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Blender wont export to trainsimulator
Hi folks ive been using blender for a few years and have made assets for routes ive made in trainsimulator, but since upgrading to 4.0 and then downgrading to 3.5 i can no longer create igs files as briage keeps throwing errors at me. Even just a basic cube with a texture wont export. I will include a screenshot to show what i mean.

Hello and welcome. Rather than take photos of your monitor post actual screenshots instead, see How to take a screenshot. Photos are harder to read because we have to look past external interferences (like reflections, smudges or Moiré patterns) and guess if we are looking at hardware issues such as a malfunctioning display or connections, a software level issue like driver malfunction or glitch, or actual artifacts or issues with the model itself.

Hi. Please don't post images or screenshots of your code, console or error messages. Instead copy-paste the actual text into your post using proper code tags, so it can be indexed and searched for, and other users trying to help don't have to type it by hand themselves which is both error prone and time consuming.


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(Bug?Issue) Objects that have changed angle and position, on their own no going back possible
So as you can see my object changed position, its not about keyframes in animation, its not about me having changed them, i was working on an object and on a click all these objects moved away, chair, radio light, and more. I tried to recover last session and even one ive done 1 hour ago and by these version the position of the object changed too, it happend once when i clicked on the left arrow but i just made a CTRL+Z. but again there is only one keyframe in animation so im pretty sure its not about this ( by putting play nothing happends or change), thanks for the help. Have a great day.
Sven

When you this happens to you its because you changed keyframe with the arrow key on a collection, so basically all the collection will change and move randomly.
I might think its an issue with grease pencil being active, so what you have to do is set all your objects transform to 0, take of the automated keys and don't animate them without using the I button to lock it

Don forget using CTRL+A and Apply all transformation like saving ur fil so all ur object will be placed anturally on 0

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How can I select edge loops in a mesh using geometry nodes?
In my scenario, I have a few stacks of edge loops bridged together and am seeking a way to select a specified loop using geometry nodes to perform transformations on.
A mesh I am working on which contains 6 horizontal loops with 600 vertices per loop. I want to be able to feed each selected loop through transformation nodes I have implemented (gif animation)

You could select your loops based on z-position. Did you try it ?

May I suggest to read this post: How to Select every other Edge in Geometry Nodes ?

Does this answer your question? How to Select every other Edge in Geometry Nodes

It's a bit unclear at what stage you want to make the selection.. would something along these lines do it for you?

Thank you for the suggestions, I have only tried selecting by Z-position so far but get strange results when plugging it into the vertex transformation. However, I will investigate and try again and also give the other solutions a shot this week

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


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'bpy_prop_collection[key]: key "Material Output" not found' Blender Export for .I3d

Failed when trying to export a mod with texture to .i3d (standard format for 3d objects for the Giant Editor[ Mod Engine for Farming Simmulator]), but with texture there is no problem, but I want to send it with texture, Material Output is present in all textures so I don't think this is a problem, I'm new to blender so if you can let me know about something I did

The third-party addon (which we can't support here) probably hasn't been updated to work with Blender version 4 because the APIs have changed. You'll need to check with the addon author and see if there's a newer version.

I suggest setting Blender's language to english in the preferences before you open the model, the node names are automatically translated when you setup the shader tree and the addon seems to refer to the node by names which is case and language sensitive : Saida de material should be Material Output. You can also rename the node in your interface but you'll have to do it for every material


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Geometry Nodes: How to distribute instances on a mesh line to prevent crowding
I'm making a procedural stone path in geometry nodes but I've been struggling with correcting for distortions as the curves change. The issue I've been really stuck on is in the pictures below. As I shift the middle handle of the curve in the y-direction I get the expected crowding as you approach the outer handles. I'm pretty new to this so I'm not sure how to take in and compare distances from sampled points along the curves in order to correct for this; or even more likely I'm on the wrong path altogether. Either way, any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I've included an example of my issue and my original node network below.
Bezier Curves instanced on a mesh line

Bezier Curves instanced on a mesh line with meshes instanced along the curves

current node network

How about you make a face from line and use Distribute Points on Faces?

If I've got you right, one approach might be to copy the curve in place on a 0-length line, and then offset the points of the copies by a ((multiple of spline-index + a constant) * point-normal):

You still have to watch out for self-intersection.. in most cases you can arrange for the original to be the innermost curve, to prevent that.

Fantastic work! The only problem I'm having with this approach is with indexes. this rearranges the spline instances so that the even and odd indexes are grouped (in space not in the spreadsheet). This is an issue because I would like to offset every index(modulo(2)) by the midpoint between two points on the resampled spline. is there a way to avoid or fix this? Thank you so much for your answer! you have already helped me a ton!

Hi, @GeorgeNavarre!      I've just downloaded and tried this.. my spline indices are in strict order, (0 outer to 4 inner, in the illustrated version). Can you give an illustration of the effect you want to achieve, maybe as a new post?

hey, @RobinBetts. No problem I'll make one right now.

Hey, @RobinBetts. here's the new post https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/261251/134542

My original question (Geometry Nodes: How to distribute instances on a mesh line to prevent crowding) was about crowding when at the left and right sides of the splines was answered by @RobinBetts. Their solution solved the crowding issue but when I attempted to offset every other spline I found that the splines had rearranged in such a way that all even and odd indexes were grouped.
Here's A node network that produces the desired alternating spline offset. The MixRGB node controls the offset amount. I've also included a gif.

Here's A node network that solves the crowding issue but rearranges the splines in the process. I've also included a gif below this.

The purpose is to produce more randomness in the stone path. After I have a solution to this I will reduce MixRGB to .125 and add a random value between 0 and .375. hopefully, this will have the desired effect :). thanks again for your help!

Robin, I'll model what I'm going for right now. ill post back in 30 mins or so.


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Exclude zero from "Random Value"
I want to return either a -1 or a 1 from the Random Value node. Unfortunately, I get either -1, 1 or 0! Is there a way to exclude zero from the results?

you can do it like this:

example:


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Issues when applying simulation add-ons to downloaded model
When I applied the Fracture feature of an add-on called KABOOM to the downloaded model, I got the following results

I got some weird new fragments like in the image. How do I fix it?
Then I applied a feature called Blast, and the whole blade shatters instead of fragments.

How do I get it to shatter like particles? I have no way to ask the addon creator, so I'm posting a question!
Here's the link of the video https://streamable.com/3nv36o

I'm afraid that we can't help with third-party addons here. This Q&A site can help with problems using Blender and its built-in addons but there are so many other addons around that it's impossible to help with most of them.


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How to hide axes overlay on selected objects
How can I hide this axis overlay on selected objects?
It's similar to Viewport Display -> Axes but colored.

Use Ctrl + . (dot) It corresponds to the option to move origins only

Finally!! Thank you!

Use Ctrl..
Which corresponds to the option "Affect only: Origins".

..  I learn a new shortcut every day ...:)

@RobinBetts, why would we be here if it wasn't for that?

Thank you! It worked!

authors: Тимофей Петров


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2D Grease Pencil Animation: Fill Not Working
so I'm having an issue with the 2D Fill Tool. I draw the face and I've closed off all the gaps and it still will not fill, any idea why? Do I need to draw the head in one line? Is there some setting preventing me from filling? It worked on the eyes and other things, not sure how to fix it or if it's something I accidentally turned on.

This is the face that I'm trying to Fill
This is how it looks when I up the Gap Closure slightly.This is how it looks when I really up the Gap Closure.

Which fill tool are you using? The actual fill bucket or the select-fill option?

I’m using the actual fill bucket. Sometimes it will work fine but then I’ll duplicate that same stroke  and try and fill it but instead of filling, my cursor will turn into a number (either 1 or 2), and nothing will happen. I’ve been messing around with it for a few days now and my current theory is it’s either something to do with the amount of layers I have  turned on (visible), the new object I’ve created or a setting I’ve accidentally turned on because when I create a new .blend file to test, it seems to work fine. Or maybe it’s the material, I really don’t know, bit lost at this point.

I'm still confused. Which strokes are you duplicating? And what are all the blue lines? As for the fill option, you could try creating a new layer, locking all the others, and filling in your object.

I’m duplicating say for example, one of the eyes and one will fill and one won’t.
The blue lines are what happen when I try and fill because I have Gap Closure turned on, they’re meant to indicate gaps or something I think.

Ah, okay. Thanks for clarifying. Have you tried turning off Gap Closure?

Yes, on and off. I think maybe using boundary lines that I remove after can help for the moment but really lost with this tool and also have no clue what the numbers mean when I click. Do you think it's maybe how many gaps it thinks are open?

I'm sorry, but I don't have enough information to troubleshoot the problem. Could you please post a screenshot of your entire 2d workspace? That will help me better be able to help you.

Maybe this will help: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/grease_pencil/modes/draw/tools/fill.html

Thanks so much for your help Starry! Really appreciate it, I think I might have an answer, will post it now.

No problem. Glad to help. :) Good job finding a solution.

After some testing with a previous older version of Blender on Windows and then going back to my 4.0 Version on Mac it seems that the answer is that Blender thinks the things I'm drawing have unclosed areas. I noticed on the old version 2.9 that the fill tool is different, it has a Leak Size setting instead of the Precision one and seems to fill a lot better. But yeah, long story short, Blender thinks there's too many gaps and won't fill.


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Smooth By UV Islands
I would like to know what object -> Smooth By UV Islands does?
For me removes the seams that show in marmoset when I import the fbx. But at the same time seems to put random sharp edges, and I think is messing with the model when I bake in marmoset. But I don't really know. Well if some can explain to me what that option does I will appreciated it, it puts some artifacts or shading effects on the mesh. Also I'm new to all this. Thank you.

I would assume that this means it treats all boundary edges of UV islands as sharp edges and smoothes only within the UV islands. But since you do not show any screenshots in your question it is hard to tell if there are "random" sharp edges or if they do make any sense. Anyway, I do not find Smooth By UV Islands in my Object menu, neither in 4.2.2 nor in 4.3.2, so I can only guess what it does.


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Best way to do a door arch for game asset
So when doing this arch i got this edges:

I solved like this:

An realized that i just need 2 support edges.

What is the best way to do this for a game asset? Someone told me the first one is better but with better triangle... I dont understand how...

Honestly, as a game asset it doesn't matter at all. The last version with two support edges is totally fine.

A game asset will be triangulated, so dissolving edges to make n-gons gains you nothing.

You have to consider two things:
1-It is a flat surface which does not need to deform so it does not matter if you leave than Geometry. It won’t affect you at all for textures.
2-If you plan to animate it, break it down, fracture it or similar, then better to have proper geometry with quads.
Keep in mind that modern game engines like Unreal engine don’t get their performance down due to geometry as the engine adapt it automatically depending on proximity to camera.
Good luck!

I understand the considerations. But I don't understand how it answers my question.


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Shadowing In blender
From the pictures, you will see in the left, that the shadows appear in the render engine EVEE. on the right it's on cycles, but it has no shadow detailing, I am using a plugin called stylized shading, and I want to imitate that shadowing but on cycles not in EVEE, what I am missing here.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Hello and welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the post. It should read like a question, be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the problem so that anyone searching for similar issues is likely to find this. Remove anything superfluous, avoid using words like "this", "help with", "issue" or "question about", instead describe what "it" is. Remember, your title is the first thing visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on it. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"

the material, that I am using is stylized shading, here's the link https://blendermarket.com/products/stylizedshaders
I know that EVEE is very different than cycles, but I want to know how to make the same results of evee in cycles, I want to make the same shadow detailing but in cycles NOT in EVEE. is there any tutorial that imitate that exactly ?

To replicate that result we would need to know exactly what it is doing. Since you did not provide a description of the process, nor show the node trees, and we can't easily access them because it is a commercial product, I don't think this question is answerable.


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Automating Video Creation in Blender with Python
I’m a beginner working on a Python script to create videos similar to this **[Instagram video : https://www.instagram.com/p/DEFyYNQorPm/
The idea is to input an Arabic voice-over and automate:

Syncing animated text with the audio (highlighting important words dynamically).
Generating or using images to match the voice-over content.
Possibly turning images (like buildings) into simple 3D models.
Adding procedural animations and sound design automatically.

I’d love to hear suggestions on the best pipeline to approach this! Tools, add-ons, or libraries that could simplify this process would be really helpful.

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


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LoopTools - Circle - overlapping faces and edges when trying to create a circle
a decade ago I took a course in 3d modeling and animation in Maya, and did well, but I'm trying to learn Blender and I'm having a rough go of how different everything is.
I'm trying to extrude a tank barrel out of a face.  Figured I'd use LoopTool - circle, extrude outwards, scale inwards, then extrude backwards to create the hollowness.
But the first part results in a ton of overlapping edges, faces, and a circle that's weirdly too big for the face that it's been placed on.  Trying to scale the circle after the fact doesn't clean up the overlapping edges of everything at all.  Any help?

With the loop tools? Is there a Loop Tool Scale that's different from the Scale tool that's along the left edge of the screen?

no, I don't think so. Just select your circle and press 'S' and scale it down a little so that there are no overlapping edges

I mother-frickin swear I've been trying that for ages... and it's not worked until literally now.  I guess it's the curse of solving the question by literally just asking it.  Thank you.

no problem happy it works :)


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3D Painting: mirror on the z axis uncentered
I was trying to 3d paint my object, with simmetry set to Z axis.
When painting, the paint on the other side of the object is "offsetted" a bit higher or lower, depending on where I am painting, hence I can't paint correcly.
I verified the object is perfectly aligned with the three axes, and I tried to set the origin to the part I am painting, but nothing. I have also tried both ortographic and non ortographic viewpoints.

Just a question for clarification: you've set the symmetry to Z axis? What I see in the screenshot is a right side view and a left side view of a beak. So I would guess you need X axis symmetry (or maybe Y axis symmetry).

Sorry for the misunderstanding, the image is purely for showing the effect.

So is this supposed to be symmetrical on the X axis while you are trying to work with Z axis symmetry? Are your UVs laid out correctly? Is the geometry symmetrical?

The Object from tail to beak is aligned with Y axis. From left to right wing is aligned witx X Axis, and from the ground up to the head is aligned with Z axis. Precisely, Left wing is on the X+ verse, the right wing is on the X- verse, the tail ins on Y+ verse and the beak is on the Y- verse. But also selecting X mirroring,  i obtain totally offsetted/wrong results. I can't figure what is happening

Well, maybe you should upload the file because simply looking at the screenshot doesn't really show what might be wrong with the symmetry. I understand that everything might be aligned with the axes, but I was asking if the mesh is completely symmetrical on those axes. Especially I'm wondering when you originally tried to paint symmetrical on the Z axis this would mean your bird looks the same no matter if it's standing on his feet or you flip it top down...

What happens when applying rotation and scale first?


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fur rendering: unwanted fur under not emitting geometry
Good Day.
I am realizing the attached 3d model in Blender 2.93.5LTS, and for various and different fur types I am using geometry parts cloned from main geometry, then separated and that were after shrinked, so they stay under main geometry. Subsequently, I applied a different type of fur particles for each geometry part. Then, when rendering, I’ve noticed that on the beak and on the arms appear fur strands, but under that parts there is no generating geometry at all... Each fur generating geometry part has origin set to geometry center of mass, and each part has a subdivision modifier applied. Someone knows what is happening?

Please share just a beak with us to see your blend setup. Use https://blend-exchange.com/ and copy &paste given code via edit into your Question. It looks like vertex weight is not zero, but like 0.0xy.

The main geometry itself has a hair particle emitter connected. I have retried the rendering and now there is no faults.


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How to assign a material to a smoke domain
I am trying to assign a material to the smoke simulation I have created.
For creating the simulation I added a cube, and I click object->quick effect->quick Smoke.
Then I have setted the smoke parameters and started the simulation.
I can't assign any material to the smoke domain, or to the smoke itself, it remains purple in color.
Also adding a principled volume in "Shader Editor" has no effect at all on the purple color of the volume.
I attach 2 images to show what I am trying to explain.

IIRC Smoke generates particles, so a principled shader hooked to the the surface input works better than a a principled volume hooked to the volume input. Have you tried that?

Quicksmoke operator doesn't produce any particles. The smoke simulator uses a voxel-based volume, which is accessed via the volume socket of the material output node.

Your shader assignment looks correct to me.
I suspect the purple color does not come from the smoke shader itself, but rather from a missing texture somewhere else like the world shader for example. Could you check that ?
Otherwise, a simple test could be to open a new fresh scene, do a quicksmoke on the default cube, setup the domain shader ans see how it goes.
If it still fails, then maybe it's a bug.

Thanks, the world environmental shader was the issue. I unplugged it from the environmental output, re-opened the hdr image, plug it again, and the issue was resolved.


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Export fbx - uncheck apply modifiers - but include mirror and array modifier? (High poly / low poly workflow question)
My question has to do with optimizing workflow when working with high poly to low poly.
What I want:
I want to use the same mesh as low poly and high poly. On the low poly, when exporting as fbx, I uncheck "apply modifiers" and on the high poly I apply modifiers. I then use both versions to bake textures in for example Substance Painter.
I've tried this and it works perfectly in some cases.
My problem:
For example, say I have a complicated staircase. There's a lot of meshes with array and mirror modifiers, as well as bevel, subdivision surface, and a few others.
If I use the "apply modifiers for high poly, don't for low poly" approach, I loose my arrays and mirrors.
To get around this, I can duplicate the meshes and apply the mirrors/arrays but it's destructive and if I want to change anything later I have to go back to a previous state.
My questions:
Is this even a good idea, or am I missing some other, better workflow?
If it is a good idea, is it possible to export as fbx and choose which modifiers to apply?
It's not a very big deal but I'd be happy if anyone has any input. Thanks in advance.
/Mikael

You can disable the show_viewport property on all e.g. subdivision modifiers to ignore them when exporting to fbx (even with 'apply modifiers' enabled). Select all objects, hold Alt and click the monitor icon on the modifier of the active object, this way all subdivision modifiers of all selected objects will be disabled for the export. Otherwise you'd have to use python to disable/enable that property for the low and high poly. Question is where you want to put the files and what's your general workflow...? Are you ok with a folder called 'bake' in your main folder to put both files?

@brockmann I had no idea you could alt click modifiers to do what you just said. That's a great tip and seems to solve my problems. Thanks a lot! :)


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(Advanced Issue) Any way I can recreate this game's 3D texture effect?

I'm trying to recreate this 3d effect, but I'm not sure how they did it, and I was hoping I can find something here. It even follows the animation it does. To me it looks like it was either duplicated and moved, or they made the material be reflected by the visor. Any help is appreciated

A possible way to do this would be to have a Principled BSDF with a quite dark Base Color and Transmission set to 1, to have a dark glass material. Then add a Solidify modifier on the helmet. The red glowing parts with a high emission would then be on the outside as well as on the inner faces from the solidification and shine through the dark glass, maybe a bit blurred from Transmission Roughness in the Principled BSDF.
These are my materials, the glass on the left and the glow on the right. Of course you could do this in one material with masking and a Mix Shader, for simplicity I just added different materials to different faces. For the red glow I also used a Principled BSDF instead of an Emission shader because the original helmet is a bit reflective in the glowing parts, too.

And this is the result with a little bit of glow added in the Compositor, the Thickness setting in the Solidify modifier determines how strong or deep the 3D effect is:

Thanks for the response! I tried doing what you suggested, but when I add a solidify modifier on the helmet, it creates this weird effect instead the 3d depth to it. imgur.com/JPISC9o

@WolfStix The "weird effect" is when you're generating the thickness to the outside and especially very much thickness. Also it looks like some face normals are inverted since some are going inside, some outside. Also, it is much weirder if you make it very thick. I just used a subtle thickness, well, like a sheet of glass and not a massive wall  And of course the more complex the shape, the more problems you can get with overlapping and strange corners if you extend to far.

You mind if I give you the blend file and see what you can do to add this effect? This model is much different than the one you shown in your screenshot since this is actually a character from the game.

Sure, I'll have a look tomorrow.

Thanks. I'll link it so you can go on it whenever you need. Lmk if you're finished checking it out. https://mega.nz/file/pg1ExCzS#irW3jiojcox1X-g_E7-bXnDy2OWEE0LujwfwB0meHYA

@WolfStix Okay, so I looked at the file and there are a lot of problems. I didn't know this is all one big mesh. This means, everything gets solidified, so it would be better to restrict the solidify to a vertex group, this could be "head". Or you create a new one which contains only the glass parts. No matter how, this creates non-manifold geometry at the transition between solidified and non-solidified faces which can mess up the smooth shading. By the way, a Thickness of 0.001 is absolutely sufficient according to the size of the model, maybe only 0.0005

@WolfStix The other thing is, I tried to read this big confusing custom shader node group and look at the textures - the problem with them is, there is no glass part, it's just glossy black (since the helmet wasn't supposed to be looked through, I guess). However, without transmissive parts the inside generated by the Solidify modifier will not show on the outside. So the materials need to be reworked to contain a transmissive part. But I'm sorry, there are so many textures and custom node groups mixed together that I didn't want to go through all to find which ones I have to change.

Oh, there is another possibility without the necessity of glass and a Solidify modifier. But this is quite complex and too long for an answer I guess and it might still be problematic with the complete helmet material in one piece. So I'll just leave a link to the tutorial here, this is more as an information on  what is possible with materials. Erindale Woodford created this tutorial for CG Masters: Procedural Parallax Effect in Blender

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Do you have discord? I'm trying to figure this for something I'm making. You're the closest I'm getting to making this effect. I would really appreciate the help.

@WolfStix I'm sorry but I'm not on discord.

Alright here's what I did. I simplified the custom shader node to a Principled BSDF. The other node group I use is to make the texture animations like how the game does itself. It creates a visor animation. https://imgur.com/a/TKEHLrz Hope this helps making it more possible to create the 3d effect.

I'm not supposed to rework the complete material for you... or am I? As I said, for my solution the dark part has to be a dark glass (i.e transmissive) so that the emission from the inner wall generated by the Solidify modifier can be seen through it.

No no sorry, I meant I hope it helps giving instruction. I do really appreciate the time your making to help me. Even if I can't do this effect right, thanks for helping. But I honestly just don't know what to do. The red glow is a texture for the visor so it can't really pop out. I've tried your solutions, I've made the black glossy, and mixed the glow. And again, the solidify just doesn't act right. https://imgur.com/a/FaL3J3n

You've made the black glossy, but glossy is not equal to glass: glass needs transmission to look through. You have to make the glass part transmissive - and then it can be completely black for than you can't see through it either. The other thing I already mentioned is, you should limit the Solidify to a vertex group which contains only the glass part -better  would be to make the glass a separate piece. And your image looks as if your Solidify has a much too high thickness. As I said above, something like 0.001 or even half of that is enough.

In the picture that you provided earlier, is the red emission part a mesh? Because if I make the visor glass like, that makes my emission also glass like since it's part of the glass. The red glow is a emission texture.

@WolfStix Yes, it is part of the mesh. Please just read my answer thoroughly: "These are my materials, the glass on the left and the glow on the right. Of course you could do this in one material with masking and a Mix Shader, for simplicity I just added different materials to different faces." For simplicity, I didn't bother to create own masks etc. but you can do this very easy by masking. A mask, white where the glass is and black for emission. Plug this in Transmission - that's it. But did you try emission on glass? A bright emission won't look very transparent even though it's glass.

Sigh, I just can't seem to get it right. Idk if I'm just doing something dumb, or missing something. Thanks for help anyway, I appreciate the time. Maybe I'll try experimenting a little bit, and if still nothing I'll just forget about it. I don't wanna keep using up your time, so thanks again.

@WolfStix This is just a wild guess, but is it possible that you don't know how to build materials with different properties for certain areas by mixing and masking? I would really  suggest you do some tutorials on materials and texturing. No offense.

I'm definitely not the best at it. I'd say I'm in a bit of the starting to know what it does and how to work it sometimes. But when it's stuff like this material I'm trying to make here, it throws me off. This is the closest I've gotten to making this effect, so I'm not sure where to go from here even with some of the tutorials. Not sure if it can help recreate it, but in time in learning maybe something can pop up on what I was missing. Again thanks for your help.


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How do I make this accessory work like a cloth with bones?
I'm trying not to have to go through the headache of animating the cloth on each part it's seen.
Is there any good way to make this process faster with good cloth-like results?
https://i.sstatic.net/C8dvW.jpg

Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer.

This is a game model, or I assume it is. In game, each different position for the cloth would be animated then baked. The game isn't going to use live cloth simulations or even be rigged with bones, it'll just have a few different baked shapes it just blends between.
You can do this the same way- you would sculpt/animate a few different cloth shapes and bake them. (Shape keys work well for this.) If you don't, you'll need dozens of bones to get "good cloth-like results"- i.e., wrinkles, you'll have to have one bone per wrinkle (that's an oversimplification, but it works for illustration purposes.) This is what cloth simulation is for, to avoid the immense complexity that you would have to create to rig cloth with bones. Both rigging with bones and cloth simulation will SIGNIFICANTLY slow down your animations, (assuming you're using enough bones for realistic cloth), so that's probably a no-go.
One way or another, you're going to have to "animate the cloth on each part it's seen." Just make sure you bake those animations, since they'll never run in real-time or anywhere near it.

Ah ok. How do game physics usually work? The cloth usually moves very fluently with the unpredictable movements of your character. So I would think it's a live simulation. (Second question) Are my only choices are, to create a simulation with a bones that'll tremendously slow down my animation, or animate it all by hand?

There's an excellent article about tricks game developers use to avoid cloth simulations, and the reasons they do so. You should check it out: https://80.lv/articles/cloth-simulation-for-games-difficulties-and-current-solutions/

Thanks. Idk if you read my second question, it was edited. "Are my only choices are, to create a simulation with bones that'll tremendously slow down my animation, or animate it all by hand?"

Those are your two best options for sure. You could use a cloth simulation (also very slow), or you could try one of the workarounds game developers use sometimes. That article specifically mentioned two- a low poly A frame, or blending normal maps. You can probably find more on Google. TLDR: your "normal" options are those two, but there are hacky/specialized workarounds some games use

I've also found other articles where developers script specific cloth functionality for specific pieces of cloth, and it's not uncommon for developers to do that (write a highly specific cloth system that performs super well with very specific parameters) Writing your own cloth system is probably out of your scope, so I'd recommend sculpting by hand and baking those to shapekeys

Okayy. Thanks for the help!


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Make particles longer without changing the amount
I have a particle system where I have it at a certain speed, I have it at 250, but when I bring it up to for example, 1000, the amount of particles decrease by a lot, and it doesn't look right. How do I keep the same amount of particles while trying to make the particles last much longer?

Sorry, may I ask, where are you setting the speed?

I set the speed in timestep in the physics tab. It's at it's default as .0.40 which is the speed I prefer it. But when I increase the end from 250 to 1000, the amount of the particles changes, I notice it's slower and with less particles.

I'm not sure if I understand what you're talking about... You increase the end from 250 to 1000? So, you set the end frame to 1000? And what do you do with the number of particles? Let's say you have a number of 1000 particles and set the end to 250, this means 1000/250 = 4 particles are emitted per frame. If you set the end to 1000 this means, 1000/1000 = 1 particle is emitted per frame. That has nothing to do with the timestep. The number of particles is the total amount over the range of the animation, the amount doesn't get more automatically when you set the end to a higher frame.

But how can I have the same total amount of particles emit when making the range of the animation longer? I have 200 particles emitting from my emitter, the end is 250. I set the new end to 1000, the particles that emit begin to emit less. I'm trying to have the same amount of particles emit just last much longer. https://imgur.com/a/lbxVFbH


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Eevee Shadow clipping issue even with shadow distance
I don't really know what's happening, when moving in certain areas, the shadow comes back, but if I look slightly away, the shadow keeps trying to disappear. I've been trying to solve this for a while, any help is appreciated.
https://i.sstatic.net/qCfPI.jpg

There is no fix for this because contact shadows are screen space so basically anything on screen casts a shadow. no amount of clipping distance can help with that, plus it doesn't matter that much because as far as I know with the gif you have provided that issue happens outside the camera bounds which means that won't appear in your render

No no, it happens even camera in view. The shadows from the light are coming back, when earlier in the camera view, there wasn't much shadow on it. Not sure what to do about this.

sadly there is nothing you can do about that in eevee, unless you combine cycles shadow pass  and the rest of eevee passes to get a eevee render with accurate shadows

https://blenderartists.org/t/combining-eevee-with-cycles-raytraced-shadows/1135504/47
this is a forum about an addon(which tries to combine shadows of cycles with the rest of eevee) that might help your situation.

Thanks for the help. Oddly though there is no download link for me to try it out.

its there on reply 60 and check reply 58 on how to use it.

I keep pressing all the download links, and all it shows is deleted file links.

Then its no good, I will bump the topic and check whether the poster is still active...


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Bloom and transparency
I know bloom is supposed to render with transparency as of 2.91, and it is showing in my render. I'd like to put my rendered graphics into obs, and as soon as I open it there, the bloom disappears. I've opened it in video editing software too. No luck.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!


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What is happening to my cloth simulation? It explodes for some reason
I am trying to make a walk cycle, and the mesh I am using has a side skirt. I wanted to make that skirt react to the leg movement,so when my mesh moves her leg, the skirt reacts to it. Yet for some reason it explodes and goes crazy.

The legs have have the collision physics, with it the cloth explodes, but without it, the cloth doesn´t work. Any tips?
Here is my file

A couple of points:  1) you should not have an Armature modifier on the Cloth, and 2) you Cloth starts out on the inside of the left leg, a collision object

Also problems with cloth underneath the right leg, and not all vertices of the dress along the top are in the Pin group.

Thank you @james_t it helped quite a bit, its much better now, though the skirt still is going crazy, its more usable now!

please update your blend file accordingly...and please do file -> external data -> pack resources + save  before uploading

There are unfortunately 10 million fine tuning knobs on Physics Modifiers, of which one can usually master 3;  I wish there was a "do not explode" checkbox for cloth and SoftBody, LOL.


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2D Pictures on 3D Pages in Book Animation are stretching
I am a blender newbie and I'm trying to animate a storybook opening, a few of the pages turning, and then the book closing. I have the animation keyframed, and I have 2D jpeg illustrations that I have placed on the flipping pages, but when added to the Plane models for the pages the 2D jpegs are being stretched (as seen in the photo). I've viewed a lot of tutorials trying to figure out how to fix this, but without any luck unfortunately. If anyone could please give me some guidance or troubleshoot with me, I would greatly appreciate it.

please provide blend file so we can check it out. your image doesn't help us at all. Maybe you didn't apply scale....could be a lot of reasons.

What is the best way to provide a blender file? I can create a wetransfer link

open https://blend-exchange.com/ and follow instructions

please do file -> external data -> pack resources, then save and then upload again, so i can see your textures. Thank you.

I'm trying to make it less than 30mb to upload. I derezzed my texture assets, but it's still larger than 30mb. Is there another option for sharing?

Use google or Dropbox or whatever you can access.

Let me know if this works: https://we.tl/t-ZiaZjbKnHl

In general you choose quite difficult topic for beginner ...

First problem - wrong UVmap

... fix - "Project from View"

BTW: As you can see your image is different proportion than the page.
Second ... you are stretching page geometry ... your page is not sliding, but is stretch by modifier = it stretching UVmap too.

Tips
For cover I use lovely addon Convert Mesh to Armature ... by one click it generates rig for you (it starts hierarchy from selected face, so select right side before running operator).

For deforming page is usually used animated curve object (animated via shape key) ... this object is used for Page object with Curve modifier.

You can try to rig pages - Armature with bone type Bendy Bones.
You can try Cloth Modifier single page, but that is not your case ... or it works kind of also for more pages ...

Thank you! So what is your suggestion to fix the stretching? Do I need to adjust the image dimensions to fit the page dimensions, or is there a way to simply lock the image onto the page plane without it stretching?

Main problem is not image proportion, but Simple deform modifier type Stretch you use for deformation ... like I wrote you should use animated Curve object to be used as deformer for page (Page object with Curve modofier).

Thank you! I was able to figure out a solution with your help!

If the answer solved your issue consider mark answer as accepted by clicking on check mark under vote arrows so others can easily see Q was answered from Q list. You can undo it any time.


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Best Laptob for blender
I would like to buy a better laptop than mine for well learning 3d modelling, sculpting and animation..I have Asus Rog Scar Intel core i7-7700HQ, Nivida Geforce GTX... But it's really slow and can't deal will with animation & with sculpture mode "dyntopo" for example.
Please can you orient me to best laptops that are very performant for blender 3d & animation, with best ventilation system and the most silent fans since I'm sensible to noise. I can go to a budget for 3000/3500 euro but for this price i have to be sure it's really a high game with great performances and not to be surprised of a ventilation system that would blow my ears and burn my hands (:
I noticed that the most performant processors as mentioned on "blender open data" is AMD EPCY or Ryzen is it the same for laptops? or I can go for Intel core i9 3070/80 or 4070/80?
Another question for windows, does windows 11 work well for blender? is it better in family version or professional?
Thank you very much,

In addition to that amazing answer by Duarte, you should also check the official System Requirements for Blender  page as well as rendering benchmarks. Also if you are unsure about what you need, it might not be a bad idea not to rush. Use Blender with what you have for a while to see what you need.

Thank u. I have already researched for the requirements needed to run blender in a performant way for 3d, sculpt&animation (CPU, GPU, MotherCard..) I saw lot of videos, comparisons & they r too commercial. My question concerned Laptobs,because even with high CPU, GPU, etc, they could not run well & match to their attended performances. That's because they would overheat, stop to respond, or become too loud that we cant work with. So if there are experienced blender-users that use laptobs & can give advice for a high performant laptob that doesn't overheat with a crazy noisy ventilation system.

My other question is about windows, what is better to run blender 4 and up, windows 10 or 11  & what version (familly, professional). There are too many opposite opinions about this on the net. Thank u very much

It's opinion. I would NEVER consider working on a laptop with those small screens and uncomfortable keyboards, I use 32" 4K monitor in the office, 43" 4K TV at home, the office one seems small to me, but its colors are more accurate. Laptops are uncomfortable to work with and a waste of money in my eyes. If I had spare money, I would get RTX4090, I only have RTX3060, it has 12GB, but I want more, it's computing power is fine with me, I have 32GB of RAM, that's fine, I don't care about CPU(Ryzen5600X sort of works) I got an expensive SSD with 1700M/s read/write speeds, it helps me a lot.

I have another big screen beside my laptob and my keyboard is comfortable. Thanks a lot for trying but always you don't answer my questions.

Having to move my head and eyes to look around the big screen is a plus for me, because I work at least 8 hours a day and I don't like sitting still for 8 hours. I wouldn't trade it for the best laptop out there. I am thinking about better CPU, for cloth simulations I sometimes need, but I don't really need it now, because I really don't use it that much :D. I sometimes run out of VRAM, in cases I am lazy to optimize my scenes, I should, but that's extra time, so more VRAM would be great.

Having 2 screens is never as comfortable as one bigger one for me. I would have to switch my wacom tablet between them.

So you see, I would tend to advice to not get a laptop, get a bigger screen instead, save on RAM and CPU and get more expensive GPU and SSD. That would be my advice. It isn't. I don't advise that. Because that is for me, not for you. This is why nobody can really answer your question well.

OS is the same deal. Only you can decide. Blender works fine on all: Windows 10 and 11, home and professional versions. No difference as far as I can tell. It may even run smoother on Linux and it used to render faster on Linux. Is it worth it? I don't know. Only you can decide. Blender will work fine, other factors in your circumstances are more important regarding the OS.

If you're unsure, you can download Windows and test it for 30 days for free without activation. You also can install it on a virtual machine (not sure if Blender runs on it). Depending on the key, you can upgrade Windows 10 to 11 for free. Or try Linux, Blender runs well on it & Win10 -- AMD Epyc and Threadripper are server CPUs, not for laptops. You can learn Blender on a $2000 laptop with an integrated GPU. But rendering takes a while. There will be always noise & heat when rendering, no matter which hardware. Gaming laptops often have better ventilation.


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How to transfer shape keys from blender 3.6+ to version 2.79b?
Object has equal count of vertices. When i copy (ctrl + c, ctrl + v) from 3.6 to 2.79 - error. When i append this object from blender 3.6, then object loses it shape keys. Maybe some addon? Help pls, need to work


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Path to pin driver to action on bones
i have bones with actions. When i use that actions i wanna change value some drivers on other object. How can i do that? i weak in python(

Can you be more explicit about what you expect, if things were working perfectly? Please describe, from the bottom up, what  you want to happen.

I have human bones that have action (dope sheet). And also there is a person's hairstyle, which has morphs (shape keys). It is necessary that when applying any specific animation on the bone at the shape key of the mannequin's hairstyle, the driver is turned on.


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What's causing the shrinkwrap artifcting on my model?
I'm trying to retopologise a very messy and destructively created mesh that was non manifold. However, after giving it a shrinkwrap and subdivision modifier, I'm noticing some strange indents that were not present in the original mesh. Does anyone know why this is happening?

It's not very clear from the images what mesh you are remeshing and how and what exactly you want to achieve. Could you edit the question and clarify?

sorry, I'm new to stack exchange, so I'm not really familiar with the UI. Should I just add a new image onto my original post to show what I'm trying to shrinkwrap?


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How can I use shapekeys to morph from a plane/grid into a complex object?
If I have 2 objects, one is a plane/grid and the other is a cube with an archway. Is there a way to morph from the plane into the archway using shapekeys?
The main reason I ask this is because I want to preserve the UV map of the grid, but displace its vector data into the arch, essentially copying the overhang

From Discord: user wants to create VDM brushes as in this tutorial

Could you provide your Blender file using https://blend-exchange.com/ ?

@StefLAncien how do I that? Sorry I'm kind of new to this site

Upload your file on this web site, filling the form (particularly the URL of your question, i.e. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/324448). After uploading, it will display some htlm commands. Just copy it. Open your question here with the "Edit" button and paste the html command at the end of your question.


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Are there geometry nodes to make this possible?

Does there exist a series of geometry nodes, such that:
Object {1} Is the main object but contains the UV map of
Object [2], but contains the object property (shape) of
Object [3]?
I ask this question because of VDM brushes, hoping to find a simpler solution in creating brushes from complex/pre-existing meshes.
The only solution I've managed to work out, is to give [2] a multi-res modifier and a shrinkwrap modifier, and selecting [3] as the target object, and sculpting [2] carefully so that it can have a very similar shape, and then bake the VDM via the add-on. But if anyone knows of a much faster, more streamlined way of achieving this, where I can avoid sculpting altogether, and simply use a geometry node setup, I'd really appreciate it.

Hello and welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the post. It should read like a question, be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the problem so that anyone searching for similar issues is likely to find this. Remove anything superfluous, avoid using words like "this", "help with", "issue" or "question about", instead describe what "it" is. Remember, your title is the first thing visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on it. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"

Could you provide your Blender file using https://blend-exchange.com/ ?


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Bug with my meshes?

Can't get my meshes to stop doing this and it's quite annoying

This looks like Z-fighting to me, take a look at this post and this post.


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How to convert vertex colors to materials
Title says it all
How do I convert vertex colors into materials?
I need this because .OBJ doesn't export the vertex colors with it
it doesn't need to be 100% accurate, if there were dark red and bright red then it'd assign something like normal red as the material(so if there are like 500 different colors per faces it wouldn't make 500 materials cuz it's inefficient instead it'd just round to the nearest color)
and no, im not planning on using textures

If anyone's interested, here is what I used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcegkL96CQo

This is thankfully much easier than I originally thought it was. Vertex colors can be accessed with the vertex color input node. :-D

but when I export it the vertex color is gone

Hmm. Have you looked into baking to image textures?


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Looking to make guns from reference on Blender, don't know where to start
I was wondering where one'd start trying to do hard surface modelling on Blender. I understand that there are many tutorials out there which I appreciate, I've done the doughnut one by Blender Guru, but I'm still not sure how I can create hard, clean models close to realism, thanks

I say try taking a reference image of a gun and just try and block it out and make a low poly version, then just try and refine it and subdivide until you get it to the quality you want.

That's obvious, but keep in mind I'm fairly new so I still can't subdivide to perfection

Hi and welcome. Not sure what answer you expect here. Where exactly do you have problems? Hard surface modeling techniques are perfect for guns, that's right. Use a reference image as Nascent Space recommended. Blenderguru has an Anvil tutorial that is worth following along. Grant Abbitt has also some great, free, and beginner-friendly tutorial series about hard surface modeling. They cover the use of the modifiers (Bevel, Shrinkwrap, etc). If you have a specific problem then edit your question and ask here.

I know this is not a direct answer to your question, but this tutorial by Blender Guru on YouTube will help you out with learning great modeling techniques that can be used for making weapons.  It shows how to set up reference images and plan the building process. The tutorial shows how to build a chair and has 9 parts.  All parts can be applied to what you need.  I learned from this guy and now able to build many things.  Hope this helps.  https://youtu.be/Hf2esGA7vCc


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Procedual textures/masks: Is it possible to get a sharp edge from bevel node result?
I am trying to procedurally mask all edges of any kind of mesh with a sharp edged line in blender.
Using pointiness from the geometry node for that task has two main disadvantages for me:
First, I want to be able to generate that mask on low poly meshes without having to bake the mask from high poly versions of those meshes.
Second, in my tests, I was not able to mask sharp corners between two edges. In the end, pointiness is not really intended for that purpose.
Now for my question:
I know, the bevel node is supposed to "mimic" round corners, hence the falloff towards the middle of the normal, right?
Does anyone know a way to get a sharp edge from the bevel node result?
OR does anyone know ANY OTHER WAY to have all edges of any kind of mesh RELIABLY masked/marked with a sharp edged line?
What I really haven't looked into is scripting. If anyone knows a scripting solution to this problem or an approach to nudge me in the right direction, please feel free to share!
What I mean by falloff (red cross) and sharp edge (green tick), is marked on the screenshot below. The shader is a rgb mix of a edge mask (bevel node result) and a voronoi texture that cuts the edge mask irregularly.
I appreciate any constructive help.
The shader as seen in the screenshot below:

Bevel node's samples can be manually set to up to 128, and it can resolve to something pretty sharp with more samples in cycles, but it's never perfect in my experience.

@Allen Simpson I actually didn't know that you could set it up to 128 manually since the slider only allows a maximum of 16 samples.  Thanks for that tipp! I really would like to have a clean sharp edge, though.


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How to fix animation actions that are separated and duplicated onto every bone in the heirarchy
I have a character with a set of actions on it (Idle, Walk, Run, etc.). It was given to me with permission to use it in a project I am working on. But, rather than the Armature having a single set of actions and animation data at the root or the Armature, there is instead an animation block of data with a full set of actions (Walk, Run etc.) duplicated for every single bone in the hierarchy, which makes these file impossible to work with.
For example, in order to see the walk action, you need to select every single bone separately and manually set the action to 'Walk', which is extremely time-consuming.

Is there any way to fix this and clean it up so that all the animation data is at the root with just a single set of actions, one for each anim in the file?

This looks like it was baked "out of" somewhere, rather than the actual (correctly rigged) file. The only thing I can think of, for you to work, would be to arm (create) a basic rig, and apply constraints to those bones to the bones on your given rig.
The second thing you need to do is to "bake" in Blender, each action from each of those bones. That means, you'll delete everything but "walk" from the outliner (save an "original bones with mixed actions" files first), then save the "walk" file. Clean and delete everything that is not "walk", save "walk" file". Do the same for the remaining actions.
Open the "walk" (action only) file and do a BAKE to YOUR basic rig. Delete your given "walk" actions and the previous (broken) rig.
Now you have a completely re-build Walk (baked) action in your new basic Rig.
Go to your ACTION EDITOR WINDOW and NAME the action accordingly (this is important, so you can pick it up, later).
Do the same for all other files.
When you complete all that, you can go to your "walk" (baked) action, and FILE>Append>yourOtherBakedSeparatedActionFile.blend>ACTIONS>Append.
You will now see it on your ACTION EDITOR (name that you given your action from the previously fixed files in their action editor window).
You can now push this action into the NLA, to be exported (file>export>fbx> Press N > export NLA clips and Actions) when you're done editing them.
After all of this, you can now start EDITING whatever you needed to edit.
Here's an in-depth video about what gets exported and what not (from other applications into Blender), this is a recommended watch since you inherited a non-editable file, thus you need to reconstruct it, bake it, organize the actions so you can do your work.

Thank you for your help. A lot of your answer confirms suspicions that I had already about what I needed to do, but because of the obvious pain involved I was hoping I was missing something stupid about Blender that I hadn't discovered yet.


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How can I make a rectangular UV map for a section of a sphere?
I have a section of a sphere representing earth. I also have a rectangular image of the surface of that section, in an equirectangular projection. I would like to place this on the section of the sphere as if it was a simple rectangle, as if it were a plane that was curved.
The sphere has lines of latitude and longitude from the sphere, rather than subdivided squares, so creating a plane and copying the UV from that does not seem to work.
This is the post that comes closest to working, however it creates a trapezoidal shape.
UV coordinates on a deformed plane

u->reset a single face to turn it into a big rectangle, then ctrl-l selected link in 3D editor to select all while retaining the same active face, then u->follow active quads to a make a bunch of joined rectangles, finally ctrl-p pack islands in UV editor to fit it into the UV space.

That worked, it was 90 degrees off and half the width which was easy to fix. Your response is showing as a comment other wise I would mark it as solved.

It's basically in one of the answers to your linked question.  You have to read the comments a bit for some troubleshooting.


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How to make liquid with sculpting function

How do I make a shape where it's like a picture and drops of water splatter at the end?


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How to make the bones of the two arms have the same direction?
I want the X and Z axis directions of the left and right arms to be the same.I used shift+N but it failed. Is there any other way?

In Edit mode you can roll the bones with Ctrl R but you can't make both the Z and the X of the bones points towards the same global direction

i think this isn't possible because the bones are pointing in opposite directions. you can just align one axis - so either x or z.

oh,you are right, I need to try another way.


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Using sensors, how can I control the movement of each bone individually?
I fixed the sensor on the human body, obtained the posture data of the human body, and uploaded it to Blender for display.  The problem is, I found that when I move the sensor of the father bone, the display in blender is like this:

In fact, the child sensor does not move, I think this bone should remain in its original state on blender:
(this is a gif)
I think the correct display should be like this:

How to change the settings?

If you want child bone to do not rotate with parent, you can disable inherit rotation in bone settings:

yes, it can solve my problem! thank you


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What would be the best way to model topiary?
I'm new to Blender and there seems to be all types of add-ons to look into - has anyone done something like this?
I haven't been able to find a tutorial online other than one written over 10 years ago...
john

hello, model the shape and use particles to create the leaves?

Topiaries seem like something that could easily be achieved easily with builtin features like particle systems or even geometry nodes. Which part do you feel needs an addon? Could you rephrase your question into solving an issue rather than point you to some link?


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a part of the icing on my donut looks strange
I have been following Blender guru's donut tutorial But after sculpting, in Cycles render view mode, the left part of the icing looks quite strange and has orange colour. The problem only appeared after sculpting but if I change subsurface value into 0, the orange part on the icing is gone and my donut look fine. I have attached the image of my donut
 .
Could anyone point out what is wrong in my settings?

It's probably some of your "icing" mesh clipping into the "donut" mesh. Try moving the affected areas of the icing "up" slightly. (Hint: use proportional edit (O) select a vertex at the center of the problem area and move it on the Z axis)

I lifted a vertex of the icing a bit. nothing has changed. Even after separating the icing from the donut, the orange part was still on the icing. It looks to me that the base colour on the affected area is gone. but I have no idea why.


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Black lines on a rendered object
I rendered a gumdrop while following Blender guru's tutorial. but there is strange black lines around the contour of the object.
I changed some of settings for shadow but that did not solve the problem. Please let me know if you have any clue.
Here is my model (https://pasteall.org/blend/8f7a259788c24d1b8a13579d87ab65b6).


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Is there a way to adjust the Nishita sky horizon location?
I'm wondering if there is a way to keep the horizon lined up with the ground while having a higher and more oblique camera angle, and without having to extent the ground plane excessively.  I was thinking there might be a way to input coordinates so the texture could be moved up or down but have not been unable to figure out how.  Any thoughts would be appreciated even if just to confirm it's not possible. Thanks

Umm… Try [Texture Coordinate - Generated]—[Mapping]—[Sky Texture]

Yeah, I was thinking something like that might work except the sky texture has no inputs.


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Call update function when initializing a custom property
I am writing an add-on with a panel UI, in which I want to have a drop-down list of all objects in a specified .blend file, so that my operator could append the selected object. I've managed to do that using a custom EnumProperty (object_name) and passing a callback function (object_list_callback) to dynamically update the items list (like in the Property Definitions).
Since opening another .blend file and grabbing all objects names is relatively slow, I store the objects names in a custom CollectionProperty (scene.my_object_list), which I update only when I change the specified .blend file path (file_path), using the update function file_path_update.
def object_list_callback(self, context):
    items = [(obj.name, obj.name, '') for obj in context.scene.my_object_list]
    return items

def file_path_update(self, context):
    ''' Update the objects types list '''
    context.scene.my_object_list.clear()

    # Open the specified file
    with bpy.data.libraries.load(self.file_path) as (data_from, _):
        # Add all object names to the list
        for obj_name in data_from.objects:
            new_item = context.scene.my_object_list.add()
            new_item.name = obj_name

class MyProperties(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    file_path : bpy.props.StringProperty(
        name = 'Objects File Path',
        subtype = 'FILE_PATH',
        update = file_path_update,
        default = "D:\\Data\\Objects_File.blend"
    )
    object_name : bpy.props.EnumProperty(
        items = object_list_callback,
        name = 'Object Name'
    )

However, I want to have a default value of the file_path, which I would be using most of the time, so I don't have to type it. But then the file_path_update doesn't get called and hence the object list (scene.my_object_list) doesn't get updated.
So my question is the following. Is there a way to call the update function (in this example, the file_path_update) when initializing a custom property? Alternatively, what else could I do in this situation?

Been my experience that an items callback can be a bottleneck too.   Be tempted to use something akin to https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/211247/cant-find-update-callback-for-collectionproperty/211290#211290   As for hardcoding a default filepath, unless its relative to the addon or some blender path its going to be NADA like windows path above on my linux machine. Having an option to set a folder containing libraries in addon  prefs could be an option.


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UV Project Modifier project only to visible surfaces
Is there a way, using the UV Project Modifier to project an image to only the visible surfaces of an object?
Let's say you have a cube. You can only see max 3 of the 6 sides at a time. Now if you use a UV Project modifier all 6 sides will have the image texture on them even tho 3 are not directly visible to the camera. Is there a way to fix this issue?
I could manually create a UV map by going into camera view, selecting everything that is visible to the camera and UV-project from view, but I need it working automatically since I want to use it in a script.
Thanks for your help!

Most likely because the Image Texture node of your material is set to 'Repeat' (it's the default), if you set it to 'Clip' it should work fine. Doesn't it?

No it is set to clip. This results in the surfaces outside the camera view being black/transparent not textures but doesn't affect the surfaces that are behind other surfaces in the camera view. Thank you anyways for your suggestion!

Check last image with blend example included https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/121372/2214 ... still working for me.

Yes, that is exactly what i was looking for! Thank you so much @vklidu


text:
How do i remove these holes and bumps?
i don't know how or why but these strange holes and bumps just showed up on a donut i was working on.Can someone help find out how to remove them.

Maybe provide your blend file…

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.


text:
When I try to render, nothing happens
When I press render, the render window opens but nothing appears in it. I have been using blender for a long time now and this has never happened before. I have checked that I am using the right render layer and checked that nothing is wrong in the compositor. This happens in Eevee and cycles. Help me!

this happens even with new default file? Open completely new file, just a cube and it still won't render?

have you loaded a movie in the Video Editor?

The default cube renders fine for some reason
Ill restart my computer and see if that helps at all

Any chance you deleted your camera, or it's being obscured by some (possibly viewport-hidden) object?

Nope, the camera is definitely there. This problem persists between multiple scenes, I have an ocean modifier in my scene and any resolution above ten does this, which is weird because my computer is pretty beefy


text:
Unwanted annotation boxes under animation nodes
Please help, I have somehow activated these annotation boxes beneath my animation nodes and can't find any reasoning as to how I remove them or what the even are. :(

This is a developper option: in the property panel on the right (N):
Select the "NodeTree" tab, then go to the "Developer" section and set "Execution code" from "Measure Execution Times" to "Default".

As its name tells, this is to see the measures of execution time for each node.

Wow a king  thanks a ton  hope you have a great week!


text:
Displace graphics over fabric?
Obligatory 'I'm new to blender comment.'
I was hoping to be pointed in the right direction for tutorials, but can't seem to find something relevant.
I want to displace a face onto this object, so it wraps and maps around the surface.

This was made with a plane and fabric mod draped over a sphere.
I'm not even sure if displacement is the right term, I'm just referring to how I might do it in photoshop.
The end goal is something like this (done in Photoshop):

Hi :). Should be fairly easy, simply add the texture and move the UV to adjust the position. What have you tried so far?

@JachymMichal firstly I tried it with shrink wrap approach but because of the angles of fabric it didn't quite work, then I looked at stencil, but I couldn't get that to show in render and adding the base colour was messing around with the texture and translucent fabric I was looking for, UV mapping feels the best approach but it feels like a big area to learn - which doesn't mean I'm not going to - I was just wondering if there was a simpler method for a beginner such as myself

add a plane

add subdivision modifier

move it up

add a sphere, scale it down in edit mode

add a cloth modifier to your plane

physics: add collision to your sphere

shade smooth your sphere

add another subdivision surface to your plane

result so far:

go back to frame 1 -> select the plane

go to shading tab -> New

press CTRL-T with the principled bsdf selected (note: this needs to have the node wrangler add-on enabled)

on the image texture node open any image you want to show on your plane, choose clipped...

...and change position and scale and rotation on the mapping node as you need it

for your "base color/texture/image/whatever" just add a color mix node like this:

of course you can plug in a texture/other image/whatever you want in color1 value of the mix shader. I was just too lazy ;)
my lazy result: ( i am sure you can do better!! )

Thanks for the detailed answer. From a process POV, does this mean it's trial and error until I can position the face in the place I want it? For example, returning to frame one, placing in the face, running animation, if the face it out of place, back to frame one to move face?

Yes, but it should be pretty easy to do that.

Final question, if the plane was give a translucent or transparent look - would the graphic become transparent? If so, can that be avoided?

No it wouldn’t.

And if you still got problems, provide your blend file and I will help you

You might want to create the cutout shapes as a send object, then use a Boolean modifier on the cloth set to Difference.
Alternatively, you could use UV(U)->Project from View to get texture coordinates along the view plane, then paint your texture as you have done in photoshop.


text:
Cancel addon registering
I am developing an add-on, which only works if some specific conditions are satisfied (e.g. some other add-on is installed). Hence, I want the user to be unable to register this add-on if the conditions are not satisfied.
I thought I can ensure the conditions during the register() function. If the conditions are not satisfied, I want Blender to cancel the add-on registering, while displaying a message, saying what the user has to do.
I figured out how to display the message following https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/118183/117198
def display_error(message):
    display_text = lambda self, context: self.layout.label(text = message)
    bpy.context.window_manager.popup_menu(display_text, title='Error', icon='ERROR')

However, I don't know how to properly cancel the add-on registering. I figured that raising an error would cancel registering, but it displays the traceback, which is not user-friendly.
def register():
    if not my_conditions:
        raise Exception("The conditions were not met.")
    else:
        # Continue register

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.90\2.90\scripts\modules\addon_utils.py", line 382, in enable
    mod.register()
  File "C:\Users\VirtualUser\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.90\scripts\addons\my_addon.py", line 116, in register
    raise Exception("The conditions were not met.")
Exception: The conditions were not met.

Is there a proper way to cancel add-on registering? Alternatively, is there a way to hide the traceback?

Why not silently close the registration if it fails ? if not my_conditions: pass else: register()

@Gorgious this way Blender shows the module as registered/enabled, but I want it to stay disabled.

There is an operator bpy.ops.preferences.addon_disable(module="module_name"), but you can't call it from register function. Best I can think of is running this when you try to use the addon, but don't meet the required condition.

Some alternatives.
I am not sure what you ask is possible without some serious dicking around.
If these are bundled addons can simply enable and disable them as required in your code https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/58208/15543  In that you can enable an addon  when required  eg https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/189435/15543
Use a different Preferences if missing dependencies.

As it happens, am currently writing an addon prefs class to display any missing import dependencies.
Here is a "fudge-together" to show the warning message and suggest that the user investigate the addon on prefs.  The addon checks if the cell fracture addon is present and enabled, if present but not enabled puts a button in prefs to enable it.
Could add a big "Retry" button to check again.
bl_info = {
    "name": "Test Deps",
    "author": "Your Name Here",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 80, 0),
    "location": "View3D > Add > Mesh > New Object",
    "description": "Adds a new Mesh Object",
    "warning": "",
    "doc_url": "",
    "category": "Add Mesh",
}

import bpy
import addon_utils
from bpy.types import AddonPreferences

deps = ["object_fracture_cell"]

class AddonDepsPrefs(AddonPreferences):
    bl_idname = __name__
    bl_label = "Missing Deps"
    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.label(text="Errors Registerning")
        fake_mods = addon_utils.addons_fake_modules
        for dep in deps:
            if dep in fake_mods:
                if not addon_utils.check(dep)[1]:
                    op = layout.operator("preferences.addon_enable")
                    op.module = dep

def register():

    fake_modules = addon_utils.fake_modules
    all_exist = all((dep in fake_modules) for dep in deps)
    all_enabled = all(addon_utils.check(dep)[1] for dep in deps)
    satisfied = all_exist and all_enabled
    if not satisfied:
        bpy.utils.register_class(AddonDepsPrefs)
        #unregister()
        def display_error(message):
            display_text = lambda self, context: self.layout.label(text = message)
            bpy.context.window_manager.popup_menu(display_text, title='Error', icon='ERROR')
        display_error("Expand Addon Prefs for Details")

def unregister():
    if AddonDepsPrefs.is_registered:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(AddonDepsPrefs)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


text:
Offset appearing between particles and mesh
I checked the scaling,vertex paint,origin etc everything seems fine but there is huge offset between the particles and the mesh when i render particles as a whole collection. Can anyone please help me solve the problem...im just a newbie to blender.

I have used the same vertex group for the particles system(branches)

please provide your blend file

you can share it here: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ just follow the instructions

could you please upload a version which actually shows your problem. In your file...there are no active particles at all, so i assume...maybe...you renamed your collection leaves to archive or...!?

Sorry i had removed the particles as my pc was lagging because of it

you cannot have an object with particle system as rendered object of a particle system -> looks like Blender cannot do this.

No I applied the particle system of the leaves on twigs,ctrl-j'd the leaves,then parented the twigs.

So there's no particle system on the twigs


text:
Knife tool creates others faces
The tool simply creates other vertices and edges to be the closest edge, if it is 3-sided it is cut, it generates 2 lines and if it is 3-sided it generates a line.

Hello :). This is correct behavior - in Blender, all holes must be connected by at least two edges. If not, Blender will add those edges for you.


text:
Change the font in the Sequencer Text Effect with Python code
I need to change the font in the Sequencer Text Effect with Python code if it's possible ?!

First, you' have to know where the font-files are located in your system. You can find this location by changing manually a font. On my Windows machine, this is: C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\ARIAL.TTF for the Arial font. Then paste and run run the followig code in the Text Editor of the Scripting workspace to assign the Arial font to the active (selected) strip.
import bpy
strip  = bpy.context.scene.sequence_editor.active_strip
new_font = 'C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\ARIAL.TTF'
strip.font = bpy.data.fonts.load(new_font)

See also Select text object by name and change font via script

Thanks but I have an old version of blender so strip class doesn't have attribute font, like in this error message :" AttributeError: 'TextSequence' object has no attribute 'font' " , so I need to know how to add this attribute 'font' in the source code first..


text:
Check if two selected vertices are connected with edge
I need to check if two selected vertices are connected with edge or not,
I've tried this code but doesn't work!
import bpy, bmesh

def areConnected(V1, V2):
    if V2 in [x for y in [a.verts for a in V1.link_edges] for x in y if x != V1]:
        print('connected')
    else:
        print('Not')

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

V1 = bm.edges[0].verts[0]
V2 = bm.edges[0].verts[1]

areConnected(V1, V2)

By "doesn't work" I don't know if you're having trouble getting it to run or if it's more of a logic issue.
You need to be in edit mode for it to run.
If it's printing "connected" every time and you're wondering why, it's always going to print connected as long as the mesh has an edge. If edges[0] is some edge and you delete that edge, edges[0] will switch to some other edge, as long as there is indeed another edge. Thus, passing V1 and V2 into you're areConnected function the way you have it will always print "connected" as long as an edge exists, so it's a bit redundant. Therefore, it makes more sense to set V1 = bm.verts[some_num1] and V2 = bm.verts[some_num2] because doing so doesn't initially require for there to be a connecting edge between the vertices in the first place.

It works now thank you, just one more question, is there a way to do the same without using bmesh ?

hi AlecDev, please do not ask additional questions in comments, because other people cannot find these questions and don't profit from answers. You may open as many questions as you like so please just do that instead of asking in comments. thanks.

Here's a method to check if the indices of 2 vertices are connected by an edge without using the bmesh module:
import bpy

obj = bpy.context.active_object
mesh = obj.data

v1 = 1 # vertex index=1
v2 = 3 # vertex index=3

connected = False

for edge in mesh.edges:
    if {v1, v2} <= set(edge.vertices):
        connected = True
        break

print(f"Vertices {v1} & {v2} connected by edge? {connected}")

Thank you @Harry


text:
Solid objects becoming transparent during Cycles render
I'm having an issue where some obejcts in my scene are becoming transparent during the render, but only when using my GPU. I have tried rendering with my CPU and have no issues with this happeneing.
I've had it happen in multiple renders with multiple models so it doesn't seem to be the model as the problem.
You can see the circled meshes have become transparent during the render.

Does anyone have any idea what it could be? All of my GPU drivers are up to date.

blend-exchange.com

ah my file is way too big to upload there unfortunately. Does anyone have any clue what it could be at all? It's a 280 frame render at 30fps.
No denoise
Motion Blur
Only happening with GPU using optix in system settings
Tried multiple materials to see if it was that but still getting the same issue
Applied transforms etc. to the object


text:
materials not showing in cycles with motion tracking
Hi guys I was following a tutorial to do a motion tracking thing to make a hologram vfx on my phone. When I was rendering the scene in  EEVEE, everything looks just fine. But as I switched to Cycles the materials are not rendered properly.
I was trying to find a solution for several hours but still can't make it right.


text:
How can I cut a hole in this without it becoming non manifold?
I am trying to 3d print a tube. I need to cut out this circle out of my tube but every time I delete the face it is coming up as non manifold. I used the knife project tool to apply the vertices you see in the picture.

Hello and welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the post. It should read like a question, be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the problem so that anyone searching for similar issues is likely to find this. Remove anything superfluous, avoid using words like "this", "help with", "issue" or "question about", instead describe what "it" is. Remember, your title is the first thing visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on it. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"

can you share the blend file https://blend-exchange.com

If you mean a "traversing" hole, do you try a Boolean modifier ? From two manifolds objects, it should produce a manifold one.

I figured out how to do it apparently I had the objects joined and not joined via the Boolean union modifier separating them and joining them using the Boolean modifier then cutting the hole worked


text:
I have way too many triangles on my mesh
I have way too many triangles on my mesh, I used Decimate to reduce the number of faces while keeping the shape smooth, but I destroyed everything.
I saw that we could reduce the number of face, with bare hands, but I don't understand how to do it

If I get this right, you would like to try and reduce the vertices on the top
bit, so they match better with the lower bit that has much fewer vertices.
When selecting a few of the vertices on the top, you can press "M" to get to the Merge menu. From there you can select what ever suits you (depends on your selection order as well sometimes.)
(btw, I have used Shift+R to repeat last action if I wanted to bypass the merge menu.)
Hope this helps.

Or maybe select the top face and then M, B, F9 and adjust the distance.


text:
How to render a single object to png with camera and lights?
I would like to render this object in png and not all the objects.
I would like to do it separately, while keeping the camera, light etc..

enable Render > Film > Transparent?

no my question is, how to export a single object in png format and not all the objects of the image, when I press f12 it gives me all the objects

Deselect all the objects you don't want to render (uncheck camera icon) in the Outliner?

Oh damn that's not true! Thank you I had stopped blender for 2 weeks and there I fell again facing this problem, Thank you


text:
Rendering not display
Earlier I tried I don't know what and only the head appeared on the render, when I press  F12 it crashes and when I press  F11 it displays a background with nothing, I've been looking for 1 hour and I haven't found any advice to help me

Hi. Please don't post essential information like links, file downloads or additional details in the comments section where it can be easily missed. Instead edit them into your original post with the [Edit] button above. Comments are transitory by nature, are hard to index or search for, and may be erased at any moment.

Hi, F11 shows the last render buffer in your session. If your render crashed, whatever frame you were rendering at that time was lost. When closing Blender, it empties out the render view node, you won't see your last render after opening the file again. So I think it is normal you don't see anything here.

but there is no solution?

even F12 there is nothing displayed

have you changed the compositor nodes or messed with the video sequence editor ?

What Blender version are you using and how powerful is your computer? - If you look in the bottom status bar when you start rendering (Blender 3.4.1) you'll see a progress report which on my M/C stays on 0% for a considerable time before the final rendered image appears making it look as if Blender has crashed. The rendered result has also used a very large amount of memory for a simple scene like that.

I am using the latest version and I have 32G ram, rtx 3060 and Amd Ryzen 7

no I had not touched anything

well, I'll have to start at 0 again, ouch...


text:
Proximity Node with 'Expansion/Contamination' process
How to make a proximity shader that scales exponentially as something gets closer and closer?
The idea is when an object is close, the color ramp won't trigger, only when is almost there it start to expand exponentially the closer it gets.
There are a lot of cool things that can be done with it. Unfortunately I can only enhance the damn thing contrast and dance around a little bit with it. Here is an image sequence to portray what I mean.

that can be this kind of settings:

So you have:

Values above are to be tuned to your needs.

Um, I see, but it's not quite that. Imagine an object touching other squish one and it spreads all over, or touching water and forming the waves. I'm trying to fake that. This example u made the coloramp is just enhancing intensity, I want it to spread u know? But only when very close to the mesh.

It's just like plugin the proximity directly in the coloramp, but with an exponential increase to the radius of the color. And preserving the smoothness of the color border.

You probably want to remove "exponent" and add "power" before "map range", then adjust the exponent of the "power" and the min/max values of map range.

It's a good result, but the expansion is easing out the closer it gets, I want it to accelerate instead. Thanks for the help so far!


text:
Blender 3.4 instantly closing after installing amd drivers in linux
I am trying to get cycles to work using hip on a new pc build running Ubuntu 22.04. PC has an AMD Radeon 6800 XT. I downloaded Blender 3.4 through the website and extracted the software in executable form instead of building it myself. The 'out of the box' version worked just fine, but I wasn't able to use HIP for cycles rendering because I wasn't running the right drivers/blender couldn't detect the gpu.
I then install the AMDGPU pro drivers for Linux (released on 12-13-2022), including OpenCL, and confirm that it was installed correctly. [used: amdgpu-install --usecase=workstation --opencl=rocr].
However, installing these drivers now causes Blender to instantly crash. I open the software and I can see it start and open the main window for a fraction of a second before auto-closing.
How do I fix this? Sub-question: how do I run Blender in a debug type mode so I can see exactly what the crash issue is?

Under Windows at least Blender setups usually include a command line script to run in GPU debug mode.

Thanks, that helped a lot. Turns out the driver isn't supported, which isn't that surprising I guess since it released 2 weeks ago. Just checked and Blender works with the drivers from late November. Not sure if this is an issue on Blender's side or AMD's side.

Could you post that as an answer below fleshing it out a bit so it stands on its own. That way you'd be more likely to help other users facing the same issue

I will when I can confirm it again. Somehow I stopped being able to install these drivers yesterday and haven't been able to resolve that issue.

Apologies for the delayed update. I went through a period of being unable to install the AMD proprietary drivers.
When I ran Blender in a debug mode I found that it was automatically quitting because the video driver was unsupported. I don't know if that's an issue with something AMD did or if Blender needs to incorporate the new drivers.
As a test I installed slightly older drivers (ver 22.20 that was released Nov-28) and Blender runs using those.


text:
Why am I seeing ridges on a cloth simulation?
I'm new to blender and have been playing round with a simple cloth and collision animation made from a simple UV sphere and plane.
I added a subdivision to the sphere to smooth it out and subdivisions to the plane to allow to wrap.

Then I created the collision process and ran the animation.

However, even though my sphere is as smooth as it can be - it appears to have ridges when the cloth is placed over it.

It's as if the subdivision on the sphere is less than it appears.
I've attached a file for reference in case it's not showing clearly on screen

It seems pretty obvious to me that you did not smooth out the sphere when you subdivided it. I recommend starting again and just creating a new sphere, but setting the correct number of rings and loops to start with. Either that, or just select all and “Transform -> To sphere.”

As TheLabCat wrote you probably baked the sim, then added subdivisions to the sphere to make it smoother. But you did not delete the bake. Now Blender still uses the old blocky shape. To fix this just delete the bake (Settings > Cache) and bake it again. Then it will look smooth.

As Blunder and TheLabCat already mentioned - just hit "delete all bakes" and run the simulation again (e.g. just by tapping spacebar in 3D View or hit "bake" after deleting the bake)

result:

In addition to the smoothing, you can adjust some of the parameters of the simulation to change, for instance, how stiff the cloth is.  There are a set of presets you can select from using the drop down menu in the Cloth simulation panel header:

I suggest playing with those, and then adjusting the parameters of the simulation to taste.
To greatly reduce folding, first set the defaults to Silk, then  go to the Physical Properties tab, reduce the Air Viscosity, and change the Bending Model to linear:

If you do that and redo the bake you get this at frame 34:

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.


text:
How to import DXF file in python script
I am trying to use the Blender Python API, bpy and I would like to import an Autocad DXF file.
However, I cannot the find the way to do this properly.
How can I import a DXF file in python script?
or
What lines of python code should I write to import a DXF file?
Thanks in advance

Hello and welcome. Please don't post the same question more than once. If you feel your previous question was incorrectly marked as duplicate, or the linked posts don't adequately address your issue, go back to your previous question and edit by pressing the Edit button below, including information of what you have tried, why it failed and how the duplicates don't address your issue. Once edited the question is automatically queued up for review so it can be reopened.

This is quite old and I haven't seen an answer on the site. I've stumbled over this myself, so here is a possible solution (if this is a dupe, please let me know)
First, install the Autocad add-on
Go to: Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > type "auto" in the search bar > check the relevant add-ons (install if needed)

Afterwards, you will be both able to load .dxf file manually and thru Python API
For manual upload go to: File > Import > AutoCad DXF

Or for the Python API simply
import bpy
bpy.ops.import_scene.dxf(filepath = "path/to/your/file.dxf")


text:
How to keyframe the active camera with Python?
I'm trying to change the active camera with Python at certain keyframes. An example: render using camera A from frames 1 to 10 and with camera B from 11 to 20, so there would have to be a keyframe at frame 1 and 11.
This is what I have tried so far:
import bpy

scene = bpy.context.scene
cameras = [c for c in bpy.context.scene.objects if c.type == 'CAMERA']

for i, cam in enumerate(cameras):
    scene.camera = cam
    scene.keyframe_insert(data_path="camera", frame=i)

But this raises the following error:

TypeError: bpy_struct.keyframe_insert() property "camera" not
animatable

Note I'm not talking about the Blender game engine like this post was.

You can't directly animate this property but you can bind cameras to specific markers. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/43773/86891

@Gorgious That did the trick, thank you!


text:
Where to find the properties of FrameNode (2.93.5)
According the manual it is possible to add text in the node editor using the frame node
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/interface/controls/nodes/frame.html?highlight=frame%20node
When I place the node "Frame" from the add menu I cant find this menu

Where is this in Blender?

select your frame and open the Sidebar tool ("N" on your keyboard)

Thanks @Emir How do I get text into it? Coz now I enter some text into the Text field below Shrink press return and nothing happens. I tried to paste a txt file into it and even a path??
Sorry for me being not so good with this :-)

If you wanna change the name of a frame, you need to writte that inside the Label area not the Name area.

If you want to use the Text field, you first need to create a Text data block in the Text Editor. Then you can select that data block from the Text field for the Frame node.

THUMBS UP!!! Thansk for your help :-) Fixed it

@Emir Can you please post your comments as an answer?

Select the frame and open the sidebar by pressing N, here you will see the option and you just need to add a name inside the Label section.

To expand on the comments

If you have node wrangler enabled, you can frame one or more nodes by selecting all of the nodes you want to frame and typing Shift–P
If you have a frame selected, you can type F2 and add a label in the popup box.  The label acts as the frame title and is text that will appear at the top center of the frame.
If you create a text block and enter its name into the Text property of the frame you end up with text starting in the upper left of the frame.
The frame's properties are found in the side panel in the Node tab (Shortcut to toggle the sidepanel visibility is N)

Here's a frame around a material with a label and a text property:

Here are the settings for the frame:

Here is the text editor showing the text that appears in the sidebar.  Notice that the name in the text field of the text editor is the same as in the text field in the frame's properties:

The manual documents the various properties in the Frame Node entry.

What to do with questions which have been answered in comments?

@brockmann I don't think the comments fully answered the question.  No comment mentioned the use of F2 to set the frame label, for example.

@MartyFouts
It would be nice to point out that the text editor can be found inside the "scripting"  tab


text:
Hatching shader that conforms to terrain elevation
Hey everyone and thank you for checking this question out :)
I'm trying to come up with a stylized shader for a mountainous landscape. Basically, it's kind of like an elevation line shader, but the lines themselves should be perpendicular to how they would normally be with this type of shader. They would connect the ridges of the mountains with the valleys instead of just flowing along at certain elevation points.
Here's an example image I found online that's close to what I have in mind:
I'm really hoping to avoid UV mapping and texture painting since this terrain is massive, and I need to switch between large "aerial" type shots and "on-the-ground" close-ups. I've tried to get this to work by taking the normals and the default XYZ axis through some vector math nodes, but I can't figure out how to get the lines to follow the terrain.
Any help is greatly appreciated! :)

Working entirely in World Space..

The cross-product of local Normal with 'Up', will give you a vector across the principal slope.
The cross-product of that, back with the Normal, will give you a vector straight down the principal slope
The dot-product of Position with each of those, normalized, measures Position along those axes.

The resulting X and Y can be used as the basis for a 2D texture. Here, the texture is 2D Noise, non-uniformly scaled:

Some variation on this method might work with your landscape?

Hey man, thanks for taking the time to look into this! Sadly this tends to break down the more geometry/smoothing I add, so it's not really a solution. :(

Okydoky.. ... hence my hesitation.. Your illustraion's hatching depends on large facets, or at least, the illusion of them. There may well  be a way of transferring the texture-space from a  faceted version to your smoothed version, if that's of any interest. Perhaps share a chunk of your landscape


text:
Gradient along the surface of a helical spiral
I want to create a gradient that spirals along with the helical structure like in the figure attached. However I cannot seem to get the gradient curving the right way. I have tried turning several knobs to no avail as shown in the screenshot. Any assistance will be appreciated.

If you want to use object coordinates (and considering the object origin is at the center), you can't do it with a mapping alone as it will not allow to start at the inner radius of the helicoid in all directions.
Instead you can:
Keep only X and Z as the helicoid is along Y.
Get the length, which goes from the inner radius to the outer radius.
Remap the length from min (the inner radius) and from max (the outer radius) to 0 and 1.

If you've made the shape with a screw modifier, use UV stretch:

And keep only the Y value from the UV coordinates:

Thank you very much for the solid advice. This does the trick magnificently

You can use the UV of the object: make one orthogonal face of your spiral object active (or in the UV Editor make one face orthogonal and make it active) and Unwrap > Follow Active Quads:

In the Texture Coordinate node choose the UV output, in the Mapping node tweak the Location and Rotation values, plug it into a Texture > Gradient node:

That is an cool way of looking doing this. Also add the mesh lines like the original image. Thanks a ton!