text:
Saving UI layout (but not the scene)
I understand "Save Start-up file". I like this method of customising/personalising blender.
Is it possible to use "Save Start-up file" but only saving the U.I data and not the mesh/materials/lights/etc data.
Kinda annoying if I like a windows position in a certain way (while working on something) I can't just save "Save Start-up U.I layout".
I've just been memorising the layout, loading up a clean project, rearranging the windows (sometimes loading up the project back up, comparing the difference. Then committing to "Save Start-up file" so there are no lingering objects, materials.
Sometimes this is a 1 button answers xD

You can set up the layout you want and then duplicate it from the top bar.
Either click the + sign at the end of the top menu bar and select Duplicate Current:

or right-click on a layout and select Duplicate from the popup menu:

You'll see from my toolbar shown above that I have two shader layouts for instance, one with the windows arranged vertically and one horizontally (Shading T_B and Shading L_R) and two animation ones with different layouts. That menu also allows you to move your required layout to the start of the toolbar. I've not tried it, but I assume the first layout on the toolbar is the default one on startup.
You'll need to save your startup file once you have everything set up.

But if you were in a heavy scene with 1000 objects with random materials and tweaked the U.I (and liked it that way), your start-up file would consist of tweaked U.I and 1000 objects with random materials. I'm just after only U.I data being saved

So you save your complete scene, delete all the contents, add a new layout in the top bar and then save your startup file.

Aye. It's the deleting the complete scene every time I want to change my default layout that is problematic. I was just checking if there was a way just for interface only mode.

Ah ok. Can't see any way of doing that. You can of course load a file without loading the UI with it, but I assume you realise that. (In the file selector, press 'N' and uncheck Load UI.)


text:
Viewport Display Material colour and Principled BSDF base colour
Most likely an easy answer,
How do I get viewport display material colour and principled BSDF base colour to be the same colour if switch shading overviews (always the same colour).
It's a little jarring to see no colour, the wrong colours on an item when I switch viewport shading style.
ps. as in an automatic way. not pick a colour, copy hex code and past into other colour box.

Just three steps really :)

Switch viewport shading color to Object
Add Object Info > Color node into your material
Control color through Properties > Object > Color

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Python: display a string from childprocess in blender interface
I am making an addon to launch background rendering in GUI. I want to use subprocess.Popen to execute blender with -b. And here is my code:
import bpy
import subprocess
import multiprocessing

FILE = "test.blend"

class Background_Render(bpy.types.Operator):
    """call blender in background"""
    bl_idname = "render.back_render"
    bl_label = "Render in Background"

    def execute(self, context):
        #render_task()
        task = multiprocessing.Process(target=self.render_task, args=(context, ))
        task.start()
        return {"FINISHED"}

    def render_task(self, context):
        argument = ['blender', '-b', FILE, '-f', '1']
        process_handle = subprocess.Popen(
            argument,
            stdout = subprocess.PIPE,
            stderr=subprocess.STDOUT
        )
        for line in iter(process_handle.stdout.readline, b''):
            print(line.rstrip().decode()) # print for debug
            # both below not work
            context.area.header_text_set(line.rstrip().decode()) # show info in GUI
        context.area.header_text_set() # set empty after finish

My first approach is run Popen or say render_task directly, however blender will freeze when I start the job. So I commented it away. And I added the call to a multiprocessing.Process. It not get freezed. Unfortunately, string can be print into terminal but not into GUI with context.area.header_text_set or Operator.report.
What is the best practice to show data in multiprocess? And why they are not showing?

Inter process communication solutions between Blender 's window manager and event system and another process are tricky at best: not impossible, quite possible, but requires extra effort.
ideasman42 has an excellent solution presented at blender.stackexchange.com/q/45731/228

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


text:
how do I put the 3D cursor inside an object?
I want to change the pivot point of an object through quad view, but when I try to position it inside the object, the 3D cursor just jumps to the area/spot where I clicked on the face of the object. In short, How do I keep the 3D cursor from positioning itself right on the face.

It's very simple. Just zoom in where you want to position the 3d cursor. Select the area, then press Shift+S and select Cursor To Grid (This locks the cursor to the nearest grid point). Ensure,  you are win wireframe mode.

3D Cursor will be put to the nearest surface point of the object if you just click with LMB. Do not use this method for precise positioning of cursor, use Shift+S menu instead.

Press Space and select Add Empty then Plain Axes, or add any other dummy object to your scene. Move the Empty object to your desired location using the usual G command. Then bring up the Snap menu with Shift+S and select Cursor to Selected (with access key u). Finally, press Delete to remove the Empty object.

The other techniques described in the comments (zooming in, being in wireframe mode and using Shift+S with Cursor to Grid) are quicker, whereas this technique gives you more precision.
Alternatively, you can press N to bring up the Properties pane, and manually adjust the 3D Cursor's X, Y and Z coordinates:

By default, blender sets the 3D cursor using what's called the "mouse depth." When clicking in the viewport, the mouse is always over some part of the 3D scene, and that part of the scene has a distance from the camera (view plane). You have the option of using this depth value to place the cursor in the scene. If your mouse is over a face, the face depth is recorded and the cursor is placed at that depth.
Without this feature, the cursor is moved on a plane parallel to the view plane. If you set the cursor in the ortho views, you can get decently accurate placement in 3D space.
You can disable this feature in the User Preferences:

In regards to accurate cursor placement, I would recommend the snap method. Put an empty where you need it, snap cursor to the empty, then snap your mesh or object (or whatever you have) to cursor.

Press  N on your keyboard when the 3D Cursor tool is activated and uncheck Surface Projection.

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

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


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Model wont join Rigged Bones
I do not know how to be more basic or too the point than this.
I got the model, and i made the rigging for the model. So the rigging/bones are aligned with the model/character.
I should be able to drop the model/character into the armature and select automatic weights, wait a minute and be done so i can start posing and animation creation.
NOPE.
I tried removing and adding modifiers, I tried using a different model. I made the rigging from scratch. So why wont nothing link with the armatures!

Can you frame your question in a more focused manner?  The way it is written now comes off more like a complaint.

In object mode select the character, hold Shift and select the armature, then press Ctrl + P and choose automatic weights.
Apply rotation and scale to both objects before parenting (Ctrl + A).
The automatic weights will work properly only if the mesh is consistent, no spare parts or loose pieces, no double vertices, manifold.
Apply mirror modifiers also.

did all this, and before Blender updated I did create a couple models that had no problems being dragged into and accepting Armature . However, now nothing works to allow for this and I would appreciate a link to a current video for the 2.78 version so i can observe and follow it t see if i can find where the problem has come to be.

I think you should upload your .blend file, to get analized.


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Low frame rate in video editor preview
Apologies if this is a duplicate post, but nothing I've read on any of the others has worked. I've imported various video (recorded at 30 fps) and audio strips into Blender's video editor and when trying to preview the result, the fps drops to 5-10 fps, making aligning the video and audio impossible.
I've tried:

Playing the videos through a few times
Installing the latest graphics drivers (already installed)
Increasing the memory cache limit in system preferences
Giving Blender high priority in task manager
Lowering the output resolution (helps but is unusable)
Changing the sync mode to frame dropping and AV-sync
Trying different output video codecs

I'm using Blender v2.79 on Windows 10 x64 and importing .mov video files and .wav audio files.
Thanks.

Create proxies and generate timecode for each strip then edit in proxy mode.

What's the video resolution, video codec, color encoding format?

https://youtu.be/0s_GoWn1YGU The frame rate in editor preview has no impact on rendered video frame rate.

First, make sure Blender is using the same resolution as your input video in the timeline.

If you're still slow, then it's probably time to generate proxy files. You're probably trying to edit a compressed video type instead of a RAW video type. By making proxy files, you get around this issue.
Here's a video tutorial on how to generate proxy files.


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Shader transparency not working correctly when using texture alpha to set the material albedo
I'm trying to make a semi-transparent texture for a car wheel.
Here is the base texture I use:

And here's my shader:

Here's how it's supposed to work: it picks out the magenta pixels and uses the opposite of that to set the final material's alpha. Meanwhile, the color is defined with a mix between a customizable flat color and the texture's color, using the texture's alpha as the factor.
Here's how the transparency is supposed to look like. This is before I plug the texture alpha into the color mix as the factor, with the blend mode set to alpha clip.

But when I plug the texture alpha into the color mix, it looks like this:

It looks like whenever I try to use the texture alpha channel for data, it overrides whatever transparency I'm trying to set. What am I missing here? Can you please help me?

Hi :). Why not simply use a BW texture? Anyways, consider sharing the file, so others can take a look ;) https://pasteall.org/blend/

I wanted to keep all the data I need on a single small texture. It's for a video game and I want semi-transparency, a customizable base color and colored inserts all packed on a single RGBA texture. Anyways, Here it is

When you have a PNG in RGBA format why don't you use the alpha mask from the alpha channel for transparency as it is supposed? 2) You can connect the Alpha slots of the Image Texture node and the Principled BSDF. The Transparent + Mix Shader setup was needed in the early 2.8 versions of Blender when the Principled BSDF did not have an Alpha input slot.

Using magenta as a color to represent transparency does not work well unless you are using closest interpolation and do not anti-alias the texture. This approach works alright for pixel art, but I don't think it is the best choice for you.
Also, you should understand that this approach increases shader complexity. It may not be worth it.
Here is what I came up with:

Hello, sorry for replying late, I copied your shader and it still doesn't work. I don't understand... I'll try another workflow.

When you want to use the model in a game engine keep in mind that the Principled BSDF kind of an interface and all other shader nodes of Blender might not work in the game engine and must be replaced by the game engine's nodes. (UE4 node example)
For some reason, the transparency of your image is inverted. When you check the Alpha channel (top left in the screenshot) you see that the background is white → opaque and the spokes of the wheel are grey → semi-transparent. The result is shown at the bottom left in the screenshot.
The background of the alpha mask should be pure black and the spokes should be white with some grey for smooth transparency.
You can use the Invert node in Blender but it's better to invert the alpha channel in a paint program. Then you can use the Alpha channel directly.

My idea was to use the alpha to as a mask for a customizable color and the magenta as a chroma key for the final transparency. I guess it was a bad idea.


text:
How to select extruded vertices in bmesh?
I'm just messing around with bmesh and was trying to create a script that would extrude the edges I mark as sharp. Here's my code:
import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils import Vector

ob = bpy.context.object
me = ob.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
selected_verts = [v for v in bm.faces if v.select]
verts_to_extrude = []

for e in bm.edges:
    if not e.smooth:
        verts_to_extrude.append(e)

bmesh.ops.extrude_edge_only(bm, edges=verts_to_extrude)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(bpy.context.object.data)

Here is what it does:
Before:

After:

Note: the code does not move the selected vertices, I just moved them out of the way so you could see what its doing.
It is doing what I want in that it is extruding the vertices marked sharp, but it leaves the original vertices I had selected, selected. Is there any way to make it so that it selects the extruded vertices and deselects the vertices I had selected before the operation?

Trybpy.ops.mesh.extrude_edges_indiv() instead of bmesh.ops.extrude_edge_only(bm, edges=verts_to_extrude). Therefore you must select the edges beforehand rather than store them in a list. Not sure if that solves your problem so I didn't write an answer.

Bmesh ops have return values.

Unlike bpy.ops which only return a status of operation, bmesh.ops in many cases return a result. bmesh.ops.extrude_edge_only(...) is one.
It returns a dictionary with a list of elements. {'geom': [<BMVert(0x7fc7a6b0ef50), index=528>,....]}
There is an example on bmesh ops api that uses extrude extensively.
import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils import Vector

ob = bpy.context.object
me = ob.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
selected_verts = [v for v in bm.verts if v.select]
# deselect all verts
for v in bm.verts:
    v.select = False

edges_to_extrude = [e for e in bm.edges if not e.smooth]

ret = bmesh.ops.extrude_edge_only(bm, edges=edges_to_extrude)
geom_extrude = ret["geom"]
print(ret) # the geometry returned from op.
del ret

verts_extrude = [ele for ele in geom_extrude
                   if isinstance(ele, bmesh.types.BMVert)]
# select them
for v in verts_extrude:
    v.select = True
bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)

Thanks for the answer it worked perfectly!
Related question though, what if I wanted to select the edges between the extruded vertices and the old vertices as well? I've gotten farther in this project, and noticed that after doing an extrude on a vertice and a rip on another set of edges, that despite selecting the old and new vertices with connecting edges bmesh doesn't automatically select the edge too.

Set the select mode  set to include edges.  And flush the selection. bm.select_flush() or bm.select_flush_mode()


text:
How to get a list of vertices from a list of edges in bmesh?
So if I have a list of edges,
selected_edges = [e for e in bm.edges if e.select]

How would I make an array of the vertices contained in the edges of that list?
For context: in my project I'm making a list of shared vertices between two lists of edges.

Use sets.
Will most likely be duplicates in the following vertex list, from any connected edges.
selected_verts = [v for e in bm.edges if e.select for v in e.verts]

Converting to set(...) will have only one member for each vertex.
 set(selected_verts)

or defining as set in first place.
selected_verts = {v for e in bm.edges if e.select for v in e.verts}

The set(...) sounds like the way go as you can check intersection between sets of vertices easily.
between sets.


text:
How do I taper a cylindrical object in blender?
I'm trying to taper the object (on the bottom of the picture) in blender from it's cylindrical shape to match the profile of the tapered one (top of the picture).

lattice modifier

Use Simple Deform modifier and set it to Taper option

Shift a Add lattice
Scale the lattice so the model covers completely
Select the lattice and in the properties panel add some division to it
Select the mesh or cylinder and add lattice modifier
In the object select lattice
Now click the Lattice and tab to edit mode select the vert and scale up and down to get the shape

That should be easy. Add a lattice to your scene. A basic one with just 8 vertices is best. Scale it in world space to match your engraved form. Don't do it in edit mode! Now, when the lattice object enwraps your engraved form completely, add a lattice modifier to it. Now, if you move a vertex of your lattice in edit mode, the mesh deforms accordingly.
Select the top four vertices of the lattice, press Shift+S and click Cursor To Selected. Now, you can simply scale these vertices, until your engraved form match the form of your cylinder.


text:
Springy spiral - how to?
I am trying to get a springy spiral which is pinned at the center, think of a metal spiral with 10 revs you would have ie inside a watch. In 3ds max i would just add a Flex modifier, but in Blender i understand i am supposed to use soft body physics.
I did that, yet the spiral never behaves anything metalish, i cannot seem to find settings anywhere close. Animating the spiral with the pinned center always has the effect of a spaghetti or rubber thread being pulled away, i never get the effect of the whole thing following in a wobbly spring fashion.
Any small pointers would be much appreciated!

Could you show the animation made in 3ds max whit the flex modifier? it would be helpful to understand what you are trying to achieve

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/148794/can-anyone-help-me-rig-a-watch-escapement

Now i found an example to clarify my messy description: I am looking how to rig/simulate a so called "hairspring", see example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7r-lxpSv2M
That is basically a flexy metal spiral which is pinned at the axle, and will wobble if moved around or rotated. Couldn't get it right yet and am thankful for any pointer how to apply that on a spiral (Extra Objects Curves) in Blender.

I got it working: solution for me was a weight proximity (vertex) modifier.


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Blender Python: Exclude Collections from View Layers
I would like to replicate in a script what happens if i exclude a collection from a view layer via hotkey E (bpy.ops.outliner.collection_exclude_set()).
I cannot seem to find that exclude in the tree. Is the E hotkey doing a hide render and viewport, or is there more to that? How should i best approach this?
Thanks, Axel

Hi Robert, unfortunately not really - i can get it done with the active_layer_collection, but what i want to achive is the following: Lets say i got 3 view layers (A,B,C) and 3 collections (a,b,c). I need collection a to be the only active one in view layer A, and so on. So i have to do things outside the currently active layer.

IMO is a dupe easier to explain with answer... see RG has beaten me to it.. anyhoo

i can get it done with the active_layer_collection, but what i want to achive is the following: Lets say i got 3 view layers (A,B,C) and 3
  collections (a,b,c). I need collection a to be the only active one in
  view layer A, and so on. So i have to do things outside the currently
  active layer

>>> for vl in C.scene.view_layers:
...     for l in vl.layer_collection.children:
...         l.exclude = l.name.lower() != vl.name.lower()
...

I didn't get the path right. C.scene.view_layers[x].layer_collection.children[y].exclude was what i was looking for. Thanks!

This only works great, yet only for non-nested collections - which rough direction would i go if the layers are nested? Thanks!

Think the answers are basically the same.  Would need to recurse the collections see https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/137866/15543

First you need to retrieve the view layer you'd like to modify. The view layers in the scene can be accessed through bpy.context.scene.view_layers or if you want to access view layers of other scenes you can use bpy.data.scenes["Name of the scene"].view_layers.
In order to exclude a specific collection the LayerCollection has to be accessed, because that is where the exclude property is stored. While iterating over the children of the master layer collection from the view layer, we can check for each entry if it matches the collection that we want to include. If it doesn't, it can be excluded through its LayerCollection and otherwise be included.
import bpy

def include_only_one_collection(view_layer: bpy.types.ViewLayer, collection_include: bpy.types.Collection):
    for layer_collection in view_layer.layer_collection.children:
        if layer_collection.collection != collection_include:
            layer_collection.exclude = True
        else:
            layer_collection.exclude = False

if __name__ == "__main__":
    view_layer = bpy.context.scene.view_layers["View Layer"]
    collection_include = bpy.data.collections["Collection"]
    include_only_one_collection(view_layer, collection_include)

Thank you, Robert!

And if you need to exclude a few more collections? I'm writing a script to have several enabled and disabled groups in each scene. but for some reason it does not turn off more than one

@Welet You would have to set the exclude property for each collection accordingly. Perhaps it would be a good idea to post a new question to explain the particular problem you're facing if this answer does not solve it.


text:
Blender Python and pass settings
Try this:

Manually set checkbox "Denoising Data" on
Log shows bpy.context.scene.denoising_store_passes = True
Copypaste exactly that into console and hit enter
Throws AttributeError: 'Scene' object has no attribute
'denoising_store_passes'

Same with i.e. cryptomatte. Am i doing anything wrong or is this simply not supported yet?

The Python tooltips are currently a bit broken for property groups, which also affects the commands displayed in the Info area.
The correct command for setting this option for the current view layer is:
bpy.context.view_layer.cycles.denoising_store_passes = True

If you want to refer to the scene and view layer by name:
bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].view_layers['View Layer'].cycles.denoising_store_passes = True

Whenever you see a Python tooltip with an ellipsis (...) the command in the Info area is inaccurate.

The issue is known and reported in T69803.

Thanks, Robert! Works like a charm.

The type is shown.
In addition to RJG's answer can always see the registered type bpy.types.Foo in this example Foo is
 CyclesRenderLayerSettings. The scene context.scene is  Scene type (the context of the error message in question, whereas) scene.cycles is CyclesRenderLayerSettings type.
Searching the docs on type
https://docs.blender.org/api/blender2.8/search.html?q=cyclesrendersettings&check_keywords=yes&area=default
We see it hits both the Scene and Object types. Scene is the choice here and
https://docs.blender.org/api/blender2.8/bpy.types.Scene.html?highlight=cyclesrendersettings#bpy.types.Scene.cycles
points us to scene.cycles.  A quick trip to the python console to confirm and Bob's your uncle.
Edit: on closer inspection needed to be the viewlayer settings, but more often than not it points one in the right direction.


text:
Can't select any object-2.80
really frustrated here. been using Blender for years but I'm at my wits end. Using 2.80; was working fine, now I'm unable to select anything. Even with a new file and default cube, still cant select anything without box selecting. Was using 2.81 for my project, but suddenly object instancer no longer works or shows up in outliner. I've searched all morning for an answer but nothing. Thanks for any help

Hello and welcome :). Try sharing your file so others can try to replicate your issue.

Have you tried left clicking to select instead of right clicking?


text:
Empty as a container for a object
Can an "empty cube" be used to hold liquid? I have found nothing on YOUTUBE nor any other help sites.
What I would like to do is use an empty to replace actual text, and have liquid going in it to make the shape of the text. If that makes sense.

I made a render of actual mesh text with a fluid modifier. Empties can not be used to hold liquid. Something you could try is adding a transparent cube.

Thank you. The second question is can the cube be made an object of the text? as the liquid fills the cube the text will become visible.

I'm assuming you want the text to be a diffuse material once seen, is that right?

Have you tried using a cube and then switching it visibility to camera off?

yes, after messing the empty for way too long.


text:
Camera set / scene setup
Why is the camera alway tilted sideways, upside-down, and at an angle?  Not exaggerating either. When I try to render a scene the camera is always off-kilter, and the scene renders at a great distance, not as viewed through the camera lens.
I obviously don't know what to do. Help please.

Congrats on asking the 60,000th question

This sounds quite ridiculous, but your scene might actually be upside-down. If this is the case, just select all your objects, and rotate them 180 degrees on the Y axis. You can also rotate your camera to be upside-down the same way if your scene is to large to be entirely rotated. If the scene is not the problem, look at the camera settings. The view might be distorted, or the camera you are moving may not be the active camera.

Think I have orientation corrected and camera zoom fixed. Thanks for the responce.


text:
File> Import > SVG missing
Anybody knows a solution? I have looked but found nothing.

That import list misses a few entries. Have you checked that the add-on is enabled in the preferences (Edit > Preferences > Add-ons)?

yes, have checks next to all that should be in that list. Just does not show under list.

If this only happens with specific files, you can try unchecking Load UI in File > Open when opening the file. If this always happens you could try a factory reset (this will reset all Blender settings) File > Defaults > Load Factory Settings

but that is going to be a pain. I have Keen Tools installed and a reinstall of that can be a real problem.


text:
how to get timeline back
Lost the timeline bar. and can't get it back.

You should be able to drag it back up.

OK, I had to change the editor type too.  Thanks.

You can also create multiple timelines (if needed) or create a new one by sliding the scene left or right from one of the bottom corners. This will create a new view of a editor. Where the triangle lines are.


text:
How to increase the amount of times one can use REDO option?
Can the number of redos be increased? My limit is like 5 and I need at least 100 because I am new to this and mess up ALL THE TIME. I tried ... [EDIT] [PREFERENCES] [INPUT] but can't seem to find how to solve this. Anybody know?

Welcome to Blender stack exchange. Did you try looking in the System tab in the preferences window? There is a tab for Memory and Limits with Undo Steps

Don't you mean by any chance UNDO steps?
They can be increased here:
Edit > Preferences > System > Undo steps

The maximum is 256, but that should be enough in most cases.

Thanks a lot... was looking in the wrong places.


text:
Colour ramp in 2.8 only picks the last colour stop.
Im not sure whether somethings changed or I'm just doing something wrong (since im a newbie), but my colour ramp in blender 2.8 when using eevee engine only picks the colour at the last stop. My nodes were working just fine in blender 2.79, this has happened on 2 different instances when using the colour ramp. For example in the project im currently working on, I'm in rendered mode:

Now lets slide blue infront

Is this all happening since Blender 2.8 is in BETA? Could someone chime in? Thanks.

It's probably because Blender 2.80 is in beta.
However, there is nothing wrong with the color ramp node; it is actually the sky texture node returning solid white. Until sky texture is implemented, you can render out a full spherical HDRi (512x256 res 16bit .exr recommended) with 2.79 and use that in place of the sky texture.


text:
Controlling Metaball Subdivision and Collision
These are actually two questions. For the context:
I am trying to make an animated lava lamp and thought metaballs are very fitting for that use case. I created a particle emitter that uses a metaball as an object reference for the particles. I use the case shape of the lamp itself for the collision detection.
First problem:
I noticed that the emitted metaballs are very low-poly, which (even with a material applied) is very obvious as seen in the first screenshot (the lower blob of the two).

So my question here is very simple: Is there a way to subdivide metaballs or any other way to make them look less low-poly on smaller scales? I can't find anything in the metaballs tab and apparently modifiers can't be applied to metaballs either. I also noticed that when upscaled, metaballs would adjust their subdivision accordingly but even if I scale my entire scene, the metaballs emitted are still too small to have higher topo.
Second problem: I used the shape of the lamp as the object with collision physics enabled. The particles do bounce off of it, but this only gets triggered when the particles are a certain amount outside of the collision object.

I tried setting an inner thickness to the physics setting but that wouldn't help.
Isn't there a setting that detects collision already when any vertex is outside / on the collision object?

Please do not include two questions in one. Meanwhile, I have actually had difficulty getting Metaballs to emit as particles at all, though you can turn up their resolution fairly easily when they are not particles.


text:
How to use the Envelope F-Curve Modifier in Blender 2.93
I would think that defining a range of a minimum and maximum of f-curve values would take only 2 variables: your minimum and a maximum and that should be enough to scale the f-curves so that they are always between those values. In Blender 2.93 there are 6 needed: Reference, Minimum, Maximum all of which don't show any effect at all until you add a Control Point that comes with the variables Frame (which doesn't seem to have any influence on anything), Minimum (again?) and also again Maximum. I didn't understand the documentation so my question is pretty simple:
Lets say I have an animation f-curve that ranges from -2 to 5. How would I need to use the envelope modifier to map it to 1 to 10? And why are there so many variables needed? Isn't having to use this many parameters for such a simple task a little unhandy?


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How to rotate viewport camera without moving it in Blender 2.90?
I'm working on an in-door scene in Blender 2.90 with rooms and hallways. In the 3D viewport, the viewport camera by default rotates around a focused object (select an object and press numpad . to focus). However, when I do that, the viewport camera keeps clipping behind walls when I rotate it, forcing me to constantly select different focus objects.
Is there some sort of hotkey or action I can use to rotate the viewport camera in place (i.e. rotating without actually changing its X/Y/Z coordinates)?
I know about the walk-through and fly-through modes, but I find them rather clunky to use.
To reiterate: I'm not talking about some camera object in the scene, I'm talking about the viewport camera itself.

I still think your best bet is to enter flymode (Shift + `), rotate, and go back to regular by clicking LMB.

I recommend looking into user preferences on this. There's plenty of ways to change how looking around works if you're okay with it being permanent.

Fly/Walk navigation will do what you want.
By default, it is activated by pressing Shift+` (the key next to the 1 key ~). You can then use the mouse too look around, WASD to move forward/backword or sideways relative to the camera position, Q and E to move up/down.
After you're done moving about, use LMB to finish and save the viewport camera position or press RMB to return to the camera position prior to the fly/walk navigation.

Blender keymap is fully customizable, so you can set up a navigation in Unity/Unreal style (camera rotates in place, not around objects) if you want.
You can use Walk/Fly navigation, but assign it to the middle mouse button, so that it will enable on mouse press and disable on release. And you will be able to use WASD keys for moving camera and other keys are available also, while you're holding middle mouse button.
This guide uses the default keymap settings. If you are using Industry compatible keymap, some settings may look differently.
1. Setting up the rotate in place using Walk/Fly navigation.
First, I personally recommend Walk with disabled gravity.

Then in keymap open up 3D View ⇾ 3D View Global section and turn off default navigation by middle mouse (Rotate or pan depends on your settings), then set up View Navigation (Walk/Fly) to middle mouse press:

Then you should leave View Navigation on mouse release, right? So scroll down 3D View section until you find View3D Walk Modal. Disable Teleport because it  will override middle mouse action. Then add new - select action Mouse, type Confirm, Middle, Release.

Once you get it done, you will be able to rotate camera in place and navigate using WASD while holding middle mouse button.
2. Setting Shift+middle mouse button to pan view.
This is easy. Find Pan View in the 3D View ⇾ 3D View Global section and set it like this. Shift must be enabled:

3. Setting up the dolly zoom.
Once you get this, you might find that Blender still zooms at a certain point. So to avoid this, let's set up a dolly zoom instead of the default one. Again, 3D View ⇾ 3D View Global section.
Find Zoom View with Wheel In and Wheel Out shortcuts and replace text view3d.zoom by view3d.dolly. You will see that the title will change from "Zoom View" to "Dolly View". Don't forget to return Delta values, which is reset when command changes.

On my screenshot, zoom might be inverted. If you feel so too, try to replace "1" and "-1"
4. Get back the rotate around on a different hotkey
So this is up to you. You can get back the rotate around if you want. Just enable disabled "Rotate View" and set hotkey on Alt+Right mouse button, for example:

Not sure if this is what you need, but if you hit N while in the viewport and then you go to View > View Lock > Lock Object. You could drop any object or model there and the Viewport camera will be focused on that object or model


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How to render an animation made with a python Script
I have a simpĺe python script that triggers an animation base on the location of a cube.
import bpy

scene = bpy.context.scene
obj = scene.objects['Text']

def recalculate_text(scene):
    x = scene.objects['Cube'].location[0]
    obj.data.body = '{0:.1f}'.format(x)

bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_pre.append(recalculate_text)

Using a text Object it shows the location of the cube in the Viewport.
The problem is that because my python skills are very basic, i can't Render the animation; once i hit "Render animation" ( Itried: EEVEE and CYCLES: Image sequence and video) it only shows the first frame of the text object.
Here is the Blend File

The "Duplocate" solution did not work

Why not? "Doesn't work for me" doesn't really tell us what you've tried and where it failed, nor can we suggest other alternatives.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos I tried to change the things that answered the question (the Duplicate), like frame_change_post and add scene,depsgraph, print(depsgraph), obj = obj.evaluated_get(depsgraph). But that did not work. As i mentioned in my question, my Python knowledge is very basic, and this could look easy for some one that knows Python, but for me it is not and that's why i asked for some help

The code in the dupe is actually working pretty well, you just have to call evaluated_get(depsgraph) on the cube itself -> Demo: https://pasteall.org/iA93, output as expected: https://i.sstatic.net/dwNhz.png

@brockmann not sure why is not working, i also copy and pase the code directly to a blend file and nothing happens, not even in the viewport now. I'm also testing Blender 2.81, 2.83 (from blender website, linux versions) and 2.90.1 (linux snap)

I can confirm that is working only on my 2.80 Blender (linux), not sure why

No issues on windows/blender 2.90.1, blend: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/DRQePDdQ -> Open up the file, run the script and move the cursor in the timeline.

Still nothing? Any news or further issues?

No, just 2.80, i ended up using that Blender version to make the project, thanks for everything

Just can tell that the blend file I posted is working across all versions on all systems for me. If you do not willing to provide any further information, I can't do much for you...


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why aren't the inside sides of the shape showing when I export it as a .STL file

why aren't the inside sides of the shape showing when I export it as a .STL file. I have tried Alt F, F and Control F grid fill.

Maybe the normals of you model are wrong. If the normal of a face is pointing inside the mesh, it may not be displayed by some renderers. When in edit mode, you can display the normals of the model using the right pane in the 3D view (section Mesh Display > normals). Try to call Make Normals Consistent (Ctrl+N) when editing your mesh.


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Properly unwrapping UV
I'm pretty new to blender and as simple as it is, I'm probably the most confused on UV unwrapping of any other part of blender. I am attempting to unwrap a UV map for a wall with a bevel at the bottom of it. I don't think I'm getting how marking a seam works ultimately, but I was wondering if anyone is able to successfully unwrap and show how you were able to do it.

u can make 2 uv map from side and other from front view project from view

First of all in object mode select your wall and apply rotation and scale (Ctrl A) so that your object has rotation 0,0,0 and scale 1,1,1: it's a good practice that affects also UV unwrapping.
Then in edit mode select all and remove doubles (there are 4 doubles that confuse the algorithm), then - in wireframe view - select the little face at the bevel zone between the mesh and her mirrored side and delete it.
Then select all the edges you want to act as seams, in order to preserve the visible faces (front and lateral) without seams.
In the pictures my example.
enter image description here

hmm.. it could be a misunderstanding of how marking seams work... I heard it's like adding cuts to a cube in order to be able to open it all on a flat 2D plain so I tried to work with that logic in order to unwrap my UV... is this how it really works? Or are seams used in a different way?

Yes it is. The idea is to lay down in 2D every surface of your 3D model, minimizing the stretch and without having seams in the visible areas. Tha cube projection is a classic school example obtaining a single UV island fron a solid, but in the practical everyday work it's normal to have multiple islands if the seams are invisible or placed where they don't disturb.

I tried marking seams exactly the way you did it to try to understand the process but I ended up with a completely different unwrap after removing the face, applying rotation and scale, and marking the seams as in the image: [https://imgur.com/a/yZPCv] , Also I heard that you were able to move around the UV map to create your own shapes to use for the faces, is this true?

After fixing your mesh (ngons, normals, doubled verts and applying the rotation) i quickly unwrapped it. People should really focus more on learning how to actually model (in a clean way) even the most basic shapes...


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Odd crease using mirror modifier without subsurf
Currently creating a wall that's going to be used in a game, and I decided to use the mirror modifier. But after unwrapping the UV and applying the uv texture to the model, an odd crease appeared. I'm not sure how this happened, but when I don't render the object and I'm in edit mode, the crease disappears. Any idea on how this is happening?

In the mirror modifier, you can check the mirroring of U/V texture coordinates, that should fix the problem.

tried fiddling around with that already, nothing in the mirror modifier section seemed to be the problem


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How to have multiple colored light sources
I’ve been experimenting with the quick effects especially quick smoke. But I want to have to colored light sources from different angles ie. red and blue but they always blend together and make one color. How can I fix it?

It's difficult to understand exactly what you mean - an image of the results you're getting and description of what is not right would be helpful. And don't forget to mention what render engine (Cycles, Blender Render, ...) you are using. I can only guess that you've added two light sources and set them each to a different color but the 'smoke' is being equally lit by both...? Sounds like you possibly need to increase the smoke density.

Add cube( or whatever you want your smoke to be emitted from).
Select theis Object, press Spacebar an enter "Quick smoke". Press Alt+A to start the simulation.
Add two simple planes and position them where you want your light to come from.
Give each plane a material (two different materials, they should not share one material)
Press "use nodes" in the material settings and change the default "diffuse" shader to "Emission"
Choose a color for each material
Ramp up the strength (depending on the size of your planes and the distance to the smoke

You can see the result and the "node setup" in the screenshot.
I hope this answers your question.


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How to copy bone animations, non-mirrored
I have a rig that is not a typical L/R biped. It has N/S/E/W limbs. The limbs have fairly complex rigging that I'd like to avoid having to individually animate. Without the mirror functionality, is there a way to copy action keyframes from "east bone X" to the corresponding north, south and west bones?

You can copy/paste keyframes directly, at least in the graph editor, which is where I do it.  The bones do not have to have the same name.  The unintuitive thing that throws people is that for the paste to work, the destination bone must have keyframes in the appropriate channels.
Select all four bones and keyframe loc/rot/scale.  Animate and keyframe one bone however you'd like.  Go to frame 1.  Open a graph editor, select all keyframes for the animated bone, and ctrl c copy.  Select the other three bones and ctrl v paste.  Your keyframes will be duplicated to all three of those bones.
This might work in other views than a graph editor, I'm not sure; I'm only familiar with its use in the graph editor viewport.  If you are not at frame 1, the keyframes will be copied with an offset.

"The unintuitive thing that throws people is that for the paste to work, the destination bone must have keyframes in the appropriate channels." Exactly right. An F-curve must already exist for the channel, or the paste won't work. Which is indeed counter-intuitive. Any idea why it works this way?

@R-800 No idea :)

Try this. Change your Timeline at the bottom of your screen to Dope Sheet. Next, select the keyframes from your east bone X and duplicate them to your other limbs. You should see under the Dope Sheet Summary each of your limbs. This has worked for me when I need to copy my animations to other limbs. Hope this works for you!

Thank you for the suggestion. I have the selection of the east bones in Dope Sheet done. I have the north bones selected, but do not see the keyframes pasting to them, when executing Paste Keyframes (Ctrl V.) How do you paste keyframes?

If your rig is one object, you should be able to duplicate (Shift D) the bones to the other limbs in the Dope Sheet. If the limbs are separate objects, try joining them as one (Ctrl J) and then duplicate the bones.


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Spot light through glass cube
I'm rather new to Blender, and try to learn it to make physics animations and visualise my data. However, I have difficulties getting the refraction working.
I hope I am doing something stupid wrong, but after googling and trying for a few days, I hope the community can help me.
What I want to do is shine a 'laser' (spot light) through a cube that is rotating. Depending on the angle, the spot should move. The steps I took are:
- remove the default cube
- change to Cycles render (although I tried it also with internal)
- add a plane and scale it.
- add a cube, add material, set surface to glass BSDF, set surface to 'Is Transmission Ray'
- add a spotlight, increase the strength to 50000, size 1d, blend 0
- at the render preferences, set the Samples to 2000
- rotate the cube, insert some key frames, and reder it.
The result is that the majority of the light goes straight through the cube, while a minimal amount seems to be refracted (the noisy white dots??). See the figure below. The red dot is not moving when the cube is rotating, while the white dots are.
The .blend file is available here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3g8v6bp5s7plx85/test.blend?dl=0
I hope somebody can help me. Thanks for any help!
Bas
update
Thanks already for all the comments. With the Luxrenderer I could make it work, so that is at least a working option.
It still would be good to get it working in Cycles and understand it. There seems to be some discrepancy in the answers whether or not this is possible. A working example might work wonders.
The 'Is Transmission Ray' was tried as I read it somewhere (not the best argument) It didn't change the result one way or the other. The same holds for different values of the IOR.

This has been asked before, I don't think Cycles supports this kind of light interaction, you'll have to use another render engine. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/82848/projecting-a-grid-of-points-unto-a-model-and-displaying-collision-output and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/90698/projecting-onto-a-mirror-and-back

Maybe tweak the index of refraction (IOR) off the glass material?

Like Duarte said, you need to use an engine like Luxrender (free) to get this to work accurately and physically.

Cycles can most certainly do this—its hallmark is the high physical fidelity of its rendering, after all. Have you tried narrowing the angle of your spotlight to more closely simulate a narrow laser beam?

Also, what are you doing with the “Is Transmission Ray” business?


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Way too many vertices when switching to edit mode
i am trying to create a rock by sculpting an ico sphere, but even after small amounts of sculpting, when i switch to edit mode it creates around 100,000 vertices. does anyone know how to reduce the vertices without losing the shape? i dont mind starting again on the rock by the way.
here is a screenshot (the rock is around the size of the starting cube)

It looks like you already added a decimate modifier. That's what I would recommend. You need to apply to decimate modifier if you want your vertex count to be lower in edit mode.

I have tried both of these methods, but cant find any way that actually decreases the vertices. here is the video i am attempting to mimic https://youtu.be/gF6qkByl-_M?t=37m28s watch from 37:28

What is the problem in following a video? He is using dyntopo (dynamic topology) in Sculpt mode which dynamically creates vertices as you draw on surface. Look how he changes detail method and details amount and draw on icosphere. Any modifier or Edit mode operation are post-editing while dyntopo will collapse or subdivide geometry on fly.

Shrinkwrap modifier could help you:

Create new object with similar shape, big enough to cover your sculpted rock
Subdivide it as you would like the mesh of your rock to be detailed (or use Subdivision Surface modifier so you can tune it later)
Apply Shrinkwrap modifier with Target set to your high-poly sculpted rock.

You should get low-polygon version of your high-poly sculpted model.
There are some useful options you can use for tuning the Shrinkwrap modifier so you can look at it's overview in Blender Manual.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/modeling/modifiers/deform/shrinkwrap.html

Did this method work for you? If so, please accept the answer so others can see the solution easily.

Oh, I am glad I could help you :) Enjoy Blending :)


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Not able to paint onto certain area
Now this is a question i found allot, but pittily the answer that i found multiple times doesn't seem to apply to my problem:

I've got this model, and as we can see in edit mode, all normals are pointing outside as they should:

but when i try to paint the object, a part of the object is just white and refuses to be painted on:

I read multiple times that this is usually due to the normals pointing the wrong way, but it seems that isn't the problem!
Also it might be worth mentioning that trying to flip the normals in that part of the object (although that should turn them to the wrong side up) causes them to be black and unpaintable, while now their untouched neighbours tend to be white and unpaintable!
(no picture due to lack of reputation)
Thanks in advance for your help!

Further details:
As you may have guessed this object wasn't modelled as one object in the first place, but joined together for the purpose of being painted on and exported.
Due to the format i wish to export this to (and the fact that this is merely an experiment) the solution of trying to paint them separately would only be my last resort.

Make sure that the separate objects joined together are all carrying the same material, and that the texture to be painted on is in that material. Also, make sure that you are not also seeing duplicate objects that are persistent in the viewport - try moving the main object to another layer and see if anything is still on your main layer.

If those blocks are a separate object, make sure your are painting in image paint mode (unless you're using different materials). Also make sure that all objects share the same texture.


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Rendering depth images in python
I'm trying to render an RGB image and corresponding depth image for a simple scene consisting of a single object. I've been able to render the RGB image without any problem but I'm unable to generate the depth image. I've tried it a couple of ways with no success. Any help will be hugely appreciated.
First method: Reading the Z-buffer:
bpy.context.scene.use_nodes = True
tree = bpy.context.scene.node_tree
links = tree.links
for n in tree.nodes:
    tree.nodes.remove(n)
rl = tree.nodes.new(type="CompositorNodeRLayers")
composite = tree.nodes.new(type="CompositorNodeComposite")
composite.location = 200,0
links.new(rl.outputs['Z'], composite.inputs['Image'])
scene = bpy.context.scene
scene.render.filepath='depth.png'
bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

This gives an all white output image. I tried some variations based on comments online, like linking to composite.inputs['Z'], saving into a .exr file instead of .png. But in all cases, it saves a .png file which is either all black or all white. I have seen examples where I can link to a CompositeNodeViewer and then read bpy.data.images['Viewer Node'].pixels, but it is too slow/clunky for my use.
Second method: Using a mist pass:
scene.render.layers['RenderLayer'].use_pass_mist = True
scene.world.mist_settings.start = 0
scene.world.mist_settings.depth = 10
links.new(rl.outputs['Mist'], composite.inputs['Image'])
scene.render.filepath = 'depth.png'
bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

This creates a segmentation mask of the image, 0 in background and 1 in object pixels. I want a depth image, with gradation between [0, 255] for the foreground pixels also. What am I doing wrong ? Thanks for any help in advance !

Do the answers on this question help? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1555/how-can-i-get-a-depth-of-field-render-pass/1563

Thank you for the response. I'll have a look at the Normalize and Map Range nodes. I don't want to defocus the image (scale the RGB with depth). I just want the depth itself as a separate image, something along the lines of a Kinect output say (rgbd image). I'm not too confident about trying the "Creating a Black and White depth image" answer. The issue is that I'm coming to blender from python instead of the other way around. I have zero experience with the Blender GUI, but I understand what the python code is doing.

Have a look at these instructions. This is not python, but I am confident that it is possible to express semantic with python.


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Concave Square with Straight Sides
I am currently attempting to recreate the new Xbox Series X console within Blender, but am stuck on the top of the console as shown here:
The console has a very nice concave surface on the top while still keeping the edges square and flat.
I have attempted using proportional editing to no avail (exaggerated to show issue):
The surfaces near the corners are completely flat and should be bending slightly.
The bool tool with a sphere yields curved sides.
What would be a good way of recreating this complex curve?

This can be accomplished by using proportional editing.

Add a cube.

Switch to edit mode (Tab) and subdivide it (F3 > Subdivide). Use an odd number of subdivisions in order to have a single vertex at the center of the cube face. Use a low number of subdivisions, e.g. 5.

Select that single vertex at the center and enable proportional editing (O) and set the falloff type to Sphere.

Move the vertex down on the z-axis (G + Z). If you're not using the default dimensions of the cube you may have to adjust the radius using the scroll wheel of your mouse. The outer edges of the cube shouldn't be within the radius of the proportional editing.


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Blocky Reflections on Glass
I am working with a car model and getting all of the materials ready for use in my project. The side windows have a noticeable reflection issue where the reflection appears blocky. The headlight cover also has some strange artifacts. I have provided the blend file so you may be able to help me solve this issue.
Blender file download (google drive): http://bit.ly/2SFRp8n

Some of your faces don't have smooth shading.
They are shaded flat, creating those ugly triangular artifacts.
Just right click you model and select smooth shading.

I had done this before, but apparently doing it again fixed it. Thanks.

Happy to help :). Good luck with your project.

Also there are two triangles (6 edges) marked as "Sharp" so even set all to Smooth they stay sharp in render. Press W > Clear Sharp (or disable "Auto Smooth" option under Data Properties > Normals, but since your car is one object I dont think you want this :)


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Sculpt brushes behaving strangely in X direction
It basically looks weird when I drag the brushes in one direction as opposed to the other, attaching an image as an example

What does your topology look like? Is there a wireframe view?

I subdivided it a lot and it still behaved that way, in the bottom right you can see I had like 400k faces

basically it was black unless pretty zoomed in

No matter how many subdivisions you apply, the shape will be oddly deformed on a certain axis if the faces are rectangular, not square.

Thanks for the explanation, is there any way to fix that?

Like, let's say I wanna sculpt a rectangle, how should I go about it?


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My 3D cursor's xyz is all messed up and doesn't align with the grid, how do I fix this?
for some of the vertices I select it's even upside down sometimes. This wasn't a problem until I pressed some random keys by mistake. Can anyone help?

Correct the rotation in the sidebar, just select the view tab and change the 3D cursor rotation back to 0

This is because you have turned "Local" rotation and orientation on. Go to the top tab that says Local and select Global.


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How to export hair particles to Unity
I made a chainmail in blender. Rings were made as a hair particles. I want to export result in Unity, but if I convert particles to mesh, chainmail file drastically increases its weight.
Which workflow is correct for my case?
Now I have some ideas:

Somehow bake particles to mesh.
Export ring pattern and mesh separetely and simulate particles in Unity (dont know is it possible).
Make chainmail in a different way(still dont know how).

Probably you won't get very far as highpoly models as this in a game engine. You gotta consider to use a pbr material like this: https://www.textures.com/download/pbr0273/133949?q=chain

@FFeller, thx. I also figured out, that I should use materials.

authors: Филипп Шабатин


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Extracting 3-d forms for producing organic shaped model from various flat parts
I am a carpenter. Looking for a way to build organic shapes and curves in 3-d rendering that we can then extract 3-d pieces to understand the geometry required to build the form from multiple pieces of wood. This is a way to save material and build a 1-2" inch thick form that can curve in any direction. Pictures show simple forms that we built made by gluing up a series of small pieces cut at compound mitre angles.

Do you want to know the length, area, angle of each piece?

Welcome to Blender.SE! Very nice works and project, I like them. Could you better explain what kind of help you need? Any kind of shape can surely be modeled, then cutted in pieces and the pieces "observed". Where are you exactly stuck? Modeling? Cutting in pieces? Examining the pieces?...

Stuck a little all around. We want to make totally organic shapes from series of smaller pieces and need to know how to "mesh" in 3-d and extract the most efficient shapes (so there are series of matching pieces that create a certain form, which will likely be compound cuts....like, in order to create this form we need 120 pieces of wood at this size, with these angles, etc. and 60 pieces like this,  and 20 pieces like this.....

How do you do this today?

Sounds like you should define shape first, then cut if with knife project later


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Boolean Modifer + Animation Problem
I am currently using a Boolean Modifier to animate half of object to disappear. I have already tried a fading away affect with a transparent Shader, but it takes about 5 hours to render each frame doing it that way.
Anyway, this is what happens when I render it. This is a quick test one, in low quality.
I am using cycles Render.

Boolean Modifier often generates bad topology. To avoid this, you must be careful in many aspects (sadly it is sometimes inevitable). Would you mind taking screenshots of the topology?

https://imgur.com/a/N2lmq
Here is a screenshot of the top layer. I know that is a lot of polys but the client kept asking for it to be more smoother. Each object was split from the original one when I finally created the design.

I do not feel comfortable sharing the original file/s as this is a job. Could you link me to a better way to animate the effect I am trying to apply here?

What do you use to bool the eye?

2 Boxes that animate towards the left. One removes the first layer of objects and the second removes the bottom layer.

I have checked my normal and everything seems alright. Would it be best for me to do what one discussion said and. "make an object for each frame"?
That's about 70 frames there. Would it be best for me to do that?

If you don't mind using an OSL shade why not try the Cutatway shader? https://blendbits.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/the-cutaway-shader-free-blender-add-on.html It can do boolean-like effects without changing geometry. You can use it to cut holes in anything.

Thank you for the add 3pointedit. I might consider this plugin. However, I would still like the effect that the Boolean gives me. Where it makes the end that it is cutting solid and not open.

using a bigger box might help. If you are going for the "make for each frame", you should try that on frames with bad results( I guess that's no more than 10 frames) OpenGL rendering might be useful during the task

I realise you probably want to do this in Cycles and peel back 'physical' mesh, but in the interests of getting your job out, would a curved sliding mask that still gives spherical thickness not be an alternative?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cx8d7bkznlfpee4/Eyeball.mp4?dl=0
The inner sphere is pre-cut but another mask could reveal that progressively, as done with the white outer.  Animation time?  10 secs x 2 + another 2 for the final render.
Render was OpenGL for the masking & the internal render for the final mix.  I imagine cycles can do this and lot more.

Does this answer your question? The Boolean modifier is not working

I know this is old, but I had the same bug still in blender 2.82 while trying to cut out a section of an ocean modifier, thought I'd share my workaround. I found that jiggling the boolean didn't work in my case. What did end up doing the trick was just adding a second boolean with a new shape and parenting it to the buggy boolean target. The glitchy frames went away when I did this.

Hi. Thanks for the answer. Could you explain in more detail how you did that? Perhaps illustrate with an image or two.

I encountered this same problem today. I think the real solution is to use something like the cut-away shader mentioned in the comments, but there is a bit of a hack which worked for me.
Basically, if you play through the animation quickly, EEVEE is very useful for this, there are a relatively small number of frames where the boolean seems to have no effect at all. If you just jiggle the boolean a tiny bit, either by slightly changing the position, scale, etc., it will fix the problem. Then, you can just keyframe the change you made and keep walking though the animation fixing any problem frames.
This is definitely a hack, which is why using some other method is preferable, but it works well enough and is very easy. You will want to play back through the animation before rendering, however, as it is possible one of the new keyframes you introduced caused the boolean to have the same problem in an earlier frame. This happened for me on one frame, and after keying this away, the animation worked fine.


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(Scripting) Import & assign material from another blend file
I am trying to import materials from another blend file and assign the nth material to the active object.
I have tried multiple solutions but I always hit errors.
Approach 1
Here the error is: "list indices must be integers or slices, not str" (in the approach shown below):
with bpy.data.libraries.load(path) as (data_from, data_to):
     data_to.materials = data_from.materials
     mat = data_to.materials
     cnt=0
     for m in data_to.materials:
        cnt=cnt+1
        if (cnt>1):
         break
        # Assign material
        obj=bpy.context.scene.objects.active
        material1 = data_to.materials[cnt]
        obj.active_material = data_to.materials[material1]

Approach 2
When I try to assign the material by using an index instead the error is: "bpy_struct: item.attr = val: Object.active_material expected a Material type, not str" (in the approach shown below):
obj.active_material = data_to.materials[cnt]
I guess, I haven't fully understood what data_from/data_to objects are and how to use them. Can somebody help me here?
Thanks in advance,
Gemor

data_from are just string lists, in this case, the names of materials in the Blend file designated by the path. data_to is a string list of the names of the materials you want to be loaded. So, whatever names you put in data_to.materials will be loaded from the designated Blend file's material data block into the current material data block. After that, you access those materials in the material data block, i.e., bpy.data.materials. So, your code should read:
with bpy.data.libraries.load(path) as (data_from, data_to):

    data_to.materials = data_from.materials
    mat = data_to.materials
    cnt=0
    for m in data_to.materials:
        cnt=cnt+1
        if (cnt>1):
            break
        # Assign material
        obj=bpy.context.scene.objects.active
        material1 = bpy.data.materials[mat[cnt]]
        obj.active_material = material1

Note that this could give unexpected results if a material name already exists in the material data block.

Thank you cmomoney, that clarifies it. Now I know what to do.


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Baking materials with alpha-blended textures
I'm currently trying to bake some low-poly assets for use in realtime applications.
I'm familiar with baking high-polygon meshes into low-polygon versions, but it would be helpful to merge multiple alpha-blended textures into a single baked texture for vegetation assets.
The following test object has subdivided planes, each with the texture of a single leaf. Opaque pixels use Diffuse BSDF and transparent pixels use Transparent BSDF. When rendered using an orthographic camera, the result is correct:

However, when I attempt to bake a diffuse map, the texture is rendered at full opacity:

This prevents me from baking images for AO or tangent normal maps. Is there any way I can fix this?
This behaviour occurs on both Cycles or Blender Internal, and a solution for either would be useful.


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I am making a minecraft animation, and all my textures are missing
I am making an animation, and all of the textures went away. I had mcprep downloaded, and when I clicked prep materials, none of them came! Please help!

Please elaborate a bit

i think u delete the image where the image where or shifted that image to some other location. Have u pack the image

Does this help? Find missing files  A screenshot or two often sheds light.

I haven't used mcprep before, but this sounds like what has happened to me before with other projects, and it is usually due to the location of your textures changing, meaning blender is searching for the image in the wrong file location. Try searching for the file locations and then reassigning the location of the texture in the texture tab.


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Ctrl P isn't working when connecting my armature to my mesh!
Everyone keeps saying CtrlP in all of the tutorials and all of the helps forums but CtrlP just isn't working for me. If anyone can link to an online file that I can see or anyone have any suggestions why it isn't working. I mean, I just downloaded 2.79 today and I've been working with Blender for years, so why is this not working for me?

Ctrl+P does not rig a mesh to an armature, it makes a a mesh stick to the armature position as a whole. Rigging allows to deform the mesh with bones. You need an armature modifier on the mesh. The next step would be to replace the automatic (envelope) rigging by your own.

@Dimali that's not correct in the case of armatures.You are right, Ctrl+P usually is just simple parenting from one object to another, but when you parent something to an armature, you get a little menu with options such as "Armature Deform with automatic weigths" which is what OP is looking for.

@Lynn you mean Blender 2.79 not 2.9, right? Could you please provide a link to the tutorial you are using?

Based on your question it might be very simple:
If you really tried connecting an armature to a mesh, then it can't work, because it has to be the other way around.
First select the Mesh, then hold Shift while selecting the Armature, then CtrlP and you should get this menu:


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Smart find a vertices
Hi and thanks in advance.
I am trying to find a reference point on a 3d scanned arm model in Blender, so I can know its current position and rotation. A phyton script to find a certain vertices, let's say the one on middle finger's tip, would help me a lot. Can someone lead me in the right direction, please? (With no opencv involvement)

What have you got so far, could you show us a part of your script? What do you mean exactly by "find a certain vertices"? Which ones, how? By name? How would a script know what is a middle finger? How would Blender know which vertex from said finger you want? Could you clarify exactly what you want to achieve?

You have asked how would Blender know what is middle finger? That is what I want to achieve.

I see that it is not something you can do in blender. I will have to use OpenCV feature recognition for such a purpose. Thanks for responses.

Please don't add answers to comment... if you found that's impossible in blender, please describe why, otherwise nobody knows what you discovered...


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Cut a mesh based on path on svg file
Hi and thanks in advance for contrubitions.
I have a cylinder like mesh in blender. I want to create a patterned cut on its surface based on a .svg file.
I will work on it based on this cut so texturing it and setting it as alpha doesn't work for me.

Related?

"Related? – batFINGER" No because i need svg to wrap the object first.

Suggest clarifying questions with more details, images etc.

I found an answer here: Wrap curve around sphere. 1- Bend .svg into cylinder. 2- Add shrinkwrap modifier. 3- Use Boolean to cut it.


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How do I make this sphere follow this bezier curve
Please help I cant find how to move the ball along the path! any help would be huge thanks!

Add a curve and a mesh (sphere)
Go to edit mode and with the start verts selected press shift+s cursor to selected. Press tab to object Mode
Now select the sphere and press shift+S and select selection to cursor
Now select the sphere and curve and press Ctrl+P and select follow path
In the timeline press play the animation

use the clamp to constraint.
look at my example gif

Simply use the "Follow-Path"-Constraint on the Sphere with your curve as the target.


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Eyeball gloss not visible behind another glass object
I have these objects with glasslike materials
I used refraction and glossy shaders because I dont like the double relfection I get with a glass shader.
But even with a glass shader my eye glass shader is not visible behind it.
`

This is my reference:
Clear reflections, clear see through glass

Any tips, trick or advice?

Its already on 12 and doubling it doesnt change anything. any other options?

try doing the shaders with Shadow Ray handling only. You used Reflection and Camera Rays also, it could be somehow because of that and you dont need them anyway in this case, as far as I see your problem. Also look through the materials tab and search for transparent shadows, maybe that affects it.

sorry I was confusing with another problem  ;)

Ok I tested your setup and found your mistake. The outer ball material is more or less correct (You can omit the reflection ray handling). The problem is the inner reflection material of the eye. Just remove everything you have done with Light Paths in that material and it should work perfectly fine.
EDIT:
Also you should change out the Glass BSDF for a Glossy BSDF in the eye reflection. At least I found it to work better.

Thanks for the reply. works as intended now :)


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Show render information in render image
I saw this in a tutorial but i can't find it anymore.
I want to save my render information like the amount samples and time IN the rendered image. but how?


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Create a plasma-like effect in Blender
I found this effect but don't know how it is called, but it reminds me of plasma (don't know why):

I'd like to apply this effect to a mesh to create something ghost-like. Something like this, but less opaque:

How should I for a workflow to create something similar? Should I try modifying the final mesh? Or should I use particles or smoke simulation?

Please check the Duarte Farrajota Ramos' answer here: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/53032/how-do-you-use-blender-to-make-pokemon-attacks-like-hyper-beam-and-solar-beam The links he provided may be the solution for you.

I never try this, but it look like smoke simulation (high resolution with zero noise. and colored lights. Chceck this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWhuB_msmFg

and also check this: http://blenderdiplom.com/en/shop/611-point-density-magical-fx.html

@shubol3d you've added one link to French tutorial and second for commercial product...

@piegames do you need this effect for still image or animation?

@LukeD Yes I know where I point he, you don't need to remind me. Where is the problem? The both solve his problem. As first: French, Japan, Russian - what matter? How hard is understand from video what about going on? And as second: This is not my product, but point him to "point density" feature. Something wrong on this? He can buy or he can learn - now he knows what it is should focus. I wrote this only as tip, not as answer. Sometimes it looks here like at nursery school.

Thank you all for the links, they gave me an idea of how I could start doing this.
@LukeD It's for a still image

Reminds me of this tutorial

Don't use blender for this one
Since you only need a still image, there is no need for elaborate smoke simulations that take days to render.
If you really really wanted to use blender, try looking into Abstract Wave with Particle System
But really, it would be so much simpler, easier, and less time consuming to use something designed for creating art like this: http://www.escapemotions.com/products/flamepainter/
I even have made a demo of something similar to this that runs in realtime in JS to prove that you could code it yourself if you too. http://codepen.io/Thisisntme/full/KNpPEz/

If you wanted to know, my codepen works by creating a sequence of lines, and then dragging them down the screen (from left to right although it doesn't really matter) all while changing the y position with a few trig functions.

This is not an answer to the question. It just says that it is difficult or perhaps (in your opinion) impossible.

@pycoder I did include a link to https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/7434/abstract-wave-with-particle-system, which has a similar effect.  It is an answer to the question. Saying that solutions are not feasible is indeed an answer.

Originally, my question wasn't really about hot to create this effect, but how to apply this effect to special forms, like an animal (or just a sphere to get started).


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Same rendering gives different noise amount
I usually render my single frame projects with the SheepIt-Renderfarm as animation of low-sample frames. But I experience great differences in the noise amount between some of the frames. For example, seed 5 (top) and seed 41 (bottom):

As you can see, one seed is way noisier than the other. There are several seed with less noisier result and the quality is always the same, like if some of my frames had been rendered with twice the samples.
Why are some seed noisier than others? How do I find out those? Is this even seed related?
I also tried the "split frame" function of the farm where each frame is rendered in 4 different tiles. [Imagine a rendering like the seed 41 one, but with seed 5 in the bottom left half of the picture - I'll add it later] There is the same effect, but on a single frame. So: same .blend file, same frame, same seed, different result. Why?

That is really odd. It's definitely NOT seed related, that's for sure. I've rendered plenty of animations on my own machine where I animated the seed value (different seed for every frame) and all of them had the exact same amount of noise. I'd be more inclined to believe that this is an artifact or bug on the render farm, than that you've uncovered some magical seed values ;-)

Then it must be hardware related. But how could that happen if the same blend file runs the same algorithms on a different hardware, and why should this result in different noise amount?

Sheep-it uses average users machines, each is setup as the user wants it, maybe some users have a setting in their startup.blend that doesn't get overridden by the render task. I'm thinking square samples as one setting that would give this variation.

Sheep-it uses an own Blender installation that is new for every session. All clients use the same Blender version for a rendering project.

@piegames that's right, the "average user" can't even access the copy of Blender that Sheep-It is using. You're right, even different hardware shouldn't matter. It's REALLY strange. It'd be really nice if we could get a Sheep-It developer in on this conversation... Would that be out of scope?

I'll link this post to a new issue on the Github page of the client

I can't find a new post over on the GitHub. Can you post a link to it, here? I'd love to follow the conversation...

Are there any volumetrics in your scene? What version of blender did you select for rendering?

In the scene, I used volume scatter for the world node. The meshes are hair particle systems with many children. I used the latest Blender version for rendering.

@piegames I was thinking one of the renders may have been rendered on GPU and therefor was lacking volumetrics. Volumetrics are supported on CUDA GPUs now, but perhaps someone was using an AMD/openCL card?  BTW, users besides the post author don't get notified of new comments unless they are mentioned with an @username.

That might be, but the faulty frames also came from a CPU rendering (see answer of SheepIt below). Also, these frames clearly have some volumetric effect.

I'm not sure i have an explanation for that.
The faulty frames were rendered by two different users (5 for one user, 1 for the other), on different hardware (4 cpu, 2gpu). Only "windows" was the same but i don't know which version.
The Blender version used by SheepIt is actually the one from Blender Foundation, I just remove the blenderplayer.
Here are the binaries to verify, if that helps https://www.sheepit-renderfarm.com/media/binaries/
I'm also not modifying any seed value. Here is the python script I uss on a CPU render:
import bpy
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device_type = "NONE";
bpy.context.scene.cycles.device = "CPU";
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device =  "CPU";
bpy.context.scene.render.tile_x = 32;
bpy.context.scene.render.tile_y = 32


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UVs Not Transferring to Texture Paint Mode
I modeled a simple Batarang, and am trying to apply an image texture to it, whether via the shading window from an outside source, or by direct texture painting inside blender. I have unwrapped the UVs on seams that I need as shown below. As soon as I go into texture paint mode and select the same object. It has the basic cube t-pose UVs with all of my subdivisions. If I try to apply an outside image, it applies them on that basic cube UV, instead of my unwrapped ones. Do I need to apply the UVs from UV editor, I don't understand why they aren't transferring over to paint/shading. The oddly painted cube in the back was a test, and it worked fine. Unwrapped on all seams, and it transferred seamlessly to texture painter for live painting.

It looks like your uv editor is showing the cube unwrap and not your batarang model. Delete the cube and save, and reopen to see if it persists.

The batarang is just a subdivided / loop cut cube that I modeled from. What is showing in the texture paint window is what the UVs looked like in the UV Editor before the first time I marked seams and unwrapped. Yet, even after unwrapping, they are still showing as the default 6 sided cube with all of it's loop cuts and extrudes in the texture paint window.

Can you append your batarang to a new file to see how the UVs look there?


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How to access Density/Flame grid via Python in 2.82 (Mantaflow)
Does anyone know how do I access the density/flame grid for the new Mantaflow fluid simulation engine in Blender 2.82?
The old path still exists:
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Fluid"].domain_settings.density_grid
But this returns an empty list.

https://devtalk.blender.org/t/blender-2-8-smoke-data-empty-e-g-density-grid/8510


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Save animation after rendering
I rendered my animation, but with "png" as output type for the image. Now I have the rendered animation in Blender (I can see it with Ctrl+11) and 250 png images in a folder. How do I get a video I can export from that?

Possible duplicates: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/52230/599, http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/15142/599, and  http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/18266/599

Link 2 and 3 are not duplicates of this one but link 1 might be

Open the Video Editor, Add the PNG images to the track
Set your render options for whatever video codec you want to use
set your audio options if applicable and render animation.


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Why is the current scene linked to the Screen view?
Let's say I have three scenes, A, B and C. In A and B, I use the Default screen layout because I am modelling something and the Compositor for the render. In C, I only use the Compositor where I combine the results of A and B.
I now used the compositor in scene C for a while and switch to A to adjust something. When I hit Ctrl+Left to switch to the Compositor, I suddenly land in scene C - it was stored with the screen layout.
This is incredibly annoying in larger projects, so: Why does it behave this way and how do I fix it / avoid it?

In 'User Preferences', under 'Interface', check the box next to 'Global Scene' which forces the current scene to be shown in all windows.


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Bake hair particle system to textured low-poly mesh
I got a scene with a lot of fur (really dense hair particles). There are 1000 particles x 750 interpolated ones (with clump curve and kink) per object. Obviously, this is really slow to render and takes too much RAM to render it on GPU or on a render farm.
My idea is:

Create a low-poly mesh consisted of a bunch of planes (like trees in games) that roughly fits the object. It would be nice to adapt those planes in iterations until they really fit the fur.
Unwrap the mesh
Bake all the essential information of the particle system to a texture. Each part of a hair should select the closest (best fitting) plane and gets baked to it
Render the scene in almost no time at all

I'm pretty sure this isn't possible since I am searching for something similar for a while, but are there ways to at least approximate this workflow or parts of it? The only thing I found is this one but I don't know how to use it and if it works in my situation.

I have a technique which might be unorthodox but very efficient.
The idea is to deform your mesh into its UV map while keeping the hair attached to it, so you can render it into a UV texture :

I've used this technique on one model so far and it worked well.
Here's a part of the result :

Downsides

it doesn't perform well on long or clumped hair
it renders noticeable seams on the islands borders

How to prevent them as much as possible:

Prefer sculpting (combing) your hair manually instead of using the Clump property
use as few UV islands as possible. For that, I strongly recommend avoiding Blender's built-in UV unwrapping (which introduces important distortions) and instead, using the SLIM algorithm. You can use it by either installing the original standalone program (not the best because it requires to triangulate your mesh and split the seam edges) or better, by building the Blender SLIM branch (much easier to play with but might be harder to install depending on your OS). Hopefully this amazing algorithm will get implemented in an official release some day.

Now, to deform your mesh into its UV map, you need the UV Shape add-on (not yet updated for 2.8).
Once you have it enabled :

duplicate your model
put the copy on another layer
select your edge seams (select only one and then click on Select > Select Similar > Seam)
perform an Edge Split
in Object mode, select the UV map you want your mesh to deform into
in the Extended Tools tab of the tool shelf, enable "Use Active
Map"
leave "Rescale Islands" enabled to keep hair density consistent
click on "Create UV shape". This creates a shapekey. The hair should deform well with the mesh. Personally I did it with a rabbit's fur and it worked perfectly. Tell me in a comment if that didn't go well for you.
select the created shapekey
in Edit mode, top view, pack your islands in a square (in 3D view of course).You can rotate islands but don't rescale anything or the hair density will change.
create an orthographic camera and put it on top view
adjust the orthographic scale so the flattened mesh fits in the frame
project UVs from view
in UV/Image Editor, ensure the UV map fits the UV square. If not, don't rescale directly in the UV/Image Editor. Instead, zoom or unzoom your ortho camera and reproject UVs.
remove any lighting in your scene and set the World color to white
Render with the orthographic camera
Save the image

Now you can bake this texture on the original UV map :

on the non-original model, create a simple diffuse material with
the rendered image as the color texture
select the non-original model and then the original
bake the diffuse color from selected to active (make sure you have an
image node selected to bake into)

and voilà !
You can even render a hair normal map using a camera normal material :

Although you may want to combine it with the normal map from the hi-res mesh if you have one (I have to add a screenshot on how to combine normal maps with Cycles nodes)

About the normals rendering, wow, great answer! Thanks for sharing. Blender uses the screen up as the +Y vector, but most engines seem to consider screen down as +Y. So a way to do that is to do a (1 - x) on the Y axis of the normal. Check it out: https://s14.postimg.org/nzktb3ald/blender_Alternative_Normal_Nodes.png

How do you go from the flat UV view to the 3d mesh view? I didn't know that was a thing

Not sure what you mean but if you mean "how did I deform the mesh into its UV map", I explained it right before the bullet points.

You can import a UV Map as a mesh to attach and render hair particles to.

In the UV Editor UV > Export UV Layout of the model's uv map and save as a svg file.
File > Import the newly created svg file.
Convert svg to mesh.
Join the svg mesh with itself.
Remove any double vertices with Merge by Distance
Create an Orthographic Camera looking at the svg mesh.
Create Hair and Comb the hair particles.
Render and replace texture.


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How to animate a folding carton using only the vertices in edit mode?
I am trying to animate a folding carton using only the vertices in edit mode, I find it easier for me. I tried following a video on Youtube ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyj0sJVd3Lw&list=PL1ufR-_dSlrGa-rN23kR_C0ACjpi-38JE&index=70&t=0s ) on how to do it but its in object mode, in edit mode I cannot insert a key frame :(
I would love to achieve what this package designer is doing ( https://www.behance.net/gallery/91695235/Organic-Soap-Packaging?tracking_source=search_projects_recommended%7Cpackage%20blender ), if you look at the animation video and what software tools he made it in; its Blender.
This would be a huge help if anyone out there know hows to I cannot find anything else.
* If you can answer this question and not relate it to another answered question that would be better because sometimes the related answers are outdated. I have the 2.82a version *
Here are some screenshots from my Mac I am having issues with:

Thank you.

Any reason to not use Shape Keys? https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/animation/shape_keys/introduction.html

Na, it needs to be done with an armature... Shape keys interpolates linear position so rotations will look bad.

did you check this tutorial that uses AnimAll addon? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvRA6z3z5bI

I agree with Jackdaw, this should be done with bones. You also probably want to use more than one vert on the joint, so that you con solidify and not collide with the other walls.

Check this tutorial that uses AnimAll addon? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvRA6z3z5bI


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How to export a "sliced face" of an object into a dxf?
I know my question sounds weird but I will try to be specific as possible. Please be patient and please don't flag this question with another question: I would like to hear what everyone needs to say even if its a negative feedback, this is a serious project.
I am testing a feature called Variable Data Cutting (VDC) on the UI of a non-visible class 5 laser die-cutting machine designed to mass produce intricate folding cartons. ↓

Fun fact: Conventional die-cut manufacturing techniques cannot achieve this level of intricate cutting. This being said, this technology allows us to innovative widely.
As for Blender, this process is critical. Indeed Blender is a powerful tool and can be utilized in high-end production processes.
I use flat planes as a splitting tool to split an obj or stl object(s). After splitting the object, I would like to know how to export the "sliced face" as a dxf. The UI only reads dxf, dwg and even PDF. Below is an example of what I am depicting. ↓

Actual thickness would be .20 mm

I would like to know how to export the "sliced face" as a dxf.
Thank you for taking YOUR time to help me out, and if there is something anyone needs more explanation on please let me know so I can quickly revise anything.

Since Blender is a geometry based mesh modeling software, and what you seem to need is more in the realm of CAD (curve based) modeling, I would recommend exporting the mesh to a CAD program and then convert to .dxf from there. I would suggest exporting your model from blender as .fbx, and then download the free trial or hobby version of Fusion360 and use it to convert the .fbx to .dxf.

There is a .dxf exporter but you have to enable it in the preferences. It will export as meshes though and not vector based entities


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Is there any way to replicate/recreate Levels effect in Blender Shading Nodes?
I'm trying to make a normal map generator in Blender and I need to add Levels-like node. I'm using this tutorial about generating normal map from four pictures (https://dreamlight.com/how-to-create-normal-maps-from-photographs/#Photoshop - Create the Normal Map Layers header) and I'm stuck in a step where I must put Levels to 128-255 range on a Top-Right layer.
Is there any way to reinvent Levels node in Blender Shading Nodes (Shading card)?
Images:
My node tree

Results (TOP, looks okay) and normalmap preview

Results from Left-Bottom corner, looks bad!

You can get the same functionality with the Color Ramp node.
Add > Converter > Color Ramp

And because the Color Ramp node uses 0-1 value range, just multiply your value by 1 / 255.
Like this:

You can technically also do this with RGB curves, they're just a different tool for doing the same thing.


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What's going on with the scale/length here in edit mode?
I am working on a 3D model for printing. I have my scene set to a Unit Scale = 0.001 and Length = Millimeters. This makes it the correct size for the printer. I also updated my scale on grids to 0.001.
I'm trying to make a box with a 3mm thick wall. I added a box to the scene and changed the dimensions to what I need.

Then I went to the top face and did an inset. If I'm in the top view and use the numbers I can type 0.03 and see that it is three grid squares (i.e. 3mm) inset but in the info header it says 3 micro meters. Not sure what's going on there.
Then I set the origin of the box to the bottom face and did an extrude of the inset to bring the top face down leaving 3mm on the bottom wall too; as evidenced by the 3 grid squares. This results in the Z position of the points being "0.066667" mm. Shouldn't it be 3mm?

I really don't understand what's going on with the units on the box. Does it have something to do with the "scale" on the box being not "1"? Should I have changed the dimensions of the box a different way?

Hello :). This has everything to do with the Scale of your object. Go to Object > Apply > Scale to set it back to 1. Then the transforms will be correct.

Awesome. Thank you. Do you want to reply as an answer so I can accept it? Also quick note that in 2.8 CTRL+A is how you get the apply option.


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How do I change the shortcut icon back? v2.81
I was looking up some shortcuts and pressed some combination of key that change one of the icons. See the highlighted icon in the image. That icon is from the icon sidebar on the left edge of the screen. This one used to be the "box select" icon and now it's the "Tweak" icon. I would like to change it back.

You have likely pressed the W key. Press it again several times to cycle through the different selector options

Ok after some more playing I found it. Any of the icons with the arrow in the corner you can left click and hold to bring up a sub menu.
Also using the keyboard shortcut for box select will change the icon to that again.

Yes and here are a few things that may help, https://youtu.be/w-5Z1vuEinE


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How to trim this cylinder where it meets a box
I have a box that I have extruded to the shape I want. Then I placed a cylinder so that it intersects the box. After that I deleted the bottom faces of both the cylinder and box.
Now what I want to do is delete the portion of the cylinder that is inside the box and join the nodes so that it is one object. I have already joined the meshes so I can select points/edges/faces from either shape. It seems like the easiest way would be to just put nodes where the edges of the cylinder and box intersect and then delete the parts I don't care about. I can't find a good way to do that though.
What's the best way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?

Hello :). This sounds like a perfect job for the Boolean Modifier set to Union. You'll have to separate the mesh into two objects first. Mesh > Separate > Loose Parts

The Boolean is less destructive, but for a one-off, leaving more options in some cases:

Object Mode, CtrlJ combine the components if not already one object.
Edit Mode, all selected CtrlF Face Menu > Intersect (Knife)
Adjust Last Operation panel > Self Intersect

Followed by removing the faces you don't want, and AltM merging the selection of vertices you want to, By Distance.

This actually seems more elegant than Boolean :).

@ᴊᴀᴄʜʏᴍᴍɪᴄʜᴀʟ  I don't know.. I prefer Blender to 3DS for all sorts of reasons, but I do miss edit operations on the modifier stack.. maybe Everything Nodes is heading in a more procedural direction? Not all-the-way Houdini, but a happy compromise?

This is exactly what I was asking! Thank you for this info. I tried it and it basically worked but I was left with the roof of the cylinder on the inside of the model. I'm planning on using the solidify modifier to make it 3mm thick for my 3D print so that won't work. I may come back to this if I can't get the boolean to play nice (it's not so far)

Ok figured it out. I was having some weird issues with the top face but I found that if I just deleted it then merged vertices by distance then I could select the edge ring and put a face on it.

@William Glad you found it.. In any operation involving Blender finding intersections, you have to watch out for exactly coincident faces / edges, leaving it unable to determine  left / right, inside / outside.. floating point error.. division by 0...

You can use the Boolean modifier for this.
Add the Boolean modifier to one object, and target the other one.
Set operation to Union.

Apply the modifier, and hide/delete the target object.

ok. I'm having a hell of a time with this. I had trouble with my original objects so I deleted them and make new ones. The box is a simple box with one extrude and the cylinder is a standard cylinder with no modifications other than changed dimensions. I left them whole objects (i.e. no deleted face). If I pick the box then select the cylinder using either "Union" or "Difference" I see only the cylinder. If I use "Intersect" then I guess I get what I'm expecting with "union" what the heck is going on?

But then if I do the same thing with the cylinder on the other corner (there are two I want to add this way) then I have to use "Difference" to get them to work like expected. Crazy!

The extrude has to be messing with it somehow. If I try a test with a stock box and two stock cylinders then union works as expected. I don't get it.


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How to render the 3D View, Editor view?
This may sounds strange but I want to create a video and show the steps when adding the different effects to te scene. I want to have a high quality picture of the 3D View. Can I make this without taking screenshots?

Window menu "Make Screencast", the settings are in the User Properties view. If you want to do anything serious use a third party piece of software. In windows the Game recorder works well.

Window menu "Make Screencast", the settings are in the User Properties view. If you want to do anything serious use a third party piece of software. In windows the Game recorder works well. – rob Oct 10 at 8:49

If you don't have to record an interactive session, but an animated one, you can use "OpenGL render active wiewport": the button is in the footer of the 3D window, the last one on the right. It works exactly like a normal rendered animation: the paths, settings etc are in the Render panel, and the start/end are the ones set in the Timeline.


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Fixing artifacts from an imported Medium sculpt?
I'm creating some assets for a game I'm making using Medium by Oculus, but when I import it into Blender it leaves me with strange lighting artifacts. I tried dissolving some vertices and edges to try and fix them but it would usually cause them to move a little bit.
https://i.sstatic.net/Kxkll.jpg
This is an exported .obj of the sculpt with 10% of the polygons. If I do a 100% export (half a million polygons) the lighting artifacts aren't there until I decimate again in Blender. Also I'd like to figure out how to Make the edges harder and straighter, since that's how they were in the sculpt.

Wouldn't it just be easier to model that from scratch cleanly?

Automatic decimation on a hard edge model like this will always produce such artifacts.
Either you model with fewer polygons, so you do not have to decimate or you need to import the highres model into Blender and retopologize it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD4jJc_01do