwGinegnqCVw7nbnY3p_2cOQ35Mxxdl

I tried your STL file, imported (and scaled it down to the grid size, about .0001) then recalculated normals (face normals pointing up to +Z).
Then added a simple plane (4 verts, face normal points up to +Z)
Placed the plane somewhat above the STL map

then selected the plane, and after also the map, entered edit mode and from ortho top view uset "knife project":

after hiding the plane:

imho, it should work, in this way...

I have followed your steps carefully. In edit mode, I recalculate the normals in z positive direction for the two entities. Unfortunately, I didn't get any selected face. Anyway, I solved partially my problem by using the boolean modifier. Thank you very much.

Two reasons you can't "K"cut. Normal's are flipped, so try cutting on the other side of the face. And/or the mesh is so dense that the knife can not map to the faces. You need to zoom in to cut from vertex to vertex. Or try a decimation modifier to simplify the geometry.

The mesh have 155000 faces approximately. I've tried to cut in the other side but it stills doesn't make anything.

I also tried to zoom in some faces to cut parts of the mesh, but it still dont know what is failing.

I attach you the link of the stl mesh file if this would help. Thank you. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qHwGinegnqCVw7nbnY3p_2cOQ35Mxxdl


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Replace object's normals with normal map
I baked the normal map in substance painter and it looks fine in substance painter, but when I exported the textures to blender cycles the normal map does not seem to be applied to the model in the same way as substance painter - substance painter seems to ignore the normals of the low poly model, but blender does not.
Is there a way to achieve the same look of the normal map as in substance painter?
model in Substance Painter

model in blender cycles

model in blender view port

this can be eliminated in two ways the simplest and immediate is to set, the angle of smooth to 30 degrees,

or second way is to determine which edges should be planar, but this requires a selection of all edges of planar faces by setting the sharp edges, and adding a layer of custom normal edge.

However, I suggest you also take a look at the manual, where you can better understand these commands.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/modeling/meshes/editing/smoothing.html


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Unexpected result from "bm.faces.new(verts)"
I'm trying to use "faces.new()" to fill a hole in mesh, Strangely when I use the function the newly create face looks like this:

Code:
import bpy, bmesh

obj = bpy.context.object.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(bpy.context.active_object.data)

v = [v for v in bm.verts if v.select]

bm.faces.new(v)
bmesh.update_edit_mesh(obj)

Thanks in advance.

Check the normals and directions of the normals. Recalculate if needed with Ctrl+N whilst on edit mode

@ReubenX Checked the normals and recalculated it, but no difference.

The contextual create operator.
Rather than calculate the winding order to create face with bm.faces.new(verts) let the operator do it for you.
bmesh.ops.contextual_create

Contextual Create.
This is basically F-key, it creates new faces from vertices, makes
  stuff from edge nets, makes wire edges, etc. It also dissolves faces.
Three verts become a triangle, four become a quad. Two become a wire
  edge.

import bpy
import bmesh

ob = bpy.context.edit_object
me = ob.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

verts = [v for v in bm.verts if v.select]
bmesh.ops.contextual_create(bm, geom=verts)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)

The order that vertices are listed when defining the face, determines the order that they are connected. This tutorial can help explain it.
Say we have four vertices to make a face, with indexes of 0,1,2,3 going clockwise.
bm.faces.new([v[0], v[1], v[3], v[2]])

will give you the bowtie effect that you have, while
bm.faces.new([v[0], v[1], v[2], v[3]])

will give you the square face you are expecting.
I expect the only way to automate this is to walk around the selection to determine the connected order. A vertex lists what edges it creates in link_edges, from vert[0] an edge that includes another selected vert gives you the second vert, then that vert has an edge with another selected vert...


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How to add hair particle to ocean modifier?
I'm trying to add hair particles system to ocean (so hair will move with the ocean movement) but I realized that I need to bake the ocean before doing that. Can somebody have some tip how to do this?
Thanks for answers!

Why baking animation of Ocean modifier is necessary? Simple add Particle System modifier below the Ocean one in stack and enable Use Modiifer stack in particle system options.


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Scene went black after pressing Ctrl + H

I was just working on my minecraft scene and I accidentally pressed ctrl+h and it went all black, does anyone know how to fix?

@cegaton maybe this should better be an answer not an comment? :)


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Materials don't work when switching from Cycles Render to Blender Game

I created an object and I have created a material under the Cycles Render while using material viewport shading. If I switch to Blender Game Engine, this is what I see

My question is how do I solve this and return the object back to the way it was in Blender Game Engine?

The Cyles engine is different than the Blender Game Engine and you can only have textures from Cycles into BGE(not exactly the same but similar quality) by baking them. (Search baking textures)
You can just go back to see your material by changing the top from Game Engine to Cycles Engine.


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Switching to different animations does not work
For some weird reason I am in my walk pose.

But when I am in my running post, as you can see it has changed.

But for some reason he is still doing the walking animation, he is not running, nor are the other animations working. He is just walking, I don't know why is this happening?

could you please share your file? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Hi I have uploaded it

If I open your file, open a Dopesheet window, switch it to Action Editor mode, I can go from an action to another and it works fine, it changes the action of the armature in the 3D view, so I'm not sure what's the problem...

HI, thanks for having a look at this. So when you changed from walking to running, on the dope sheet it does change to running but when I play it its still walking, not running. Is the same happening to you? What version of Blender are you using cause I am using Blender 2.8?

it's the 2019-05-22 version, yes I don't see any problem

How do I change to a running animation, I did that it is not working at all, I don't know what is wrong? Tell me all the steps you do to change to a running animation?


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Creating polygon from vertices alorithm
Is there somebody who can describe a theory behind creating quads from pointcloud(vertices) in blender python ? Is the only way to check length betweeen vertices like:
(theory)
for i = number of vertices :
 for y = number of vertices :
  if (length between vertex(i) and vertex(y)) < (set number):
  add y to array
 create quad from array #but i dont know how to say dont use the vertex where are more than 5 edges ...

But maybe whole my thinking about the problem is bad ... can somebody help me with it? Or maybe there are more elegant mathematical solution - i dont know.

There's too many, search for "3d convex hull algorithms".

Thank you, I didn't even know, how to ask uncle google.

Ok, sorry, I tried to look at many themes about 3D convex hull but I can't use it for blender and the vertices. I am too weak scripter for that I think. Can you provide me some better advice, please? (prosim pekne)


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How to control the visibility of many planes with a single material and different images
I am rather new in blender - (max and maya before) And I would like to create lets say a 50 planes with the same material but with a different image source file. And then, joint every plane´s "visibility" to controller.
So, if I set 1 on slider then i will see only first plane, 2 - second etc.
My problem is I dont fully understand, where can I find some kind of this "visibility" for objects - or whole opacity. (where I would like to set some expressions). And Of course best is some kind of material solution, where i only change number of input - but as I said, i dond know what I can ask to uncle google.
Ps: The source image files are very big - like 5000x5000px so I cant only moving uvs with one big image.
Thank you very much.

Why so complicated? Can't you add the images as a sequence and then just keyframe? What are you trying to achieve here?

I am trying to make a 2d puppet with 8 handcrafted sides. And I need to switch with slider every view. And every view has its own rig. (head, torso, legs, hands .. etc)

I haven't done it before but I'm sure you could achieve this with drivers somehow - this answer may get you close... https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57732/increase-transparency-in-animation-for-all-materials

Thank you for answers. I can use both cycle and blender render, because its research if the blender can handle this task. I trying to make the puppet and then automatization the processes for changing source files > to changle puppet character. Its little bit complex task, but step by step i am trying to solve all the problems what I found. Now its the "transparency" problem :)


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Is there any possibility to adding a value beside expression in driven property?
Is there any possibility to adding a value beside expression in driven property? Formulas would be only in drivers window or not?
If I need add expression like:
self.location[0]+object.location[1]

< both value dependant

A shortcut to entering driver expressions is to start with a # - so entering #frame*0.1 will create a driver expression that sets the value to 1/10th of the current frame. You can then edit drivers using the graph editor in driver mode.
Using the # prefix works for some things that are available globally, like the current frame and some math functions - sin(), log(), noise.random() etc. To get a driver to depend on a transform channel or property, whether it is it's own property or another objects, you create driver variables and use them in your expression.

To see a full list of functions available within drivers, enter bpy.app.driver_namespace.keys() into blenders python console.
You can also define your own functions and add them to the driver namespace as shown here.

Thank you sambler, but this is not what I ask. Problem is that, if I have some expression in property I would like controll the property (animator) even the property is purple (default expresion color) but if i want to set some number it give me only expression as i show in my main question. So I would like to freely controll "expresioned" property without see the expression, only number.

@mrl you can't have both, you either use a driver that calculates the value or you manually keyframe the value. Note that you can have a driver read multiple custom properties that you can manually adjust. You can also create your own function which could use a custom property except on frame 125 where it calculates from other sources. You can also enter an expression without the # prefix and it will only be calculated at that time, but you are still limited to what properties you can access.

Thank you sabler. I asked because with expressions in after Effects it is possible. And I would like round the number I set. In blender I must use other options then.

@sambler I appreciate your insight, I've used drivers for years and never picked up on this method of input. Awesome nugget.

Yes you can...
You have to have an empty driver 1st... (Via manually create later single)
Then you have to use a slightly different format, but it works...
I have a cube named 'c1' & 'c2':
I added the following line to the "z" location for 'c1' and hit enter.
3.0 + bpy.data.objects['c2'].location[2]

It worked!

The problem with this though, is that it does not update, when you change the z position of 'C2', you have to enter back into the 'z' location property of 'C1' and hit enter to force the update.

Thank you, can you please post preent creen of "You have to have an empty driver 1st... (Via manually create later single)" Because I dont understand what you mean. And the value of property will controll some animator, so i would like have only value in Z-location - nothing else. < it must be animable


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Expand vertex group by texture aplha
I would like to ask how to expand or erode vertex group which is setting by alpha of texture. If there are non-destructive system it will be best. Thank you very much.

I'm not exactly sure what your asking but you could use a displacement modifier with a texture attached. Then extrude all the vertices out and delete them. If that's what your asking.

I would like somethink like this: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/76497/dilate-expand-vertex-color-mask
but with vertex group.
I cant select vertexes by alpha and then expand the selection ...
A) maybe it can  be done with alpha itself, but i dont know how to joint compositing erode/diletate node to txture slot.
B) or I must use vertex weight edit then collapse it(apply) and after that select vertices by edit mode > select vertext group and psuh ctrl and +. But i would like to find more automated or controlled solution.

I'd suggest add that to your question @MRL

You can use a vertex weight edit modifier, modulated by a texture specified in the modifier; with the texture set up to use an image.  I'm not sure exactly what you're after, so I couldn't tell you more-- just that it sounds like that's what you should be looking at.


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Vertex vs texture map
I am trying to select a model vertex by the textures alpha trough the python.
But I cant figure out relationship between meshes vertex, uv-vertex and texture´s pixel rgba information. Can you help me with this please ?

So, after some time with the research i found the answers. It is for beginners like me, so pros please correct my mistakes if i have some. (From noob to noobs :D - for better understaning the fundamentals)
I am trying to made 2D puppet in blender, so mainly I created plane or grid and textures. Its not for a complex 3d puppet and materials.
A) Vertices + mesh
- Vertices have index and [0,0,0] is the pivot point. Default in the middle of object.
There are awesome addon for vizualize numbers of vertices for better control:
https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/3D_interaction/Index_Visualiser
code to find coordinations of vertices:
import bpy
obj=bpy.context.active_object
x=obj.data.vertices[0].co[0] #X
y=obj.data.vertices[0].co[1] #Y
z=obj.data.vertices[0].co[2] #Z
print("X:"+repr(x) +" Y:"+repr(y) +" Z:"+repr(z))

If we want to use infromation from vertexes for image and pixels, we need recalculate ratio position of the vertices. (0-1 from dimensions * scale)
For separate dimension from scale I must applied scale. In that case dimensions are setting as you choose but scale is reset to default 1.
Next stage is to move axis of coordination system for vertexes to the left-down corner, because imaxe X,Y coords is the same.
import bpy
obj=bpy.context.active_object
dimension = obj.dimensions
for i in range(len(obj.data.vertices)):
    a = []
    axis = [-(dimension[0]/2),-(dimension[1]/2),0]
    a.append(obj.data.vertices[i].co[0] * obj.scale[0] - axis[0])     # X
    a.append(obj.data.vertices[i].co[1] * obj.scale[1] - axis[1])     # Y
    a.append(obj.data.vertices[i].co[2] * obj.scale[2] - axis[2])     # Z
    print(a)

Calculate the ratio is very easy now (everything is for the plane object):
    ratio_verts = []
    ratio_verts.append(a[0]/(dimension[0]))
    ratio_verts.append(a[1]/(dimension[1]))
    ratio_verts.append(0.0)

Challenge of this small research was to understang how is a PNG works it is the format which carry RGBA infromation. So at the begining I discovered that for 3x3 size of picture python give me 36 numbers. I was very confusing about that, because I though that every pixel have its own index and then under index are the information about RGBA.
import bpy
image = "Test.png"
print(bpy.data.images[image].pixels)
It was mistake, PNG RGBA infromation is saved like numbers in line. [1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0...] And how it works? Like this! [1R,1G,1B,1A,2R,2G,2B,2A,3R,3G,3B,3A...] 4 numbers next other for 1 pixel information. Yes, I know, I was dumb that I dont know it, but I never trying working with the pixels trough python.
So there are really nice maths about converting coordinates to this system :)
From coordination of pixel like X:3px Y:3px to number of the pixel in line.
like:
I created an function:
def sourxy(x,y,image_name,start):
    imgX = bpy.data.images[image_name].size[0]
    PXindex = (y*imgX)-(imgX-x)
    return PXindex-1+start

when X and Y os coordination for searhed pixel.
image_name > its name of my mum :D No, of course name of the image.
And start is number if the start index (0 or 1 often) for next maths.
For some reasons maybe you would like to use recalc for X and Y:
x = PXindex + imgX - (y*imgX)
y = PXindex/imgX)+((imgX-x)/imgX

Perfect, I though, i am almost done. Byt computer says : nooooooo !
I finded problem between recalc coordinaion of the vertexes and the pixels. Vertexes have coords like [0,0], [0,1], [0,2] and its not only 9 vertices it can be like 100*100 vertices for more dense planes.
So if i rounded ratio to integers. I had coords of pixels on image without any color. Its every border down and left vertex.
Solution was simple function:
def imground(n):
    if n==0.0:
        return 1
    else: return math.ceil(n)

From vertex coords to imagme coords by vertex ratio between position and dimensions is like:
imageX=imground(bpy.data.images[image].size[0]*ratio_verts[0])
imageY=imground(bpy.data.images[image].size[1]*ratio_verts[1])

That give me right coords without zero.
From that stage its pretty simply, we need alpha exact pixel. But every pixel have 4 numbers so it need to be miltiplied by 4. And then we know that 4th number is the Alpha we found.
VertexAlpha =bpy.data.images[image].pixels[sourxy(imageX,imageY,image,0)*4+3]

So every vertex which have alpha more than 0 assign to first vertex group:
if VertexAlpha > 0:
        vrx_grp.append(i)
obj.vertex_groups[0].add(vrx_grp,1.0,"REPLACE")
vrx_grp=[]

# get all the verts that belong to a certain vertex group index:
vg_idx = 0
vs = [ v for v in obj.data.vertices if vg_idx in [ vg.group for vg in v.groups ] ]
print("vertex_group inside: " + repr(vs))

last part of code is from: Python - Finding Vertices in a Vertex Group
And Last part of question was UV vertex. For me and the puppet project its not usable, because every vertex in uv can hold multiple coordinations. It is because Many parts of unwrapping. And trough the vertex can be created line of the seam.


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white edge around objects with alpha - cycles
I had a problem with white edges around my materials, especialy with trees like this. And yes I tried every solution what I found there and on google.(alpha-straight,progressive..etc) The texture is in .tiff with alpha channel.

After a while I found that problem is the .tiff format.
The solution is very simply resave the .tiff to .png with transparency.


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proxy - linked system
I am wondering how the proxy system is working. I have few questions:
A) If I have a riged model and make proxy in other blend file the controllers. Then I update the rig and adding controllers - the linked file will be updated with new controllers ? Even the old-one are proxies?
B) Is there some possibility to change the linked blend file from example from Rig_version_01 to Rig_version_02 without damage the completed animation ?
C) Can I freely changing and animating the textures if they are driven by custom property trough proxy ? (like changing mix node fac)
Thank you very much


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image texture node - Image sequence control by slider
Is there a way, how to change images from image sequence by slider or driver?

I founded the solution, its alittle bit tricky and not fully suported at this time, but.
A) Set a driver to offset in Image texture node set to image sequence:

B) Create an object or custom property, but object responce was better for me, and write #frame to any slider (Z scale in my situation) and tap enter > it create a driver.

C) In offset driver find the scale value from object you set in and the value where is set your image number it must be integer so I rounded it. And voila.
Pros: It can be done.
Cons: In viewport - refresh image is not fully working after change the slider - you can see right result only in render view.
In blender 2.80 it is not working at all. But I hope it will be. I am looking forward to make sume flat puppets and re-drawing the phases of hands and faces trough grease pencil it will be awesome.

Why do you just not put -frame in Expression?

when I tried the solution -frame was somekind bugged in expression


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is it possible that python .add_driver command cant create f-curve?
If I created a constraint on some bone, in pose mode - let's say Copy Location. And then manually created a driver on the influence (right mouse button > Add Driver), the f-curve with 2 points was created. No problem

But after the same operation, on the same bone  and property, but with python command bpy.data.objects["Armature"].pose.bones["some_bone"].constraints["Copy Location"].driver_add("influence")
the f-curve wasn't created, do I miss something?

I found the problem, with the python command .add_driver the generator modifier is automatically generated (m.f.!).

If you want rid of it, you can use
mod = bpy.data.objects["Armature"].animation_data.drivers[0].modifiers[0]
bpy.data.objects["Armature"].animation_data.drivers[0].modifiers.remove(mod)


text:
Mesh does not move along with bones
I'm kind of new to this, I was following this tutorial and everything was going fine until I tried to move the character in pose mode, FK wasn't doing anything and I don't know what's wrong
I'm using blender 2.79
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-7uITyf-_iHMQ-U5oiSZ8TdnqtNF1msP

This slider decides if IK will move the arms, or FK (and it can be animated).

That did it  but I noticed it is also moving the clothes, is it because of the weight paint?

Yes, select in edit mode the vertices that have unwanted movements and paint out their unwanted assignements. See this question for details on how to see the weights and how to delete them. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/95245/left-hand-isnt-deforming-even-though-its-properly-weight-painted/95286#95286


text:
Render Farms: Blender 'Network Render' Vs Multiple Computers + 'Place Holder' / Network Path
Just a quick question --
I'm wanting to setup a small 'render farm' for an animation I'm working on.
There's a tutorial here on building and configuring one, which uses the network render plugin.
Alternatively, there's another I saw here that looks at using a network save location, and setting up individual computers with the scene + assets all rendering different frames of the animation, and it uses a method to check if a frame has already been rendered.
The 'network render' makes the most sense (apart from some additional setup) - however, feels more straight-forward as compared to the second method.
I was just wondering: is there any difference between the two, or are they essentially achieving the same thing? (I know, logically, it would seem it's the same thing, but I am curious if there's anything else taking place "under the hood" that could be of more benefit one way or another).
Thanks!

You should also checkout https://www.flamenco.io/ , which is used in blender cloud.


text:
Hinge locked clockwise?
Trying to setup some mechanics in Blender, I ran into a "challenge". I've used a hinge to setup at gear, so that it only rotates around it's z-axis - simple. But one of my gears should only be able to rotate clockwise. I can't find out how to lock a hinge rotation direction - Is it possible?
Trying to find another solution a tried to add a bar, hinged in one end, acting like a stop block. Now I would have loved this hinge to "auto close" (return to zero like loaded with a spring) But I can't find any info about this being possible either.
I've also tried to connect the bar and gear with a generic spring. This almost did the trick, but not 100% because the bar is to jumpy though bounciness is 0 on both elements. Besides hinge locking on the gear itself, seems like a far easier way then moddeling a one-way gear.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I have no experience with bone rigging, so I don't know if this would be a better way? Nor python, if this is the way to lock z-axis direction on a hinge..?

Have you tried a Limit Rotation constraint?

David do you mean "Limits:" under the Hinge constraint? Because this I have tried. Thought Lower = 0, Upper = 360 or Lower = -360, Upper = 0  could have worked that way. But no luck..
Or is "Limit Rotation constraint" a whole other constraint that can be bound to a Hinge constraint?

I believe you'd run a script at each frame that updates the Z-axis limit.
That way it can only go forward, 'cuz the limit will keep inching along with it's current rotation.

Something along the lines of this, but I'm not a pro at event handlers.
I got that bit of info from: How to make python script check some value every frame

Code as text, https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/285551/why-not-upload-images-of-code-errors-when-asking-a-question.

Also, I'd like to point out, it might be easier to accomplish in the Blender Game Engine.  You can set the Z-axis to increment every time an object collides with the gear.
This might not achieve the level of realism you're going for.  I don't know what the required render output is.
If you're just going for a simple animation, this should be fine.

Thanks for your comment - I'll keep that in mind. I'm just playing around with som mechanical gears and though it would be easier for me to model it in blender then in real life ;-)


text:
Does Blender use Automatic Tweening/Animation?
I'm entering into a competition and one of the rules states No Automatic Animation Software.
I just started using Blender and plan to use it more.
Now, I don't know if I have lost several days worth of work, or if I merely need to unmark a checkbox.

The animation features of Blender relies heavily on keyframes and different kinds of interpolation between those. So yes, Blender does indeed use "Automatic Tweening" (but not always as cegaton mentions in the comments).
At least if "tweening" is defined as in this Wikipedia article.

Failing clarification from the contest organiser, it's a matter of interpreting the words. "Automatic Animation Software" could mean motion capture such as X-box Kinect. Blender could not be considered to be automatic in that respect. Interpolation could be ok since you needed to input the keyframes yourself to interpolate between them.


text:
Blender 2.79 interface freeze
I've experienced a pretty unusual error. An issue I cannot explain enough to find it on Google. The error goes like this. When Blender starts, everything looks fine, the console shows up for a moment, and then the main window appears. But, while normally the gray background quickly changes to normal Blender interface, in my case, it stays gray. Now, it's getting weirder. When I move the window or resize it, window updates. When I click on something inside the interface nothing happens unless I move/resize the window which triggers the update of the interface.
I have no idea what is happening.
In case if needed I attach my spec-sheet:
Dell Inspiron Inspiron 5558; Intel Core i3-5005U 2GHz; Intel HD Graphics 5500;

Clearly an issue with your GPU or graphics card driver. Intel Cards are well known for low performance and graphics glitches. Update your graphics drivers to the latest available version, if that doesn't help I'm afraid youl have to purchase a better one.

Well, that's weird, because it was working fine for over a year, and now suddenly decided not to cooperate with me. Is it possible to maybe downgrade graphics drivers?

Depends, it generally is. Just download the desired version and install over the current. Have you recently made any hardware changes to the computer, or updated or upgraded your operating system? It may also be a symptom of poor health or dying hardware.

No, I haven't done anything to my laptop. It's less than 2 years! How can it be dying so fast! Fortunately, I'll get an Eve V eventually in like January/February, so hopefully, my Dell will last until that day.

Alright, I've worked out a solution by accident. It is a pretty unusual situation because actually, I have no idea why that solution was valid.
Solution: Switch from high contrast theme to a normal one in Windows.
For some reason, the Blender interface was unresponsive while Windows is in high contrast mode. When changed to a normal theme, everything is working just fine.

Hidden feature of the Windows

Please write a detailed bug report about this at https://developer.blender.org


text:
How can you fix the blurryness of pictures in Blender Render?

I really need help with this, and the image when rendered is really blurry.

It is not clear what you are asking, and we can't really help without more info. Please edit your question and clarify what the issue is, and post some relevant info like render settings, materials node setup, screenshots of the issue, etc.

That kind of noise is usually caused by things such as ambient occlusion or indirect lighting. Go to your world settings and at the bottom and in the Gather panel (assuming you have Raytrace enabled) increase the samples. This will increase render times but should smooth things out.


text:
Grow vertex group - withnout ops
Can you help me with simplyfy this code please? I used operations, but some skillfull user wrote that is not so good idea.
def grow_sel(Aobject,num):
    Aobject.vertex_groups.active = Aobject.vertex_groups[0]
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='DESELECT')
    bpy.ops.object.vertex_group_select()
    for i in range(1,num):
        bpy.ops.mesh.select_more()
    bpy.ops.object.vertex_group_assign()
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='MASK')
    bpy.context.object.modifiers["Mask"].vertex_group = obj.vertex_groups[0].name
    return("growing completed")

My take on this.
Sometimes it's more trouble than it's worth to completely avoid operators. Given the nature of this method I can't imagine you will be running it in a loop hundreds of times.  Adding a modifier I would always use the API method. Selecting and assigning vertex groups using the operator is often the go, but you are constricted by the need to be in a certain mode for context.
Here's a method to do same, but with no operators. Can get the object from the vertex group, so that's all I pass to the method with: the number of times to grow the vertex group; and the name of the mask modifier so we don't end up adding modifiers endlessly to the stack.
I'm using a bmesh, for the ease of finding the linked faces for each vertex.
Test code, run in object mode with a mesh object having a vertex group,  as context object.
import bpy
import bmesh

def mask_and_grow(vg, num=1, modname="Mask"):
    ob = vg.id_data
    mod = ob.modifiers.get(modname) or ob.modifiers.new(modname, type='MASK')
    mod.vertex_group = vg.name
    me = ob.data
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh(me)
    bm.verts.ensure_lookup_table()
    def ingroup(vg, v):
        vert = me.vertices[v.index] # use either bm or me
        return vg.index in [vg.group for vg in vert.groups]

    def grow(v):
        return (v for f in v.link_faces
                for v in f.verts
                if not ingroup(vg, v))

    vg_verts =  (bm.verts[v.index] for v in me.vertices
            if ingroup(vg, v))
    for i in range(num):
        # only need to look at extended next time
        vg_verts = list(set(v for g in [grow(vgv) for vgv in vg_verts] for v in g))
        vg.add([v.index for v in vg_verts],
                1.0,
                'REPLACE')
    #me.update()
    bm.free()

# test call
ob = bpy.context.object
vg = ob.vertex_groups.active
mask_and_grow(vg, num=2)

Thank you batFINGER, I need do this 70times per puppet. (cut out puppet). Because I using parts of the puppet on the grid or plain.

Every phase of ..mouth or hand, for example, is 5k*5k high for zooming the scene. And i think, if you move the uv there can be some errors with motion blur or not ?


text:
Non-linear Shape Key without key frames
I want to make data-driven facial animation based on FACS (Facial Action Coding System). I know that you can set a Shape Key to for example create a smile, however, as far as I understand, the model changes in a linear fashion from base model to the morph target. The deformation of a human face however happens in a non-linear fashion. Some wrinkles of a smile only appear when you stretch your mouth to the maximum. It would be weird that wrinkles already slightly appear when the Shape Key value is 0.1.
One way to create this effect is by setting key frames, but then it becomes an animation. My data, however, comes from facial motion capture. I still want to be able to export the model to e.g. Unity 3D, where I assign a value between 0 and 1 to every shape key for the desired facial expression.
Is there a way to have 1 Shape Key to have 2 or more target morphs? E.g. between values 0.0-0.2 it targets morph 1, between 0.2-0.7 morph 2, and between 0.7-1.0 morph 3. Or another way to achieve the above described effect without animation (that can be exported)?


text:
3D Manipulator Axis Constraints not working
I am a Blender newbie, working through the manual trying to learn modeling. I have found that when I create a new document (reload Startup file), the block object appears with the 3D manipulator showing, and when I click and drag on any of the three arrows, the movement of the block is constrained to the appropriate axis, as I would expect.
But, when I load my working document with some objects I've been playing with, the manipulators do NOT constrain the motion when I drag any of the arrows. The behavior is exactly like I'm clicking inside the white circle, but I'm definitely clicking well outside of it.
I can't seem to find any setting or mode difference that I can change to get the manipulators to work properly. Any ideas as to what obscure mode or setting I could change to restore the axis constraining behavior?
Nothing I have read in the manual suggests that there's any mode or option setting that would disable the automatic axis constraints when you drag on a manipulator arrow.
One possible clue is that I am modeling small objects just a few cm across, whereas the new document's default block is 2m across. Could my issue be caused by zooming in too far?
I have found other ways to accomplish the same axis-constrained moves, but I'd really like to use the 3d manipulator handles, and I'd like to understand why they're not working in my file.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Is it possible you could upload a file demonstrating this behavior?

I found the problem. I'm not sure I have all the exact details, but in essence, the problem had to do with the scaling and dimensions within my model file. I mentioned that the behavior I saw was as though I was clicking inside the white circle. My model was imported from an STL file where the size of the largest object was about 6cm across. In order to get the sizes to look right, I made the following settings, which led to the problem:
1) In the properties panel (the "N" window), I set the Scale to 0.001 for each object in the model
2) In the Properties Editor (not the N window), on the Scene tab, I set Unit Scale to 1.0.
The solution I found was to reset the individual object scale values to 1.0, and then under Properties>Scene, I set the Unit Scale to 0.001. After making this change, the net size of things on the screen is the same, but Blender seems happier dealing with objects at 1.0 scale rather than .001 scale, and the 3D manipulator now works as expected. This is probably the more correct way to do things, and I learn best by example, so I'll remember this. I just wonder if maybe there's a bug in Blender because it seems that the effective size of the little white circle in the middle of the 3D manipulator is larger than the size on screen, like it's not following the object scale properly. Anyway, I hope my answer helps others at some point. :-)

I had same problem. What helped me was to increase start value in clip setting of view tab (panel you toggle with N) from 1mm to 1 cm.
Hope this helps someone.


text:
How do I mathematically create a set of vertexes in Blender, or import them?
Say I have external program-code, or spreadsheet,
that gives me the exact locations of vertexes for an aircraft's surfaces, e.g.,
and I need to create a mesh in Blender that has those vertexes,
not approximations of them.
My vertexes are roughly equi-angular to each other,
so at the leading-edge of the airfoils, the vertexes are dense,
but over the latter 1/3rd of the airfoils, the vertexes are less-dense.
I need to create meshes in Blender that have their vertexes exactly where my external program has placed them.
How do I get my thousands of vertexes, calculated externally, into Blender?
Do I create code in Blender Python that replicates my external code,
therefore creating the vertexes within Blender Python?
If so, how?  (showing me how to create an octagon of vertexes, in python, would give me enough, I think )
Do I use nodes to create the curves and then turn them into meshes?
Again, if so, how? (ditto with the octagon)
Or is there some way I can import a csv, or something, of my actual/calculated vertexes ( down to 0.1mm, say ), into Blender and have the vertexes appear, ready for connecting with edges, using a topology tool?
I've simply no idea where to begin, on this.
I do not want to by-hand model a sorta-looks-right representation:
I want the exact curves, the exact calculated geometry, gotten from my external program's results into Blender, even if that means replicating my code in Python.
I hope this makes more sense, & thank you for telling me my 1st version didn't, btw.
leaving 1st-version here, so people can understand other perspective on my problem:
Say I need to have an ellipse, or an egg,
and need to have all the angles between the vertexes be 4°, e.g.
or between 1.75-2°.
Obviously, the lengths of the edges between them are going to be all different.
How do I get from the math describing the curve,
to having a curve made of edges, all equi-angular?
Nodes or python?
Or is there some way to do the calculations outside Blender (preferred, in my case) and just import a csv, or something, identifying all the vertexes?
I want to code (outside of Blender) some mathematical forms,
(airfoils included) then get those into blender, as meshes, somehow,
and don't mind implementing both outside of Blender (where my real project is) & inside blender, but I simply don't even know where to begin.
I've seen no way of using math to create such curve-meshes in Blender.

This is probably a question better asked in a geometry / mathematics forum. As stated the problem is unclear and attempts to solve it, even in 2d are going to often fail because an equiangular approximation of a closed curve may not be possible for various ranges of angles.

You should provide more context and explain why you want to achieve this in order to avoid xy problem kind of situation.

Look at the Wavefront.obj or AC3D file formats both are fairly simple text-based formats. Some time ago I wrote a parser for the USAF Digital Datcom that wrote out an AC3D model based on the FORTRAN input card decks. There is a copy of the AC3D importer on my GitHub.
It would also be fairly trivial to write a basic importer for a CSV point list. Here is the Blender specific code with an example default cube hard coded in:

import bpy

collection=bpy.context.collection # the active collection

verts = [
( 1, 1, 1),
( 1, 1,-1),
( 1,-1, 1),
( 1,-1,-1),
(-1, 1, 1),
(-1, 1,-1),
(-1,-1, 1),
(-1,-1,-1),
]

faces = [
(0, 1, 3, 2),
(4, 5, 7, 6)
]

meshName = "Example Point Cloud"
mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new(meshName)
obj = bpy.data.objects.new(meshName, mesh)
collection.objects.link(obj)

mesh.from_pydata(verts, [], faces) # verts, edges, faces

Your task would be simply to populate the verts list by reading the tuples in from a CSV file and then skinning the object. If you don't have faces, just pass an empty list [] into from_pydata()

You could make dense geometry with very small edge angles and use Limited dissolve to remove vertices based on angle. This way you can set maximum angle the edges of your mesh may have.


text:
Discrepancy in text object sizes?
I'm writing a Python script that is pretty sensitive to the x-size ("length") of text objects created with the function text_add(). (I'm also new to Blender and still very confused about where the standard output from the Text Editor goes; some people mention it should go to "the console", but it definitely doesn't go to my Python Console inside Blender - and I'm using version 2.79 - so the following code sample reflects this confusion).
Problem: a text object displaying 30 Is (capital I) is not six times longer than a similar text object displaying 5 Is - it's much longer. I'm running the script from the Text Editor, but it shows the same results from the Python Console. Since I don't know how to show these values in some Blender window (see above) I had to rig the example so it shows them in other text objects. The two text objects (the "short" and the "long" one) are renamed to T1/T2 after creation. Two "control" text objects (T1_Ctl/T2_Ctl) display the x-size ("length") of T1/T2. The following code could be run after loading the default blend file, deleting the cube, and opening a Text Editor window.
import bpy
# Set the scene units to millimeters and set the grid to a reasonable size
bpy.context.scene.unit_settings.system = 'METRIC'
bpy.context.scene.unit_settings.scale_length = 0.001
for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if (area.type == 'VIEW_3D'):
        area.spaces.active.grid_scale = 0.01

# Add a "short" text object
bpy.ops.object.text_add(radius=7, location=(-60, 14, 0), rotation=(0, 0, 0))
obj = bpy.data.objects['Text']
obj.name = 'T1'
obj.data.body = 'IIIII'  # 5 Is
# Add a "long" text object (presumably 6 times longer)
bpy.ops.object.text_add(radius=7, location=(-60, 0, 0), rotation=(0, 0, 0))
obj = bpy.data.objects['Text']
obj.name = 'T2'
obj.data.body = 'IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'  # 30 Is
# Control text object - shows the length of the "short" text object
bpy.ops.object.text_add(radius=7, location=(0, 14, 0), rotation=(0, 0, 0))
obj = bpy.data.objects['Text']
obj.name = 'T1_Ctl'
obj.data.body = str(bpy.data.objects['T1'].dimensions.x)
# Control text object - shows the length of the "long" text object
bpy.ops.object.text_add(radius=7, location=(0, 0, 0), rotation=(0, 0, 0))
obj = bpy.data.objects['Text']
obj.name = 'T2_Ctl'
obj.data.body = str(bpy.data.objects['T2'].dimensions.x)

After running the script, the length of the short text object is reported as 7.686, while the length of the long text object shows as 51.436 (6.7 times longer), which means the longer text is almost 7 times, not 6 times longer.
Does anybody know what's happening here? Where is this extra "padding" coming from? How can I get an accurate length of a text object?

Suggest using obj = context.object to reference an object after an operator that creates a new object and sets it to context.  Do you get same result when  font fixed width and proportional?

I think I know what's happening. In the long string there are indeed 6 groups of 5 Is, so my assumption was that the length of the long string should be 6 times the length of the short one. But the long string also contains 5 extra inter-character spaces. I think that if I set the inter-character spacing to zero, the length of the long string will become exactly 6 times the length of the short one, which would be re-assuring, because it would prove that there is no discrepancy (just false expectations on my side). I'll try to do this tomorrow and I'll post the code changes here if it works.

Open up the console first, that is where your text editor output goes.

The reason for the discrepancy is the inter-character spacing (obj.data.space_character, where obj is the long text object). There are 5 additional inter-character spaces in the long text object, and if I add them to the short string length x 6 then the lengths almost match. There is still a small discrepancy (of 0.06 mm/batch of 5 Is) which I can't explain, but it's so small that it can be safely ignored for the purpose of this exercise.


text:
What is the radius parameter in text_add()?
I'm using Blender 2.79. The Python function bpy.ops.object.text_add() has an optional parameter named radius, which doesn't seem to have been there in older versions.
I tried values between 0 and 40000 and the text object generated looks the same.
The documentation is not very helpful - the description for this parameter is "Radius".
Does anybody know what this parameter is intended to do, and if it works at all at this time? (I was secretely hoping that it would align the text along a circle with the specified radius, but so far I can't get it to do anything.)

Ensure you use a float type number. If working correctly it will set the font size.

That's correct, it works properly now. Thank you for the clarification.


text:
Align text on the inside of a circle
I'm trying to create a round object similar to a coin, where there are two text strings, one above the head - referred to here as the top text - and the other below the head - referred to as the bottom text (take an American quarter for example). Both the top text and the bottom text are right side up when the head is positioned properly, so they are both easy to read without rotating the coin.
Assuming that both text objects are aligned along a circle (follow a circle in Blender parlance), the top text must have the bottom of its characters toward the center of the circle, while the bottom text must have the top of its characters toward the center of the circle.
I can create and center easily the top text, by telling the text object to follow the circle and then rotating around the z axis depending on the length of the text. But I can't figure out how to create the bottom text. Without any other processing, round text rotated to the bottom will be upside down. I tried to turn the original text either upside down or right-to-left before rotating around the z axis, but after the final rotation I obtain the same result - the text is upside down and right-to-left.
I can't figure out a way to create this text that is right side up and has the top of its characters pointing to the center of the guiding circle. Has anyone done something like this? Is there maybe another way to do it?
(Note: the title line is slightly misleading but I used it for brevity - I don't necessarily care to have the bottom text inside the guiding circle, it can be on the outside as long as it is right side up and can be read naturally, just like the bottom text on an American quarter.)

I think what you're after is the "curve" modifier.

I have the same issue. Curve modifier deforms the text, I need to use "Text on curve" for this but I can't get the text the way he's describing. I think it might have to do with the origin.

This has probably been solved a long time ago. But I just encountered this problem now and stumbled on the answer somehow.
If you want text to appear on the inside of the circle, you have to enter Edit mode and transform the bezier curve 180 deg along the x axis.


text:
What shortcut for repeating inset plane?
I'm a new. How to repeat inset mesh/plane couple of times like that:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m6ltsz1szsmr62k/how%20repeat%20plane.gif?dl=0

[Shift-R] repeats the last operation. [I] inset, followed by that, will do it.

Thank you, Robin! it works


text:
Modular UV unwrapping and texturing curved areas
So I'm trying to make these modular road tiles (5pcs) and decided to do a quick build to see how well everything fits and to test out some texturing. The end result is trying to become a bit stylized/cartoony feel.
I've now hit a tiny roadblock as the corner pieces are curved and not straight in the uv's. I can't seem to find a way to unwrap the model for the Light grey areas to be straight and use a single texture image for it.
The straighten uv button (or plugin, can't remember which ones those are) isn't really straightening anything but making the uv islands more crooked and not eliminating the curve completely.
Do I need to just bite the bullet and make separate textures for all curved areas or is there a way to unwrap the islands straight?
Any tips are welcome too. First time trying to do anything modular.
Thanks in advance.
Using blender 2.79b

Have you tried using Follow Active Quads?

Yes I did try that but the desired effect was not achieved. It becomes more of a trapezoid. I could select all the edges from the uv and manually straighten all,  but that seems more time consuming than helpful.  link Heres the outcome of following active quads with both length and even.

In certain conditions techniques which help: select one or 2 of the edge loops on the UV map which should be straight, align them with W > Align Auto (or X / Y) and pin the vertices. Then unwrap once again, the rest of the island will stick to pinned vertices. Another technique is UV Squares addon, it should deal with this (choose To Grid By Shape). One more is Follow Active Quads, make sure to unwrap one face and make it square, then select the rest of the mesh and run the operator.

You might try out renderhjs' TexTools for Blender It has (among many other very useful UV tools) a Rectify function that's definitely capable of straightening UVs.

You might try out renderhjs' TexTools for Blender It has (among many other very useful UV tools) a Rectify function that's definitely capable of straightening UVs. – metaphor_set

This ended up being the method I now used. I wonder why I haven't stumbled upon this addon sooner?
Thank you for sharing this! I'm sure I'm going to get more out of this addon in the future!

Weeell, this isn't my place of expertise, but it'd suggest minding where you place your seams.
and yes, Separating the mesh into bits is also not entirely out of the question
From the looks of things you need to find some way to move the texture about. I suggest finding Darrin Lyle's UV mapping Tutorials on YouTube, they're invaluable for stuff like this. it looks cool too, lemme know when you've gotten around this.

Thanks for the answer! I have to take a look at Darrin's tutorials to see if that might help. The tiles are mostly separate, I've only ALT-D'ed the tiles to do a "quick" mockup and do fixes to the uv's if I see some problem areas - like what I'm trying to do now. In the end I'm going to put all these to unity and create it again there. Like I said, I really only have 5 pieces to work with that i've just moved around to see how it looks like.
In the end I might just do it manually if I can't find something that might help with this.


text:
Hotkey to Frame all Objects into viewport?
Is it possible to set hotkey F to View/Frame All objects into all viewports, and if any objects are selected will frame that object within all view ports as well with key F.
I would be very grateful for any tips.

To frame all objects in one viewport do: Home or Ctrl + Home Both with the origin as the camera focal point
Or Shift + c
This will also bring the 3D cursor back to the origin.
Numpad . will frame the currently selected object or objects.
Numpad / will frame the currently selected object or objects and hide everything else, until you press it again.
You can change them here (to F):

This however will affect only the (single) viewport under the mouse cursor.
I imagine affecting multiple viewport at once will require a script, but i'm not sure.
EDIT:
If you want to experiment with a different hotkey layout you can always click Add Key-config Preset (the little "+" icon), to make a new preset and try some things without messing up you current key setup.

thx fjoer, very helpful and so close... is it possible a hotkey can frame all unselected objects and any selected object? would be very grateful for solution here.

I updated my answer a bit. Hope that helps. I understand my answer isn't the perfect solution you're looking for. But also not sure I understand you question in your comment. You can frame all unselected objects in one viewport and frame any selected objects in another. Though i guess this is an example of the UI behavior you kinda didn't want. : )

of thanks for the suggestion. to make it easier; in the perps view only is there any solution to frame all unselected elements with F hotkey, and if i then select a object how can i get the F hotkey to frame that selected object? if not possible in blender could this be done with shift key?

I don't think you can. If you replace both "Numpad ." and "Home" keys with "F", only the one you assigned first will work. (It seems like there is no need for them to interfere with each other but apparently they do) You can of course replace "Home" with "F" to frame all you objects, and replace "Numpad ." with "Shift F" for framing one or more selected objects. Then you can do one framing action after another.

yes thx so much. but is there a way to hotkey frame selected (on the .> key). for your refer frame select is linked to (. Del)

We might not have the same hotkey setup, but i suggest you just try it, and see if it works. I edited my answer accordingly. But I think if these settings don't work for you, you'll have to ask a question how to change key behavior via script. In any case, I don't have much more info on this so I hope it helps : )


text:
My rig performance is so slow! Hide Geometry in a referenced rig?
I have quite a long project ahead of me and made my own rig, model etc.
The retopo is good, the rig not too heavy and I have a fairly good computer, nevertheless while animating I just can't get over 16frames/second (24f/s is my framerate)
I already tried all the tricks that come when googling the problem (simplify, playback speed, hiding everything except the rig, just one active viewport).
One guess might be, that my character has to many subtools (buttons, cornea etc etc) but since this is a referenced rig (via animation proxy) I can't touch the geometry in a scene. Hiding geometry in the original rig file also does nothing.
Is there any way to put geometry on a layer so the animator can hide parts of it in the rig?

this is something i experimented with a while ago:
i have a really high-poly character rig that posing any bone takes about 1 frame per second

so, i created 2 versions of the rig, 1 final render, and the other, low poly. same armature, same rig, but different meshes placed in separated collections

for this one, i duplicated the base meshes/ the ones that make the rig understandable, and decimate them with the decimate modifier to the bare minimum to understand what im animating and what the character is doing. i also found out that disabling collections give you a performance boost than just hiding stuff, you just gotta remember to re-enable them by the time youre rendering those.
and if youre really up for it, you can make drivers for all the modifiers you have on all meshes, so that when u disable the collection, you also disable the viewport visibility of modifiers for background objects, that with simplify its the luxury peak of performance, no frame dropping at all, annnnd! since its the same rig you dont have to transfer over the keyframes.
im using this trick on all my animatable character models ever since i started using it, the concept behind it was thanks to the Tangent Animation's Next Gen movie conference. where they used different rig versions to save on performance in heavy scenes.https://youtu.be/iZn3kCsw5D8?t=1436
soooo quick review!

high res version
low res version (both in their own collection)
drive viewport visibility of modifiers to turn them off when in background / not needed
simplify!
solid view
playback set to AV-Sync (this will force for animation to play at a consistant rate regardless of FPS, it can be a bit unstable on eevee)
last but not least, disable any unecesary things youre not using in the scene, you can also make a low res version of the environment youre animating the character in and do the same thing you do with characters. PERFORMANCE AHOY!

now.. i dont know much about proxy objects, but about anything inside a disabled collection pretty much doesnt exist so it should still apply.


text:
I Want To Change The Blender Interface
I have seen many people do it but I'm stuck with is this.

I want to know, how do I go from the regular default interface whenever you start a new blender project, to having two 3d views, and properties at the bottom? here's an example of what I mean.

Move the mouse to a corner of an Area or window until the cursor changes into a plus shape. Then click, hold and drag. Then you can change the Editor Type by clicking on the Editor Type icon in the Header. Related:  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5631/how-to-close-view-windows

You may also find this Blender custom workspaces YouTube tutorial helpful.

alright. i did that and i got the way to change the interface now. thanks for your help.

now, one more thing, how do i change the blender interface's color from gray to black in blender 2.79?