text:
Blender 2.8 addon dxf
I am an Architect, and trying to learn Blender for 3d Modelling. Recently I added addon for importing dxf file. Since I work on large project in mm. I set Blender unit to mm. but when I imported the file in Blender 2.8 or even in 2.79b. I am un able to see the drawing in blender and it took quite while to zoom once it is zoom I am unable to work. Since zoom does not work properly.
Please help if i am doing anything wrong.
Regards,

Your problem here is likely viewport clipping. Its values can be adjusted in the n panel, view tab:

You also need to make sure the unit scale is the same in the DXF files as in your Blender scene. Default Blender unit scale is 1 so in metric unit system 1 unit matches 1 meter. This means that when you export to DXF from another software you must ensure units are set to meters in order to import them to Blender at correct scale later, or you can adjust the unit scale while importing:

So if the DXF file is saved with units set to millimeters and you are working in 2.80 with Unit System set to Metric, Unit Scale set to 1.0(1 meter), and Length set to Millimeter like this:

you would need to set unit scale to 0.001 while importing because a millimeter is 0.001 of a meter.
Blender 2.80 and 2.79 work significantly differently when it comes to units. In 2.79 the units define the unit scale as well, while in 2.80 the unit scale can be adjusted separately.
Why does unit scale matter? Blender stores values in 32bit floats so if you work with very small values on a very large object for example you may run into precision issues. There are also other issues like for example there is a limit to how much you can zoom in depending on your unit scale. It usually does not make much sense to work with meters if you actually work with objects of a millimeter scale. In architecture the objects you work with are not usually a few millimeters in size, they can be several meters in size, so in Blender 2.79 it is better to work with meters instead of millimeters even though they are the standard in architecture. This will help you avoid precision issues and will work smoother in 2.79. 2.80 is improved a lot in this area, and you should be able to work with millimeters fine because you can do that even if your unit scale is set so 1 Blender unit matches 1 meter.

Thank you Martin, for the answer I am was struggling from past 2 days.
Thank you so much.
With respect to working in meter, I am use to working in mm for very long time.
As suggested by you for the model, yes I can do that.
Thank you so much for helping. I am really grateful, as I am absolutely new to Blender. As I use to work on SketchUp while I was doing Job.

Blender 2.80 seems to be a better choice for you then. It will really make life a lot easier with millimeters. I work with architectural drawings myself pretty much every day, even this exact moment as I am writing this :D So I know how it is - mm are the standard here, but still I use meters because I still work in 2.79 at the moment, I find it easier in 2.79. I will switch to mm in 2.8 which will probably be a bit of a  process for me now that I am used to converting everything to meters, but I imagine it will make life a whole lot easier.

I am absolutely new to Blender and learning from YouTube tutorial. In fact I waited from Blender 2.8 RC to release. I read a lot that it is very powerful software then SketchUp, So I leaning thank you for your recommendation. I am really grateful.

@tusharbc if an answer helped you, consider marking it as accepted

I had the same problems and what Martynas said it has been the solution to my troubles. When I have to import a DXF file into blender I usually set the viewport to Top an only after that I import it set the unit scale to 0,001 (because I worked in mm) in the preferences and works. I don't know way using the Top View works better instead of perspective one ;)


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Error importing several meshes from single dir
I have been trying to figure out an error message I get with attempting to script blender to import all stl's from a dir, edit them, then export them back to the same dir with the filename appended.  I have had luck doing this with a single specified stl, but cannot get this to work so far with multiple files.  Here is the code I am using to try this with multiple files (it is very hamfisted, this is my first experience with python or scripting):
import os
import bpy
import sys

file_path = ("C:\stlfiles")
dir = os.listdir("C:\stlfiles")

for file_path in dir:
 if file_path.lower().endswith('.stl'):
  try:
   bpy.ops.object.delete()
   bpy.ops.import_mesh.stl(filepath=file_path, filter_glob="*.stl")

   bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
   bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
   bpy.ops.mesh.tris_convert_to_quads()
   bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()

   bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='BEVEL')
   bpy.context.object.modifiers["Bevel"].width = 0.056
   bpy.context.object.modifiers["Bevel"].segments = 2
   bpy.context.object.modifiers["Bevel"].profile = 1
   bpy.context.object.modifiers["Bevel"].limit_method = 'ANGLE'
   bpy.context.object.modifiers["Bevel"].angle_limit = 0.698132
   bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='SUBSURF')
   bpy.context.object.modifiers["Subsurf"].levels = 2
   bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(apply_as='DATA', modifier="Bevel")
   bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(apply_as='DATA', modifier="Subsurf")

   bpy.context.object.scale[0] = 10
   bpy.context.object.scale[1] = 10
   bpy.context.object.scale[2] = 10

   bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
   bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='INVERT')

   bpy.ops.export_mesh.stl(filepath=file_path + '_exported.stl', check_existing=True,
    filter_glob="*.stl")
   bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
   bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='INVERT')
  except:

   print ("Couldn't open file")

Here is the error I am getting (test01.stl, and test02.stl are in the stsfiles dir):
{'CANCELLED'}
Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.79\scripts\addons\io_mesh_stl\__init__.py", line 151, in execute
    tris, tri_nors, pts = stl_utils.read_stl(path)
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.79\scripts\addons\io_mesh_stl\stl_utils.py", line 261, in read_stl
    with open(filepath, 'rb') as data:
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'test01.stl'

location: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.79\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py:189

Couldn't open file
{'CANCELLED'}
Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.79\scripts\addons\io_mesh_stl\__init__.py", line 151, in execute
    tris, tri_nors, pts = stl_utils.read_stl(path)
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.79\scripts\addons\io_mesh_stl\stl_utils.py", line 261, in read_stl
    with open(filepath, 'rb') as data:
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'test02.stl'

Can you point me in the right direction to resolve this please? Thanks in advance.

os.listdir only return name and extension and subdir for a Dir, you didn't indicate the relative directory path or absolute path for filepath to search the file by name.
You could use os.path.join() to join your path:
dir_path = ("C:\stlfiles")
files = os.listdir(dir_path) # if you just create a reference to dir, why not use it directly?

for file_name in files:
    if file_name.lower().endswith('.stl'):
        full_file_path = os.path.join(dir_path,file_name)
        pass #do something to full_file_path

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Simulating balls falling into a mesh. Why do I get different results each time?
So basically I've an array of about 700-800 spheres that will fall into a box. What I am trying to do is, after the balls settle they spell out something. I did that,by going to the last frame of the animation and selected some of the balls and colored them differently so that I get my text. But when I went back to my first image and rendered the animation, the last frame is not the same as I had made it. Is there something I should try doing or is there a better way to do what I am doing?

You should bake your simulation before you colour them. This way they will keep the lock down your simulation so it wont change. This also helps speeding up the play back since it no longer needs to solve the simulation.

Thanks a lot dude. It worked exactly how I wanted to.

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


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Removing Animations in dopesheet action editor
I opened up the dopesheet, and then the action editor. I pressed f, then 2, experimenting with it. But doing that made clones of the animation. How do I delete them?

Did you see the answer provided?

This answer is late but I found it so hard to find the answer anywhere else.
As shown in Tak's answer, you need to click the "X" button, HOWEVER you need to hold the shift key while pressing this "X".
If it works, in the dropdown containing your animations in the dope sheet, the animation you want to delete should have a "0" next to it.
From there, you just need to save your file, exit blender, then reopen the file and it should be gone.

Hi, welcome! You could perhaps add at least one screenshot (use the question editor image tool) to clarify what has to be done, where

Remove all the animations with the 'X' button. The active ones or the ones with the 'F' button enabled will be saved after reloading your saved .blend file.

Try deleting it as shown below:

Tried that, but they're still there.

@Alpex could you provide your .blend file to be able to help

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


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Ambient Occlusion Baking has no shading
Whenever I try to bake my character model with an ambient occlusion, I don't get the shading effect that I want (take a look at this video). So can someone help me achieve this effect with the ambient occlusion? Here's are pictures, am I doing anything wrong?

Would you mind uploading your file? I have tried several possible problems but none of them resembled yours (changind environment lighting had something close)

can  you show how you set AO ? and a rendered image with AO?

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


text:
Issues exporting large amounts of animations to Unity
I'm having a few issues I have been trying to work around for a few months now when I'm trying to export a large group of animation Actions or NLA animations.
When I try exporting all my actions into an .fbx, my animations look more accurate, but I'm missing a lot of animations.
Anim List Blender:

Anim List Unity:

Next I tried loading all my animations in NlaTracks (I tried exporting with all of the animations in one track, and each animation in their own track) I noticed that all my animations were in the list, but then I came across another issue where the first couple frames were the same pose as the previous animation(This happened when setting my ActionExtrapolation to Hold, Hold Forward, and Nothing).
What it looks like in blender
https://media.giphy.com/media/xT0xey9xLaLvmpdbBS/giphy.gif
What it looks like in Unity
https://media.giphy.com/media/l4EoOHU033sfvkZgY/giphy.gif
Also, This wierdness happened with NLA exporting. And it happens no mater how I bake all the frames. The only thing that seems to fix this is if I make it the first animation in my NlaTrack list.
Original:
https://media.giphy.com/media/xT0xeoWNDS87p5p3Es/giphy.gif
Unity:
https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6nUN4AgEKu7cOxvG/giphy.gif


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Adjust Manipulator/Gizmo Hotspot Blender 2.8
I was wondering if there was a way to adjust the Gizmo hot spots for the axis representers like in Blender 2.79?
This is the old setting:

This is the new setting:

Right now it seems like it only activates the axis when i'm directly on it.
Does anyone know how to edit this?


text:
Updated to 2.93.7 cant export to fbx

I have updated blender through steam to latest LTS version 2.93.7.
Since then I cant export files as .fbx, no matter which scene I try to export I receive same error. I tried to change settings in .fbx exporter but still same error. Any solution or just downgrade?

I suspect this might be a bug instead of some problem to be solved with some explanations.

Maybe Steam update missed the a file named encode_bin.py
In your Blender application folder find this path
D:\Blender 2.93\2.93\scripts\addons\io_scene_fbx\

This is the missing file
encode_bin.py
Download it and put it on the path above


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Bring a texture from Shading to Geometry Nodes
I have a procedurally created (and continuously being tweaked) texture in shading tab used for material stuff. I'd like to bring(link) that texture to my geometry nodes tab where I use it to scatter stuff.
I previously asked about how to get something from Geometry Nodes to Shading, and it was solved using the empty socket of group output. But now that I want to go the other way, there's not that output socket.

you can do it like this:

Just use the Attribute Sample Texture, then choose your texture and insert "UVMap" (the name of your UVMap) into Mapping and some name (i took dens) and use this e.g. as the density attribute.

NOTE: the Attribute Sample Texture node is a legacy node and is
removed in 3.0.0 and later versions.

It would really be cool to have a workable solution here - I mean, working in current and upcoming Blender versions. This was a nice attribute node, I wonder if there are plans to get something similar in the future. I could also imagine not only procedural textures but all images as "weight maps" or something like that, just like you can use images as alpha maps in the shader editor etc. I would like images as "selection maps".

i hope/think it will come....  ;)


text:
Geometry nodes, factor changes automatically when connected to a float
Using Blender 3.0, I wanted to use a weight paint(multiplied by a number) for the Radius of a Curve Circle. But when I connect the "grey diamond" to the "gray circle" in the image below...

... suddenly all the "diamonds" become "circles" and the weight paint input in the modifier tab gets kicked out. Compare the two images.

This doesn't make sense! I know the weight paint is a factor(0 to 1) and the Radius is a float(any number). But they're still both numbers! it should be able to read a factor as a float! Is there any method to make this work? Thank you.

As you say, the resultant types at either end of the noodle match, (or can be cast to one another). But there is a distinction between Fields, marked by diamond sockets, and regular data, marked by circular sockets.
Fields are function-calls, returning the results of attribute look-ups and interpolations, and other calculations in the tree, in which the target geometry is a parameter. So a Field, for example, will return a different Position value for every vertex in the target geometry, and interpolate for points in between them.
At the point of creation, a Curve Primitive > Circle, is a single entity. It has only one radius, which is set directly via a variable, not a function-call. The base-radius can be set via  a single float in the interface.
If, then, for example, you instance your circle on the points of a grid, all the instances share the creation-data. The data can not be varied per-circle, until the instances are realised. But the circle-instances do each carry their own transform. The instances can be scaled, rotated and translated independently, just as instances can outside GN, in Object Mode.
The blue nodes in this tree show the instances (not the primitive) being scaled, by a function of vertex-weights, when generated per-point of a grid:

Here's the modified grid, showing its vertex-weights, and the result:

The instances do not have the vertex-weights as an attribute themselves. If, say, you want to translate the instances by the grid's vertex-weights, you have to transfer the weights from the grid to the instances, possibly as shown by the green nodes, above. Here the transfer can be made with the Index as key, because at this stage, the instances have the same Index as the vertices they were created on.

Thank you very much. It was somehow complicated for a beginner like me but I'm sure it'll help others a lot. Despite this, I understood the instance part which elaborated lots of thing, and I kind of imitated your node arrange and followed on. You solved some problems but created a lot more new incoming questions in my mind( I guess that's how knowledge works). So I might come back for new questions. Thank you

@Barbod you're welcome. Don't think you're alone. I'm finding it quite tough to figure out how and where attributes are captured and transferred myself. It's not very explicit in the interface.


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'color' and 'position' input for Color Ramp node?
Blender 3.0 . I wanted to be able to change a the color and position of the sliders in the Color Ramp node via another set of nodes, but there's no input for the "slidering gradient thing". There's just fac input. Is there a way to do this?
I don't need a complex setup, just two of those sliders work( two color inputs and two position inputs. I guess that counts as simple!). In my project, the number of these sliders are not meant to be changed; so if it's possible, please give an comprehensible answer for a beginner like me. Thank you

There is no way to change those sliders from an input to the Color Ramp node.  You can only do it by hand or by writing a Python script.

Similar question, you could recreate the color ramp node with math nodes: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/40120/build-color-ramp-out-of-math-nodes

If it's only two colors and two sliders you want, you can recreate the Color Ramp with a Map Range node and a Mix RGB node.
Set the From Minimum value to the position of the left slider and the From Maximum value to the position of the right slider. Leave To Min and To Max at 0 and 1. Plug the result into the Fac input of the Mix RGB node and set the first color to the left slider's color and the second to the right slider's color.
In this example the left slider is red at 0.25 and the right one is yellow at 0.45, the left sphere uses the Color Ramp material, the right sphere the Map Range material:

I'm sure you could build even more complex setups to recreate more than two sliders and maybe even different interpolation modes (since Map Range also has more than just Linear).
Speaking of interpolation modes, if you want to keep the options of interpolation from the Color Ramp like Linear, Ease, B-Spline, Constant, you can still use the ramp but "expand" it a little bit.
You take a Color Ramp with black and white and plug it into the Fac input of a Mix RGB node. Then you add two Value nodes in the material, you don't have to connect them to anything. Just right-click one of the values and choose Copy as New Driver. Place your mouse over the position value of one slider, right-click and choose Paste Driver. Now repeat that for the second Value node and the other slider.

And if you need more than 2 Colors you can use even more MapRange-Nodes just like this:


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Making the translucent backface glossy
I'm working on photorealistic leaf material that works fine with a plane mesh (of course if it had real geometry thickness the effect would have been easy to set up but heavy for rendering). This is my setup so far:

If you're wondering about the Fresnel thing, it's explained here. The entire setup is copied from the same guide.
But now my problem is that the backface has no glossy. It's just the diffuse light of the translucency effect.

I know that the down side of real leaves are not as glossy as their top side but there's still a subtle gloss. How can I add a Glossy BSDF For the backface?

Hi :). You'd need to basically rebuild the Principled BSDF from scratch using other shaders. I did that for another answer, and included that as a nodegroup :))

Related question with nodegroup included: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/215782/78972

Wow. You have the same setup like mine but you've just seperated the roughness for the two sides. Mine had the glossy effect too but I couldn't control it individually so I thought it was not there. Thanks. You're node group has more controls and is applicable for various cases, especially more complex ones. I'd appreciate it if you post the same images and blend files here as an answer so that I can accept it and give you the bounty.

@JachymMichal Submit an answer please

Posted an answer so your bounty isn't wasted :)). cheers.

Posting my own copied answer just so Barbod M's bounty isn't wasted :))
The linked devtalk post already offers a setup for correct backface reflections.
To fine-tune roughness for Frontface/Backface, split the node-tree into two branches.
I used a custom-built PBR shader incorporating Translucency, following CynicatPro's approach.
But you can use a simpler setup as long as the roughness channel is split.

[![enter image description here][4]][4]

For convenience, I packed the whole setup into a nodegroup called Principled Leaves BSDF.

Just for reference - I used this nodegorup for all foliage in one of my archviz projects and it turned out pretty good :))


text:
Combining Video Editor Scenes in One Scene
I am trying to create an animatic in blenders Video Sequence Editor and I have found a tutorial by a Mathieu Auvray on the Project Gooseberry youtube page where he shows a feature where you can import different VSE scenes into one scene.
However, when I followed his tutorial, I noticed that a few things he clicked on that weren't in any of the versions of Blender I could find.
Here was Mathieu's screen:

Here is mine in all my blenders:

Is there a plug in I am missing, or a setting I haven't turned on?
I have been googling it for a while and have been coming up empty.

The gooseberry project uses a development branch of blender that has some modifications that haven't been applied to the main blender development yet. This is one change that is currently only in the gooseberry branch.
You can compare the code for the relevant panel in gooseberry branch and the master branch to spot the change. There are also other supporting code changes elsewhere to get that to work, see this commit.
There are gooseberry builds available to download from blender daily builds or you can look at building your own version of blender.


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Procedural Text in Video Sequence Editor
I was wondering if there is a way to create procedural text in the text Effect Strip. Something so I can clearly see the name of images shown, the frame of the video, and the time in an video sequence. Something similar to some tricks in AE or Shotcut filters that have copy and paste features for their filters.
Shotcut:

I tried doing this manually, and I'm trying to add it to hundres of images which is too much.

You can add stamp like this in Render -> Metadata section:

There is now so much settings, but you can bake over image a strip name, labels of markers, frame number and time here.

Awesome! thanks you! this is what i was looking for! Is there any way to change the locations that the metadata appear?

As I said,there isn't so much settings..


text:
Lagging IK joints in Playback and Exports
I'm having this issue with this rig I worked on.
https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6nV1hsQYg2ID2ANO/giphy.gif
If you notice, the legs and arms are delayed from the rest of the body in the viewport. I thought it would be ok once I exported this as fbx, but apparently this lag gets baked into my exports and I end up having to import my fbx file, and cleaning up the raw Deform joints to make the animation passable.
This rig has an IK/FK slider along with the ability to match FK controls to the IK controls and vice versa. So I figured all of that would be an issue, so I've tried a version where I delete all the set driven keys, but it still lags.
I read on a few posts that suggest a rebuild of the IK constraint fixes it. So I did that too, but once I close Blender and open the file up again, the issue comes back.
I've tried opening this file in Windows 7, Linux Mint and Fedora 26 and the issues is still there.
My specs are:
AMD FX-8320
16GiB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
Original scene with all constraints on rig:

Deleted all constraints except for IK:

It turns out I had my DEF joints constrainted to joints that were constrained to other joints.
When I was originally building the rig, I had to import the rig from MotionBuilers auto-rig set up where I ended up parenting the bones to the IK controls the entire time. So when I switched to FK, my IK controls would just follow the FK. So my DEF bones were constrained to my IK cntrls, then to my FK cntrls.
So after fixing the orientations, and connecting all my DEF joints(Except for the feet), I set my set constraints and switches to the actual DEF.
So instead of DEF -> IK -> FK, I set it up like DEF ->IK and DEF -> FK. Then I used drivers to switch.


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How to add a new stop to the color ramp?
How to add a new stop to the color ramp in python?

I think you are creating a color ramp in a node group as shown in the screenshot so i am giving you an example of creating inside of a node group. I hope you know how to add a color_ramp but still I am giving a complete example for creating a color ramp to add a new stop.
# Creating Color ramp
Test_fire_color_ramp = group.nodes.new(type="ShaderNodeValToRGB")

# assigning location
Test_fire_color_ramp.location = (0,0)

# Removing the First Element this is not necessary but done to show how to remove color stops
Test_fire_color_ramp.color_ramp.elements.remove(Test_fire_color_ramp.color_ramp.elements[0])

# Adding new color stop at location 0.100
Test_fire_color_ramp.color_ramp.elements.new(0.100)

# Setting the color for the stop that we recently created
Test_fire_color_ramp.color_ramp.elements[0].color = (0,0,0,1)

#creating the second stop the same way
Test_fire_color_ramp.color_ramp.elements.new(0.200)
Test_fire_color_ramp.color_ramp.elements[1].color = (0.500,0.400,0.016,1)

# Assigning position and color to already present stop
Test_fire_color_ramp.color_ramp.elements[2].position = (0.995)
Test_fire_color_ramp.color_ramp.elements[2].color = (0,0,0,1)

According to pep8 variable names should be lower_case...

@brockmann I agree with you

camelCaseRocks! Underscores are really hard to type.

Probably but pep8 is not about taste @RonJensen

import bpy
from bpy import data as D

# Get a reference to the colorRamp node
cr=D.materials['Material'].node_tree.nodes['ColorRamp'].color_ramp

# enumarate the elements to the console
for e in cr.elements:
    print(e.position)

# set the left most color to green
cr.elements[0].color=(0,1,0,1)

# add a new ramp in the middle, position = 0.5
cr.elements.new(position = 0.5)

# set the middle color to red
cr.elements[1].color=(1,0,0,1)

# set the right color to blue
cr.elements[2].color=(0,0,1,1)


text:
How to make a single user copy of a group of nodes in matrial on python in Blender?
I have a material on one object and I need to copy it to another object.
I do ... material.copy () but the group node in the material copy does not become a single-user copy. How can this problem be solved?

The copy function can be used on the node tree as well. The copy function returns the copied node group, so it can be used replace the original group with the single user copy:
original_group = bpy.context.objects['Object'].material_slots['Material'].material.node_tree.nodes['Baking_node'].node_tree
single_user_group = original_group.copy()
original_group = single_user_group

Then just loop that over all your materials

Use bpy.context.object for the context object, bpy.context.scene.objects.get("Object") for an object named "Object" in the context scene.  There is no context.objects.


text:
I want the points back (Blender beginner)
So i am a beginner with blender and I want to make a donut but I have a problem.
This is what I have now:

But I want the points back:
Is there any shortcut or something that I can use?

Hello, what do you mean by "the points"? If you want to switch to vertex select mode, maybe check this answer: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/120872/blender-2-8-switching-between-vertex-edge-face-selecttion

Just press 1 to go back to vertex select mode.(not numpad 1)

Thanks for answering, I mean the dots that you can select (those ones that become white when selected).

Thanks it worked.

Yeah that is called a vertex and press 1 to go to vertex select mode or click on the dot icon in the top left corner of the 3d viewport. Remember that you have to be in edit mode before pressing  1


text:
Rigify: Parent bones of some DEF-* bones

Blender 2.83.3 (on macOS Catalina)
Rigify 0.6.1

When I generate a rig from the basic human (or other) metarig, some generated DEF-* bones of the rig have ORG-* bones as its parent as below. Is this an intended design?

The parent of DEF-upper_arm.L(R) is ORG-shoulder.L(R) instead of DEF-shoulder.L(R).
The parent of DEF-breast.L(R) is ORG-brest.L(R) instead of DEF-spine.003.
The parent of DEF-shoulder.L(R) is ORG-shoulder.L(R) instead of DEF-spine.003.
The parent of DEF-thigh.L(R) is ORG-spine instead of DEF-spine.
The parent of DEF-pelvis.L(R) is ORG-pelvis.L(R) instead of DEF-spine.

This behaviour causes that many unnecessary bones will be included when you export the rig as a FBX with “only deform bones” option, which is not suitable for the Unity projects (and the other Apps, I think). If you tweak these relations manually before exporting, you will get a pretty straightforward rig with only DEF-* bones.
Exporting as FBX is a major operation in Blender. I think it will be happy when I don’t need to tweak these bone relations manually every time I generate rigs with Rigify.
Thank you.


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Unity flips normal of the some times after Blender export
I'm exporting a low poly character from blender to unity but it flips normals of some items, there's no reason to do that.

I found it:
I copied left arm to create right arm and scaled X axis to -1, if I import it like that it works correctly but if I do that and apply scale it flips the normal in unity,  now it works.


text:
What are consequences of going Cycles 3.0 Experimental to use Adaptive Subdivision?
I'm a beginner, using 3.0. I don't work on production levels, just a hobby, but still it feels weird to go experimental(because of that warning).
I just watched a tutorial about Adaptive Sub division and it looked cool but I'm not sure if it's ok to use experimental features. I see professionals like Default Cube using just the oldest version(3.1 alpha for now) and not being scared of "consequences".
Finally, my question is: Do new problems emerge if I go Cycle 3.0 Experimental to use Adaptive Subdivision? And how to handle those problems?

Don't worry, go ahead and use it. Experimental just means it may not be fully flushed out, or they plan on making changes to it in the future (ex: maybe they don't like the way it's fitting with blender and are planning on replacing it with a different module). Or, it may just not be finished to the developer's liking and not ready to be labeled as a "supported" feature. Adaptive subdivision has been in the experimental category for a while - my guess is they were almost finished, but put more of their effort into finishing Geometry Nodes instead. There shouldn't be any problems using it.

Chris is right, adaptive subdivision have been under experimental for three years, and works just fine ;)

The answer is given by @ChrostopherBennett in the comments of the question. Thank you. Copied:

Don't worry, go ahead and use it. Experimental just means it may not
be fully flushed out, or they plan on making changes to it in the
future (ex: maybe they don't like the way it's fitting with blender
and are planning on replacing it with a different module). Or, it may
just not be finished to the developer's liking and not ready to be
labeled as a "supported" feature. Adaptive subdivision has been in the
experimental category for a while - my guess is they were almost
finished, but put more of their effort into finishing Geometry Nodes
instead. There shouldn't be any problems using it.


text:
Order of focusing on and learning different skills
I've been using blender for a short while. I can handle different aspects of a project without encountering beginnery problems, but there's still a lot to learn about various skills: modeling, rigging. animating, materials, sculpting, Geometry nodes, lightning, compositing and other things I might not be familiar with.
Following the advice of Blender Guru, I'm aiming for photorealism. So, in what order should I start learning the skills that I mentioned?(plus missed skills)
I know I should learn them simultaneously and along the way, but in which order I should try to focus on a specific skill for like two weeks?

Sorry it is opinion based Q ... in general it doesnt make a sence to learn lightning if you dont have a model to light, on other hand you can download some model and only work on lightning process to finish your project. I don't think there is an answer for you.

Voted to close, opinion based.  My opinion: doesn't matter, provided you have decent stuff to work on (downloaded models if you want to delay modelling, for example; you need good animation topo to learn rigging et al, which you won't have if you haven't worked on modelling yet-- but it's back and forth, you won't know good animation topo until you do a bit of rigging.)  A good artist does not master all domains; a good artist learns the basics of all domains and then specializes in one domain.  If you want to learn "photorealism" I'd say work on materials.

Admire your dedication @Barbod. After two years I'm only somewhat profficient at modeling, all the other areas are alien to me :D. Perhaps I should step up my game.

The answer is: Create something with the skills you have now.  Decide what you would like to improve about it.  Work on those skills next. Iterate.  For photorealism, you might want to work on modeling, materials, and lighting, all of which are relevant and can be studied independently.

What you want to learn sounds like this video clip Pet tortoise thinks it's a dog. It's made with Blender.
A good starting point to learn is to recreate a picture in 3D. For animation, try the Dynamic Machines Challenge or maybe create a Puzzle Machine?

This sort of question always gets closed as opinion based, but as usual, there's a factual answer:
The list you've provided are pretty much independent of each other, so if you have the basics, there is no necessary order.
So how do you decide if that's the case?  The same way artists always decide:  Create something.  Decide what you most want to improve about it.  Work on those skills next.
You mentioned photorealism.  There are three skills to work on there, modeling, materials, and lighting.  Create a scene. Study it. Decide what to improve. Work on that.

Despite it being closed, I got my answer . The answer might sound obvious but it wasn't for me. Thank you. Also thanks to @Blunder and everyone else.


text:
How to set the origin of a procedurally created mesh in Geometry Nodes?
In blender 3.0, I made a wire-like mesh using Mesh Line. So, the geometries default origin is the beginning of the mesh line which later, causes problems. I wondered if there's a way to set the position of the origin?
It would be great if I can set the origin to the center of the Geometry. Is there a way for blender to calculate the center automatically in Geometry nodes?

I needed something similar but a bit more specific.
I ended up with the following Node Group:
(make sure to limit the input on x, y and z from -1 to 1).

I can set the origin based on values from -1 to 1, where 0.5 is the center.

Just like in the answer of Gorgious https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/247902/21443,
The mesh is being transformed, not the origin. I think at this point it is not possible to transform only the origin.

You can use the Bounding Box node which outputs a mesh's enclosing (bounding) box, as well as the minimum point and the maximum point of the box in the 3 axes.
Then take the mean value of the Min and Max to get the origin of the box. Translate the mesh by this amount to center the origin to geometry.

Hit CTRL + G while the new nodes are selected to create a handy node group you can use later to center the origin on other meshes.

Cool, you transformed the the mesh not the origin. Thinking outside the box

I really don't want to be a smart-ass about this, but here's how I would solve it:

The node Attribute Statistic returns the mean value of the positions of a geometry. Turn this value around and then you have the offset to the center of the geometry.
...or have I understood this a little too simply?

Briliant as always :)

Note this will be biased towards the parts where the geometry is more dense on the mesh. Which is indeed how the "Origin to Geometry" operation works by default in Blender.

Edit to the above:
fixed issue with realized instances losing their origin, made it more reusable? potentially. instances revert to their parent origin once realized it seems. same as when the nodes modifier gets applied.  this seems to solve setup seems to solve the issue tho. takes origin line moves origin on instance to middle. moves line location back to original position and rotates on new origin. then takes instance with origin still applied and manipulates scale and rotation along modified origin. scale was broken on this step previously from above

This one works on mesh, edges, and splines but could be used to handle others.
Translate moves the origin but once you apply the geometry nodes modifier, the origin always reverts to the origin of the object passed in, until this is integrated fully into Geo Nodes, this is an option tho. So you may need to manually apply Origins on anything generated from this but it seems to be usable.
if you leave the translation alone on the duplicate you still end up with the intended origin but it does work on instances within geo nodes or as an array modifier combo.
Works by altering the position of the base mesh which effects the origin like moving the object in edit mode does. duplicate and transform/set position node makes an instance copy that you can then move around and rotate on the new origin.
Hope this helps,
Thanks to all Blender youtubers but special thanks to Johnny Matthews:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llJdazdLmBU
Finally starting to understand fields .. a BIT ;)


text:
How can I change Blender 2.8 Preference via Python
I am trying to find out how to read/set values for Blender 2.8 Preferences with python , for example before 2.8 to change the gizmo size( previously known as manipulator size) to 10
bpy.context.user_preferences.view.manipulator_size = 10

the user_preferences class doesn't seam to exist anymore,
I tried reading the api doc but it's not clear to me, i feel like i am missing something really simple
https://docs.blender.org/api/blender2.8/bpy.types.PreferencesView.html#bpy.types.PreferencesView

This works... bpy.context.preferences.view.gizmo_size=101

thank you , now i see i was naming the preferences context wrong

This works...
bpy.context.preferences.view.gizmo_size=101


text:
FPS drops sporadically, with Gsync turned on, even with just one cube in the scene
Problem has been ongoing for quite a while. (more than 3 months, can't remember exactly when, sorry)
If I move the mouse outside the current part of blender framerate instantly shoots back up - for instance if i move mouse cursor from "3D viewport" over to "properties", for instance.
Frame drops are down into the single digits.
If fps drops while in 3d viewport, rotating the camera also makes FPS go back to normal (until it happens again)
FPS drop is not only happening when using the main blender window. It can also happen when I have "blender preferences" window open.
I use blender for modeling for 3d print, so I only use the modeling workspace. I most often work on simple models.
I use Solid mode Viewport Shading most of the time.
If I play a youtube video/twitch/netflix on my secondary monitor, while working with Blender, FPS drop does not happen.
If I turn Gsync off, the drops does not happen. The drops do happen regardless if i have Gsync turned on for full-screen, or for both windowed and full-screen.
The reason this is a problem for me is because when the fps drops happen, the 3d viewport especially looks like it's getting a few shades darker gradually. It might also be a trick of the eye as a few flickers are going on, which irritate my eyes.
Anyone have an explanation, or better yet, a solution? (if it is possible to turn off gsync for just one app that would also be nice, but I haven't found anywhere I can set that up)
System:
Windows 10 Home
16GB ram
gforce gtx1660 (6gb) newest drivers, as of typing.
Primary monitor is gsync enabled, but secondary is not.
blender and OS is on a SSD, but blend files are saved on a hybrid drive.

Yes it's possible. Go to nVidia Control Panel > Manage 3d Settings > Program Settings.
Add Blender under Select Program To Customize. Changing to the following settings fixed the g-sync stutter problem for me:

Monitor Technology: Fixed Refresh
Preferred Refresh Rate: Application-controlled

Thanks a bunch :)


text:
No save startup file or load factory settings option?
I'm trying to save a default startup, and online tutorials say File > Save Startup File... but I do not find this option

the new path is File > Defaults > Save Startup File

Oh, thank you!!!


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Is there a way to Align Rotation to the X Axis after snapping objects from the asset Browser with Geometry Nodes?

So I've tried to use a GN nodes setup to make the Texts Align to the X Axis several diffrent ways, but no matter what I try, Pulling the same object in Asset Browser the Texts do not want to Align to the new scene's X Axis.

Is there any solution to this that I may have missed?


text:
Is it Possible To Change Material with Duplicate Geo Nodes referencing itself?
So I wanted to Create a Geo Node Setup That Can Dynamically Change Material based on Neighboring Duplicated objects.

This is Possible when Instancing Collection Data and Plugging it into a Geometry Proximity node.
If the Instance is in Contact with the Original Object, the material will then select the faces in contact with the instanced objects, and then assign a given material.

However, when I try Referencing itself, Geometry cant be retrieved from the Object info; forcing the Material to apply on all faces and it's duplicates. I suspect Object info has nothing to track the position of each Duplicate. Unfortunately, my brain is too smooth to come up with something like that.

Am I SOL, or is there something that could resolve this?

Not really sure what you're exactly trying to do. Why not choose Cube.003 from the Object Info dropdown? By "duplicate" do you mean linked duplicate (Alt+D)? Even if they're linked duplicates, they would still be different objects, so Self Object wouldn't enter into the discussion (your distance to yourself will always be zero anyways)? In short, why are you trying NOT to use the Collection Info method when it is already working?

I'm attempting to Create a residential Home with Geometry nodes. by Treating Each object as an individual "room". each room has 2 kinds of walls, an Interior Wall and an exterior wall. Prox Geo could in theory discern between the two

but to repeat the same effect on other objects it does not produce the desired result with this current setup.

Oh, by "duplicate" you mean other objects with the same geometry nodes, not that objects are necessarily the same. So you want all objects with this GN modifier to "see" each other?

you are correct :)


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Planet rings transparency goes wrong

I am doing solar system, and maybe it's because the scale and distances are big, but do you guys know how to do the rings so they are just transparent and not bending the light of an object, so it looks distorted?
I followed these tutorials(tut01, tut02) how to do it, but the result is always like in the picture above.

You are supposed to plug the texture's alpha channel into the mix shader's "Fac" socket instead of the transpareny shader. You can see it in the tut01 video.

FFeller, I did that at the beginning but in that case the rings were not transparent at all, so I change it a little.

Now I see, your texture doesn't have alpha channel at all because it's jpg. Then plug the color channel to the fac socket. If the transparent parts are white swap the input shaders of the mix shader, if they are black, then keep their position.

Can you upload your file? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

 I tried to do it, but it still doesn't work.

Please upload your texture file too because you didn't packed it.

Here you go. Texture for Planet - https://ibb.co/N6tv4cL and rings - https://ibb.co/FJyFT20

https://imgur.com/a/408rlmK It looks you were right. In this giant distance the transparent shader acts like it has an index of refraction, but it has not. I never seen this problem before. May be you have to find an other way to render your video. Best wishes.

Yeah, I read about that blender doesn't handle "big" projects to well. But I hoped that there is some way around it. Anyway thank you for your help.


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I need a certain pattern on a particular texture to be glossy
I need certain patterns on a particular texture to be glossy while everything else remains rough. Any ideas?
It more like a golden yarn embroidered on a black linen.


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When I import OBJ file it does not show
I have imported this file before an it has worked but not this time. I have pressed Numpad . and that just zooms me into here the picture below. I am not in local view.Last time it worked it had imported absolutely huge bugs scaling it down doesn't seem to work. thanks for your help!

Look like from the red line at the left that your object have huge dimension compared to your clipping view (in the N panel) change distance view (1km or 500km or 0.1m depending on the size of your object, EEVEE will have bug if difference between clipping start and end are too huge) Cycles with CPU will work best.

Hello, please press N or click on the left facing arrow in the top right of the 3D view, and go into the item panel. This will tell you the dimensions of your object. Please post these :)

Does this answer your question? Unable to see anything after importing .obj file and Why when importing obj file nothing appears and imported object shows too small and cannot see imported models

I have the same problem, but i cannot find the object in my viewport when i import it. scale doesn't work, from the N panel, the same thing.

The size of your import is very small.
You can use the S  key to scale the object.


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how to a make the camera fade off as fog rather than straight clipping?
My render image current has a hard clip. I can extend the cameras view to 100,000 and it still clips. what am I doing wrong

Hello :). You can try the Mist Pass in World settings.

As Jachym said, you can use the mist pass, but with a high "Start" value, so that it doesn't apply to all the scene, just the edges.

Thank you! I'll have a go at that!


text:
What shaders are used in the example below to achieve the same effect?
Everthing I have done in blender is all pretty standard as far as shaders & textures go but I want to start working on toon shaders I have a style in mind but so far I havent been able to find any usefull resources to gte me there. Any help would be greatly appriciated!

The simple shading can be achieved with "Toon BSDF" for the material and the "Freestyle" mode in the scene settings.

The effect is called chromatic aberration. It separates blue from red and makes things blurry as well. It becomes stronger with the distance from the center. This is a property of the lens.
In Blender, you'd not achieve this with a shader. You'd use a compositing node called "Lens distortion" and set the "dispersion" value to something larger than 0.

Thanks Thomas, I'd normall do this in after effects but that wasnt actually what I was intrested in, More the outlined style judging from other shots and previous experience im 90% certain this was made using 3d software not traditional animation


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SHIFT + ` or SHIFT + ~ No longer works to controll camera with WASD?
So normally I manage my camera animations by pressing SHIFT + ` and this usually works fine but I cannot get it to work can anyone help

did you check your preferences -> keymap whether the keys were changed?

did you maybe change your keymap? (with german keymap for example this is not realy feasable without rebinding)

Under Preferences -> Keymap search for Fly Mode and click in the Field where it Says Shift' and rebind it to whatever you like to press.
call me oldscool... but for me Shift F for Flymode .. like it used to be works great


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I need to snap a the face of an object without changing the relationship of the origin point to that object

I have a unfolding object here I created using the Origamify add on. this add on allows me to fold and unfold this object and I need to keep that. If I move the origin point folding mechanism no longer works. So far I can snap the object to the plane but it won't snap flat it only snaps at a 90 degree angle, or the original angle the object was created at. If I'm only unfolding a cube that's not a big deal because I can manually rotate the object. But if I have a more complex model with a complicated angle from the object to the origin point, I can't get the flat series of objects to snap to the base plane.
https://youtu.be/ZLkyWGQ-_2I
this videos show the intended result. basically I need a way to snap one plane to another where the entire object rotates according to moving planes movement.

A number of ways of doing this, but here's one that should preserve all the relationships in your origami. It looks from your picture as if all the folding parts of the model are separate objects, with their origins on the folds, all parented to a static part, with its origin off-plane.
In brief: parent the existing origami-hierarchy to another object aligned to, and in its plane. Then snap the new parent.
Not so brief, and assuming the worst case, with the origami and the target plane both skew to the world and their own object-axes:

With the T > 3D Cursor tool active, and its N > Tool tab options set to 'Surface Project' and Orientation 'Geometry', drag the cursor to somewhere on the static section of your origami.
-ShiftACreate an Empty there, and in its adjustment panel, set its 'Align' to '3D Cursor'
CtrlP parent the static section to the Empty.

If the plane you are aiming at is skew to the world, create a Transform Orientation from its face in Edit Mode by selecting it and clicking the little '+' in the Header's Transform Orientation dropdown. (You won't need to, if the target plane is in World XY.)
With the Empty selected, Header > Object Menu > Transform > Align to Transform Orientation, with the newly created orientation selected. Your origami should now be aligned to the plane.
Snap the Empty to the plane, any way you choose
AltP un-parent your origami from the Empty, with 'Clear and Keep Transformation'.

This really is the worst case: if your origami's local axes are aligned to their planes, or the target plane is aligned to the world, you can skip some of these steps.

This worked. Unfortunately this project is definitely worst case scenario. Thank you tons though!

I am learning to script in python to automate this project Is the a script option that could perform this action? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42893410/how-to-get-the-tilt-angle-of-a-plane-defined-by-three-coordinates-in-python I am curious if I could get the rotation of the plane I could then apply that to rotate it flat.

I was able to piece together this code. It is a much faster solution.
import bpy
from mathutils import Matrix, Vector

def scale_from_vector(v):
    mat = Matrix.Identity(4)
    for i in range(3):
        mat[i][i] = v[i]
    return mat

o2 = bpy.data.objects['Cubeface002']
face  = o2.data.polygons[0]

loc_dst, rot_dst, scale_dst = o2.matrix_world.decompose()

q = face.normal.rotation_difference((0, 0, 1))

o2.matrix_world = (
    Matrix.Translation(loc_dst) @
    q.to_matrix().to_4x4() @
    scale_from_vector(scale_dst)
)


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I can't get my rig to attach to my model
I have cleaned up the model using the clean up tools, but every time I try to parent - armature deform with automatic weights my model grows a thousand times its size and they aren't connected.
this is a copy of the file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NiiyVZrLf8ldHE7WCG9vIuKdr6NhaAf1/view?usp=sharing

Please use the site dedicated to BSE to upload file: http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/. Thanks.

Your model is parented to an empty which is scaled down:

In consequence, when parenting to the armature, the object looses the empty as parent and get back its original size.
Before parenting to the armature, select the model and use AltP to clear parent then choose "keep transforms".
Finally, select both armature and model, CtrlA to apply scale.
Then parent the model to the armature.

Super helpful thankyou!

You need to apply the scale to the armature (metarig) and the mesh before you parent them. Select them, then press Ctrl+A, apply scale.

Thankyou, I thought I tried this and it didn't work for me the first time. I will try it again. I did find that if I move the file out of the SketchUp collection it worked as well.


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How can I parent multiple meshes to one bone?
I have a very many objects in my object tree. How can I select them all and parent them to my Root bone?
They are children of the armature, but they're not connected to the root bone.
I've tried to: Press A, Enter Edit mode, Press A again, And then assign the root bone from the vertex group. But somehow this doesnt work, they wont get connect. But when i do it one object at a time, it works...

Select the objects, then select the armature and go into pose mode. Select the bone you want. Ctrl-P > Bone. You're done.

So, as explained by Jaroslav, the basic way to do it is to switch your armature to Pose mode, then select your object, select the bone you want to parent to, and parent with ctrlP > Bone.
You also have this solution, better if you'll need to join the objects or some other cases, so it really depends on the situation:

First deparent the objects from the armature. If you want to deparent several objects at once, select all your objects, select one last (make it the active one), deparent it, then in the Properties panel > Object > Relations, right click on the Parent field and choose Copy To Selected.
Now select your objects and parent to the armature With Empty Groups, which means that each object will have vertex groups created with the names of the bones, except none of these groups are assigned to vertices yet.
Then select each of your object, go in Edit mode, and in the Properties panel > Data > Vertex Groups, assign to the object the group it is supposed to be part of, meaning the bone it is supposed to be controlled by (it looks like it's the root you want).

With more complicated meshes there will be a huge performance hit with this setup. All the object vertices need to be deformed with the bones. Parenting the object to the bone with regular parent, without vertex groups or armature modifiers only transforms the objects world matrix, which is orders of magnitude faster.

I thought it might be cleaner, please propose your own solution as an answer  ;)

I'd be just citing the manual https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/3dview/object/properties/relations/parents.html#bone-parent.

yes I know you can do it this way and it will work but in my opinion it's safer with vertex groups (can't cite precise case right now)

Yup a case would be an export for a game engine, then it needs to be indeed skinned geo.

BIG THANKS guys. What I did wrong was selecting "with empty groups" instead of "bone" after I had pressed ctrl+P...

This seemes to work in Blender, but once I import it to UE4, the connection between the parts and the root bone gets lost. UE4 then creates one bone for every mesh which is supposed to be connected to the root bone...

Im trying to rig a vehicle for UE4.
In Blender: When I look at my wheels  (which has the correct sort of parenting) in the object editor window, under relations it says "parent type: Object" and under all the other objects which I wanna parent to the root it says "Parent Type: Bone". this seems to become a problem when importing to UE4.

I don't know anything about UE4, maybe create a question with this specific question   ;)


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Textures that load automatically in 2.79 do not load in 2.8
I downloaded a .blend file from NASA (https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/tess-jpl). When I load it into Blender 2.79, it correctly loads all the accompanying textures:

In Blender 2.8, however, the textures are not loaded:

I am new to Blender, so I don't know how I'd even begin to go about troubleshooting this problem. I could work in 2.79, but since I'm a novice I thought it made sense to try learning the new version. Any help is deeply appreciated.

It is not advised to jump versions with the same project

So if I understand correctly, because the model was likely created with Blender 2.7x, I should use the same version to edit it?

Yep, it would be possible to do it in 2.8, but you might have to spend one re setting up things like textures

If you used Blender Render engine an it's materials, then you should stick with 2.79 for editing this model, otherwise you need to convert the materials for new 2.8 engine (which is often even impossible as there is no engine as a direct replacement of Blender Internal)


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9 Different material to one texture file
I am trying to bake Different materials to one texture file. I tried a few tutorials on Youtube and followed a few guides here on this forum. How ever none of them are working for me. Everytime when I try to bake it is just black. If somebody could help me I would be very pleased! I am using Blenden 2.92 but I have also tried it on 2.8 and 2.79 Google link for my model I have include my model at my google drive.

what kind of bake are you trying to do? Duplicate your object, unwrap it, give it a new image texture, in the Bake panel choose the Selected to Active option and the Bake Type you want (if you just want the Diffuse, select Diffuse and, below, enable Color only), select the original object, shift select the copy, bake it, it should work

@moonboots Thank for the reaction! I followed your instruction and well I didnt work for some reason... I made an video of it to show it   ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQsA-yV1-y8 ) . It looks like it is baking to diffrent textures. I hope you could help me further? Thanks!

it's hard to follow, here is a more precise description: Duplicate your object, unwrap it (Smart UV Project mode), delete all the materials of the copy, create a new one called Bake for example, give it an Image Texture node with a new image, in the Bake panel choose the Selected to Active option and the Bake Type you want (if you just want the Diffuse, select Diffuse and, below, enable Color only), select the original object, shift select the copy, bake it...

@moonboots Thanks I got it to work! Thank you so much!


text:
Is there a way to bake a model's normal map in chunks?
I'm very new to texturing in Blender. When baking the normal map of my model, it is unable to render correctly because my model has too many varied spacing lengths between geometry to have a "ray distance" setting that bakes cleanly. Is there a way for me to bake the model in chunks, so that I can avoid this problem? If I have to go as far as breaking my model into smaller objects, how should I go about piecing the resulting renders into a single normal map?

If you need variable ray distance, you can use a cage. Blending together parts of bakes is difficult, but probably doable so long as you keep the exact same UV layout and be careful of seams.

If you uncheck Clear Image checkbox in the Bake/Output you will be able to bake from different chunks sequently to the same image. You may want to lower the Margin distance so that the margin wont overwrite previous bakes.
Another way of dealing with this type of problems is to (copy and) move different parts together with their high-poly counterparts so they will be baked all at ones but without intersecting with each other.
Or, as previous suggested, create a cage mesh so you can control the ray length in detail.


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3D cursor orientation
in 2.8 it looks like my cursor orientation is set according to view. How do I change that to face/normal.  When I click on an object I would like it to orient according to the normal of the surface.

Activate the 3D Cursor in the Toolbar T.
Open up the Sidebar (N) and, on the Tool tab, change the Orientation to Geometry.
Click on the surface of the object to update the orientation of the 3D Cursor.

If the 3D Cursor is not "sticking" to the surface, enable Cursor Surface Project in Preferences (Ctrl+Alt+U) > Editing > 3D Cursor.

thank you so much!

I don't think there currently is a global setting or quick toggle for 3D cursor orientation, as such it is configured on a per-hotkey basis, as far as I know. As rdllngr correctly pointed out in his answer, you can actually do this from the 3D Cursor Tool.
Otherwise for non tool-based 3D cursor placement go to Edit > User Preferences > Keymap search for "Cursor" and edit the entry under the 3D View for Set 3D Cursor.
Expand the entry and under orientation pick one of the options (None, View, Transform, Geometry) that best suits your needs, in this case Geometry.
If you need to switch between the two orientation modes frequently you can set different hotkeys for each.

thank you so much!


text:
2.81 Smooth shading not working with normal map
I am just testing this out with a regular UV sphere and a noise texture. I'm seeing  hard cornered of the mesh (like flat shading)what am I doing wrong?
.

Have you enabled Auto-smooth under Object Properties?

Tried it. Doesn't make a difference.


text:
Can I Separate an object into many objects along UV seems?
I am trying to make a folding animation of a complex model. I don't want to use the built in unfold process, because I want it to fold from flat islands into a 3d model. Because of the models complexity I found that the auto generated UV seams seem to work well for my purposes. I was hoping I could translate them in separate objects. I can't find any documentation on this and am fairly new to blender. Does anyone have a suggestion.

Go to Edit mode, select a seamed edge (red edge) then select: Select> Select Similar>Seam (If the seams aren't marked, go to UV editor, select everething and choose: UV> Seams from Island)
Choose: Edge> Mark Sharp
Go to Object mode and add an Edge Split modifier. Disable Edge Angle, then apply the modifier.
Go back to Edit mode and select Mesh> Separate> By Loose Parts.

Thanks you rock! I love the internet :)!


text:
I want to add keyframes for a "Dynamic Paint" modifier setting "Alpha" Using Python
When creating a brush using python I can set the Alpha state using this.
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Dynamic Paint"].brush_settings.paint_alpha = 0

However I would like to set keyframes that turn the alpha setting to 0 for a period of time then to 1 at another time using python. I can't seem to figure this one out.
you can see the problem I am trying to fix here in my latest rendering. The dynamic paint Brushes are painting even before the follow path animations are running. All of the brushes and lasers shown are generated through code.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqiVzTHOTfI

I've found that you can keyframes in many different locations along the data_path, not just at the object level.
This conversation clarified that a bit:
Adding Keyframes to Evaluation-Time Using Python
using-python
some_obj.modifiers["Dynamic Paint"].brush_settings.paint_alpha = 0
some_obj.modifiers["Dynamic Paint"].brush_settings.keyframe_insert(data_path="paint_alpha", frame=150)
some_obj.modifiers["Dynamic Paint"].brush_settings.paint_alpha = 1
some_obj.modifiers["Dynamic Paint"].brush_settings.keyframe_insert(data_path="paint_alpha", frame=190)


text:
How do I move large manta flow files safely?
I have a blend file that has a really large manta flow fluid bake in it. It's saved in another folder. Currently I don't have the capacity to render it and I want to save it on an external hard drive to free up some space. I want to put all the source files and the blend file into the same folder before I move them. How do I do this without screwing everything up. The last thing I want to do is destroy this sim/.blend before I have a chance to render it.

I actually found I could just update the folder. I saved a duplicate of both the cache and the blend file. Put them both in one folder and then when blender said it  couldn't find them I just updated the folder. And the data worked just fine.

I think the safest way to do this is to change the file destination of bake files in blender, begin a bake but cancel it and then move the original bake files in place of the old ones

Cool I'll give this a shot.


text:
I want to get the outside outline of a plane that is doubled up
https://i.imgur.com/rUqIDSU.png
I have this flat shape see left side of image
And I want to get just the outside outline of it. On the right side of the image you can see that I was able to get an outline using the following python.
bpy.ops.mesh.remove_doubles()
bpy.ops.mesh.dissolve_faces()

however as you can see there are still intersections within the mesh. I can't seem to figure out how to get only the outside.

When I was dealing with this problem, I extruded the mesh then used intersect knife, to get the faces to interact, before merging doubles and re-collapsing it to a single plane.

I'm a little confused I've extruded and run the intersect knife. but I feel like I am missing something.

Forgot to mention you will have to Run limited dissolve and possibly adjust the knife operator to make it work with selected to selected as opposed to selected to deselected.


text:
blenderkit addon blocked
okay, I'm working on a project, and I needed quick access to free trees. to get them, I need blender kit. well when I downloaded it, it was set up as just a file. and in order to make it a zip file, I have to compress it. but when I try to compress it, it gives me this notification
I understand this is more of a computer problem, but I can't find anything online about how to fix this, so I came here.
(blender kit also does not show up in the preferences + addons menu)

You may find more information on the github issue tracker https://github.com/BlenderKit/blenderkit/issues

If you download Blenderkit from blenderkit.com,  ou end up with the latsest version addon in a zip-file. No need to decompress, just install in Blender and you're good to go. It looks like you are trying to compress an update-file, i don't think there's a need to use that file.

@Jaco unfortunately the downloaded zip file gets automatically decompressed by the Safari browser.

Try to press the Alt key when you click the download link to stop the decompressing. Here is an old question about this. It seems still to work. Check the lastest comments below the answers: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/961/how-to-stop-safari-from-unzipping-files-after-download

Then in the preferences, uncheck the box where it says something like "open "safe" files after downloading". That way you download the zip without opening.

Your Safari browser is automatically extracting the archives. To get over this feature, you can:

hold the ⌥ alt button while clicking on the download link,
right click on the link and select "Download linked files"

Then Safari should download the zip file without extracting, so you can then install it directly in the Blender without any need to touch the ZIP.

If you forget to do the above and safari has unzipped your files, go to the finder and right-click on the top-level folder. Pick "Compress ". It will recreate a zip file at the same location as the top folder.  Don't forget to delete the expanded folder and files.

Answer from the site developer:
The solution should be displayed right above the download button on the Get BlenderKit page:

If this message is not displayed in Safari browser, it is bug on our site, can you please write exact Safari/MacOS versions if this happens?
Also if somebody knows a solution how to tell Safari not to extract the file it would be very appreciated.


text:
annotation text without it being hand written
Okay, I'm making a basic model for a guy in my town, and I've put in the dimensions and all using the Measureit tools add-on. but i need actual labels or text made with like the annotation tool, id prefer to not have to use the text mesh. and i cant make neat lettering trying to hand write it with the track pad. does anyone know if there is like an extra add-on for the annotation tool for this? or if there is anything else i can do?

may i ask why you don't want to use text objects? because they would be rendered?

because its not really meant for rendering, its just here to be a basic "blue print" for something that will be build in real life

You can use the annotation part of MeasureIt.
Then you can parent it to any object you like.

i cant believe i didn't even notice that button, thank you, i will take that into account.


text:
problem with archimesh roof
Okay so I am designing a barn for a guy in my town, and I was trying to put the roof on, but when I selected the roof option, I quickly found out there were no options to costuming said roof, like there is for the walls, doors, and windows. am I missing something? or was is it supposed to be like this? and if so, what do I do now?

There's a tutorial on that addon which includes a section on creating the roof here which might help. (I've never used that addon myself so have no personal experience of using it.)

thank you so much, very helpful!!


text:
How to round edges in Blender
I need to make a cylinder 4 cm in lenght, 4 cm in diameter, 2 mm thick.
The cylinder needs to be cut into the same shape it has in the photo I uploaded.
I used a bezier curve, screw and solidify tool. Then converted to mesh and used bisect.
It is very important that the edges are very round, like those of a glass or cup or a ring.
Is there a way to smooth edges or to make them round?

Although you may want to look into using bevels, sounds like what you're asking would best be achieved with a Subdivision Surface modifier (applied before export if you're making this for 3D printing).  You may need some loop cuts near the top and bottom to limit the rounding effect.
I'd recommend searching for Subdivision Surface and how to use it, you'll probably find that you don't need as much geometry as you're showing before using it.

You can use a bevel modifier and set the edges to bevel by the angle. Also make sure "clamped" is ticked, this will ensure you can make the bevel as large as you want without geometry intersecting.
You can also just select the edges you want to round and use a "bevel edge" directly. Here also make sure to clamp your bevel and drag out the maximum bevel you can.


text:
Zoom of the equirectangular background
I'm a newbie to the Blender so maybe this question is lame, but I didn't find an answer here.
I've set the background equirectangular image (Streetview panorama) and add some object to the scene. When I rotate the viewport in the Shading mode, everything is fine, object follows the background. But when I zoom in or out, only viewport is zooming and the background stays fixed, so the object loses it's place at the background.
How to make the background always follow the object?

If you're talking about an HDRI environment background, the long and the short of it is you can't.  What people often do to overcome this, however, is to place a large sphere "around" your object (or scene) and map the background image to the sphere (Either as an unshaded input or through a weak emission shader). This gives you a little more control over how the background moves relative to the camera and objects.

Excellent idea, thank you Christopher!


text:
Actions with multple objects, and general animations
I'm making a long animation, and was annoyed by how messy it got, then I learned about the NLE editor, and actions, which sounded super cool. However, now when I try to split my animations up in actions, I run into the issue that I can't animate multiple objects into one Action. I have an empty, with a camera as child. Both objects are part of one animation, but how do I animate them in one action? I tried baking but that doesn't seem to work (so far)
Also, what is the best way to animate in blender without it getting messy? I can't imagine blender movies are made with just a million random keyframes in a timeline.
My camera rigs I am trying to turn into actions:

"how do I animate them in one action?" What do you mean exactly? If they are 2 separate objects, you can't merge their actions into one. You can always synchronize their action in the NLA though. Also, I doubt you can have million random keyframes, you rarely need one keyframe per frame, as most of the time you use the interpolations from keyframe 1 to keyframe 2


text:
Keyframe Bezier Not Synched
I have two properties keyframed, call em A & B. They both go form point 1 to point 2 from 0 to 90, but B also goes from point 2 to piont 3, from 90 to 130. But as a result of this, property B has a different speed than A over the trajectory 1 - 2, and thus isn't in sync.
How can I fix this? I want both properties to have the same speed from piont 1 to piont 2.
I hope this isn't too confusing

in the graph editor you could either: switch to linear interpolation if point 2 is on the line formed by point 1 and piont 3; insert a keyframe to B at point 2

If I put extrapolation and interpolation on linear, it works. But ideally Id have an ease in bezier at the start for both properties, but at the same speed, such that the second property just continues at that same speed.

in which case you'll have to add a keyframe to B at point 2 and rotate/scale the handle to match A

That did turn out to be the solution, thanks


text:
bridge edge loops making a weird angle between two cylinder
Tried bridging two cylinders with bridge edge loops and with addon loop tools: bridge both ways still makes this weird shape?

Hello :). I'm not entirely sure why this sometimes happens, but lowering the smoothness value could help.


text:
How to use lattice modifier to deform a mesh without the texture/UV map deforming
I am trying to create a replication of a vehicle. How can I manipulate the lattice so the texture doesn't deform? The image below is without a texture map.

You could just UV unwrap the mesh after finishing the modelling. This would then not be affected by the lattice deform.

Just tried that and it worked great. Thanks AtomicTranq


text:
Smoke simulation is not seen when I activate noise (Blender 2.83)
I'm trying to create a smoke simulation, but I'm having problems with the noise, basically until I activate it everything works, but when I go to activate and bake it I don't see anything viewport anymore. Here are my settings:

Does anything appear on the console window? (go to Window/Toggle System Console to view) Any error messages or anything? It could be that activating the noise is requiring more memory than available and it's failing to bake. Try with significantly lower resolution to try and rule that out (halfing the resolultion will only require 1/8th of the memory for the simulation).

when noise is enabled, you need to cache/bake the simulation again.

No - that doesn't work and is not the problem. I am having the same issue. After baking the fluid sim, and THEN baking the noise, the simulation disappears. Turning noise off brings the sim back. After the noise sim is baked, you should be able turn noise on or off. At the moment, noise APPEARS not to be working and might be related to the update to 2.83.4. I'd have to go back to earlier versions to check.

You need to bake the noise separately using "Bake Noise".
But I agree that this is weird behavior. Please see my bug report on the topic: T74526

Hi there I am having the same problem - noise causing the simulation to disappear altogether after the bake. This seems to be a recent problem so it may be related to the update to 2.83.4. I don't have time to check, but you could try downloading or going back to an earlier version of Blender and seeing if the issue persists there. Please report back to let us know whether that resolved it - then we would know that it was a bug.


text:
Shrink wrap around a letter/text
I'm trying to apply a shrink wrap to a letter created using the text tool. The letter is extruded, beveled but still editable. I made it a collision, and yet it does as illustrated in the image below once I run the simulation. Where am I going wrong please? I did also try to solidify the letter - still no luck

It's better to post blend file via https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com it is not clear what are you trying to achieve - cloth SIM with negative pressure? Letter probably has to be a mesh object? Or your start cloth shape needs to be adjusted.


text:
How do I import multiple .py files to my main.py file
I have a folder structure like this:
C:
|_Blueprint
│   main.py
│
└───toolbox
        blueprint_tools.py

When I run this code in Blender's scripting text page:
from toolbox.blueprint_tools import dimension, array, modify
I get an error in the console
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "\main.py", line 20, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'toolbox'
Error: Python script failed, check the message in the system console

I swear, when I run this code (on other projects) outside of Blender this structure and code runs fine. But I get an error when running this script in Blender for testing out my Add-On.
If I compile the Blueprint folder into a .zip and install it everything works fine.... ??
I'm lost, could anyone please help me.
If I run the code like this: (added a . before toolbox for CWD)
from .toolbox.blueprint_tools import dimension, array, modify
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "\main.py", line 20, in <module>
ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package
Error: Python script failed, check the message in the system console

__init__.py is missing for your module folder? python - What is init.py for? - Stack Overflow

I've tried... it doesn't work. When I hit run script I get --> ModuleNotFoundError: No module named toolbox.

Why is it that everything works fine as is, if I install it.  But when I try to run script it crashes..?

Adding __init__.py doesn't help. I have the same issue

Blender built-in text/script editor is just for testing code snippets and not a good option for fully functional add-on development. Use vs-code for this purpose Answered here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/309332/add-on-dev-workflow-using-functions-and-modules https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUytEtaVrrc

That's not true.  This seems like a personal opinion based on personal preference. Blender's text editor is fully suitable for writing text and that is all that is needed for developing any sort of add-on for Blender. It is definitely used to write add-ons. Is it worth considering a text editor that has more functionality for writing code? Sure, why not? But there is nothing wrong with using a basic text editor and Blender's internal text editor is fine for that and it also has syntax highlighting and you can just run any code you write in it without any additional setup.

And what solution do u suggest for the error: ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package?

You can see how any Blender add-on with multiple files works by simply having a look at their code.

See this for example. But there is plenty of answers about that here on BSE already.


text:
Lighting seems not to work in Eevee or cycles in 2.9
I'm a new user to blender only have bout 40 hours using the program and I'm having trouble with the render window where Cycle's lighting works but is somewhat unstable but seems to work while Eevee's lighting doesn't work at all I'll try to get back if you all need more information.
my specs are Radeon RX 590
an AMD ryzen 7 2700
and a Gigabyte B450M DS3H

You might want to use a few more periods in your question.  It helps the reader ... and eventually might help you. Your use of the word [unstable] could be strengthened with evidence.  Perhaps a Blender screen capture.

It's hard to tell, but it sounds like you're suffering from the same problem many AMD card owners are having theses days. Roll back your graphics drivers to an earlier version- the latest Adrenalin drivers cause problems with blender.


text:
Import and Export Question on Older Versions
Recently, I imported a knife into Blender 2.76.

Afterwards, I exported the knife as an Obj. I desire to convert it to a nif., so I imported it into Blender 2.49b, but it came out like this:

What went wrong? I am relatively new to this. So it may be something I missed.

It appears that 2.49 is importing the bounding box. Why 2.49 though? Is it necessary to use that version for some script?

Yes, I need it in order to covert the file to nif. Apparently, it works best for that version. Am I able to get rid of the bounding box? I noticed I can in 2.79.

Maybe there's some other object hidden in the viewport but being exported since it looks like there's tiny sharp piece of the knife looking through on the left of that box. Try to enable Only Selected when exporting or remove all objects from the scene in 2.79 but knife object and export.


text:
Export JSON files with properties
trying to understand how to make a python script that render, save the picture with the name of the Blender file, export a JSON file that according to the name of the Blender file assign some properties that I decide.
For example if the file name is AA3_CC6 I would like that the Json file contains something like:
Shape: Cube
Color: Red
Where "Shape: Cube" is represented by AA3 and "Color: Red" is represented by CC6
Any idea about the code or how to deal with this?

What have you tried so far? More like a general python question IMHO.

See: How do I write JSON data to a file? or How to dump a dict to a JSON file?

I wasn't sure if I should answer since it's mostly a Python question, but it has a few small Blender specific aspects...
import bpy, json
from pathlib import Path

C = bpy.context

# define what identifiers mean:

shapes = {
    "AA1": "Sphere",
    "AA2": "Cylinder",
    "AA3": "Cube",
    "AA4": "Torus",
}

colors = {
    "CC1": "White",
    "CC2": "Blue",
    "CC3": "Cyan",
    "CC4": "Green",
    "CC5": "Yellow",
    "CC6": "Red",
    "CC7": "Black",
}

blendpath = Path(C.blend_data.filepath)  # create Path object based on absolute path to current .blend file
JSONpath = blendpath.with_suffix(".txt")  # where JSON will be saved
fileformat = C.scene.render.image_settings.file_format.lower()
renderpath = blendpath.with_suffix(f".{fileformat}")  # where render will be saved
if renderpath.exists() or JSONpath.exists():
    raise FileExistsError("I don't want to override something!")

shapeid, colorid = blendpath.stem.split("_")  # assumes only one underscore
shape = shapes[shapeid]  # translate AA3 to Cube
color = colors[colorid]  # translate CC6 to Red
output_dict = {"Shape": shape, "Color": color}  # create a structure to be converted to JSON

# using "x" instead of "w" to error if the file already exists, though very unlikely due to line 29
with open(JSONpath, "x") as f:
    json.dump(output_dict, f)

C.scene.render.filepath = str(renderpath)  # Blender gets confused without explicitly converting to str
# thanks to "INVOKE_DEFAULT" the script will finish before the render is done and so will not hang the interface
bpy.ops.render.render("INVOKE_DEFAULT", write_still=True)

Quick way to get current opened filename in a script?
Is it possible to make a sequence of renders and give the user the option to cancel the process through the UI at any given time?

from pathlib import upvote  sice the file can't exist (error thrown in code above), could use JSONpath.write_text(json.dumpa(output_dictt)  Inclined to close as dupe (first in borcker's comment below question), Thoughts?

@batFINGER I trust your judgement, and I don't mind in the slightest if you close. Thanks for the tip, I didn't know about .write_text().

i used this base code to resolve this
# 1 - Export data as JSON file

# dict with all your data
dict = {
    "description": "description",
    "external_url": "external_url",
    "image": "image",
    "name": "name",
    "attributes": [ "a", "b", "c" ],
}

# encode dict as JSON
data = json.dumps(dict, indent=1, ensure_ascii=True)

# set output path and file name (set your own)
save_path = 'YOUR PATH'
file_name = os.path.join(save_path, "test.json")

# write JSON file
with open(file_name, 'w') as outfile:
    outfile.write(data + '\n')

# 2 - Import data from JSON file

# read JSON file
#with open(file_name, 'r') as fp:
#    data_file = json.load(fp)

# get data
name = data_file['name']
attributes = data_file['attributes']
description = data_file['description']
image = data_file['image']
url = data_file['external_url']

print({
  "description": description,
  "external_url": url,
  "image": image,
  "name": name,
  "attributes": attributes,
})


text:
Text with cracks and a different material inside

Hello everyone,
how would you recommend to do something like in the attached picture?
Basically a roundish text with some sort of cracks and a different material inside.
I guess a way would be to use a bezier curve with Bevel depth, converting it into a mesh, sculpting the cracks, duplicating it to make a second object with a different material, using boolean to make the missing parts
Do you know better ways?

i think, the most "impressive" idea would be, to have a soft body inside (which you blow up) until the cloth body outside bursts.... ;)

As you say you could use a Boolean modifier to create the cut:

Create your 2 cylinders, give them materials, Curve and Subdivision Surface modifiers:

Create the boolean object, it's a subdivided cylinder with a Displace modifier:

Give your orange object a Boolean modifier, put it on the top of the modifiers stack:

thank you for the answer! ;)


text:
Texture Repeat/Wrapping/Loop/Stitch in Blender Compositor
I'm trying to wrap/loop/repeat a small texture in the Real Time Compositor in a similar way you do it in the Shading Editor. But it doesn't look like there is a way to do this. Does anyone have any tips for me?

one tedious way (sorry, i am a compositing noob, hopefully there are more elegant ways to do it) would be this:

So you can use the scale + transform node to make your image smaller and via alpha over you can add it to your background.

Haha, ah dang. This is what i was afraid of. I'll just go ahead and do it -_- Thanks for confirming. appreciate it!


text:
Low memory crash with 500,000 particles
On blender im trying to create a 500000 particle simulation.  Before that I made a 15000 particle simulation and it worked but when I leave my computer on and come back itll say blender is using too much memory and ill have to close it.  I also use all eight of my cpu cores, I changed it to six and it stilled crashed.  This is the third time it crashed.  Ive seen videos on youtube of more than a million particles so I dont know why I cant get 500000 particles with my pc.  I use a Alienware Aurora R5 so it should be able to do this probably.  I also close all other programs when I leave the blender to calculate physics.  I also use my gpu as my rendering device. So I have no other idea than to ask here, hopefully someone here knows the answer.

So what is the question? This reads like a rant.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos "I dont know why I cant get 500000 particles with my pc" - That is their question.

This error occurs when you do not have enough RAM for your scene. This could be cause by the particles, but it also may be something else in your scene. Try a blank scene with a particle system of 500,000 and see if you get the same error. If you don't, you'll need to optimize the other objects in your scene. Either way, a RAM upgrade is generally a good idea when getting into intense 3D arts.
Also, are you rendering on GPU? If so, try switching to CPU. GPU rendering uses VRAM, whereas CPU uses your computer's RAM.

Well I do have 16 GB RAM so when I get home I'll try CPU and tell you if it works.


text:
Render crash on tessallating cube
Every time I render this liquid in a bowl simulation it'll get as far as to tessellating cube.001 3/3.  I've tried lowering the fluid quality and remove its subdivision surface.  I've even recreated the whole fluid part of it.  There is no cube.001 in the hierarchy but when i was modeling i had that but later removed it.  I doubt it but would blender still keep it?  If i use the rendered view it works fine but when I render it just freezes and I have to restart my computer.  My computer is also high end being a Alien ware Aurora R5.  If you can help thank you.
Blend File

Could you please clarify your workflow and how you are subdividing and rendering your scene? perhaps post some screenshots of your simulation and modifier and physics settings.

please only host blend files on blend exchange.


text:
How can I make a plane look infinite?
Im trying to make a forest scene of a path and I want it to seem like the path is infinite or the path goes on for a very long time.  Im gonna also add trees to the side of the path and an HDRI for the sky.  I wanna know what I should set the camera settings and the plane size to so that the screen will be filled but appear to be infinite.  All help will be appreciated.
Thanks

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/63033/how-to-create-an-infinite-plane-in-cycles and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/17877/how-do-you-create-an-infinite-ground-plane or https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/98855/bge-infinite-plane

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos second link helped, thank you.

If you could provide an example image of the type of effect you are trying to achieve it might help people give more specific guidance.

Heres some pictures to help others out https://imgur.com/a/t2nzO


text:
Can an animation be made interactive?
I am relatively new at blender with maybe a years worth of experience on and off. Basically i have been using blender primarily to create good quality animations of product assembly and disassembly and good quality rendered images. I do this by importing STL files off Inventor (CAD) and re-assembling them into blender with blender's own constraints.
I have created an animation with text about how to set up an electrical component on a product through blender. Basically the animation shows a control panel of an electronic devices's screen then plays the product moving with the associated screen displayed on the device in the screen.
Ultimately what i would like to know is if the devices's control panel can be interactively operated by the viewer like a simulation and have the animation respond accordingly to the controls. I understand that this may be going into the blender game engine side of things which i know nothing about. So just a point in the
right direction will be a huge help.
I would also like to know if the animation i have already created can be combined with the blender game engine side of things if it is to go that way.
Below is a screen shot of the control panel (top right corner) and the product that i would like to see react to the controller.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

what i would like to know is if the devices's control panel can be
  interactively operated by the viewer like a simulation and have the
  animation respond accordingly to the controls

Yes, this is possible. Think about it like a menu with buttons. As the BGE uses 3D scenes for renderings the buttons can be anywhere in the scene.

I would also like to know if the animation i have already created can be combined with the blender game engine

This depends on what the animations are doing. Not all features of the Blender animation system are supported.
The major difference is that you play one action per object. This means when you want to play actions (or one action) that involve several different objects you need to play these actions at each of that objects (and start them at the same time). There is no "global animation" as in Blender.
Remarks:
I strongly suggest to play around with the BGE and see how logic gets defined.


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Tank rigging and animations for Unity
I need some help on the workflow to create the rig and animations  in Blender for Unity.
I have a tank split in different objects (body, turret, cannon, wheels, track) and want to do some animations (move front, back, rotate, turret rotation, cannon recoil) in Blender to export all for Unity.
The problem is that, and I watched several tutorials and forum threads, I don't get how to properly animate the wheels and tracks.
I made a rig, but I can't rotate my wheels, just move all of them and the tracks.
I have seen that I could use drivers, but it seems that it is only for a Blender use.
What do I do?
Thank you ;)


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Baking Specular Maps for Unity
how do I correctly bake a Specular Map for Unity's Standard Shader (Specular Setup)?
I know that a Specular Map for Unity is the Color of the reflection. For my project I need to control both reflectivity and roughness.
Therefore, I chose the Unity's Specular Shader.

"Correctly" how? Are you asking what the process behind baking a specular map is, or what a proper specular map looks like?

How to tell blender, to bake a specular map.
Which results in the same outcome in unity's standard specular shader

Blender uses metalness and roughness. You would need to convert the maps and bake as the Emit bake type. The conversion can be done inside the shader. The specular map will be the Base Color input that uses Metallic input as a mask, so only metallic parts are present and the rest is a dark color range for the dielectrics. The specular workflow's diffuse map is the Base Color with black in the metallic parts. The glossiness is an inverted roughness.
The Blender's Specular value is related but not the same as  the Specular PBR, it has been renamed to IOR Level under the Specular section in the newer Blender versions.

This is very close to what I'm currently using.
I multiply the specular IOR with a very Dark color for non-metals, which I've I got via stepwise approximation.
I've also tried making my own shader in Unity that can use roughness and specular information (like in Blender). I multiply the specular (from Blender) with 0.1. The result is very close to blenders preview.


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Baking Textures with alpha and keeping the color Information
I use blender quite often to create Textures for game assets.
But sometimes I ran into a Baking Issue:
If a Game-Engine requires a packed texture with all the Color Channels used, the other Channels are getting darkened by the Alpha channel or completely removed if the alpha is too low.
Can I somehow tell blender to keep the Color information while baking textures?
Usually, I use the diffuse baking option with only the color enabled.

At which step it removes the color information?

The Baked image does not have the color information of the "transparent" mesh parts.

Plug the output socket with the data you want to an Emission node and bake it as the Emit bake type directly. Emit does not alter the output. The Cycles' diffuse is not a diffuse texture in the PBR sense. It is a diffuse component of the Cycles' internal calculations.

Currently I've use this Workaround:
I bake the RGB into an Image, and the Alpha into a Second.
Then I use the Composite Nodes to combine them into a RGBA Texture.


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How do I import a soft body bake into another project?
I bake a soft body simulation with 'disk cache' and 'Use Library Path'. When I copy and paste the soft, baked mesh into another project file, or append it into another project file, the bake does not transfer.

I solved it.  Turn off disk cache. Turn off Use Library Path.


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Blender does not display objects's shape
I'm new to Blender, I just started learning a couple days ago.
I have one question about the preview. My Blender seems to not displaying anything in Material Preview mode, even though I edited the objects' material. As you can see in the second picture, the first picture you can clearly see the objects in Solid mode.
Is it that something is wrong with Blender or did I edit something I'm not supposed to ? I'm using Blender 2.83 as well as 2.91
Sorry for my bad English :).

there's a problem with the latest AMD driver, maybe it's the problem here?

No doubt - AMD Drivers - Roll back to earlier version to fix.

Correct! It was the AMD driver. I fixed it!! Thanks a lot guys. :)


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Combining Blender textures into 1 piece
I'm completely new to designing and blending. I've got a some .blend model I downloaded which contains textures. In 3ds max there's that way to add 1 image texture onto the model and it's automatically assigns it. Question is if it's possible to export all the .blend file textures into 1 image as a whole? If it is and you're willing to explain, please be very much specific what to do since I'm not familiar with almost anything. Thanks!! stay safe.