text:
Object does not show in render (Cycles) (Blender 2.82)
I'm at my wits end. I am trying to render my scene and everything shows up except for the body of my character. I did duplicate part of its mesh to create a molded piece of clothing and then proceeded to separate it from the original mesh, but from then on, my character stopped showing up in my renders. It does show up in render mode though. I read online that it might be fixed using the duplicate tab in the object properties, something to do with duplicating part of an object, but there is no such option in 2.82.
Please help me I'm going crazy.

Alright, I hope I can save someone's time and fix their problem if they ever come across the same issue.
Select the object that doesn't render, go into object properties, scroll down to Instancing, select None and then Render Instancer.
I don't know why it changed the setting by itself, I never clicked on this nor did this ever happen to me before after duplicating part of an object. Whatever


text:
Simulation of rubber material attached to two objects
I start my work in a blender and I have to do animation of fins for advertising, the model I received from the client, it will be attached to the foot, the movement of the leg will also move the fin (I will do it with armature), and the whole will be plunged in simulated water with mantafluid .
I have a problem now with the membrane simulation which is between two hard rails. It must be attached to these rails and move with some resistance like the real material from which it is made.
To explain it simply, I have two rails and a material between them (preview image because I can’t share the original model):

And this material should have such properties, i.e. bend like rubber:

So these two rails will move and the rubber will stick to them and its center should move like a real fin under water.
I thought to do it with “Soft Body” but I don’t know how to connect it to the rails, then I thought that maybe the “Cloth” function would work but I can’t do it here either. I will be very grateful for your help because on the Internet I could not find any guide that would show anything similar :(

does it need to be physics? why not simulate it with bones or other techniques?

With cloth simulation you can control the stiffness' tension and compression. The more rigid parts can also be Cloth but with different stiffness. To hold the membrane between two rails use vertex pinning.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Trying to draw a specific curve with Python
I am an amateur and beginner using Blender 2.82a on my Windows PC (nothing fancy). I am trying to make a 3D animation of some pipes, but I am stuck at even the very beginning.
I am extremely bad at conceptualizing "free-drawing" art, but mathematically I know where to set the vertices and the connections to get the proper shape (figure below).

.
The problem is that I have looked at endless tutorials and read many articles as to how I can do this and I have not found a single article that addresses how to at the very least setup the vertex points individually. The closest I have to come to doing so is using the procedure outlined in this web page. I would appreciate if somebody could direct me or show me how to create individual vertices and how to setup them one by one...think of the problem as:

I give you a set of point $$S={\vec{x}_1, \vec{x}_2,\ldots \vec{x}_n}$$ points with a list that tells you how to connect the points with straight lines.

How can I achieve this using the Python console? Even just clicking on them and setting them using the input boxes of the GUI would work for me.

Have a look at Text Editor > Templates > Python > Addon Add Object template in the text editor.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23086/add-a-simple-vertex-via-python

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


text:
Shading issue with parametric modelling and booleans
I'm new to Blender and I started to learn by modeling an old camera lens with the help of this excellent tutorial on parametric non-destructive modeling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9CXeprYW1M&t=1626s
I've now encountered a problem that I can't seem to find a solution. I have modeled the lens body with only about 100 vertices and a screw modifier.

I then used BoolTool to create screw holes into the lens body. However, this somehow messes the topology and creates these ugly shading issues.

Does anyone have an idea how to fix the shading without applying the screw modifier? I would like to maintain the fast editability of the lens body.
I have tried increasing the steps of the screw modifier and moving the place of the screw hole a little bit, but none of them removed the issue, just changed the appearance a little.
Thanks in advance!

It's spin tool.

Also related: Shading after Boolean.

Try the edge split modifier, bevel modifier or auto smooth.

@Leander Thank you! I had auto smooth already on, but I had to play with the angle setting to get the shading better. I also had to adjust the bevel settings on some other edges of the lens body after adjusting the auto smooth angle.


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Pixelated glass refractions with Eevee
Is there a way to increase the refraction resolution in Eevee? Currently the lens refractions are very pixelated:

I have un-ticked the "Half Res Trace" under Screen Space Reflections and also tried to increase Cubemap Size and Filter Quality under Indirect Lighting in Render Settings, but they don't have any effect. Refractions remain ugly.


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How to gradually blend two materials together?
I have a simple stick whose one end has material A and the other one has material B assigned to its faces. How do I blend these materials gradually, instead of a hard line, so that I can control the location and smoothness of the blend?
I have found many solutions for older Blender versions but not for 2.8 and Eevee.

you can use a Mix Shader to mix 2 chains of nodes, and use a gradient as factor, but if you give more details on how your material looks like it would help

I would like to use two different, already defined materials that are already being used elsewhere in the project. I don't know how it would be possible to combine two materials into the Mix Shader.

If you want to use already made materials, you can group the nodes of these materials, create a third material, add the 2 groups, and mix them in a Mix Shader with a gradient plugged into the factor of a Mix Shader, but maybe share your file so that I can show you? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

There may be another way but here is one. Let say you have 2 materials that you want to keep separate. If you want to mix them, you need to create a third material. To keep your 2 materials somehow linked to the third, here is what you could do:
Here is your material 1:

Select the chain of nodes before Material Output and press CtrlG to group them. Press Tab to exit the group (CtrlAltG if you ever want to ungroup). Do the same thing for the second material.

Now create your third material, press ShiftA > Group and load the 2 groups you've created. Plug them into a Mix Shader:

To create a transition between group 1 and 2, plug this node chain into the factor of the Mix Shader: (Input) Texture Coordinate > (Vector) Mapping > (Converter) Separate XYZ > (Texture) Gradient > (Converter) ColorRamp. You can control the transition with the needles of the ColorRamp.

Of course you could create the transition with an Image Texture instead of this node chain.
Now if you ever need to change material 1 or material 2 you can open the group in material 1 or material 2 or material 3 and the change will be taken into account into the other materials that have the same group.

Super brilliant! Thank you very much for making a simple to understand instructions! You made my day :)

If you don't understand something, don't hesitate to ask, depending on your object orientation you may need to choose the X, Y or Z  output socket in the Separate XYZ


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How to rotate a pipe in an arbitrary angle along its axis of length
I have a straight pipe that is set in an arbitrary angle and I need to rotate it perfectly around the axis of its length which goes in the center of the pipe.
I cannot use global or local x, y, or z axis, because none of those align with the axis in the center of the pipe.
Also, there are no vertices that I could select and rotate around the axis going through them, because a pipe doesn't have any vertices in its center.
Any idea? Help is much appreciated!

Consider defining the path with a curve and using the geometry panel to give a round bevel

.... in which case, you can use the curve's Tilt to rotate it around its  length.

A pipe should be radially symmetrical, and Blender provides separate options for orientation and pivot point, so we could select an edge, create a custom orientation, and then use that custom orientation with a median pivot point:

We'll just r y 62.35 enter, to, for example, rotate in our custom Y axis, about the median point of the cylinder, by 62.35 degrees.
However, keep in mind that there is absolutely nothing preventing you from temporarily creating a vertex, edge, or face for purposes of creating a custom orientation, then deleting or dissolving what you just made.  It doesn't matter if there's a vertex where we need one to be, because we can make one where we want it to be:

In this case, that shouldn't be necessary; but the absence of geometry shouldn't stop anybody from doing anything, because if Blender can do anything, it can put geometry where you tell it to put it.


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WireFrame Mode is missing when hitting ctrl + tab
I was doing the holy donut tutorial and suddenly when I select an object and use the shortcut
ctrl + tab, I don't see an option for wireframe mode, but earlier I remember it used to be there.
I don't think it has anything to do with OS because I didn't update anything or rebooted.
this problem occurred opening blender after closing it.
I can still use wireframe mode through click those spheres but still i want to know if there's any fix.
I am Using Blender 2.83
Os :- Linux Mint 19.3
Thank you
Attaching an image-

Use "shift + Z" to jump between solid mode and wireframe mode. "Z" to change between wireframe, solid, material preview, and rendered modes.
Hope it helped.

yea this was definitely helped. Thanks


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Shade smooth not working on specific project
I'm a newbie in Blender and probably this's a question asked dozen of times but answers found around will not apply to my problem ... I'm trying to enable smooth shading for the mesh in this project and I'm unable to do so.
The original mesh was imported from a .glb file I did not mess around with materials or other properties.
This's the mesh as it appear after enabling shade smooth.

I have some other meshes imported from different formats (.ac3d) where I can change between smooth and flat without any problem:

Hello, if the object is subdivided a lot, it may not look smooth if the edges tend to flatten some parts, please show the topology

can you provide your blend file so we can check it out?

@Chris sure ... you can find it here, the filename is mc202.blend.

@moonboots it's not subdivided much more than other mesh I show below...

The problem is your topology. It is really messy.
There are lots of double vertices.
You can improve it a bit by doing this:
Press Tab to enter edit mode. Select vertex mode.

Press M -> by distance ->

with these values it gets better...but...honestly, your model needs retopology!
Result (a bit better but far from perfect):

beautiful! (it worked).... thnx.

you are welcome

All your faces are separate so Blender can't smooth between them, select all and press AltM > Merge by Distance.


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How can I select all roofs in blender and change material
This is my building. I don't want to select each for each roof.
How can I select all roofs and then change material?
Thank you for answer.

i have tried test with cube. I have 3 the same cube. If cube has different dimension (roof) how blender know what need to selected? In your case not works or I forgot something?

You can press ShiftG (Select Similar) > Normal, it will select all the faces that point in the same direction. You can extend its threshold in the Operator box. Then in the Properties panel > Material, choose the material and press Assign.

your answer works, only problem was need to add threshold 0.10

so some faces were probably a little bit tilted?

@progy85 Hello and welcome. Don't just comment that the answer worked, upvote the post instead. If you feel it completely solved your problem consider marking it accepted


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Is it possible to make a fuzzy blanket material without using a particle system?
I know that it's possible to make a fuzzy blanket with a particle system, but it seems like I should be able to do it with just a material + cloth simulation. Here is the effect that I'm looking for:

I think it could be done with some combination of fresnel, velvet, and normal maps, but I'm not great with materials. If anyone can offer some advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Just to clarify, your looking for a cycles material, not a real time rendering or blender internal solution, right?

You can always go in and tweak it more, but this gets ya close.
I guess, to explain a bit...
Object info: Random gives a range from 0-1,
so I send that into a multiplier to get the desired range,
then pass it into a texture.
Contrast on voronoi seemed too intense, so I subtracted a tiny amount.
I gave it a bit of subsurf to make it look soft, but then it looked oversaturated,
so I used the HSV node to dim the saturation slightly there.

I'm a bit confused about why you're using random from Object info. According to the documentation, this random will only give one random value for the entire object, which will not have a visible effect unless you have multiple objects.

As you'll see, I use different multipliers from that point, so each shader will get different values.

That is pointless, as RM said the random value is only different on a per object basis, it is always the same within the same object. You are only getting different values from the multiplication alone, which is the same as just entering a static value.

(random number * 800)  is different from  (random number * 12)

That isn't the point here since (constant number * 800) is also different from (same constant number * 12).  The point in these comments is that the input number is not random to begin with, it is constant per object. You could swap out the Object Info node with a Value node set to 19 (or any other constant value) and have the same effect.

Who really cares?  We're talking about fuzz here.  Pick a number that looks good for your render.

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


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How to export a mesh with armature and actions to a fbx
Im having some troubles exporting my character to an fbx.
I have a character humanoid and a custom rig for that, that has DEF bones and targets / controllers.
I animated all the targets and controllers and they follow the def so I get the animation in blender.
The problem is when I try to export it. If I export as it is it gets exported with weird bones rotation (for example a leg flipped). I tried baking too, but the animation isnt the same (for example a bone wont move). Also I tried messing with the fbx export setting but nothing. Any clue?
This happens importing it in Unity and in Blender again.
I add the .blend file too:
https://we.tl/t-924AyVEkdZ


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How to map long and narrow objects
so Im trying to map a sword, but my problem its that the uvmap is barely used because the weapon is long, so it is all compressed in the same side. What could be a better way to do that?

Does the image need to be square?

Yeah, it has since is for a videogame

Can more than one object share the UV

The problem remains since is a very long object. Should I cut it in hald of the blade? Would it be bad? (Because seems)

but videogames do not need to have square textures per se. you should check if you could get away with a 4096 x 521 map. other techniques could be to stretch your unwrap or make the blades texture tile from top to bottom, this could be a problem if you want to bake a normal map, though

@morph3us There is a video or something where I could take an example? In blender I think there is no way to change the UV, or at least I never saw how

If you really can't use a long texture you could split the long islands up in segments to they could arranged better. It will be harder to create the textures if you don't use a 3d painter.


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How to add dirt on a direction of the object
I have modeled a car and now im trying to texturize it. I would like to make the materials proceduraly, so I have not unwrapped the model (if its necesary I will, but I dont want to bake the textures).
My problem its that I would like to add dirt at the bottom and front of the vehicle, and I dont know if there is a way to do that, for example, in Substance Painter you can set a direction and it will make a mask with that, but I dont know any way to do that.
I have seen this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmrCoGj9m2Y
but it doesnt seem to work to me
Im using blender 2.8. Thx
The model:

You can use the Separate XYZ node to extract Z value of the geometry normal, and use this Z value as a factor to mix your base color and dust texture. Here is a simple node setup:

The reason I use a Math node (absolute) after Separate XYZ is to make sure that both "up" and "down" gets a positive value, so that you can apply the dust texture onto both top and bottom of your mesh. And here is the render result:

Additionally, you can add more Math or Color Ramp nodes to get better control of the mix factor (like make top and bottom have different dust density). Here is an example:

Thx for the answer, just one question more, do I need to unwrap the model for do that?

The mix factor part doesn't rely on UV, so you don't need to unwrap the model for that. For the dirt material I used  procedural method, which doesn't demand UV unwrapping either. However, if you want to apply an image texture as the car's base color, you'll need to unwrap it anyway.

Oh and I just realized that I've misread the "front" in your question as "top". To add dirt to the front and bottom at the same time, starting from my second node setup, simply disconnect the maximum node from Z output, and connect it to X or Y (whichever fits your models orientation). You may need to replace it with a Minimum node if your model is facing the negative direction of an axis.

If you need to give your dirt a direction, other than the object-Z illustrated in Andrew Price's tutorial, you can 'shine' the dirt onto the surface from any point in the object's space.

If you take the normalized Dot Product of the Normal at the shading point with a vector (which you can visualize as a point in the object's local space), then the resulting 0-1 value looks much the same as if the object was illuminated from that point. You could also put the Normal Texture coordinate through a 'Normal'node, but that doesn't take numerical entries, and isn't quite as controllable.

... You can use the value as the factor in a mix between your clean and dirt shaders.

You also have the option of using a Geometry node > 'Pointiness' attribute as a component in the mask, to add dirt in crevices.

+1 great answer - as usual! Can you also tell us, how you got this realistic sand material, please? ;)

@Chris Thank you! Oh wow, I can't remember. It will be a couple of noises at different scales, by the look of it, each with 2  color-ramps, one for  color-distribution and one for heights > Bump. All to a diffuse BSDF, mixed with the Principled b/ground via a Mix Shader.

You are welcome! i found a sand tutorial ;) But thanks anyway!!!


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pass variable to custom operator through iteration
i'm trying to write a little addon to show all strips used in a vse timeline. and i also want it to have a "reveal file in explorer" button. So far so good, i have this to show strips with a pop up menu :
        scene = bpy.context.scene
        strip = scene.sequence_editor.sequences_all
        activeST = scene.sequence_editor.active_strip
        rstrip = activeST
        print(rstrip)

        #images/videos/sons
        for s in strip:
            if s.type == 'IMAGE':
                layout.label(s.name, icon='FILE_IMAGE')
                layout.label("  Start : " + str(s.frame_start) + "   End : " + str(int(s.frame_start)+int(s.frame_final_duration)-1))
                layout.operator('reveal.file_explorer')
            if s.type == 'SOUND':
                layout.label(s.name, icon='FILE_SOUND')
                layout.label("  Start : " + str(s.frame_start) + "   End : " + str(int(s.frame_start)+int(s.frame_final_duration)-1))
                layout.operator('reveal.file_explorer')
            if s.type == 'MOVIE':
                layout.label(s.name, icon='FILE_MOVIE')
                layout.label("  Start : " + str(s.frame_start) + "   End : " + str(int(s.frame_start)+int(s.frame_final_duration)-1))
                layout.operator('reveal.file_explorer')

all is working except for the custom "reveal.file_explorer" operator, here's its code :
def revealfileexplorer (s):

    if rstrip.type=='IMAGE':
        name='\\' + rstrip.elements[0].filename
        path=rstrip.directory
        Npath=os.path.abspath(bpy.path.abspath(path)) + name
        print(Npath)
        subprocess.Popen('explorer /select,"'+Npath+'"')

    if rstrip.type=='MOVIE':
        path=rstrip.filepath
        Npath=os.path.abspath(bpy.path.abspath(path))
        print(Npath)
        subprocess.Popen('explorer /select,"'+Npath+'"')

    if rstrip.type=='SOUND':
        path=rstrip.sound.filepath
        Npath=os.path.abspath(bpy.path.abspath(path))
        print(Npath)
        subprocess.Popen('explorer /select,"'+Npath+'"')

class RevealFile(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Reveal file in Explorer"""
    bl_idname = "reveal.file_explorer"
    bl_label = "Reveal"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER'}

    def execute(self, context):
        revealfileexplorer(s)
        return {'FINISHED'}

I tried to pass the "s" value to make the operator different with every file, and opening the right one... but "name "s" is not defined" according to blender. I'm not a coder basically, and no clue on how to do this...
Any help would be greatly appreciated :D
thanks in advance !

The problem is that in the execute function, s is not defined, you need to tell the operator what is s.
A solution you could use is to add a property to the operator:
class AnimOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "object.anim_operator"
    bl_label = "Pose Anim Operator"
    s = bpy.props.StringProperty()
    ...
    def execute(self, context):
        revealfileexplorer(self.s)
        return {'FINISHED'}

notice the self.s to access the s in the AnimOperator class instance
Then when calling the operator, you have to define the value of s.
op=layout.operator('reveal.file_explorer')
op.s = s

I didn't try this code so I maybe made some mistakes but you have the idea.
Those are object oriented programming and concepts and the scope of a variable problems, you'll maybe need to learn a little about that if you want to use programming language for more complex program.
Edit: I'm a little tired right now but looking back to you code there is another problem, you don't use s but rstrip in the revealfileexplorer function. I also suggest you to use the StringProperty but this will only accept text. I never tried to use complex types as operator parameter I think you are limited to Blender properties types but I'm not sure about that, I will test that tomorrow to give you a more precise answer if you need, but for now I think that you can solve your problem using only string, maybe with multiple StringProperty  if needed. You can also use a IntProperty, and pass the index as parameter, and then find your strip like that:
def revealfileexplorer (id):
     s = bpy.context.scene.sequence_editor.sequences_all[id]

bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(0, 0, 10))  Passing the parameters down this way works too.

hey thank you  very much for the answer ! you're right about rstrip, it was part of another little "test script' i forgot to change ! I had it work using your example, using a string value to store the entire filepath before calling the operator. so the operator is just composed by the subprocess ! Thanks for the quick reply and the explanation ! :)

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


text:
python subprocess to ffmpeg/ffprobe errors
i'm having difficulties on an addon to help importing and organizing files in the VSE timeline. Basically, i want a little function to retrieve media informations, and return them. I found a lot of piece of code to do that online, but they all returned same kind of errors... Here's my code function :
import bpy
import subprocess
import shlex
import json

# function to find the resolution of the input video file
def findVideoMetada(pathToInputVideo):
    ffpath="C:\\Program Files\\ffmpeg-3.3.1-win64-static\\bin\\ffprobe.exe"

    cmd = ffpath+" -v quiet -print_format json -show_streams"
    args = shlex.split(cmd)
    args.append(pathToInputVideo)
    # run the ffprobe process, decode stdout into utf-8 & convert to JSON
    ffprobeOutput = subprocess.check_output(args).decode('utf-8')
    ffprobeOutput = json.loads(ffprobeOutput)

    # prints all the metadata available:
    import pprint
    pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter(indent=2)
    pp.pprint(ffprobeOutput)

    # for example, find height and width
    height = ffprobeOutput['streams'][0]['height']
    width = ffprobeOutput['streams'][0]['width']

    print(height, width)
    return height, width

file="C:\\Users\\tonton\\Documents\\TAF\\CODE\\work Blender Edit\\test sequence\\test_002.JPG"
print(findVideoMetada(file))

And here's a screenshot of the error,

i tried to put raw strings, to do several things to avoid spaces in the cmd launched by the subprocess, but it doesn't work...
Any idea about a solution ? :)
Thanks a lot !

Don't use shlex, just create a list of strings for your command. That'll work fine with spaces and everything. Also using a JPEG file to test a video metadata function is a bit strange.

thks for your answer ! yep i already tested with simple string with spaces... but no more success. And agreed it's a bit strange, but to get resolution, it works fine (i tested it in regular command line). But same error is raised with video file...

This works fine on my machine (Win10, Blender 2.79, ffmpeg 3.2):
import bpy
import json
import subprocess

def find_video_metadata(video_path: str) -> (int, int):
    """Find the resolution of the input video file."""

    ffpath = r"C:\cygwin64\home\Sybren\ffmpeg\bin\ffprobe.exe"

    args = [ffpath] + "-v quiet -print_format json -show_streams".split() + [video_path]

    # run the ffprobe process, decode stdout into utf-8 & convert to JSON
    ffout = subprocess.check_output(args).decode('utf-8')
    ffinfo = json.loads(ffout)

    # prints all the metadata available:
    import pprint
    pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter(indent=2)
    pp.pprint(ffinfo)

    # for example, find height and width
    height = ffinfo['streams'][0]['height']
    width = ffinfo['streams'][0]['width']

    print(height, width)
    return height, width

fname = r"A:\RIP\prooi\title03.mkv"
print(find_video_metadata(fname))

I've changed a few things:

Not used shlex to parse the string we construct ourselves. Since you didn't quote the filenames containing the space, my bet is that shlex couldn't split it properly. By avoiding this altogether and constructing the argument list explicitly, it just works.
Using 'raw' strings using the r"" prefix avoids having to double every backslash.
I like using different names for different things. I split the doubly-used ffprobeOutput name into ffout (which is a bytes object) and ffinfo (which is a dict).
Not overriding the built-in name file.
Using PEP8 for naming (so no camel case for function names and local variable names).
I added type declarations to the function.
Turned the comment into a docstring, and removed the "function to" bit of it; the "def" keyword already indicates that it's a function, so there is no need to repeat that.

perfect, works like a charm, thk you very much sir ! :)


text:
Connect neighbor vertices into a polygons? Geometry nodes 3.x
Is there a way to connect vertices (separate points) into a mesh grid inside the geometry nodes? What I basically need is to get this:
from this:

Maybe this example will help you (Blender 3.1.2):

Here I simply instantiate mesh lines at the points, extrude them minimally in height so that I get edges from them.

I merge these with the node Mesh Boolean with the underlying grid (you can also do this with a convex hull).

The resulting mesh is then simply triangulated and the outer hull is removed again.

To make the positions exactly match the points, I get them directly back from the points and merge identical vertices.

In the last step I extrude the mesh again, and separate the edges. You can omit this step if you don't need the edges individually.


text:
Deleting & Dissolving hotkeys has stopped working in Edit mode
I can not delete selected faces or edges with the hotkeys anymore. Both X and Delete hotkeys are not working. Meanwhile I still can delete objects in object mode and delete and dissolve my faces and edges through the menu. I tried to reset my KeyMap, but had no luck. How do I reassign this tool to work as before? (when I was able to choose should I delete or dissolve my selected part of geometry after I pressed Delete button).

go to preferences -> keymap -> Name

scroll down to 3DView -> Mesh -> Mesh Global

scroll down until "add new"

tap on "add new"
insert this:

instead of x enter whatever key you like

The name is important - must be correct with upper/lowercase sensitive
Then it should work again.

old answer:
if you go in preferences -> keymap and type in "Delete" you can see in which context the delete key is assigned to.
In your case you should check the entries in "mesh". If there are more assigned then you want, you should delete the unwanted.

I don't have Delete in Mesh. There's only one shortcut: Dissolve selection with Ctrl Delete available. How can I reassign the shortcut for the dissolve+delete menu? (by now I could reassign only for the special type of deleting, but can not make the deleting menu appear as before)

i updated my answer


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Use separate faces as instances in geometry nodes? (Blender 3.*)
I have a mesh where each face is separated from each other. I'd like to add some motion to the faces by their vectors, but if I bring this object to geometry nodes I get only one instance imported (a whole object itself). Is there any way to use this object as a bunch of instances so I could affect faces separately from each other?
(the cube is just an example)

How did you import this object to GN? as single object or as collection?

A single object. With collections the solution is simple. But I’m trying to achieve  non-destructive pipeline so I need the mesh as one object here.

Ah, Ok, apologies.  My answer had a collection as well.

This setup shows basic transformation based on its face center.

Dang! The position node should have it been >0< I tried to achieve this with the mesh island and normal nodes all this time T_T
Thanks! =)

Using this technique, would it be possible to have them only rotate from the bottom edge for example, or would you need to have them as separate instances?


text:
Bending a group of objects?
How to bend (or add any other deforming modifiers to) a group of objects as at one solid object? Just for example this car animation (URL attached). It is good to keep wheels and lights, interior, and the body of the car as separate objects, but at the same time, they are deforming as one object. Any suggestions?

Click here, to open animation of the example

Use a lattice https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/animation/lattice.html?highlight=lattice and a latice deform modifier on the object

Exactly what susu said, but add the lattice modifier on all objectS :)

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/26023/in-blender-3d-is-there-any-function-like-flow-along-surface-in-rhino-3d


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How do I fix Rigify Limbs in the horse rig?
I've generated a standard horse rig with Rigify and there is a moment I'd like to improve, but I can not understand how.
So on the front legs when I move the forefoot_ik I get the movement starts from the upper_arm. But I need it to start from the shoulder bone and I need to keep the position of the upper arm and shoulder as one solid structure (I'd like to have some option to switch between solid and free).
Here are examples. :
Standard rig moves like this
And
I need to get this
And here is some illustration of what joints I am talking about. The movement check on videos by the links.

I don't know how you could do it but maybe you could find another way around, like creating 2 IKs, that would give you more control on the shoulder:

Hi! Thanks for your response. But I don't quite get how the iks system will work in this case. Maybe you can help me with that.  From my post you see, that when I move the controller of the hoof the leg starts its movement from the upper arm, but does not affect the shoulder. If I change two bones with the one, then my IK will be influencing the shoulder, but I will lose the ability to control the upper arm only. Am I missing something?

Yes, after  I make it the part of IK it does influence all the shoulder. But there's no way to switch back to the upper-arm-only control. So every time I move the hoof my bone 1 is moving. But I need to be able to switch between moving all the shoulder vs moving only the upper arm by moving hoof control

but how the IK that has been deforming bone 1 will deform bone 3 without influencing bone 1?


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is .blend file size proportional to the unit settings?
i have created tire treads for my car.added bevel,subsurf,array and simple deform modifiers to it and saved it.file size shows 1286 kb. but when i applied all the modifiers to make it a single mesh and saved it, the filesize goes to 140,541 kb.my unit setting was inches and scaling was 1.0 . the size of the tire was 20.4 X 20.4 X 6.37 (in inches ). my question is why filesize goes this high after applying those modifiers ?? will it make any difference if i change the unit settings like inches to cm or scaling to .01 or change both, and then recreate the mesh ??
i am working on 2.8 beta.

It comes down to the information needed to describe the scene.
When you have modifiers, you only store the input mesh and the settings of modifiers. So in the case of subdivision modifier (for example) you save only the low-polygon mesh and a number indicating how many subdivisions there are. When you open the file, Blender generates all the subdivided vertices and displays them - they are kept in system RAM when the file is open, but not saved when you save the file.
When you apply the modifier(s) all that generated geometry becomes real - you can change each vertex individually. The information how to generate all that is lost because the modifier is gone. So when you save the file, Blender needs to save all the geometry.

Unit settings have no effect for file size, you are saving the same amount of values. The values themselves are just different (instead of saving the number 1.5 you save 3.81 - inch vs cm). Blender stores all these numbers as 32bit floats so no matter the value they occupy the same space in memory: 32bits = 4 bytes for each.


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problem with the curve modifier
i am trying to build a road with guard railing.modeled a road and railings seperately like this--

then applied array mod on both of the objects and it looks like this--

then i tried to bend the road a little upwards and downwards with a curve modifier pointing to a nurbspath. it was a disaster. the road looks ok but the railing are bent,skewed,stretched( i don't know what is the exact word for this) -
i need help to know if I can apply the curve modifier to those rails without damaging their actual shape. thanks in advance.

maybe share your file? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

I can't open it because the curves make my 2.8 crash, anyway, maybe make sure that you put your road section at the beginning of your curve, also apply the RotScale of both the curve and the road, and maybe in the N panel check the Radius and Tilt of your curve's vertices?


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unlocking objects which was locked and saved before
new interface doesn't show "lock in viewport" button. i have created different parts of a car 4 months ago. my habbit was to lock an object when i finished modelling and start a new object. it prevents accidental selecting. now in current build of 2.8, when i open the file to edit it, the objects are locked in viewport so i cannot select them. my question is how to unlock those objects so i can edit them again ?? because lock/unlock button is no more there.

At the top right of the Outliner there is a "Filters" button (it looks like a small funnel).
Click on that, and at the top of the tab that appears you have "Restriction Toggles". You want to turn on the "Selectable" toggle, which is the second button in the row.
Once you do that, you will be able to mark objects as able to be selected or not able to be selected just like you did before they updated the 2.8 interface.
You can also do the same thing to restore the options for render visibility and globally disable in viewports if you want them too.


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applying two different textures to a plane
when we apply a texture to a plane it shows on both side. i know this is a single face. but i want to model a movie poster which is normally white on backside. i want to make it some part rolled up and loosly hanging from wall, so that some portion of its white blank backside shows. anyway to do that with a plane ?? or i have to make a very thin cube to do that?? cube doesn't look convincing as a movie poster.

You can use backface properties, which mean the inner side of the face. With the proper node setting:


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glass of orange juice looks differently in viewport and render image
i have created a very simple glass of orange juice and placed it on a wooden table.
when i look in viewport render it looks like this --

but when i render it changes to this--

in both times I have used 64 samples.
I thought it is the reflection of the table and tried to render it without table. The result was same.
can anyone enlighten me how can I achieve the render result like viewport result?? thanks in advance.
here is my blend file :

Short answer at the end, longer but more detailed way, keep reading..
Checked the file as well, had to tinker a bit as the textures were not there (used a different HDRI to lighten the scene). When i rendered and adjusted the glass/juice sizes to slightly overlap (yes, please bear with me) the picture still did not come out right, the juice was looking weird. After some tweaks on the material i could not get it better and checked the face orientation(normals) ...

Always a good idea to check normals (Face Orientation).

Option to display at the bottom of the picture(above).
As i mentioned above, i use to overlap the liquids in glasses to make it look more realistic (in regards of reflection and refraction), believe i am not the only one, but that aside, pictures are better then words.

Left side with the juice geometry slightly inside the glass walls, while on the right the juice geometry is smaller and thus not intersecting with the glass. The refraction and calculation of liquids in glass always was and most likely will be an issue in regards of realism. But with the intersection on the left the reflections/refractions are only calculated for glass then juice and not for glass then air then juice, which leads to those floating liquid in a glass effects.
Not the main issue, but i would like to also point out that the material on your table, in the "Image Texture" nodes the roughness and normal textures should be set to "Color Space":"Non-Color". Rather then me trying to explain, others did already, here a link that should clear some things up as well Understanding sRGB, gamma, color values..
Now the main issue with your juice, sorry for the long post.
It was essentially the normals(Face Orientation) of the juice-mesh that were wrong.

Thanks to both of you. My problem was solved.


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Change Focal Length on the fly (Scrool Wheel or Custom Shortcut) in The 3D View/Walk Mode/Fly Mode
I found no shortcut to change the 3d viewport focal length and I cannot create one by right clicking on the Focal Length bouton. I think this possibility exists with Python lines but I am having difficulty finding the correct line of code and have never been able to execute anything relating to the viewport.
I heard about :
SpaceView3d.lens
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Friendly


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measurement doesn't match
I'm pretty new to blender. I can't explain what's happenin, but look. Visualy longer edge is (according to blender) much shorter (83mm) than visualy shorter edge(4628mm).
What may be helpful is that edges belong to different meshes and that in front was copy pasted from another .blend file.
The project is for 3D printing and I would like to avoid problems with measurement.
Thanks in advance.
Any ideas?

Try resetting the scale (in object mode, select the object and press CTRL + A, then select scale)

Thanks! You're right, the answer is exactly here https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/47318/why-do-the-measurements-of-this-object-seem-erroneous

Sory I cant delete question :(


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How to select vertices at behind in Orthograpic view?
I used to press B in wire frame and drag area, all vertices were selected in blender 2.7.
but it does not work in 2.9.
Is any solution for this?
as you can see in pics, i select vertices in front view with B, but not all vertices are selected..

That's strange, it should work. However, the one thing that gets me is that even in wireframe preview mode, you should still be able to see the grid lines through your model, however in your image, they seem "blocked". How did you enter wireframe mode?

@ChristopherBennett I pressed Z and choose wire frame.

Is the toggle X-ray option disabled? If disabled, you can enable it by pressing Alt Z

@ChristopherBennett Oh! I Toggled toggle x ray button and i can see the grid line throught model, and the vertices are selected! Thank you!

@CoolCoder yes that made this problem. thank you!

When you can't select vertices at back face, check toggle x ray button is disabled.


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Blender video editor how to undo fade out
I added fade out to a video strip in blender.
How can I remove this fade out.
No properties are showing for fade duration ect.

If you select the strip and right click you'll have an option to Clear Fade.

If Adjust Last Operation is checked:

You can change the fade settings after applying it here:

Alternatively, you can change ex. the File Browser area to Graph Editor and edit the keyframes of the fade manually:

if you added the fadein/out like this:

select first strip and right click on opacity -> clear keyframes
same for second strip.

result:


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"Fractal" Spheres are partially black without alpha (Cycles)
I use fractal spheres as a quick alternative to explosion domains.
However, since I switched to Cycles, these objects appear partially black without alpha.
I tried recalculating normals, using other materials, and disabling shadows, but none solved the issue.

Hi, entertainment animations .. could you confirm, here, if @GordonBrinkmann's suggestion has worked for you? If it hasn't we'll need more detail; maybe share a minimal version of the problem on https://blend-exchange.com/

Although I had to set my transparency samples to 12, it did work. Thanks!

@entertainmentanimations You mean bounces, not samples I guess ;) I have mine at 128. It's costing not as much render times as it seems and so I'm quite confident that I'm getting problems with transparency very rarely.


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Texture paint only painting on one image
I am trying to make an object switch textures through a mix shader and when I try to draw on the other texture it only paints on the first texture.
This is the texture I want to draw on:
But instead it paints on this texture:

in the N panel > Tool > Texture Slots, make sure you've selected the image you want to paint on

It works, thank you!

Before Blender 4 it's in the N panel > Tool > Texture Slots, make sure you've selected the image you want to paint on.
Since Blender 4, it's in the panel above your 3D view, choose Single Image instead of Material and select the image you want to paint on:


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Shoulder deformation when moving bone
I downloaded this rigged model and works fine until I try to move the elbow above the shoulder. Whenever it goes pass the shoulder, the shoulder moves down.
Here is my blender file:

The rigging is bad, the arm has too much influence on the shoulder while the chest should be the only one to have influence on it with this kind of armature. I've made some corrections and it works "fine". Note that you could create a shoulder (last picture), it would make the rigging better i my opinion:

thanks @moonboots ! your suggestions helped


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Stuck to wireframe

I originally made and saved this from the latest version of blender. I don't know what comes to my mind that I tried to open,edit and save again my saved file to lower version of blender(2.60). After that,  I opened my file again to my latest ver of blender and this happened,  I cannot return the shade of my bee, it is stuck in wireframe even if I pressed  Z key several times :( and when I try to render it, I cannot see my bee object.
This is my rendered image before I messed up

UPDATE
My wireframe problem is solved but the textures and materials I applied to my model is removed for some reason. As I tried to fill my model with faces. My model can only accept 1 texture/material, since I joined the model parts earlier, I cannot undo it now. I think I will just redo it again from scratch,  thanks to the people who tried to help me though

are you sure the model in edit mode its fully solid and not wire?

Yes, I'm sure of it.

this is weird then, cuz you have the textured option on in display.

I think my work is now bugged/corrupted or something. I will just redo it again and never mess up this time .


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Certain shadows don't appear while playing in BGE
I can't get certain shadows to show in BGE. I have the correct lighting with the sun and hemi lamps.

When I'm editing in BGE, all the shadows show like I want.

But when I press p to play, all shadows still work except for one. The one that doesn't show while playing is a bunch of planes connected together, all of them with the same texture on it to make a clump of grass.

When I was making it on a different layer with the same lamps, the shadow it casted worked while editing and while playing. But when I moved it to a different layer with the same lamps, the shadows only worked when editing and not when I press p to play. I have no idea why. I'm using GLSL if that matters.


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Some objects disappeared in the modeling tab after render
After rendering to see how my model looked so far, most of the objects in my scene disappeared from the modeling tab (using 2.8), they aren't hidden, alt H doesn't bring them back and they are set to be visible in the organizer. They are visible in all tabs except for modeling.

You are in an isolated view inside of the Modeling tab.
Go to View > Local View > Toggle Local View or press Num /.
(Blender 2.7: View > View Global/Local)

You know that you're in isolated mode / local view if it says User Perspective (Local) in the top left corner.


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Return active FCurve with python
i'm trying to write a little addon to help deal with FCurves modifier, and i would need to get the active modifier from active FCurves.
So far i'm not able to return active FCurve in python, i don't really know where to look. The purpose being get the active modifier in this FCurve, i tried to just iterate and get modifier marked as active, but they can be several (one by FCurves) so it won't work as intented.
I can only get selected FCurves with
fcurves[index].select

Do you have any idea where to look for this property ? Cheers guys !

Ok i finally found it, you have to call
bpy.context.active_editable_fcurve

from graph_editor context, active F Curve doesn’t seem to exist as a property out of context afaik !


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get all sequencer strips in python
Hello all blenderheads !
i'm trying to make a little script to collect then relink all sequencer strip in a blend file, i'm currently getting something, but only in the active scene, i can't get it work in all scenes in the blend.
Here what i've got so far :
(sorry it the code isn't so good, im a newbie in python :))
import bpy
import os
import shutil

### make all path absolute ###
bpy.ops.file.make_paths_absolute()

### get the blendfile path ###
blendossier=bpy.path.abspath("//")
blendnom=bpy.path.abspath(bpy.path.basename(bpy.context.blend_data.filepath))

### set the new folder accordingly to blendfile path ###
ressourcesfolder=blendossier + "/" + blendnom + "___ressources"

### create the folder ###
os.makedirs(ressourcesfolder, exist_ok=True)

### get context scene name ###
scname = bpy.context.scene.name

### get all strips in the scene ###
strip = bpy.data.scenes[scname].sequence_editor.sequences_all

### copy strips ###

for obj in strip:
    ### set a specific folder ###
    folder=ressourcesfolder + "/" + "Video Sequencer"

    ### check if file isn't already in it ###
    if bpy.path.abspath(obj.filepath) != folder + "/" + bpy.path.basename(obj.filepath):

        ### create the folder ###
        os.makedirs(folder, exist_ok=True)
        ### copy the file ###
        shutil.copy2(bpy.path.abspath(obj.filepath), folder + "/" + bpy.path.basename(obj.filepath))
        ### get the new path ###
        newpath=folder + "/" + bpy.path.basename(obj.filepath)
        ### relink the strip to new path ###
        obj.filepath=newpath

### make all path relative ###
bpy.ops.file.make_paths_relative()

does anyone have an idea ? i'm stuck with that... thank you !

You are getting scene name from the context scene.  For all in blend file use for scene in bpy.data.scenes: strip = scene.sequence_editor...  etc.

Also, might want to test if a sequence editor exist in the scene.

and @cmomoney, if there's no video sequence in the scene, there's no error message, i think thanks to the "for obj in strip:", if there's no obj, it's not a problem ?

@cmomoney my bad, you were absolutely right ! just added [if scene.sequence_editor is not None:] to the script to get it works even if there wasn't one ! thanks for the remark !

@tonton You should post the answer below ;-)

yep , it's done :)

Hey thanks to batfinger and cmomoney, here's the answer :
### Strips ###
for scene in bpy.data.scenes:

    if scene.sequence_editor is not None:

        strip = scene.sequence_editor.sequences_all

        if strip is not None:

works perfectly to get all the strip in the sequencer editor in any scene of your blend file ! hope it'll help for people in same situation !


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Create a custom operator for renaming input socket in compositor
i'm working on a little script to get the right file output name automatically in the compositor, so far so good, my little script works, but i can't turn it into a custom operator to make it executable from a ui panel.
Here's what i've got so far (thanks to several people in here :) )
import bpy
import os

# Get absolute render path:
filepath = bpy.context.scene.render.filepath
absolutepath = bpy.path.abspath(filepath)

# Split it
path = os.path.normpath(absolutepath)
parts = path.split(os.sep)

parentpath = os.sep.join(parts[:-2])

# Add rename operator
def rename (context):
    # set the path for all file output nodes:
    for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
        for node in scene.node_tree.nodes:

            if node.type == 'OUTPUT_FILE':
                #gets the link from the input
                link0 = node.inputs[0].links[0]

                #returns the name of the socket the link is from
                socket_name = link0.from_socket.name

                node.base_path = parentpath
                node.label = socket_name
                node.file_slots[0].path = "\_" + "nom" + "_" + socket_name + "\_" + "nom" + "_" +  socket_name + "_"

    class RenameFO(bpy.types.Operator):
        """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "Rename.F_O"
    bl_label = "Rename File Outputs"

    def execute(self, context):
            rename(context)
            return {'FINISHED'}

# Create custom panel
class FOM(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_label = "File Output Manager"
    bl_idname = "File_output_manager"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "render"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout

        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("Rename.F_O" , text = "Rename")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(RenameFO)
    bpy.utils.register_class(FOM)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(RenameFO)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(FOM)

    register()

Does someone know what i'm doing wrong ?
Thank you very much !

In case you haven't worked it out by now:
import bpy
import os
filepath=bpy.context.scene.render.filepath#Get absolute render path
absolutepath=bpy.path.abspath(filepath)
path=os.path.normpath(absolutepath)#Split it
parts=path.split(os.sep)
parentpath=os.sep.join(parts[:-2])
def rename(context):#Set the path for all file output nodes
    for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
        if scene.node_tree:
            for node in scene.node_tree.nodes:
                if node.type=='OUTPUT_FILE':
                    link0=node.inputs[0].links[0]#Gets the link from the input
                    socket_name=link0.from_socket.name#Returns the name of the socket the link is from
                    node.base_path=parentpath
                    node.label=socket_name
                    node.file_slots[0].path="\_"+"nom"+"_"+socket_name+"\_"+"nom"+"_"+socket_name+"_"
class FILE_OT_rename_file_outputs(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Renames file outputs"""
    bl_idname="render.rename_file_outputs"
    bl_label="Rename File Outputs"
    def execute(self,context):
        rename(context)
        return {'FINISHED'}
class FILE_PT_rename_file_outputs(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_label="File Output Manager"
    bl_space_type='PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type='WINDOW'
    bl_context="render"
    def draw(self,context):
        layout=self.layout
        row=layout.row()
        row.operator("render.rename_file_outputs",text="Rename")
classes=[FILE_OT_rename_file_outputs,FILE_PT_rename_file_outputs]
def register():
    for c in classes:bpy.utils.register_class(c)
def unregister():
    for c in classes:bpy.utils.unregister_class(c)
if __name__=="__main__":register()

hey man thank you ! i already found a similar solution over the web , but thanks for the answer :)


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Move connected elements along their individuals Nomals
I saw that other users made almost the same question but always for a individuals faces, edges or vertex but, What happen when you select a connected faces, edges or vertex?
Like in Maya when you make your selection and move it with Ctrl+mmb

As I know in blender works for individual elements

But no for a selection of connected elements

AltS, the shink and fatten tool, will move vertices along their individual normals.


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After Shift D, original object wrongly move with the copy
I did the below.

Shift D ( Duplicate )
ESC ( cancel Grab )
Move object by Maniplator

At 3, not only the copy but also the original object moves.
But I want the original object to stay the original position before duplication.
Please see this gif and .blend file if necessary.

https://i.sstatic.net/ZqalP.jpg
https://www.filehosting.org/file/details/774983/shift-d-move.blend

Could you tell me how to avoid this problem?

Possibly caused by proportional editing.

I disabled Proportional editing and solved the problem.
Thanks for your help and I apologize for asking a question which has been answered.

Welcome to Blender.se. Don't worry, duplicates are part of this sites mechanics.

I was relieved to read the blog whose URL you provided.
Thanks for your kindness !


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Fracture a plane with the voronoi pattern (cell fracture flat geometry issue)
I need to fracture a 2D plane on pieces (I need to keep 'em flat). When I apply cell fracture, the fractured pieces become solid (they are not flat anymore). How can I overcome the issue? I don't mind using cell fracture or any other way to fracture the geometry. I just need to keep it flat and clean.

You could join all the pieces as one geometry, then view from the side and remove the bottom half of the vertices. After that maybe use some kind of separate by loose parts option to bring it back to individual pieces.


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How to add curve widget to n-panel?
So, I have one value controlled by the Float Curve node (in the geometry nodes). And I am trying to get an access to that float curve through the N-panel. It looks like Curve Widgets are available in Blender UI, but I just don't get how to create one and connect my Float Curve node with the curve widget. Any suggestions?
P.S. Right now I am drawing all the inputs from my Geometry Nodes groups to the n-panel. But all of them are floats and integers. But if there's any way to add a curve controller to the geometry node input it will be displayed on my panel as well. But I also can not find a solution on how to add the curve controller right to the group inputs (and I am not sure it is even possible).

This should help I think https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.UILayout.html#bpy.types.UILayout.template_curve_mapping or that https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.UILayout.html#bpy.types.UILayout.template_curveprofile


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How do I output vertex group from geometry nodes 3.0
If I output some texture from the geometry node system how can I use it as a vertex group? (I am trying to apply it as a pin group into a cloth modifier that is applied right after the geometry nodes modifier

not quite. I've seen this one, so I converted my output into float and I even can use it in another GN as mantioned. But I just can't make it work as a vertex group. Perhaps I have to assign this map to existing vertex group first?

I think in this case you do have to first create the VG on the mesh


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Script to fix bunch of FBXs?
I have over a hundred game animations that share the same issue. My armature object in each of the files has a unique name but I need it to be "Armature".
So now I need to open every FBX, rename my armatures as "Armature" and resave each FBX with the same settings, and the same name. I wonder if the scripting can help me to automate this process? Cause resaving 124 files seems wrong ToT And I am a total noob in scripting. Perhaps anybody can help with the issue?


text:
Best way to add high heels to the armature?
I have a character with a flat foot. Now I need to add high heels to the armature and those high heels fit the leg when it is rotated to 30 degrees. At this angle, I could easily weight-paint them to fit the feet. Yet it is not my Rest pose (and for the character the rest pose should be barefoot). So I was wondering what is the best way to skin those high heels to an armature? How can I skin to a specific pose and preserve my original rest pose?

Nothing forces you to skin your heels model while in rest pose, you can do it in whatever pose you like. I would store the feet's heel pose into the asset library or pose library for convenience, but that's about it.

Most high heels shouldn't deform, so I would bone parent rather than armature deform.  Separate into left and right shoe objects if necessary; pose the foot bone to match the shoe; bone parent the shoe to its foot bone.

Go to armature modifier and enable two little vertices buttons on the left of enable in viewport and enable in render, so that the modifier is enabled also in edit mode and weight paint mode.


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Blender 3.0 did they change the geometry nodes structure?
I've been checking 3.0 alpha builds for a few months already and there appeared one major change in Geometry nodes: all the attribute nodes have gone (except two). I thought it might be just a temporal bug but it hasn't been changed since September (or maybe even earlier). So I wonder is it a new structure? Is there anywhere I can follow and read about the last updates of alpha builds before the official release?

https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/3.0/Nodes_Physics (Improved Attribute Workflow)

ToT I barely get used to an old structure... Anyways, Thanks for the reply! =]

For all those who missed this new update in Geometry nodes (as did I))
As Brockmann mentioned in the comment above (thanks a lot!) the information can be found by the link https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/3.0/Nodes_Physics
And here you can take a look at the new process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yci5ouEmnLI


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Bring Layer panel from header back to the context menu area or lock it opened?
In Blender 2.9 the grease pencil layer panel appears on the header and it shows up only when you click on it and disappear when you move the cursor elsewhere. While in the tutorials from Blender 2.8 it is located between the outliner and the context menu and it is always displayed. Which is very comfortable. So I wonder, can I bring it back to the side? Or at least lock the panel so it stays visible while I'm working?

On the side bar (properties), there is a green icon above the material icon, inside that you will find the layers.


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Animate object instances following multiple paths
I have a multiple curves construction (as one object) that is animated on slow appearance by time (the curves round bevel animated). Now I need to add the same object at the beginning of each path (so that each curve had its own head). Any ideas on how to make it?

Do you need them as curves or would it be enough if the result is a mesh?

Mesh is alright as long as it preserves the animation

how/what did you animate? Curve parameter? locations? That's why providing a blend file and/or more informations is useful. Then questions wouldn't be necessary...

The path is appearing. The curves round bevel parameter is animated. I mentioned it. I can not share a working project but here is an example of what is meant by "stroke appearance"  https://i2.wp.com/css-tricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/animate-stroke-full.gif


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How can I improve UV unwrapping in Blender?
Primarily I am a Maya user and I need some help to understand blender's unwrapping tool. By default Blender unwrapping tool gives suboptimal results with a lot of stretches on the inflated areas: extremely distorted nose, lips and ears. (I added Maya's default unwrapping result for comparison. It perfectly shows how the face should be unwrapped). So my question is: how do you fight that kind of stretches? Are there any better plugins to unwrap or how can I control those problem areas without ruining others?

select the loops around the face and ears, right click mark seam, unwarp again

As you can see, the recently added unwrapping algorithm in Maya also takes the topology and even the face positions into account which the Blender one does not. Unfortunately you'd have to tweak it manually for now using Proportial Editing and Pinning (as long as a developer improves it). Also any stretching is no real problem as long as you're using any painting app like painter or mari, somewhat related: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/221373/unwrapping-head-geometry-similar-to-epics-metahuman-characters (see the stretching).

Try using the Magic UV add-on, which is already installed in blender, u just need to enable it... Here's a short video of UV symmetry with the add-on: https://youtu.be/GjRx1C1r-Mg
And here are some UV tips to improve the UV unwrapping: https://youtu.be/DhFOJrLGBDs
Hope it helps ^^

Tried Magic UV. Gives the same quality for the inflated areas. Not even close to Maya's clean result. If only I miss some useful features...


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Need to achieve specific particles behavior that will embrace the object
I am trying to force hair particles to clump in groups, then embrace the object from different sides, and when the object ends the tips should become curly (or turbulent). I tried a lot of force fields and different collision settings but still not even close. Maybe somebody could help me with this effect? I do not mind if it is hair particles or emitter path converted to a mesh (or any other option that might help to achieve the effect)
Attached images: 1. What I am trying to achieve. Each green line represents the clump of particles (it is not planned as just a literal 4 curves;)
The second screenshot displays how big the clumps should be. By now they follow the right directions but: overlap, doesn't embrace the sphere and if I add turbulence it affects not only tips but also the middle parts of the hair

This looks like a job for a Hair Particle System with Dynamics enabled. To "embrace the sphere", be sure that: 1) the Sphere has Collision modifier; 2) create a "Force" and place it in the middle of the sphere, with an intensity of something like -20. And in the Hair :: Field Weights, perhaps set -1 for Gravity (or set it to zero).
Here is an exmple

For some reason, I can't see the hair on your example (just doesn't show up) But I think I've got the point and I was able to recreate it. But there is still one problem: the tips stay stick to the sphere. But they have to keep growing farther, just leave the sphere and start curling. How can I change the behavior of the tips without ruining the middle part and roots?


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Hair particles does not update the length

Blender 2.93.0 The simple scene: sphere with the collision on it, hair particle system with a hair dynamics tuned on, and a wind force field. I can not change the length of the hair for some reason (it just doesn't react). Also, the hair dynamics setting just disappear sometimes (with the checkbox still active) so I have to turn it off and on to make it work again. Is it a bug or some extra steps should be done to make it work properly?

Ok. I found the first one: Wind somehow affects the length of the hair. Turned off the wind and the length can be changed now. Notice that you have to be on frame 1 to see the changes


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Can I create a custom property for the modifier stack?
I'm adding expression drivers to my modifiers structure. One of the variables I constantly use in different modifiers is the number of frames. Is there any way to attach the driver to a custom property that will be located in my modifiers stack so I see it while working with other parameters in my modifiers? The modifiers that I am using don't have a custom properties panel. But perhaps there is a trick?...

Hii, let´s see. So you want add a driver to one of your modifiers, but the modifier itself doesn,t have a custom properties panel? Which modifiers are you using? Can you also post a screenshot of what you're trying to do? :).

Why not just use a custom property of an object? You can see it and modify it in Numbers Panel while working on modifiers:

(after creating the property simply right-click on the field and choose "copy as a new driver", then paste that driver in your modifiers)
Also remember you can setup a layout where you can see the contents of multiple instances of the Properties Editor:


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Getting output socket name and using it for input socket name in compositor
i'm trying to do an automated naming system for my file outputs in blender compositor, i want the file output input's socket to get the name of the input of their respective links. I'm not really getting how (new in python). So far my script looks like
import bpy
import os

# Get absolute path:
filepath = bpy.context.scene.render.filepath
absolutepath = bpy.path.abspath(filepath)

# Split it
path = os.path.normpath(absolutepath)
parts = path.split(os.sep)

absolutepath = os.sep.join(parts[:-2])

# Get name of th input
name01 = bpy.data.node_groups["CYCLES MULTIPASS CREATION"].outputs[0].name

# set the path for all file output nodes:
for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
    for node in scene.node_tree.nodes:

        if node.type == 'OUTPUT_FILE':
            node.base_path = absolutepath
            node.file_slots[0].path = "\_shadow\_" + "nom" + "_" + name01

But this is "absolute" version of what i'm trying to do, the input socket name is not relative to the output socket name of the previous node... Somebody has an idea ? thank you very much !

To get the name of the socket a node's input is linked to:
#using the File output node from your example
link = node.inputs[0].links[0] #gets the link from the input
socket_name = link.from_socket.name #returns the name of the socket the link is from

thanks man ! it works, but i have to input the socket number ( [0] ) every time, is it possible to just tell blender to get the right one, depending on the output one ?

I don't quite understand.

i mean is it possible to just put something like link = node.inputs.links[0] without an imput number to get something applyable to all the input immediatly ?

inputs is a list of inputs so you have to designate which one, even if there's only one.

ok i see, the only inconvenient is to not be able to use a file output node with multiple input, not a real problem thank you very much for your quick answer !

You could, if you designate it by name instead of by index. You would just have to know the name of the input i.e. inputs['Some Input']

yep right, do you know how i could change a node name by python ? (sorry maybe i have to ask that in a separate question...)

found it ! simplenode = bpy.context.scene.node_tree.nodes.new('CompositorNodeOutputFile')     simplenode.name = "Composite Output"


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Is it possible to prevent a node from drawing in nodetree
for an addon using a custom nodetree, i would want to let the user totally hide some nodes, but without removing them.
They would still be active and execute as usual.
Is it possible through python api ? I dind't manage to find the solution so far !
Thanks !

Grouping nodes is usually what you do when you want to hide nodes but still be able to access them if needed. I'm sure it's doable with code. I don't know any other way to hide nodes.

I don't think this is possible. For the nodes to be 'active' and execute as usual they must be connected to the node tree in some way - so the sockets connecting to/from them must connect to something. If the requirement is to hide them within another node to simply make them inaccessible then you could use a Custom Node Group (NodeCustomGroup).


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Banding artifact on open GL Render
I'm currently working on an animation openGL project, and i have this "banding" artifacts on gradient induced by spotlights (see picture below)
I'm aware it seems to be because of 8bits precision calculation of the image, but is there any way to avoid this in Open GL ?
I tried for now "Full Sample" option (i know it supposed to be non related, but who knows^^), i'm exporting 16bits png, i tried setting "dithering" parameter in the render panel but nothing works...
Any clue ? thanks a lot !

for those who have this problem, i found the origin of this problem !
It was induced in fact by environment lighting setting (world panel) and sun lights (i think hemi light will do the same, they seem to behave like sun light in open gl render.
So i solved the problem by getting rid of them and replacing it by area, point...
Happy blending !


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Sort Custom UIList markers
a little question about UI list, i'm trying to make a custom marker panel.
It's aim is to recense all markers on timeline. Then i have a custom operator to jump to these markers.
I managed to call the UIlist, but i want it to be sorted by frame number (the marker at the frame number 1 being automatically above marker at frame number 2) and i have no clue to do that.
For now i just managed to display frames number for more clearity...
Here's my piece of code so far :
import bpy
from bpy.props import IntProperty, CollectionProperty , StringProperty
from bpy.types import Panel, UIList
import os

# custom list
class Markers_items(UIList):

    def draw_item(self, context, layout, data, item, icon, active_data, active_propname, index):
        split = layout.split(0.8)
        layout.prop(item, "name", text="", icon='MARKER',  emboss=False, translate=True)
        split.label("%d" % (bpy.context.scene.timeline_markers[index].frame))

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        pass

# draw the panel
class MarkerListPanel(Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_space_type = 'FILE_BROWSER'
    bl_region_type = 'TOOLS'
    bl_category = "Editing Tools"
    bl_label = "Markers List"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        scn = bpy.context.scene

        rows = 2
        row = layout.row(align=False)
        row.template_list("Markers_items", "", scn, "timeline_markers", scn, "marker_index", rows=rows)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)
    bpy.types.Scene.marker_index = IntProperty()

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)
    del bpy.types.Scene.marker_index

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

I don't have a clue about that... Any help ?
Thanks in advance to all ! :D


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Why does the object move to the center of the world while Im resizing it?
I was in object mode and I added a sphere, I tried to move the sphere and make it smaller, but it didn't work.
I was in object mode the whole time and I did not go into edit mode.
This is what's happening:

Probably because you've selected the 3D cursor as pivot point:

And you've enabled the Affect Only Locations option, which moves the object instead of scaling it:

Thanks, it works!


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Optimal renders of the same scene from multiple cameras
I am using Cycles with OptiX to render a lot of different camera angles of the same scene.
Using code like:
for camera in cameras:
  # Set camera location to x,y,z etc

  # Render the scene
  bpy.ops.render.render()

Works for me, but I have an issue that each render re-initializes the OptiX renderer and re uploads all the data. In my case this is a significant amount of data. I have found that setting a multi camera works for this:
bFirstCamera = True
for camera in cameras:
  cameraPosition = camera.position

  # Create the camera object
  camObj = bpy.data.objects.new("Camera_" + camera.name, camData)
  camObj.location = (cameraPosition[0], cameraPosition[1], cameraPosition[2])
  bpy.context.scene.collection.objects.link(camObj)

  # Get the first render view and override it
  renderView = bpy.context.scene.render.views[0]
  if bFirstCamera == False:
      renderView = bpy.context.scene.render.views.new(camera.name)
  else:
      bpy.context.scene.camera = camObj

  # Set the camera in the render view
  renderView.name          = camera.name
  renderView.camera_suffix = camera.name
  renderView.file_suffix   = camera.name
  renderView.use = True

  bFirstCamera = False

# Render the scene with all cameras at once
bpy.ops.render.render()

This also works and is much faster than doing them one by one.
However, the compositing stage does not run until all the cameras are rendered, which uses a lot of memory (there are a lot of views) and another image process (outside of Blender) that is waiting on the results cannot start processing the images until all of them are done.
Is there a way I can:

Flag "do compositing after each render view"?
Or, Keep optiX scene in memory between renders if no change?
Or, Some other Blender render view setup?

I believe I have found the setting I need:
Render Properties -> Performance -> Final Render -> Persistent Data
or the python
bpy.context.scene.render.use_persistent_data = True

The Persistent Data feature is new in Blender 2.93 (see release notes).


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How do you make your model skeleton to look like this?

I downloaded few 3d models from a recent pokemon game, then I found this. It doesn't look like a regular skeleton, and I don't think anybody has told me how to do this. Yes, I'm relatively new to this game, but I was just sort of curious. Can you make a bone look like this in blender?

In this case it looks the importer has created tiny bones at each of the pivot points, and the lines you are seeing correspond to parent-child relationships between them.
Tiny bones, empties instead of bones or disconnected/misaligned bones are a common quirk of many file importers/versions of file types. Unfortunately for file types like fbx and collada, there are many small variants of them that make writing importers very tedious.
This is most likely to happen because some data is missing or slightly different than expected in the file format, and should really be considered a bug in the importer. Either way, bone length is a visual convenience and has no effect on the calculations used to deform the model. Small bones do make it harder to select and manipulate though. If the bones have a different orientation, then this can be a problem for some constraints like IK.
To solve this you can try using different importer settings or file formats if they are available, possibly importing and re-exporting through other software.

Tiny bones? So it's just bones, but smaller?

@Gholem essentially, yes. At each corner of the lines you should be able to find a very scaled down, possibly zero-length bone.

Would this function more or less like a regular skeleton?

By the way, you're exactly right, I found the little bones at each joint. why would they do this?

@Gholem, it happens most likely because some data is missing or slightly different than expected in the file format, and should really be considered a bug in the importer. Either way, bone length is a visual convenience and has no effect on the calculations used to deform the model. Small bones do make it harder to select and manipulate though.

@Gholem don't forget to accept answers to your question if you think it is correct / solves your problem.


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I'd like to change a single color in an image texture
I'd like to change the black in this image texture, to blue. Would I need to use 2 image textures or is it possible to use black as a mask?

You could but it's a bit tedious, why don't you do it in an image editor (Photoshop or Krita)?

Black is darker than the rest so you can compare the values to some low value:

(That's a Math node in Less Than mode)

Thanks. Is there a way to make the pink area in your image transparent?

Not sure what you mean. It is transparent. I have to make it pink there in the nodes as you can clearly see. Just don't do that. Don't add the last node with pink.

If you find it hard to understand the basics of nodes, I would recommend to watch some video tutorial course for that, just search for "Blender material nodes basics/beginner tutorials" or something like that on YouTube or elsewhere online. I am not trying to be judgmental here, it's just that there are a lot of little things there and it would probably be easier to get that out of the way all at once with some video tutorials in my opinion. I think that's the most efficient and fastest way and it shouldn't even take that much time anyway.

Thanks for the advice, Martynas, I’ll definitely look into those tutorials. As far as I understand, texture transparency works on black-and-white values. Transparent being black and white acts as the mask. When disabling the last noodle, it makes the area I need to be transparent, blue.

OK, so the transparency is actually a mask that is in alpha channel of the texture, so it comes out of the texture node, Alpha output and so you have to mix whatever background you want with the texture. You can also use the alpha mask in the shader to make the shader transparent.


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How to Make Only White Areas Metallic While Keeping the Rest Matte and Transparent in Blender?
I’m trying to make only the white areas in the image below appear metallic while keeping the rest of the texture matte and preserving transparency around the badge.
Is there a way to isolate colors to apply metallic or other custom properties?
Any tips on achieving this would be greatly appreciated!

Since you're working with white, it will be very ease.
Plug the texture to a color ramp, left side black, right side white, and adjust the limit as you prefer.
Do a similar thing to the roughness, but using grays instead of black and white. (Black = roughnes 0; White = roughness 1; grays in between)


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Weird triangles on flat surface - extruded svg
I extruded an svg file (vector curves) and am getting all this weirdness (triangles visible on flat surfaces) when I render it.

I'm sure this is a simple answer, but what is going on?

You need to clean up your mesh, before extruding and beveling it. Limited Dissolve, and judicious removal of Doubles should take you most, if not all of the way. Flat Ngons would be fine, here, unless you need to print or deform, your text.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/66738/after-importing-svg-mesh-from-curve-creates-annoying-results/ and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/56344/reducing-internal-faces-generated-by-extensive-curve-extrusion/ and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/47217/extrude-and-bevel-an-imported-svg-curve/

I realized I had a "Solidify" modifier applied. Took that off and it fixed it.


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Why are add ons not installing?
The add ons I’m using work fine in Blender 2.7 but if I try to install them in 2.8 or 2.82 nothing happens. It seems no add ons at all work for me.
If I install from file the Blender log says the modules have been installed but they don’t show up in Blender or in the add ons folder.
Also, the method of just putting them in the add ons folder itself doesn’t work either.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Due to API changes all Add-ons need to be updated for 2.8x:

Blender 2.80 is an API breaking release. Addons and scripts will need to be updated to run on 2.80, both to handle the new features and adapt to changes to make the API more consistent and reliable

Thank you appreciate the help, I’ll get in touch with the developer to see if there are any plans to update.


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Problems with vehicle weight painting - some blue parts
I've been following the following tutorial to build a vehicle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0IYcsNXY7M&t=8s
It's been great but when I test the weighting of all the parts, I get 3 red wheels but the parts shown below are blue, and, blue-ish!

I know this is going to cause me issues as I've already tested it in Unreal Engine using my previous model that only had one red wheel, and that was the only wheel that worked.
Any help to get everything showing as red would be much appreciated, as I feel like I've tried everything!
Thanks in advance

Select your car, enter edit mode, select all vertices belonging to the chassis, go to properties/vertex tab, select the appropriate vertex group, which has the same name of the controlling bone, click assign.
Then do the same for the wheel.

Selecting all vertices was the missing piece of the puzzle, thanks you so much!


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Trying to Bake Texture But it's Black
So first I'd like to say I'm still a complete wreck at Blender, I'm self taught, which a lot of people are; but I might be making a stupid mistake, though for the life of me I can't figure out what it is.
For whatever reason, I cannot get my texture to bake properly, it's black after every baking attempt. It is rendering correctly, the nodes are set up right in that regard I'm assuming. I'm not sure if I have something checked that I'm over looking, though I went through my settings multiple times. I have a light source.
If anyone could maybe take a look at what I have going on and tell me what's wrong, I'd much appreciate it.

I will get it uploaded with the Blend-Exchange right away. I'm sorry, had to google how to pack my textures. Here it is correctly with everything and I'll amend my post.

Fipping my normals worked, I feel like a freaking idiot. Thank you so much. x.x

I do agree, thank you so very much for your help. You've been very kind an amazing.

simple. your viewing in texture, not material at least i think so... im reinstalling blender on my laptop to check r now

Thank you so much, and I added the packed version of my blend too. Sorry about that. Still very new.


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Blender 2.8 how to change toolbar's tools?
I'm quite new to Blender and I've been using 2.8 to teach myself 3D modelling and more.
Following a tutorial I must have done some kind of manipulation that changed my default selection tool from box to lasso. As you can see in this screenshot of my toolbar, the lasso selection tool is there instead of the box one, which transformed the latest "left click and drag for box selection" to lasso selection instead, and I don't especially want to go back to pressing 'B' for box selection now.

This is probably a simple shortcut that I triggered unintentionally but I cannot undo it and find nothing regarding Blender 2.8's toolbar customization. How can I change the selection tool from lasso back to box ?

At the bottom right corner of the lasso select tool icon you can see a little white arrow head pointing down. Left click on this and slowly drag your mouse downwards.
This will open a menu where you can choose other selection tools.

Aaaaa, you have to drag your mouse down while clicking that's the key ! I kept clicking on this arrow head without any result. That's a UI interaction I've never seen before. Thanks for the tip !

Instead of Click and holding the arrow down. Press W and if u tap W continuously you will get different selection type.


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What's causing this mesh error?

I've tried a few different things like weight painting but it doesn't seem to do anything helpful unless I'm weight painting it incorrectly.
I was doing a quick rig of this model port when I came across this issue.
There are 3 body meshes that go together and I tried to merge together to see if that would work but it does not.
It's only when you bend the model this issue occurs.
Here's the .blend file and textures in case you want to take a look.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fgubdg3k7hz50pq/AACfqDFhF5ojuRpLGqNtu0M7a?dl=0

Hi Aidan, could You please specify what "error" U mean? DL Yo file and tried to bend the body and all looks good to me so wanna know. Btw if U mean that "butt" issue I dont have it...

Looks like z-fighting, either because of clipping parameters for the viewport camera (Properties shelf) or overlapping geometry in the model itself

Hi @JanMatys, Yes the butt issue and when you bend the leg. the mesh looks all flakey and deformed for some reason.

Your body mesh seems to have a lot of duplicate faces.  You can see this even by moving around the model in the viewport...those weird marks are the geometry fighting:

Another way to see is if you select a face on the torso and choose "Select->Select Similar->Material" and you'll get most, but not all, of the faces.
I would suggest selecting ALL of the vertices of the body model, then choosing Mesh->Vertices->Remove Doubles.  That will remove the extra geometry.
Unfortunately then you will have patches of the torso that are a different material (so they'll be purple) but you can select one of those, again do "Select->Select Similar->Material" and set them to the same material as the rest of the Torso.  Or vice versa, depending on what you want.
You might have to re-rig after removing the doubled geometry, but it will solve your rogue pieces sticking out.

Hi @dalecieslak Thank you for your help, that looks to have fixed a few of the main issues.


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Cycles and EEVEE strange polygon problems
to the point: Why are polygons visible when rendering on cycles (Attention to the wheel), but not on eevee? hdri is same on both renders. The wheel has a smooth shade. In solid mode, everything is fine, and the mesh is almost perfect. Both renderings were through f12. thanks.

Check your material settings, are you using alpha blend? Change to opaque and see if that helps.

Are you certain that this isn't just a reflection of wood panels? Perhaps you can put the wheel in a different environment to check if this effect still occurs.

The problem has solven. I just changed the normal texture of wheel to non-color and it works. I dont know why this helped, anyway it's over.


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Creating a create tilable displacement map
What would be the ideal way in order to achieve a shape like the model provided, using this sample displacement map?
I plan on using multiple tilable patterns to create models to 3D print, what would be the ideal solution?

These are the kindof textures I wish to use:

The reason I need this to be tilable as a height or displacement map is because I plan to apply it to objects that aren't simply a flat surface as if it was a texture file.

"using this sample normal map?" This is not a normal map, it is either a Displace, Bump, or Height Map. "What would be the ideal way in order to achieve a shape like the model provided?" Not using displace and modeling it with proper topology

Can you give examples of the other tiles, complexity and resolution.

and that image is set of a blacks with varying transparency, the white in the middle is the white of the page behind it.

Sorry I meant to say displacement map,

https://imgur.com/UoiW8PF These are the kindof textures I want to use as displacement maps to achieve different surfaces.

you won't get a good result with this picture and the Displace modifier, why don't you simply model it in 3D?

https://imgur.com/a/vMhbJId I thought so, I'm not getting good results at the moment, and it would be nice to be able to create these displacements by using these as height maps by simply applying it as a tileable texture

if your pattern is supposed to follow a curvy plane you could use a Surface Deform modifier?

I have considered using a surface deform modifier. Would that be able to convert completely transparent parts of the texture to actual holes in the model?

I don't know what you mean by convert, your pattern will follow the terrain, and where you put holes it will keep holes

I was hoping to use a displacement / height map modifier to alter the geometry of the surface, including being able to create holes where height was deemed to be 0.

you'd better create your pattern with a real 3D topology, then array it on X and Y axis, then make it follow your 3D surface with a Surface Deform modifier, do you see what I mean? Doesn't seem very complicated and it will give a better result than  a Displace modifier (which seems better for more "organic" 3D)

As others have said, it would be best to model these appropriately to the shapes-- doing this via displacement is a bad idea.  But for 3D printing, you can afford to simply subdivide massively (like 10 million verts+ per plane) and run a basic displacement modifier-- 3D printing doesn't care about normals and it has limited resolution anyways.  For the holes, you can simply boolean with a big cube placed at the proper depth post displacement.  Again, not something I'd do, except maybe for lazy 3D printing.

Thanks for all the answers, I'll be taking a look into all the different solutions suggested. It's looking more and more likely that I'll have to manually create topology to achieve the results I require, but that should be fine, it just means it will be slightly more time consuming that is all.

Here are 3 solutions:
Displace modifier (but it will be hard to get sharp angles, I guess Displace modifier is good to make more organic surfaces):

Unwrap your surface.
Give it a Subdivision Surface modifier with a Subdivisions value of 4.
Give it a Displace modifier. Choose Texture Coordinates > UV. Load your texture in the Properties panel > Texture (I've used one of yours and convert it to a DISP with CrazyBump), and select it in the modifier.
Put a second Subdivision Surface  modifier below the Displace modifier.

Tissue addon:

Install the addon.
Create your pattern object, create your 3D surface.
Select your pattern object, then your surface.
Open the Tools panel > Create tab > Tissue, click on the Tessellate, choose the options you want, validate with the OK button.
You have a new object. You'll probably have to remove doubles.

You could also try Duplifaces but it won't work for every kind of pattern:

Select your pattern object, parent it to your 3D surface.
Select your 3D surface, go in the Properties panel > Object > Duplication > click on Faces, activate Scale and choose the Inherit Scale value. If your surface has a lot of faces you'll have as many duplications.
To make the object editable, press shiftctrlA.


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Is there a better method to add uniform thickness to a curve pattern that has been converted into a mesh?
I have the following mesh with no thickness or faces:

I wish to be able to apply a uniform thickness along with clean geometry without creating too many vertices.
The solidify modifier isn't getting me what I desire:

The skin modifier is getting me closer to what I want, but I am unable to control the thickness of the object, generating extra geometry from what I need and creating undesirable faces and edges.
The process here is after the skin modifier is applied, the geometry is flattened on the Z axis, vertices doubles removed, and then extruded.

There has to be a simpler, less computationally expensive and more flexible solution to this that I am unaware of.

Possible duplicate of Using the solidify modifier with no deformed geometry

You could also not convert to mesh and use built curve tools to bevel geometry

Maybe there's a simpler way but you could try with the Wireframe modifier:

Select your mesh, fill with F.
Give your object a Wireframe modifier. Enable Boundary, choose the Thickness you want.
Apply the modifier.
In Edit mode, select all and flatten with a SZ0.
Remove doubles with a W.
Delete the unwanted faces.
Work the angles.

Thanks! That's great, I'll book mark this and use this method from now on.


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I have a folder of X number of textures, I wish to render the same image X number of times, once for each texture
I have a model with the material set up, but I wish to change an image texture on this model for each frame. In the past I have set up an image texture node and mix shader for each texture but this is time consuming.
I wish to automate the process a little and have it so that blender sets the number of frames to be rendered to the number of textures / image files in any chosen folder and for it to load each texture for each frame.
I believe this should be doable in python but I am rather new to scripting in python. Is anyone able to point me in the right direction for this?

Use an image sequence as input for your Image Texture node then render an animation.

When clicking the folder button in the Image Texture node to browse for files make sure you tick the option Detect Sequences to the bottom left of the File Browser.

Pick all images in the folder and set them up as an animated texture sequence, adjust the sequence speed so it matches on picture per scene frame.

You will have to make sure your image files have consistent naming and identical file format, so Blender can detect them as a sequence. That means a base name similar across all files, plus a numbering scheme. Say something along the lines of Base_File_####.extension.

Thank you, this is a significant upgrade to what I was using before. Is there any way to modify the node that allows it to read every single image file in a single folder?

Why not just batch rename files? It is probably a lot easier, there are dozens of automated renaming utilities around.

Could you also show how to do this via code? @DuarteFarrajotaRamos


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Control hair particles with the curve in Blender 2.93
I am trying to do basic hair control with the curve and I  am constantly getting this (image attached). It looks like there is a lack of segments, but no matter how much I increase them nothing changes. What could possibly cause this problem?

The number of segments (50) under Emission is not what you see in the viewport. There are a few other settings that control this.
Two of them are in the Particle Settings

first located in Render > Path > Steps: 5. Increase this value for the render. It's a value of the power of 2 but the default value (3) can be too low. 5 is a good value.
the other is *Viewport Display > Strand Steps: 5. This is what you're looking for because the default value (2) is also a bit low.

Last but not least there is one more of these values in the Comb mode

it's in the section Options > Path Steps: 5 of the tool settings in the N-panel and in Active Tool Settings. The default value here is 2. You only need this when you edit the hair.


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Geometry nodes How to fill the object with particles?
How can I fill the object with some points in geometry nodes? Point distribute node place dots on the surface, but I need them to be inside the object randomly

If I understand correctly this is not implemented yet, but it's got a tracking issue.

Not sure if someone has a better answer but there is a way to fake volume for an object by using an array with Geometry nodes
1 You need to create your instances (a cube, a sphere o something similar), an empty and your main object to fill.
2 On your main object, you need to add an array modifier and below this, the Geometry nodes
3 Inside your array modifier, increase the count, select "Object Offset" and add your empty as the offset.
4 Inside the geometry nodes add a point distribute, point scale and point instance.
5 Make the Empty offset smaller to create the illusion of having instances inside the main object.

this does not really work....it looks good in your picture because you made the cubes that big. But inside is nearly no cube...

@Chris You need to make the empty smaller, the empty is the one making the ilusion of volume because it's controlling the position of the array, i will update the image to an animated gif so you can see how this works. the smaller the cubes, the more you will need