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How do I put white highlights on these eyes?
I have eyes where the pupils disappear when they go beyond the black circle of the eyes. Romain Guimbal , from this site, helped me achieve this. I don’t really understand the process but I followed his words and image and it works great.
My new problem is I want a white highlight on each pupil that moves with the pupil and also disappears beyond the black eye circles. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know Blender or other programs that well so please pretend you’re talking to an 8 year old. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Blender 4.1.1  Image:Eyes how they are and how I want them and the shader nodes.

"Any help would be appreciated" - really?

@Gordon Brinkmann I really do appreciate your help. I'm just trying to figure this out at this moment. I haven't had time to really look at this. It was a long weekend. I didn't want to get back to you until after I worked on this because I may have questions. The amount of work you put in to helping me is above and beyond. I'm sorry if you felt unappreciated or just blown off. I always thank people who help me. The next question that someone answers me, I'll be sure to thank them promptly. Sorry and thank you so much for helping me. I'll let you know how I did. Thanks.

@Gordon Brinkmann Hi. Thanks again for your help. Most of what you said was beyond my knowledge but I duplicated your shader nodes, adjusted values sort of randomly and figured it out. Duplicating the eye wasn’t working so I appended the eye and did some parenting and low and behold it works! Thank you so much. The world is a better place knowing that a stranger will take an interest in a noobs project and do the amount of work that you did to help. You’re very kind. Thanks. Jeff.

In which way did duplicating not work? In my setup it works...?

When I duplicated the eye, shift+D or just duplicate, it wouldn't have the iris, the black dot. There's nothing too specific that you wrote that's confusing, I have a hard time following most of it. It was the nodes that helped. I'm sure your setup works fine but I wasn't doing something correctly I'm sure. Regardless, for my purposes which are very basic, my eyes now do what I wanted them to do. Thanks again. (o:

If there is something else that is missing why you won't accept the answer let me know so I can improve it.

I do accept the answer.Your image of nodes is what helped. It's what you wrote that is beyond my understanding. A lot of people would have no problem understanding what you wrote. For me to understand you'd have to say in the simplest terms, " Make this in this mode, and then press this and then go to this page and...". I don't have a clue as to where to put the nodes in what order. I've been learning through Youtube videos. The complex stuff doesn't stay with me. I just get lost. When something comes up I need to figure out I tackle that problem by finding the most basic video on the subject.

Please read: What should I do if someone answers my question?

@Gordon Brinkmann  I didn't know that. Thanks.

The highlight is created very similar. Instead of using a Greater Than to make a black circle on a white background you make it Less Than to get a white circle on a black background.
Then you just have to use a Vector Math node set to Add before the Length node and change the X and Z values until the highlight has the offset from the center you like.
To combine the pupil and the highlight you use a Math node set to Maximum. This will keep the white highlight over the black pupil and the white background.
Apart from that, I do not know how you have created the black border around the eye, I did this here with the original object's coordinates and a Less Than node, multiplying this with the pupil will make sure that the border stays black no matter if there is a highlight or not.

Here I am moving the empty to move the pupil:

//EDIT: Okay, I could not resist. The problem with the basic setup is, it breaks as soon as the eye moves or rotates or scales. To avoid that, the initial constellation should be, both objects are reset and in the same location. Then the empty should be parented to the eye. This way, you can move the empty relative to the eye, so that it still controls the pupil, but the eye controls where and how everything is located, rotated and scaled.
So far so good. Now what do you do if you want two (or three or four?) eyes all controlled by a single empty? As it is in this moment, you would have to create a new material for a second eye, referencing the empty and take into account that the second eye is not in the smae place as the first. And of course rotating would mess up everything, too.
But if you want to place, rotate and scale the second eye independently from the original eye? And of course everything with a single material, so that you can duplicate the eye and keep the material, not always having to give it a new one.
There it gets a bit more complicated ;) You need a setup to create eye border, pupil and highlight for the current object - which might be a duplicate or the original eye.
To place everything correctly on the mesh even if it is a duplicate in a different place etc., you have to add the current object's coordinates to the Empty's coordinates and subtract those of the original eye for creating the pupil and the highlight in the same position as the original eye.
Now you can create as many duplicates of the eye as you like and move, rotate and scale them as you wish. Note that in order to work the transformations should not be applied on the objects. By the way, I have "outsourced" the values for the pupil sizing and positioning, but of course this is not necessary as they could be changed in the math nodes directly.

So now you can duplicate the main eye and rotate or scale it and the pupils stay where they should:

And they are all controlled by a single Empty parented to the main eye:


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Can't export blender model to .FBX
I recently made a Tank in blender and i went to export it,there's problem that make i couldnt export,can anybody help to solve this problem? ( I use blender 2.93.4)

Try running this from the text editor: https://developer.blender.org/T79775#1016390

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Why are Images Imported as Planes Hidden by a Reference or Background Image?
When I import an image as plane with the alpha channel for transparency, and it is in front of a background or reference image I can't see the object (plane) to place or edit it? Why is this?
If this is a duplicate question please link / flag, I have looked but can't seem to find an answer... Thank you for any help you can offer.

This happens because Images as Planes addon automatically uses Alpha Blend mode.
Switch to Alpha Clip or Alpha Hashed and it will work as intended
(You need to be in Eevee, for these options to show up.)

Yes that does it Jachym thank you! In fact I looked back at my notes and had made a note about this to use Alpha Clip when working with the Images as Planes Add On, but strangely (frustratingly) in this scene the Blend Mode wasn't there in the Material Settings. After a bit, I finally worked out that I had set the Render Engine to Cycles, which doesn't allow one to then change the Blend Mode under Material Settings. If I switch it to Eevee, make the change to Alpha Clip and then back to Cycles it keeps the settings. Weird...

Yeah, it's not very intuitive. Anyways, mad props to you for keeping blender notes :).

Haha Yea It's the only way I can learn the software properly, otherwise I keep checking the same tutorials again and again and asking redundant questions here. Cheers for taking the time to upload the .gif super helpful!

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


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How do I animate instances from their pivot point with one empty?
If you create instances of an object with a particle system, how do you then animate them from each origin point (pivot point) with one empty?
Here is a plane, parented to an empty placed at the origin of the plane. When you rotate this empty the plane rotates from its origin point:

Here is a cylinder with a particle system emitting the plane from a central ring of 8 vertices:

When I rotate the empty the particle instances also rotate correctly:

Here's the problem, when I 'Make Instances Real' in the modifier tab, the instances no longer rotate even though they are linked as duplicate instances:

How do I rotate these 'real' instances and use the empty to animate them (I will keyframe the empty to affect all instances)?
Thank you.

I'm not sure about your process with instances and particles, but as soon as you make your instances real they will not copy what you do to the original object.
If you want to make your instances real nevertheless, in order to get the same result you could give your objects a Copy Rotation constraint with an empty as Target and Mix > Add:

Rotate the empty, the objects will rotate as well:

Right, of course, simple! Thank you!


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How do I Extrude A Ring of Cones?
I am trying to build a columnar cactus with a ring of small indentations where the spines would be. These are each modelled as inverted pyramids or 'cones'

You can see a ring of cones on the left cactus, this has been duplicated and the ring selected. When I extrude I lose the vertex which connects the four points to make the inverted cones.

If I extrude one of the small pyramids on its own it keeps the vertex.

But if I continue, it stops extruding the vertex.

Can someone kindly explain to me how I can extrude and keep the original ring of inverted 'cones' intact? Or is there another method to achieve this?
Thank you.

Well, if you want to do it like that, then only possible way is to do it this way and clean vertices that are needed to be removed afterwards... I would personaly do it differently.. First make those rings without those holes inside, make whole cactus and then select vertices where holes are supposed to be, use bevel -> choose vertices, make those squares, extrude inwards and connect 4 extruded vertices in one (in the center of those 4) I think it would be easier and less destructive

Start with overall shape.

Then select all corners and press Ctrl + Shift + B

Switch to face select mode, then press Alt + E - Extrude Faces Along Normals

Chose transform orientation - individual origins

Then scale all down to 0 press S then 0

Finally, press M -> by distance

Perfect! Thank you.

Generate a "perfect" cactus.
The concept here is to make just the one section of the cactus and repeat it.
Add a circle, keep an integer fraction of it, by deleting other verts.

Example one eights of a circle, arrayed into a full circle with object offset using empty. Empty is rotated (360 / 8 = ) 45 degrees. Array count is 8.
Hindsight TIP. Rotate such that the center of arc matches Y or X axis making it easy to edit in front or right view respectively. eg clockwise 22.5 degrees to align to X
Taking care to keep our end vertices on same vector from origin and at same length, edit the profile suit.

lol, total mouse misfunction hassles, going to look like a plastic wall plug, but its the concept that counts
While editing profile one option To ensure these verts keep there place is to hide the end verts (select them H unhide with AltH)
In gif above have scaled two end verts about the scene cursor pivot point,  at circle center.
Make an unlinked object copy to keep that profile.  Later will add an array modifier to grow in Z. Use the profile to make end caps.
Then A Select all, and extrude in Z EZ
Another array modifier is used to copy this section in Z.

So, here is my plastic wall plug thingy to hang pics like this on walls. Anyhoo, the concept is making the divot once.  Edit mode all faces selected.
Can later apply modifiers and edit, or add modifiers to randomize

Here is above bent out of shape with a 4x4x4 lattice.

batFinger thank you for a totally brilliant answer. i love this workflow, I need to dig in and learn something here, this makes sense with a lot of other applications, entertaining too as far as these things go. Thank you!


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How do I create a two sided plane with subsurface scattering for modelling leaves and foliage?
Usually leaves and foliage are modelled as thin polygonal planes with no thickness. Because of the amount of geometry required to achieve dense realistic foliage, modelling them with any thickness would lead to very high poly counts. Because of this limitation it’s not possible to use subsurface scattering which requires volume in order to work properly. For realism leaves and foliage need SSS.
A work around is to add a solidify modifier which will give subsurface scattering some volume to work on a thin polygonal plane once rendered. But I want to model leaves with two sides, top and bottom, for realism and the solidify modifier doesn’t work with backfacing geometry.
How do you get a correct translucent material with subsurface scattering and two sides for a thin plane?
In the solidify modifier you have ‘Rim’ settings ‘Fill’ and ‘Only Rim’ with both ticked you don’t see overlapping edges, backfacing works correctly, but the SSS doesn’t return any result, with one or the other ticked, SSS works but the normals are flipped and the overlapping edges appear.
Here is my node setup.

Screenshots

Blend file
See also: https://devtalk.blender.org/t/diffuse-translucency-way-too-difficult-to-set-up-in-cycles/807

I guess a simple answer is to make both image textures exactly the same shape as on most texture libraries (e.g. Poliigon), but I'm often working from different images poached from the internet and not scanning my own leaves, and this doesn't solve the normals problem.

You don't :).
Leaves have no Subsurface Scattering (which needs greater thickness), they only have Translucency (also called Diffuse Scattering).
The linked devtalk post already offers a setup for correct backface reflections.
To use different texture for Frontface/Backface, split the node-tree into two branches.

Result with a small light underneath to show translucency

For convenience, I packed the whole setup into a nodegroup called Principled Leaves BSDF.
You can download it below. Both front/back images are packed in the file.

Wow. Thank you. That is so helpful! And primarily for building that node group. What a legend. You've saved me time, and helped me learn. I was wading through the Dev talk, as it is specific to this problem, but struggling to get it setup and running, so studying your build is very enlightening. I'm almost exclusively modelling plants, you've really showed me a lot with this and helped me a with a solution I will return to many times in future. Sometimes you need to know the answer to get the question right, I was thinking all this time that leaves needed SSS. Thank you again, well deserved.

There's nothing better than to help a fellow Blenderer, and learn new stuff along the way :). Should you need any changes made to the nodegroup, feel free to let me know. — And on a slightly different note: Are your projects available somewhere? I'd love to take a look :).

Yes the community and open-source mindset of the Blender project are are some of my favourite elements. Thanks again Jachym. I'll send you a msg on IG with some of my work.

is the "backface roughness" accurate or it works inverted or something?

Hi :). Should be pretty accurate, but until we get translucency implemented in Principled BSDF it will always be an approximation :))


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How do I Bake Backfacing or Two-Sided Textures?
How would you bake back facing or two sided textures? It seems like it should be a simple solution. I've tried a handful of searches here and elsewhere and I can't find a solution. Please link if it's out there.
Here's my setup:

Two Textures: Top and Bottom with a Geometry Node / Backfacing. This combo generates, Color, Alpha and Bump / Normal data. There is a lonely new Image Texture at the bottom waiting to be Baked...
How would you bake this texture?
Any help is sincerely appreciated, thank you.

Are you just wanting it to be baked to help simplify the node network or something? I honestly feel like there's only so simple you can go with a two-sided material. If you're just looking to simplify it might work better to just combine both texture "sides" into one image in photoshop or something and then use that. But no matter what you're going to need a Backfacing mask, two bumps, two roughnesses, two base colors, or both combined onto a single set of textures, no matter what.

Thank you. Yes, I guess I see that. I'm trying to bake because I'm animating a much larger scene, with a dozen similar textures and I'm trying to get render times down. Maybe baking won't create any advantage there if I'm just rebuilding the same node tree again.

Yeah usually in that scenario baking would help if the material made heavy use of procedural textures, with a lot of like Voronoi or Musgrave textures, stuff like that. Since those node rely on such complex math to generate their output.


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Preventing duplicate curve in Geometry Nodes using Separate Geometry + Set position curve
I'm trying to separate the middle-section of a curve (points 3 and 4 in my example), apply some transformations to it, and then merge it back with the original curve. I've gotten to the point where I'm happy with the result, except that after joining the curves back, the original curve is still present because it's connecting the wrong sections of the curve (points 2 and 5 get connected, selected points 3 and 4 are connected with each other but not the main curve). I'm not sure how I can avoid this, does anyone have any suggestions?
Node setup (minimal example, I'm instancing cubes on the curve points for visualization purposes). What I would like is to generate the blue line as a curve.

Current behaviour:

Desired behavior:

Why separate? Just use the endpoint selection as an the input selection for the set position node and forgo the separate andnjoin node s

@Leander perhaps OP is resampling part of the curve.

I posted a minimal example, to keep the screenshots tidy. I split the curves after using a raycast node to check if something is inside a target object. Then, I resample points inside the object, and select the position of the first and last point inside the object. This gives a 3D vector which is crossed with a vector generated from the target object's rotation. Together, these decide the projection direction. The actual ray direction gets spread out over a 180 degree arc (+90 and -90 degrees wrt the proj dir), using a map range with the curve indices. This feeds into a second raycast.

Perhaps easiest is to split into three, join back, convert to points and back to a curve. Just ensure the link order in "Join Geometry" is correct. If you have multiple splines, you can capture spline index ("Curve Info" is a custom group available in vanilla Blender, but the part I'm using is just Index → Evaluate on Domain: Spline) and use it as group ID in the "Points to Curve":

"Do something" above simply resamples a curve to 3 points.
Dynamic (variable) number of parts
You can't use "Separate Geometry" node to separate a curve into more than two parts. This is because a curve, unlike mesh, doesn't store info on connections between points (edges), it just stores points in order, and the connections are implied by that order. The only exception is the info if the first and last point are connected, which is called "cyclic[ity]". So for splitting a spline to more than 2, you need to convert it to mesh, then split verts (splitting edges will duplicate points!), and convert back to curve.
Also beware converting mesh to curves will ignore single vertices, even though you can make single-point splines. So if that's ever a problem, you need to use "Vertex Neighbors" to detect such situation and duplicate them temporarily (resample these splines back to 1 after conversion).
Then as above, join the geometry together, but avoid joining what used to be separate by using the captured "Curve Index". Additionally, capture the point indices to keep the order right.
Notice how the captured index isn't float, which makes the resampling interpolation produce a lot of duplicates - this is not a problem, because according to the docs

Weight
If the curve contains more than one Point, the Weight of each Point is used to define the order of all points in curve via sorting. The goal of sorting is to have points with the minimal Weight value at the start of curve and the maximum Weight at the end of curve.
Note
If points of curve have the same Weight value, the order will be the same as its original relative location. Without any Weight and Group ID inputs, each point will have the same indices in the curve.

I actually don't quite understand this, I Think they should just say the 2nd sorting criterion (a tie-breaker) is the index…
So here's the setup:

Thank you, this is close, but it's exploiting the fact that I simplified my example too much. The selected points in my setup are using a raycast node that checks if the points are inside a different object. See this node example: LINK which has this (incorrect) curve output: LINK. Is there a way that your method can work for this setup?
I removed the instances on points and switched to your viewer node method.

@PvB can be done, but why are you even separating here? "Set Position" has "Selection" input that you're even using.

It's still a minimal example.  I have an elaborate node setup (with a 2nd raycast node, amongst other things) that allows me to evenly wrap around the target object.  I'm splitting the curve so that I can resample, get the number of points inside the mesh, and combine this with the indices to evenly spread out the ray directions over a 180 degree arc. This works, but when combining it back with the other section of the curve, I get both the projected curve and the original curve. Here's a screenshot of the problem (using a sphere not a cylinder) link

" I'm splitting the curve so that I can resample" - ah, so I guessed right! OK I'll update the setup then.

@PvB see edit..

This worked, thank you! I made two modifications: 1) Capture attribute did not allow me to input both the curve index and the index in a single node. I assumed this was because I'm still using 4.1. I circumvented this by linking two Capture Attribute nodes in series. 2) Mesh to points caused issues for me because it has a point radius (but not in your example). I circumvented this with Mesh to curve, and then curve to points.
Node setup
Working result
Offtopic, but how do you make your nice looking screengrabs?

Marked your answer as the correct one. Thanks again, this was very helpful and I really appreciate it!

@PvB yes, it's Blender 4.2. I also have radius, I just hide it (it's controversial that I hide sockets, but I hide these that are irrelevant - do you say you were getting some bugs if you left the radius disconnected? I didn't consider how it may affect curve radius). As for screengrabbing: Sharex. In this case, GIF recording, send to ezgif website, remove all frames but the first and last, set frame delay to 100 (1 s).

Yes, in a later post-processing step I add another curve to mesh and a profile curve. If the points had a radius, somehow the converted curve did not behave as expected. What does a curve radius, in the case of a poly curve, represent?
I'll check out Sharex, thank you

radius is just an information the curve uses, e.g. when you convert it to mesh it makes it thicker/thinner. You can capture the radius on the curve before converting it to mesh, so that you keep this data (points have radius, but mesh doesn't). Then you need to set radius to the captured radius.


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Change object's wire display colour
Can the object's wire display colours be changed from black to a colour that I assign?
I have set all objects in a collection to display as wires, but I don't see how I can change the colour of their display. Changing the theme is not something I am after, I just want to differentiate between this collection and any other.

Does this answer your question? Is there a way to assign a custom wireframe color for objects?

Unfortunately not, wireframe displays different from Wire display. Wire display does not seem to take these viewport settings into account.

Please edit your ask to include a full screenshot of the issue that shows a wire display (not wireframe).

I have come to understand that this is not possible currently.

Object > Viewport Display > Display as Wire, you'll notice when you do. There is a checkbox to display the wireframe, which overlays the object with a wireframe. Wire display is treated similar to a bounding box display. It appears to be similar, but for Blender, it is not.


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Delete Hierarchy (Like Outliner.delete with hierarchy checked) in 3d viewport?
In the outliner, you can now delete hierarchies.
Which, if you select a collection deletes the collection and objects/ collections nested within.

Is it also possible to activate this tool in a 3d viewport?

In the 3D viewport you can select the whole collection with Shift G

"Is it also possible to activate this tool in a 3d viewport?" No because an object may be in several different collections at the same time, even different scenes. In the viewport you can't unequivocally determine which of the arbitrary hierarchies to delete.

The 3d viewport doesn't have a concept of selected collection, only selected objects, so you'll have to define a custom operator that will fetch the active collection in the outliner, which defeats the purpose


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3dconnexion mouse locks rotation when in Top view
My Spacemouse locks up in any of the orthogonal views (Top, Left, Right, Front or Back). I have set Auto perspective on (and this works for my other input devices), but not for my 3d mouse. Which settings should I change so that I can rotate the top view to other non-aligned views and/ or rotate (roll) within the top view?

If I understand correctly, you want to use the Spacemouse T/F/R buttons to switch to one of the orthographic views, but then use the controller to rotate straight back into a perspective view?
Before changing any setting in the 3DConnexion software, try this and see if it does what you want (assuming you have not remapped any of blender's default numpad key assignments):

Switch to an orthographic view like Top/Front/Right using either the T/F/R buttons on the Spacemouse or [Numpad 7/3/1]
Spacemouse control cap will let you pan and zoom but not rotate, i.e. you're locked into that iso view
Press [Numpad 5] which will toggle back to a perspective view
Now the Spacemouse will let you spin/roll/tumble/etc

If that's the behavior you're after, go into 3DConnexion settings and setup a macro named something like "Perspective Toggle" and just assign [Numpad 5] to it. Personally I assigned this macro to the top-left button in the group on the right where the other view buttons are. By default this button is supposed to "Roll CW" but that didn't seem to actually correspond to any actual blender command so I put my Perspective Toggle macro there instead.

Hope this is what you were looking for, enjoy!

In such a case it is always difficult to understand how your setup is built and how exactly this behavior is noticeable.
But maybe these screenshots can help you, which show a working setup.

(Sorry for the language settings, unfortunately they can't be changed that easily.)

What happens if you go to top view? Does that lock your rotation axes as well?

The only real differences in my setup are that I use NDOF > Orbit for navigation and Turntable for rotation and different sensitivities, the rest is the same. And these other settings lock-up in top view too.

@Hologram Are you using a "Spacemouse" or "Spacemouse Pro"?

The Spacemouse Pro wireless


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Grease pencil go straight into draw mode by pressing "B" with a Grease Pencil object selected
If I have a grease pencil object selected, I want to immediately go to draw mode by pressing B. I can do this by setting "Object.mode_set" to B under the Grease Pencil category:

However, with this set, I cannot switch to the draw tool using B like I am used to in Krita & Photoshop. Is there a way to solve this key conflict?

You have set a new key building in the Grease pencil (global) group. This group basically means that this hotkeys is used in Grease pencil globally - in all tools and in all Grease pencil modes (paint, edit, sculpt) but not in object mode. Thats means that to launch this command you have to be in one of Grease pencil modes, but you are in Object mode, so that this command is ignored.
So that you have to use suitable keymap group.

3D View ⇾ 3D View (Global) is good for that, key building from this group will be executed in every mode including Grease pencil edit mode or pencil sculpt mode

3D View ⇾ Object Mode ⇾ Object Mode (Global) also is good, but the difference that it will be  executed only in object mode, in
Grease pencil edit mode or pencil sculpt mode it will not work.

Ì have already disabled all of those. And it's still not giving me what I am looking for. If I disable the "object.mode_set" operator, then it is switching like I want it to, so it seems like I cannot get into Grease Pencil draw mode using B and switch tools to the draw brush using B.

I did this recently for my 3D/2D Keymap just because of this post, and it's actually very simple to do.
Set Grease Pencil Draw Mode as the B hotkey in 3D View > Object Non-modal, and then in Grease Pencil > Paint Mode, right click the Draw Brush Tool, and set it to the B hotkey.


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Sverchok: Adding FreeCAD Dependency on Mac
I'm adding the Extra Nodes in Sverchok, but can't get FreeCAD connected.
It seems to want to connect to a FreeCAD library in a folder, but the only option I could find on the FreeCAD site was to download a compiled app.
I tried setting the path to the bin folder inside the app – /Applications/FreeCAD.app/Contents/Resources/bin/ – but it still reports "FreeCAD package is not available".
Do I need to connect to a specific file in the bin? Here's a screenshot of the contents:

I've gone through the Dependencies documentation on the Sverchok Github pages, but they don't offer a Mac-specific solution, and the Linux solution errors out because it can't find and run "apt".
Any suggestions or solutions would be appreciated. Thanks!

If you using MACOS, than you don't have apt.
Use your mac installer to install libfreecad-python3-0.18 somehow.
or try files from linux:
https://yadi.sk/d/qG5-IPfmqleeYw?w=1
if it will work, please, reply here.

Thanks for the tips, but no luck with either. I also pulled the files and stored them locally, but the addon wouldn't make the connection.


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Cant export projext as .fbx
When ever i try and export my project as an .fbx i get this error. Im new to blender so i may have made an error on the model that makes this error appears

Blender file

Duplicate of https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/190356/trying-to-export-rigged-model-to-fbx-but-it-keeps-spitting-out-weird-errors

I can't tell you why this is, but if you go to the Object Data Properties tab, go to UV Maps, and remove the UV map (click the 'minus' button next to it), it will export. I don't know why.


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How to make an inset like the plane no. 1 from the picture?
How do I make an inset like the first plane in the following image? Whenever I inset, it comes out like the plane no. 2. Is there a method to do that or do I have to manually do it using loop cuts?

You can't do this directly with the inset tool.  Instead I would do this using loop cuts.
Hover near one edge of plane one and type R to start the cut.  Type 2 or scroll the mouse wheel to get two cuts.  Left click twice to finish the cuts:

Immediately scale the loop cuts along the axis they're perpendicular too, in this case, the x axis, by typing SX to scale.  Use the mouse to scale the loop cuts into position:

Now do the same thing, but hover along one of the edges perpendicular to your first choice.  After adding the cuts and scaling on the other axis (In this case Y) you get this:


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Glass casting weird black shadows
No matter what I do, when I render this glass in cycles it looks really wrong. I did a cylinder with solidify modifier so nothing fancy.

What I tried so far was playing with the IOR values, it looks somewhat better at 1.1
I also changed the Transmission and Glossy to 15 and it didnt do much.
I use two suns for lightning. Followed many glass tutorials but they all look good compared to mine. I also tried instead of using the Glass BSDF to use Principled BSDF with increased transmission but that doesnt really look so good.

Check the last gif in this answer, you probably need a supporting loop on top and bottom - https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/229885/110840

This can be caused by the phenomenon of total internal reflection, which causes some rays to reflect internally too many times to make it out of the glass. That is, certain light paths effectively get “trapped” inside the glass, never making it to the camera and resulting in black spots in the rendered result.
However, although total internal reflection is a real, physical phenomenon, such extreme, pure-black patches are not. Although internal reflections may result in the light bouncing around inside the glass a great many times, each bounce does not result in a significant decrease in energy, since glass itself does not absorb much energy: it mostly reflects it or passes it through. In fact, your example uses a plain Glass BSDF with a Roughness of 0.0, which is a highly idealized model of glass that absorbs no energy at all.
So, physically speaking, the light must emerge from the glass eventually, it just might take an arbitrarily high number of bounces before it manages to do so. The problem is that Cycles—unlike real physics—artificially terminates rays after a certain number of bounces, since simulating rays that bounce dozens of times is significantly more computationally expensive. The cutoff thresholds can be controlled in the Light Paths section of the Render Properties panel:

In the case of your Glass BSDF, all light bounces are either Glossy (i.e. a reflection) or Transmission (i.e. a refraction) bounces, so you can get Cycles to simulate more bounces by increasing both of those thresholds and the Total threshold (which is an upper bound on the total number of bounces of all types for a single ray). For example, here’s a comparison between two renders, one using the default Light Paths settings, and one where I’ve set the thresholds for Total, Glossy, and Transmission to 32:

You can experiment with different cutoff values for your particular scene and see what looks good. But be careful: don’t just blindly set the values extremely high, because setting them higher than you need will make your renders times worse!


text:
Extruding a 2d vector is resulting in a object with gaps
I'm attempting to take a 2d SVG image into Blender to turn it into a 3d object but the Extrude Faces operation is resulting in an object that doesn't look complete.

I'm wanting to use this 3d shape to countersink into one face of a larger object but thanks to the way it appears after the extrude step, it isn't usable.
I'm importing the image from SVG, converting to a mesh, entering edit mode, selecting it and using Extrude Faces.
The same steps performed on a font turned into an SVG have worked perfectly. Is there another operation or step that I am missing that will smooth out his image?
Thank you,
Steve

did you try the solidify modifier?

OK, that looks promising. I'll have a go at that and see if it works. Thank you.

try right after converting to mesh, in edit mode, merge vertices > by distance and/or extrude vertices (enter edit mode, switch to Vertex select, press A to select all, then E to extrude ) If this won't fix missing faces problem, then the issue is in the SVG file itself and you should flatten it and/or fix gaps in the path using Inkscape or AI or similar software.


text:
Water ripples for 3D printing
How can I add a deformation to my mesh to look like ocean water ripples?
Something like this: https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/textures/natural-textures/ocean-displacement-map-6
In the example they are using a displacement map, I want to actually modify the mesh cuz I need to 3D print it

Hello and welcome. Instead of having users go through links and external sites please use the builtin tools to embed images in your post. See How to upload an image to a post? or GIF

You can use the displace modifier if you want an image texture to drive the displacement.

You can also use the Ocean modifier

Have a look at the Ocean Modifier docs. When you are done tweaking, apply the modifier and you have a real deformed mesh. With the option Geometry > Generate it will create a new plane, but with Geometry > Displace you can create the waves on the given mesh. Just be aware that in this case it needs enough resolution to work well.


text:
Dynamic subdivision
Is there an option on Blender 2.83 to apply dynamic subdivision like in ZBrush?
Click here to see what I'm talking about

Hello :). Please add more information into the body of your question, instead of using a link. Links can expire or get broken.

Btw, the link IS broken: "This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. "

Hi. Please use the built-in uploader when adding images. See: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491/how-to-upload-an-image-to-a-post . Thanks.

There are 2 ways to get 'dynamic subdivision'. I'm not entirely sure what you are going for. The 1. Method is a Multiresolution Modifier. It allows you to switch between different levels of subdivision during sculpting.
The 2. Option is Dyntopo, it will triangluate your mesh and add geometry wherever you're scultping, depending on the division level you chose and the brush size.
the 2. Option is distructive, it will replace your mesh and UVs, while the 1. option is not.
Let me know if one of these methods is what you are looking for and I can attach screenshots, if you are having trouble with the options.

You can also get "dynamic" subdivision by enabling the "Experimental" feature set, adding a subdiv modifier and set it to "adaptive"

That would be in render though, I think he wants to sculpt with dynamic subdivisions


text:
Physics applied to coin doesn't work well
As you can notice in the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPglJKEgFyI, I just want to throw a bunch of coins from above but it's not working fine. When they hit the floor, they never stop moving. What parameters should I change? the ones I have set are:
For the floor:

Type: Passive
Shape: Convex Hull
Friction: 0.2
Bounciness: 0

For each coin:

Type: Active
Shape: Convex Hull
Mass: 0.0075 kg
Friction: 0.2
Bounciness: 0.2
✅ Deactivation

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

Hello, try to scale up your coin and don't forget to apply the scale, or try another Collisions > Shape, for example Cylindier. If it still doesn't work please share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/


text:
Help on Themes. Unable to change color of attached section
I just started learning blender yesterday. I was customizing the themes but I am unsure as to what section is the following (with the dark gray background and black text). I am unable to read my layer names clearly.
Thanks!

The Dope Sheet > Channels (ThemeDopeSheet.channels) option modifies the background for the channel entries.

The text for the unselected channels is defined by Dope Sheet > Theme Space List > Source List Text (ThemeSpaceListGeneric.list_text).


text:
Whats the best way to make smooth waterslide type tracks?
Im creating game inspired by Wipeout games everything is good except, im relatively new to blender and was researching past two days for a way to create tracks like in wipeout fusion, super smoothly rotated  and all that good stuff i have tried:

Making a curve bevel it make a track then make curve into the mesh didnt worked because imported into unity these meshes didnt had empty space inside them aka ship was stuck instead of falling on the mesh AND it was a full circle i didnt need that
Make a straight cubes then use deform and bend these cubes and connect into one track, literally impossible to work with takes hours and couldnt connect bended cubes together perfectly
again, make cube then bend with shift + W, didnt worked either because endings were rotated as well no matter what i did cause of that track was full of obvious connections due to bumps weird stretches etc.
Ask for solutions in various discord groups noone answered what could help.

I hope someone knows a way how can i make these tracks, thanks.

how could one add (Road) texture in way that they tile properly, I tried doing this but didn't get proper results

Create a bezier circle. Go into the curve properties, and increase the Extrude property.

Go into edit mode, select all the control points with A and set the tilt to 90°. (Press N to open the right hand panel if it is closed)

Tweak the tilt of each control point to have some kind of curvature.

Add a solidify and edge split modifier to get depth.

Select two control points and richt click > Subdivide to add a new one between the two. Tweak them, tilt them to your liking.

Adjust the resolution units to keep the poly count low

If you want a custom profile, add a bezier curve

And use it as your bevel object

Result : 676 verts

Thanks helped me alot easy to work with, everything smooth as well really good stuff, but i have one problem, couldnt really do a loop like rotating 360 around and keep going any blender magic to help me make that?

how could one add (Road) texture in way that they tile properly, I tried doing this but didn't get proper results

@Flubby check the texture space panel in the curves properties. Otherwise please ask a new question referencing this one and make sure to add as much detail as possible regarding your setup. Cheers


text:
Can you identify the source of these rendering mistakes with a wind/cloth physics setup?

The image on the left is rendered viewport, and on the right is the render. I have a cloth modifier applied to flowers and leaves, and a wind forcefield in the scene. The simulation runs correctly in my rendered viewport. I haven't baked anything and just hit render animation, first frame renders fine and when the physics begin 2nd frame I get these glitches. Any ideas? Greatly appreciated.

try to bake the cloth before render

thanks, i've tried that, i get the same result

ok, then pls provide blend file because you gave us nearly no information at all...

My guess is a modifier, eg subsurf who's render settings differ from the viewport settings.

Yes, either a modifier with different settings for viewport and render or a modifier disabled in viewport and enabled in render.

Thank you three so much. Frederik and Gordon you were right. The Subsurf was above Cloth in the modifier stack, I dragged it below the cloth and it works now. I was just downsizing the file to isolate the problem and share the blend. And you got it right, thanks to you both for your help.


text:
Two particle systems interact (collide) with each other
Because I want to duplicate this rig many times, how do I make the spheres collide/deform/interact with the planes without making the instances real? (Making them real and then duplicating creates unworkable render times... way too many faces etc.)
Here two particles systems (Emitters), the sphere has collision, the plane collision and cloth physics, with a pin group so it doesn't fall.

I want to produce this without making Instances Real:

Is this possible, from the Blender manual I understand that particles need mesh data to interact with. I'd appreciate any help and I also appreciate this has likely been asked before but struggling to find an applicable precedent here, please link if you can. Sincere thanks.

Seems like it's not really possible. Sims need geometry to work, (ref. manual), so not possible without applying. Made several attempts at doing the same with Geometry nodes, I can get the spheres w collision but not the cloth. Instances don't seem to inherit physics, I have read here and elsewhere that sims aren't really possible yet in Geometry Nodes, correct me if I'm wrong.

This is getting close, https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/255641/want-to-cloth-sim-a-geo-node-instanced-object-with-pinned-vertex-group but it seems we can no longer set pin groups via Geometry Modifier since 3.5


text:
Evening sky, or how do I use the Sky Texture Node?
I'm trying to create a sky and light setup to approximate this image:

Something like what photographers call the blue hour. Apart from the orange spot lights there is the gradient created by the indirect light from the sun that is sitting below the horizon. I have made this super quick setup to begin approximating it:

Why does the ColorRamp not work as it should? With four colour stops I should see a gradient no? With the orange on the horizon. You can see the sunlamp is pointing directly up, so the light on the sphere is coming from below.
Maybe there is something I'm not understanding about how to employ the Sky Texture. Can it be tied to the sunlamp in some way?
The light from the sky should affect objects in the scene as well as the spot lamps. So how would you recreate the sky and lights for a scene like the image? Sincere thanks for your suggestions.

I don't know anything about Sky Texture but it looks like this setup works the way you want:
Plug the Sky Texture (Preetham mode) into a Gradient into your ColorRamp (always better to use a Gradient before a ColorRamp if you want your gradient to look like your ColorRamp spectrum, I dont know why though).
You can also use Texture Coordinate > Mapping nodes before your Sky Texture if you want more control on the sky position/orientation.

Cheers @moonboots, that is helpful. After your advice and a lot of tweaking, I ended up using just a gradient texture and color ramp on a seamless backdrop style object to simulate the atmosphere I was after. Sort of works. I couldn't get the Sky Texture to work satisfactorily. Is the Sky Texture node outdated? I can't find much documentation of it? Even the Blender manual is a little bare bones on the subject, I guess it's straightforward enough though. But how would you achieve a sort of procedural sundown effect like this? HDRi maps? Cheers for your tireless efforts Moonbots: the Legend.

I guess Sky Texture is useful to quickly set a background gradient. About your sunset, it depends on a lot of thing: Are you planning to animate it? Do you want to make a 360° view? Is your style realistic or cartoonish? etc... You could also simply use a photo or paint on a surface (I personally like this solution)

Yea that sounds about right, Sky Texture seems to need a lot of tweaking and additional inputs to approach anything like realism. In my case just the individual render, approaching realism, but not photo realism. Maybe just relying on photos is the way forward, or surfaces as I have been using seamless backdrops to some effect. Thanks again

yes you can paint your sky on a surface, or bent surface, or semi-spherical background, use large and blurry brushes in photoshop


text:
Best practices for modeling/UV mapping an object that will be duplicated multiple times
I am still new to blender and am trying to find some best practices to help reduce the amount of headaches I end up with. My current issue I have gemstone object that I will be duplicating multiple times to create my finished product. Is it better to model it, texture/shader it, UV map it and then duplicate it (My thinking being that everything else I did to it will duplicate with it) or is there a better way to reduce the amount of repeat work I have to do? Also since the gemstone is all the "same" object just in different locations is it ok to combine them into one "mesh object" or should I keep them separate?

Create it, then duplicate it with alt D (not shift D), this way you will have linked-duplications, it makes your file lighter, and if you select any of these linked-duplications, you can modify it and it will be replicated on all the other instances

And just to add to @moonboots' comment - you can give different material (e.g. color) to each duplicate, but they'll still all carry the same UV map :).

This is very helpful. Thank you.


text:
How to I move a face so that the rest of the objects faces move proportionally
I'm very much a noob at blender so please forgive me if this is a simple question.
I want to create a loop de loop object and I think I'm almost there. How would I move the face at each end to the the rest of the object moves proportionally. I tried moving them using the proportional editing tool but only moves the first few segments.
Any help with this will be very much appreciated.

use the mousewheel to change the radius of influence of the proportional editing

Thanks @wilks this sorted it perfectly. Told you I was a noob.

I know this doesn't answer the title of the question but rather its body.
If you are going to use modifiers, you can consider using the screw modifier :
Create a single vertex a 1,0,0.

Add a screw modifier and tweak the screw offset property

add a skin modifier

Thanks I will also consider this in the future :)


text:
How to re-assign another brush tool on a stroke afterwards?
I wonder if it's possible to select strokes and re-assign them another brush. I've made some drawings and I figured out afterwards that it would look better with another brush. I thought that it would be easy to reassign another brush to it as it is for materials. But I did not find a way so far...
Any idea?


text:
Camera view doesn't match what it is actually pointing at
https://streamable.com/2xhnkv
Whenever I put my view to the active camera it points in a completely different direction that it clearly isn't pointed in. This is extremely frustrating and I have no idea how to fix it. I have tried deleting the camera, duplicating it, making a new one and more and not sure what to do

Its hard to tell from the video, but it looks like you have two cameras in your scene. Go into the "Scene" tab and make sure you have the correct one set as the rendering camera.


text:
Lofting a shape over two paths
I have been having a heck of a time with trying to create a unique shape that requires lofting a shape over two curves /rail. This is possible to do in Fusion 360 with relative ease, but I know no such equivalent for blender.
for the sake of this example, we have the model image here:

target shape "green hammer/rear assembly bit" (i will Duplicate and extrude for the white part before boolianing):

and the base shapes/keys here:

as you can see by my blender image, im trying to extrude the back wall against the x and Z-axis (or any other combination) to achieve the loft transition from a vaguely half hexagonal shape to an egged dome shape. I've tried everything I know over the last two weeks and just do not have a good solution yet, nor am I sure there IS a good solution. I could def use some guidance

you might be better off box modelling it, from a cube with subsurf like this: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/QSjMMqRd/

Wow that is super cool! i had no idea edges could be bent that way. I know about beveling and Catmull clark subsurface, but i dont know how to do what youve shown me here!
. I will google the methods you are showing me, thank you. It may help. im a stickler for accuracy, and this may help me achieve that.

you're welcome. To be fair the bendy edges thing is just visualisation, if you disable it you'll see that the base shape is very simple, the most important is marking the creases (shift+E) and setting the flat/smooth shadings right


text:
Adding custom meshes: can I edit a CollectionProperty in the pop-up UI?
As a relative newcomer to python (but not to programming in general) I tried my hands at making custom meshes using blender python templates and tutorials, but now I am stuck at a rather cosmetic issue.
For a specific application, I want to make meshes that contain duplicates of themselves at different scales. Imagine it like a matryoshka doll.
As an example, I have tried to implement the basic functionality I want by building on the "operator_mesh_add.py" template that comes with blender. The code is attached at the end of my question. It should work if you copy it into the blender text editor and run it.
Each of the inner boxes is supposed to have an adjustable relative scale (between 0.0 and 1.0) that is saved in a CollectionProperty. If you try to add a mesh object of this type to the scene, you will see the pop-up UI containing all the properties of the box. "Width", "Height" and "Depth" are simple FloatProperties and can be adjusted here, but the "Planes" CollectionProperty only shows its number of items (which is zero, if you start from default values), but no way to see their scale property or add new ones.
I was able to get around this issue by making a new panel in the "Tool" section of the 3D viewport UI that holds a "Planes" UI list. Adding new planes will give you an adjustable scale for each of them. Once you are happy with the list, you can add a "Scale Box" mesh object which shows the kind of geometry I want, but with no way to adjust its planes through the list after creation. To properly see the result, you should switch to either x-ray or wireframe mode.
I could probably link the behaviour of the created mesh to the list in the panel, but that would be rather awkward, as it would affect every mesh created this way simultaneously. Ideally, I would want the mesh adjustable through a scales list once it has been created, but to remain independent from other mesh objects.
Now as I stated in my header: is there a way to add this functionality to the pop-up UI? Or do I have to find out how to design my own mesh object adder and pop-up from scratch? If so, I would be happy about recommendations for tutorials and examples.
I am guessing that it all hinges on how flexible this method is:
from bpy_extras import object_utils
object_utils.object_data_add(context, mesh, operator=self, name="ScaleBox")

This is my working example:
bl_info = {
    "name" : "Scale Box",
    "author" : "eSemmel",
    "version" : (1, 0),
    "blender" : (2, 93, 4),
    "location" : "View3d > Tool",
    "warning" : "",
    "wiki_url" : "",
    "category" : "Add Mesh",
}

import bpy
import bmesh
from bpy_extras.object_utils import AddObjectHelper

from bpy.props import (
    IntProperty,
    FloatProperty,
    CollectionProperty,
)

# define the container for the scale property
class PlanesClass(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    """Contains a plane scale"""
    scale: FloatProperty(
        name="Scale",
        description="Scale of a Box Plane",
        min=0.0, max=1.0,
        default=1.0,
    )

def add_box(width, height, depth, planes):
    """
    This function takes inputs and returns vertex and face arrays.
    no actual mesh data creation is done here.
    """

    core_verts = [
        (+1.0, +1.0, -1.0),
        (+1.0, -1.0, -1.0),
        (-1.0, -1.0, -1.0),
        (-1.0, +1.0, -1.0),
        (+1.0, +1.0, +1.0),
        (+1.0, -1.0, +1.0),
        (-1.0, -1.0, +1.0),
        (-1.0, +1.0, +1.0),
    ]

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

    # get the float values as scales of the inner planes
    scales = [plane.scale for plane in planes]
    # scale 1.0 always exists as the outermost plane and does not have to be specified
    if not scales:
        scales = [1.0]
    elif 1.0 not in scales:
        scales.append(1.0)

    # initialize lists
    n_core = len(core_verts)
    verts = [()] * len(scales) * n_core

    # apply size
    for scale_index, scale in enumerate(scales):
        for i, v in enumerate(core_verts):
            verts[i + scale_index * n_core] = v[0] * width * scale, v[1] * depth * scale, v[2] * height * scale

    # define faces
    faces = [tuple(face_it + scale_it * n_core for face_it in core_face) for scale_it in range(len(scales)) for core_face in core_faces]
    return verts, faces

class AddBox(bpy.types.Operator, AddObjectHelper):
    """Add a scale box mesh"""
    bl_idname = "mesh.primitive_scale_box_add"
    bl_label = "Add Scale Box"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    width: FloatProperty(
        name="Width",
        description="Box Width",
        min=0.01, max=100.0,
        default=1.0,
    )
    height: FloatProperty(
        name="Height",
        description="Box Height",
        min=0.01, max=100.0,
        default=1.0,
    )
    depth: FloatProperty(
        name="Depth",
        description="Box Depth",
        min=0.01, max=100.0,
        default=1.0,
    )
    planes: CollectionProperty(
        type=PlanesClass,
        name="Planes",
        description="Box Planes (scales)",
    )

    # fill the planes at creation from the collection saved in the scene
    def invoke(self, context, event):
        self.planes.clear()
        for plane in context.scene.scalebox_planes:
            new_plane = self.planes.add()
            new_plane.scale = plane.scale
        return self.execute(context)

    def execute(self, context):

        verts_loc, faces = add_box(
            self.width,
            self.height,
            self.depth,
            self.planes,
        )

        mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new("ScaleBox")

        bm = bmesh.new()

        for v_co in verts_loc:
            bm.verts.new(v_co)

        bm.verts.ensure_lookup_table()
        for f_idx in faces:
            bm.faces.new([bm.verts[i] for i in f_idx])

        bm.to_mesh(mesh)
        mesh.update()

        # add the mesh as an object into the scene with this utility module
        from bpy_extras import object_utils
        object_utils.object_data_add(context, mesh, operator=self, name="ScaleBox")

        return {'FINISHED'}

# make an add menu entry for the scale box
def menu_func(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(AddBox.bl_idname, icon='MESH_CUBE')

# panel class for adding a scale box
class AddBoxPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Main Panel for adding scale boxes"""
    bl_label = "Scale Box Panel"
    bl_idname = "PT_AddScaleBox"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'
    bl_category = "Tool"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Options")

# panel within panel
class PlanesPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Sub panel for adding planes to the scale box"""
    bl_label = "Planes"
    bl_idname = "PT_AddPlanes"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'
    bl_category = "Tool"
    bl_parent_id = "PT_AddScaleBox"
    bl_options = {'HIDE_HEADER'}

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Planes", icon='FACESEL')
        row = layout.row()
        row.template_list("Planes_UI_list", "", context.scene, "scalebox_planes", context.scene, "scalebox_planes_index")
        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("scalebox_planes.new_item", text="New")
        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("scalebox_planes.delete_item", text="Delete")
        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("mesh.primitive_scale_box_add")

# UI_List
class Planes_UI_list(bpy.types.UIList):
    """UI List for planes scales"""
    def draw_item(self, context, layout, data, item, icon, active_data, active_propname, index):
        if self.layout_type in {'DEFAULT', 'COMPACT'}:
            layout.label(text="", icon='FACESEL')
            layout.prop(item, "scale")
        elif self.layout_type in {'GRID'}:
            layout.alignment='CENTER'
            layout.label(text="", icon='FACESEL')

class LIST_OT_NewItem(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Add a new plane scale to the list"""
    bl_idname="scalebox_planes.new_item"
    bl_label="Add a new plane scale"

    def execute(self, context):
        context.scene.scalebox_planes.add()

        return {'FINISHED'}

class LIST_OT_DeleteItem(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Delete a plane scale from the list"""
    bl_idname="scalebox_planes.delete_item"
    bl_label="Delete a plane scale"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.scene.scalebox_planes

    def execute(self, context):
        scalebox_planes = context.scene.scalebox_planes
        index = context.scene.scalebox_planes_index
        scalebox_planes.remove(index)
        context.scene.scalebox_planes_index = min(max(0, index - 1), len(scalebox_planes) - 1)

        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(PlanesClass)
    bpy.types.Scene.scalebox_planes = CollectionProperty(type=PlanesClass, name="Planes", description="Box Planes (scales)")
    bpy.types.Scene.scalebox_planes_index = IntProperty(name="Planes Index", description="Index of the box plane", default = 0)
    bpy.utils.register_class(Planes_UI_list)
    bpy.utils.register_class(LIST_OT_NewItem)
    bpy.utils.register_class(LIST_OT_DeleteItem)
    bpy.utils.register_class(AddBox)
    bpy.utils.register_class(AddBoxPanel)
    bpy.utils.register_class(PlanesPanel)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_mesh_add.append(menu_func)

def unregister():
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_mesh_add.remove(menu_func)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(PlanesPanel)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(AddBoxPanel)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(AddBox)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(LIST_OT_DeleteItem)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(LIST_OT_NewItem)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Planes_UI_list)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(PlanesClass)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

The redo panel displays only first class properties by default. If you want to display the last item of a CollectionProperty you have to override the draw method of the operator.

    #...

    planes: CollectionProperty(
        type=PlanesClass,
        name="Planes",
        description="Box Planes (scales)",
    )

    # fill the planes at creation from the collection saved in the scene
    def invoke(self, context, event):
        self.planes.clear()
        for plane in context.scene.scalebox_planes:
            new_plane = self.planes.add()
            new_plane.scale = plane.scale
        return self.execute(context)

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(self, "width")
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(self.planes[-1], "scale") # Get the latest item
        #...

But this won't update the item of the UIList since operator properties are encapsulated and planes is a new instance of the class. If you want to change both properties at the same time you can implement an update function or use setter/getters to change the property of the UIList too: https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.props.html?highlight=setter#getter-setter-example
Additional Notes

A more complete example of an UIlist that can be customized to pretty much any requirement can be found here: Create an interface which is similar to the material list box (helped me out a million times)
There are several wanings in the console, have a look into naming conventions, IE: rename PlanesPanel to YOUR_PT_planes, AddBox to YOUR_OT_addBox or Planes_UI_list to YOUR_UL_list https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.80/Python_API/Addons

Thank you so much! I was stuck on how to access the pop-up UI to make changes, but if I can simply use the draw function of the object, that solves all the problems and I don't even need the tool panel anymore. Thanks also for the additional links. I will have a read.


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Visual Studio code ( VSC) and System console
I realized that if we launch blender from VSC ( Visual Studio Code ) we cant access the system console.
That's maybe a dumb question but I'm wondering why ?
We can see error and everything in VSC but not in blender. That's a bit annoying but I'm wondering is it's normal or if it should be on both of them ?

Yes it is normal


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Enum Property Callback(s) on scroll ? on click ? on release?
So there is my question today :
I'm working with an enum props for my addon.
This enum contain X Meshs. I want to be able to update the mesh on scrolling then update the enum (for example removing the selected mesh ) on release or on click ?
But for now i found that the only way to update enum is the "update". Is there others callbacks or other way to do this ?

I see four possible callbacks, on draw (item parameter) but I wouldn't put actual logic in this callback, on get, set or update. see https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.props.html#bpy.props.EnumProperty AFAIK there is no way with the API to easily see which item is under the cursor without a tremendous amount of work. Maybe you can rethink the way your addon works around this property ?

Thanks a lot @Gorgious ! I will find a workaround , i was curious to see if i'm missed something. Maybe that's something we could ask for ?


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Asset Browser - Dynamic Refresh from a file to an other?
I'm stating to use Asset browser and discover the potential of this !
This is very cool !
So i'm trying to :
1 - Create a Mark asset from a "Blendfile_A"
2 - Automatically import them into an other "Blendfile_B"
But i saw that i always need to refresh the "Blendfile_B" or close and reopen it.
Is this suppose to happened ? Should it be more dynamic ?
I know this is kind of new so bug and improvement are to be expect but i'm curious if i miss something or not :)

I think this is the normal behaviour, and I don't expect it to change in the future. An Asset Browser library can contain thousands of assets, located in thousands of files.
You can't expect the current blend file to scan all the files constantly and refresh the asset list, that would be terrible for the user experience. Sure, it would work for a few files and a few assets overall, but it wouldn't scale well at all.
You could however use a python script that periodically fetches all assets in the library, but I really wouldn't recommend it.
The expected workflow if you want to add an asset to a library file is to right click on the asset > Open Blend file, then add the asset to the library file and close the file, which will take you back to file 1 and refresh the list.

Thanks for the clarification :)
I'm looking into make a pipeline with a cool user experience for artist. and i'm wondering what's the best way for them to use asset Lib.
If doing R to refresh is a valid manipulation that's totally ok :)
Thanks a lot Gorgious !


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Asset Browser - Link and Append Object and Snapping behave differently
I'm playing with the asset browser lately and i realized that you cannot snap a Linked file but you can with an Append File.
Is this supposed to be liked that or maybe it's a bug and i need to report it ?

So I reported this bug and for now they are not going to support the snap for linked assets :
1.I reported it here
2.They send me the unsolved task here

This is really unfortunate and I hope this changes.  I can't see the use of linking if you cannot accurately place and rotate linked meshes.  In Archviz for example we constantly have to assemble scenes with multiple buildings from different sources not all having the same coordinate system.  These buildings obviously need to be snapped to some location in the master file and rotated.  If we cannot do so in Blender the software simply cannot be used very widely for this purpose.

According to the commit: The location of a linked object isn't editable, or at least it will be reset when reloading the file. I don't know what these people are smoking, but for me the position and rotation are both preserved even after a full restart. Not only that, but the location and rotation is preserved even if I edit the original asset.

@aggregate1166877 There could be an option to localize the object, keeping the data linked. That's what is usually done by user anyway when using linked objects.


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Spreadsheet Attributes Sorting
I have a (maybe) dumb question :
Is it possible to sort the spreadsheet by attribute value ?
In this example :

Vertices are sorted by index : and i have an attribute ( Front_Pts) with -1 ,0 ,1 ,2 3 values.
I would like to see the vertices in order 0 1 2 3 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 ....
If you look at the point indices , it will be something like : 0 2 7 8 1 3 4 5 6 9 10... (Picture 1 )
I tried to use the filter, but event here it's sorted by Index not by Value :( (picture2)

AFAIK this isn't possible in the moment. But hopefully it will be in the future and the developers are very busy to improve GN. And i also think this would be a very useful feature.

Yes ! In Houdini this is super useful ! I'm gonna ask for the feature to https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/?sorting=hot :)
Thank you Chris !

Hop ! It's done :  https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/285v/
Let's see if people think it will be useful :)


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Sending a render request to a personal server
I own a game website where users can customise their avatars (to display the avatars in 3d I use treejs) but recently I found out that I needed also rendered profile pictures for the users.
My idea is that when a user edit their avatar, it sends a render request (via php?) to my old laptop (that I want to use as a "rendering server" where it runs blender on linux) and after it rendered it on blender it uploads it back to the webserver database.
How can I achieve this?
I am not an expert so I asked my friends for ideas and they said I could use some python or ssh or maybe I could use telnet.
Sorry if the question is vague, but I have no idea of how to solve my problem

Run a render with a Bash command
You can use a bash command to run a render, something like :
blender -b my_file.blend -o output_picture_name -f 1

For more informations about arguments you can look at the documentation or type :
man blender

Run a Bash command with a script
In python, it would look like :
import subprocess
result = subprocess.run(["blender", "-b", "my_file.blend", "-o", "picture", "-f", "1"])
if(result.returncode == 0):
    print("Everything went good")
else:
    print("Something went wrong")

Thank you, this looks very helpful! Can this be executed by the users on the website using a proper php command? (like the one on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19735250/running-a-python-script-from-php )


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I can't see through the reference image in wireframe

I can't see through the reference image in wireframe
that view is truly wireframe
Is there anyone who knows what happened?

You mean see the reference image through the objects in your scene? If that is the case one option would be to press "Shift-Z" in order to see the scene transparent. There is of course a button as well for it next to the wireframe button. in the picture below I have both wireframe mode and show x ray selected

Thank you so much for your kindness


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Can't always view object within a transparent box
I have a transparent box with a few objects within it.  Depending on the view, the objects inside are visible and sometimes not.  I'm running Blender v2.82a.  Figure 1 shows the objects visible.  Figure 2 shows one not visible.  The objects inside are also transparent.  Objects outside of the cube seem to always be visible regardless of the view (the red cylinder).  The images suddenly disappear and just as suddenly reappear depending on the viewing angle.
Here the tube on the right is invisible.

The Shading panel for the box is in Figure 3.
The Materials panel for the box is in Figure 4.  It has the Blend Mode set to Alpha Blend.  The Shadow Mode setting doesn't seem to matter.

This is a technical limitation in Eevee called Alpha Sorting.
Unlike Cycles, which uses ray tracing, Eevee is a rasterization engine, which means each triangle that's visible to the camera is transformed into screen space and "rasterized" into a pixel buffer.

(Image from learnopengl.com)
When a rasterization engine renders objects with transparency, it has to render triangles furthest from the camera first, and progressively render things that are closer. If closer triangles were rendered first, any transparent objects rendered behind it later would be discarded by the depth test, which means the engine would think the object is occluded because there's something in front of it. If depth of transparent objects is ignored (an approach some engines use), it can alter the final color, which is also not ideal. The process of determining the order in which triangles need to be rendered is called Alpha Sorting.
According to the Blender Manual:

As of now Eevee does not support per-fragment (pixel) sorting or per-triangle sorting. Only per-object sorting is available and is automatically done on all transparent surfaces based on object origin.

What's happening in your case is that the alpha sorting is incorrectly ordering the objects at different angles, causing some to be occluded and thus not render.

As for the fix, start by enabling Show Backface in the material settings. It can resolve a lot of these alpha sorting problems.
If that doesn't work, try messing with the Backface Culling setting too, as that can make a difference in certain cases.
You can always switch to Cycles, it doesn't suffer from these limitations.


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Can't connect two vertices with an edge
I'm pretty new to Blender, and what didn't seem to be a challenge to anyone gives me bad trouble. I'm trying to connect two vertices with an edge, they are highlighted in the first picture. However, when I press F with those selected, the edges appear between them and the opposite end of their stroke, as seen in the second picture. What can I do to connect them? Thanks in advance!

The "F" key closes the Stroke, since you have more then one Stroke you want to join, did you try pressing the "Ctrl+J" key-combination?

That worked, thank you!

As @Xylvier pointed out in the comments, I should have done Ctrl+J to join the strokes.


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Cycles - 2.79 vs 2.82 texture difference
I have a simple example: image_textured cube. In v2.82 the cube is not textured if I choose cycles, however it works with Eevee. This worked in Blender v2.79. Am I missing something?

I think you have to set Cycles as the render engine in the Render Properties tab, then switch the viewport shading to 'Rendered'

OK, thanks, that solved my problem! :)

Use All for your Material Output node,

Since 2.82 provide the ability to preview your scene like what EEVEE does in Cycles mode, the shader is actually using EEVEE rendering information despite that you set Cycles as rendering engine. See the example below:


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EnumProperty property not found — why?
I'm new to Python and Blender scripting. I've been modifying an existing script, which worked up to a point, but after my modifications it started throwing an error:
rna_uiItemR: property not found: VIEW3D_PT_AlignUi.fruit

I've reduced it to this snippet, which still throws the error. Why?
import bpy
from bpy.types import (Panel)
from bpy.props import (EnumProperty)

class VIEW3D_PT_Test(Panel):
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'
    bl_label = "Test script"
    bl_context = "objectmode"
    bl_category = 'Test'
    bl_options = {'DEFAULT_CLOSED'}

    fruit: EnumProperty(
        items=(("0", "Apples", "Apples"),
               ("1", "Oranges", "Oranges"),
               ("2", "Bananas", "Bananas")),
        name="Fruit",
        description="Choice of fruit"
        )

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(self, 'fruit', expand=True)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(VIEW3D_PT_Test)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(VIEW3D_PT_Test)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Panels can't own custom properties. You need to register it on an object like for instance the current scene. in register bpy.types.Scene.my_enum = EnumProperty(...) and in draw : row.prop(context.scene, "my_enum")

Thanks! I made your suggested changes and I was still getting the same error, but then I ran an unrelated script and suddenly my panel script kicked in. Weird, but successful.


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Viewport Performance - CPU or GPU?
Which piece of hardware affects viewport performance most (both playback and general just moving stuff)?

Both, GPU does the actual drawing, but before that everything is pre-processed by the CPU, from scene interpretation, to calculating geometry, animations and simulations

It depends on the scenario.
Situations where the GPU will help more:

Extremely high poly scenes
Scenes with complex materials
Scenes with large textures
Scenes with advanced procedural textures

The GPU is mainly used to draw the pixels on your screen, so if you have lots to draw, a better GPU will help. A good way to tell if your GPU is the limiting factor in your performance is to check your frame rate when you are only moving your viewpoint, and nothing else.
Situations where the CPU will help more:

High frame rate animations
Scenes with lots of ridged bodies or simulations
Scenes with complex armatures
Scenes with lots of booleans
Scenes with geometry nodes
Complex animations
Scenes with procedurally generated objects, such as those with displacement modifiers
Particles
Scenes with lots of Multi-resolution/subdivision modifiers

For the most part, the CPU will be your main limiting factor. The CPU must apply all modifiers, animations, deformations, and simulations before finally sending it's data off to the GPU to be displayed. If you are looking for a CPU specifically to speed up the viewport, you should prioritize single threaded performance, as many modifiers are single threaded.


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The render result is not the active camera I chose
I have 4 different cameras. But no matter which one I set as the active camera. It renders the different cameras as I chose. (for example, I want to render camera3 it render camera 1.) I tried to set the camera3 as the active camera but it's still not working.
Does anyone know how to fix it?

Did you check right column on this page with "Related"?  Seems to me you can find answer there.

I did. But i can't find a similar situation like me.

This might be the most related answerlink. But I don't understand how he fixed it.

@vklidu I solved it by my self. I used video editing so it is the reason why it fixed in the same view. But still Thank you for your answer!

OK :) Can you provide full answer so others can benefit from your A? Like now I didnt understand your A, so probably others will feel the same. Thanks


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How to output numpy array from the animation script node
is there a way to output a numpy array from script node in ?
Or do i have to make my own output class types in the socket folder of this addon ?

You can use Generic type to output ndarrays.


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Frame selected with precise window fit
is there a opition to use the 'Frame selected' and get a precise fit of the selected object in the 3dView.
I want the same behaviour like the 'Camera Fit Frame to Selected' where the object fits exactly the camera border but only for the 3dView instead of the camera view.
import bpy
area = bpy.context.window_manager.windows[-1].screen.areas[0]
for region in area.regions:
    if region.type == 'WINDOW':
        override = {'area': area, 'region': region, 'edit_object': bpy.context.edit_object}
        bpy.ops.view3d.view_selected(override)

There is no option to zoom in to fit the selection.
Any tips are welcome.


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How to turn a stable file to loop
Just to be clear I'm total new and I'm using Blender.
In my first attempt I made a stable image and now i want my sea moving and a stable object to spin at the same time making a loop. If anyone could explain to me how I could do this I would be grateful!


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Long render times in Cycles
So previously I have been making small animations in Blender 2.7. I wasn't around for the 2.8 update and I found I had to relearn a lot of key binds and stuff like that. However, loading an old project that I worked on in 2.7, I found that it takes a lot longer to render. I used to have a 1080p 200 sample image render in 2-3 minutes. Now 20 samples at 720p take just as long, and I did not change anything in my project or PC. Even a 1 sample image takes 10 seconds. I am still using Cycles instead of Eevee but switching to Eevee takes just as long. Is it something I'm doing?
EDIT - I did upgrade my PC a little, but I switched from an 8GB kit of Memory to a 16GB kit. I am going to switch from a i3 to a Ryzen 7 in the future, and I have a GTX 1050ti.

Have you controlled for Resolution %? After 2.8, it became 100% by default, whereas in 2.7x and before it used to be 50%. You can find it in the Dimensions section of the Output Properties tab.

@impresso That certainly did help, thanks! I'm still getting render times more than twice as long as before but that did help and worst case scenario is I'll deal with it.

It's still rather weird; I think you should try putting it to the test. Here you can download the 2.7x version you used to work on and directly compare its performance with the current release's.


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Cloth sim problem levitating pillows
I have a massive problem with cloth sim. I'm trying to recreate sofa from reference photo (so far so bad) and when I'm trying to "drop" cushion on a sofa (both back side and seats are set to be collision). Unfortunatly everytime no matter how i tweak settings my pillows levitate in the air... What is the cause of this problem?

https://i.imgur.com/dKHEelp.jpg forget to add a photo...

How to upload an image to a post

Try changing the collision minimum distance;


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Animation Rendering Blank
I just started using blender today so I could make a simple animation with a logo that I recently created. With the help of Google, I've manages to get the animation working the way I wanted, but when I go to render, it renders blank. When I open the video file, it is just a black screen.
I've tinkered with a handful of the settings but can't seem to figure out what is wrong. Like I mentioned, this is my first time using Blender, so I'm hoping it is simply a box that I failed to check or something simple like that.
I've attached screenshots that I hope will be helpful, but let me know if you need more information.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated as it has been a slow process getting things figured out. lol
Thanks!


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How to render only a mist pass
I have spent a long time rendering an animation that I do not want to redo. I also want to render a mist pass though. Is there a way to render only the mist pass without rendering the original images? Sorry if this is a dumb question, it's just that in all of the tutorials, they show how to render both the original image and the mist pass.

Should be possible using OSL, have a look into: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/36183/get-object-width-in-cycles-as-value However, osl is cpu only so it might  faster rendering the beauty pass and mist as usual by using a low sample count...

I found another trick that might just do and it and should be faster than re-rendering everything.

You go into Material Preview render mode, click on the dropdown next to it and select Render Pass: Mist

2.Disable all the overlays from your viewport and then go View > Viewport Render Image or Viewport Render Animation, depending on your needs and Ta-daaa!

I got this problem too, I have searched all over internet and it seems there's no answer that leads to rendering mistpass only.
So I used a cheap trick, where I just render everything all again,
but only output the mistpass to the folder
BUT only using 1 samples

might not be precise
but still useable !
best solution for this

I guess you could enable the mist pass, and in the compositor, Ctrl+Shift+LMB to view the mist pass and you'll get the viewer node. Press N to open the side panel and in the Item tab there is an option to save that as an image. [the viewer node has to be selected in the last step].

I don't believe there is a way to render only a mist pass without diving into code. However, as far as I've experienced, the mist passes in Eevee and Cycles are nearly identical, so if your original render is in Cycles, you can render the mist pass much more efficiently by temporarily switching. Just enable "Mist" in the View Layer Properties panel and grab it in the compositor.
You can also try disabling any other render passes you don't need to see if that speeds it up at all, though I've found disabling "Combined" still renders the full image.


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How to properly adjust unit dimensions for exporting to 3rd party program
I am attempting to use blender with armorsmith and I am testing the dimensions of shapes before I design something large.
I have a  rectangle that is 2 x 2 x 8 inches or 50.8 x 50.8 x 203.2mm. I believe I have set the grid units correctly:

When I export an an obj file and load into armorsmith the dimensions seem to be WAY off. Its possible I need to contact someone that knows armorsmith but I am guessing the issue might be with blender as that part wasnt as straight forward.
When I import the obj file into armorsmith I get a warning that the dimensions are too small:

Its not until I scale the size by 1,000 that it seems the shape is the correct size, which would mean the dimentions exported would be closer to .0508 x .0508 x .2032mm:

Maybe im doing some horrible unit conversions, or maybe im doing something wrong in blender >_< Any ideas? (the model is scaled/sized using mm values as well). Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this

Ok this isn't an issue on either end don't worry. You are showing us the scale which will be applied/ set to 1 when exported. The dimensions stay the same.

So the unit scale in the first picture is for exporting? but at a value of 1, wouldnt that keep the dimensions of the shape(same picture) the same? Think I might be missing what you are saying

As simple as I can say it.
Dimensions stay the same and the scale gets set to 1.


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Apply displacement to a video?
Has anyone come across a method to apply displacement to videos? When I import the video it comes in as an empty and doesn't provide me with the option to use any modifiers. I would like to apply displacement that changes as the video progresses. If anyone can point me to some resources, it would be greatly appreciated!
Niko

Import videos as an image as plane

In your preferences, make sure you enabled the "Import images as planes" add-on

Go to Add (or SHIFT + A ) > Image > Images as Planes
Then choose your video.
Add your modifiers :

Set some keyframes and play.

Thank you Gorgious! Just a follow up question... Do I set the keyframes as the displacement texture?

What I did but didn't show is that I added an empty, set it as the texture coordinate in the displacement modifier, and simply keyframed the empty at 0,0,0 at frame 0 and then something like 0,0,20 at frame 100. If it isn't clear enough I'll update the answer

Subdivide the plane and you will be able to apply the modifiers.


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Clipping Bubble?
I was wondering if it is possible to use geometry as a view clipping boundary? For example, could I use a sphere to clip the boundary of other geometry, which would then auto-update as I move the sphere? My hope is to avoid using the boolean modifier as it is processing heavy on complex geometry.
Best,
Niko

Maybe change the Clip End value in the View tab of the 3D viewport. Or perhaps give the sphere a Holdout material. (it depends on what exactly you want to achieve though.)


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I need help for face inserting
I need help . when I try to insert a square face, the top and bottom side do not move like the ones on the side. what settings should i make? https://imgur.com/bDReEOk?fbclid=IwAR2ogdJfE6yuatLIS9O9xMC4CSHvTl5evV_2bsV0ZcOD7VQOtwoGW7-zlS4

How to upload an image to a post

Probably the object has a non-uninform scale. Apply the scale in Object Mode with Ctrl+A, then try again.

Thank you .It works


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Mirror modifier problem for only one cube
182/5000
Hello . I try to make a low poly car with a background image, but when I try to apply a mirror modifier, it does not apply, and when I try another cube it goes. What is the problem? https://i.sstatic.net/WUOSf.jpg

question is not clear, can you explain more your setup and problem?

i wanna build a poly car. I add background image,apply loop cut , delete verticies and when i try to apply mirror it doesn t work

You could try to share your file to see the problem

So from what I get from you question is that you are trying to model a low poly car with the mirror modifier activated. but you can't seem to apply it or add extra meshes?
To be able to apply any modifier you need to be in object mode.

So you would first create a cube and from front view in edit mode with "Control + R" create an edge loop in the middle

after that you want to delete the first set of vertices on any side.
And then apply the mirror modifier with "Clipping" checked

Then you can edit the mesh however you like and you have 2 ways of adding new meshes

While in edit mode press "shift + a" to create a new mesh
Go to object mode, press "shift + a" to create a new mesh and repeat
steps 1 / 3 with the new model.


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How do I remove doubled faces? Merge by Distance isn't behaving properly
I keep running into this problem. I have tried to rebuild this mesh three times now... I'm building a flat mesh on the X + Y Axis only using extrusion Ctrl + E, Shift + Zetc. When I finish I keep getting doubled faces, indicated by the different shading on the affected faces. (I'll attach screengrabs). What is the best way to fix this?
I have tried Clean Up > Merge by Distance, but it removes loads of faces entirely, not just the doubles, and then bizarrely I can't add the face back by selecting the vertices and pressing F. If I select all the affected vertices and delete faces it deletes both faces.
Help in this matter would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

After using the Merge by Distance function it removed 90 vertices. And left odd shading on the affected faces as in the screenshot above. In addition it left strange artefacts when I added Solidify modifiers and Subdivision Surface. In the end I just went through manually and deleted the extra vertices as it was quite a simple mesh. I did this by double clicking each doubled vertex, a single click chose the one underneath and the second click chose the top - I don't know which was correct to delete or if it mattered. But it seems to be fine now.

I would still like an answer to this question if anyone with experience has run into this before. I'm not sure at what point in the process of extruding and building the 2D flat mesh it starts adding extra vertices and faces but when it does how do I remove them in a way that doesn't leave artefacts as it did after using Merge by Distance.

Revisiting this for continuity. And answering my own question. I continued to have this issue, with doubled faces and inconsistent 'shading' on the faces on further mesh builds, using extrusion E to build a flat (2D) mesh.
There were two problems: Duplicate vertices and Normals direction of the faces.
Because it was a simple mesh I was able to remove the doubled vertices manually. But it can also be solved using the command from the 'Mesh' Drop down: Clean Up > Merge by Distance. Although this doesn't always seem to behave perfectly and may still require some manual work.
This didn't always result in accurately recalculating the normals either. One can recalculate normals from the same Menu 'Mesh' > Normals > Flip, Recalculate, Rotate etc. But to do individual faces they need to be manually selected I believe.
To choose individual faces use Face Select mode 3 and Recalculate or Flip only selected faces.
In all of this I wasn't able to figure out why Blender sometimes (seemingly randomly) flips the normals or duplicates vertices, but with a little diligence they can be adjusted as one is building the mesh.
I hope that helps someone who is encountering a similar problem in their early days getting their head round Blender.


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Does Eevee in 2.82 work on MacBookPro / Intel Integrated Graphics Cards?
I can't find a definite answer, as a lot about Eevee seems to be in development from what I can see (but it seems like probably not). I have tried on two different MacBookPros OSX 10.14, one older model (2015) with the Intel Iris card, and another newer (2018) with an Intel UHD graphics card. In both cases the render completes and flashes on the screen for about a second and then goes grey. It's the oddest thing because it is completing the render just not allowing me to export the image.
Also likely related, when the builds get more complex 100+ objects or so, especially with Bump and Transmission values etc. Material Preview / Look Dev (Eevee engine I understand) becomes unusably laggy, and render attempts crash Blender.
I can stick to Cycles for now until I upgrade machines but there are some effects I want to recreate with Eevee that I'm struggling to imitate in Cycles.
So just curious really. Thanks for anything you can share.

I have 2014 mbp retina with dual intel iris pro/nvidia 750M. Eevee works but is rather sluggish.

Did your MBP come with the nvidia card or did you upgrade it somehow, most MBPs as far as I'm aware you can't add an extra GPU as an upgrade, and I wasn't aware they came with nvidias only the AMD Radeons...? Maybe the 2014s had nvidia as an option...

it came with nvidia... until Apple decided to offer only AMD as dual graphic.

Looks like it's time to upgrade


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In Material Preview is it possible to render only scene lights and not textures of objects?
When trying to place lights in a scene it can be frustrating when Material Preview (Lookdev) mode is lagging when there are a lot objects with a lot of textures, transparencies etc. Often when you switch to this mode there is a brief lag where, it displays the objects as MatCaps, but with the lights bouncing and casting shadows. But then eventually it processes the texutures and everything slows down which can make it difficult to place lights accurately for a desired look.
Is it possible to switch off the textures in Material preview and just render light and shadow with a Matcap on the objects?
Thank you.


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Geometry Nodes: How to get uniform thickness with Curve to Mesh?
I'm trying to use Geometry Nodes › Curve to Mesh to create thin curvy walls, and it seems that the thickness of the wall depends on the size (not scale) of the underlying curve. In this screenshot, both curves have a scale of 1.0, but one curve is thicker because it's larger.

Is there some way to keep the thickness the same for every curve? Thanks.

if you really want to know the reason (and we don't have to guess), pls provide blend file

You have different radius. You can do the following:

Also, then you apply scale for curves, open Adjust last operation F9 and uncheck Apply Properties. This will keep curve radius at 1.

You can also clear curve radius in edit mode, by searching command (F3) set curve radius

This is the answer, thanks! It seems that the "Set Curve Radius" node also affects the height of the walls (on top of the quadrilateral dimensions), so I just manually set the radius on my curves.


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How to prevent the file browser from showing folders before files?
I've set my file browser to sort by Modified Date, but it always shows all of my folders (sorted by date)  before any files (sorted by date). So when I want to choose a file, which is the whole purpose of the dialog, I always have to scroll past all the folders.
Is there any way to get the file browser to intermingle files and folders, sorted by date?
Bonus question: is there any way to permanently move the Volumes and System lists to the bottom of the file browser's left panel?

As far as I know there currently is no way to sort folders mixed with files.
As a workaround you can temporarily hide all folders from view.
Open the filters popover, then from the file types untick the Folders entry.


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Is it possible to change power of zoom in /out in viewport with respect to distance from active object
I have a problem with zooming in while modeling small details on my meshes as blender decreases my zooming power when I am close to my mesh this also happens sometimes when I decrease scale of a large object
I am unable to go further closer to the mesh from particular distance from the mesh

Read this link: Why does the zoom sometimes stop at a point?

When zooming in blender, the viewport camera will move closer to its centre of rotation. You can move the centre of rotation by panning (holding shift and the middle mouse button), or the easier way would probably be to press the decimal key on your numpad to centre the camera on the selected object.


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Mesh shows in wireframe mode after removing smoke stimulation
I made a solid mesh and then added a smoke stimulation on it.
The stimulation worked but i didn't want it so I deleted the bake and removed the stimulation but now the mesh appears as wireframe even in rendered view in viewport
But the video and image renders show it as a colored solid mesh
How can I make the mesh shown as solid mesh in viewport

You can adjust the viewport display of the objects in the Object Properties Panel: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/scene_layout/object/properties/display.html

Thanks it woked

Select your object, then go to Object Properties > Viewport Display. Set the Display as option to Solid.

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

@Community. No, the answer is fine.


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How can i delete part of an object insite another object?
I am trying something in blender and i would like to delete this inner part of the orange object so the second object (grey) is open. How can i do this?

Can you add some other photos of the model? I'm having a hard time understanding from the current angle. Besides that you might just want to use loop selection on the faces and then delete them, or select the outside invert and then delete the inside.

as  Nascent Space says your question is not clear, are you trying to make a sort of boolean of the yellow with the grey?