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Simulate Minecraft Redstone | Where to start?
I am trying to simulate Minecraft redstone's behavior to create videos teaching computational redstone concepts with the convenience of Blender.
My first step is redstone dust, but I have already hit a roadblock.

Essentially, I start with a setup like the first screenshot's and I want to assign a different texture to each face depending on how many tiles they have traveled from the power source (the lightest redstone dust), and depending on where adjacent faces are. (Each face is 1m²)
I know this is a lot and probably not a question that could be answered just like that, so what I was wondering was :
How/Where could I learn the skills necessary for this project?
If anybody knows about good resources for me to get started, or if by some chance anybody is interested in teaching me (you never know), please let me know.
Thanks in advance!

(Using Blender 4.2.1)
Setup and resources
The GeometryNodes modifier is added to a Grid of 1x1 faces, some of them deleted in Edit Mode. This object origin is set at the center of a face to specify where is the "power source".

(Blender 4.2.1+)

GeometryNodes modifier
The GN graph is made of two Group nodes. The first one named "Distance" is building a collection of edges connecting the face centers along which is computed the shortest distance to the object origin. The second one named "Pattern" is encoding the direction of every edge connecting a face center to its neighbors. Both information are decoded in the Shader graph to control the color and the texture of the path.
Path builder and distance computation

1. A Grid is generated with one row and one column less than the input Geometry, whose dimensions are recovered by a Bounding Box node followed by a Subtract Math node.
2. This grid is initialized centered on the origin of the object carrying the modifier. So its vertices will be centered on each input face. But to do so, it must be shifted by half the diagonal of the bounding box relatively to its lower left corner (i.e. the output Min vector).
3. To build the path, only edges are required. So Faces are deleted.
4. Vertices that are not colocated with an input face are deleted also. The Selection mask for this operation is based on the Distance, between a grid Point and the Faces of the input geometry, computed by a Geometry Proximity node. This Distance is 0 (or very close to 0) for colocated vertices. The resulting mesh is displayed in the 3D Viewport.
5. The computation of the length of the shortest path between a vertex and the object origin is triggered by a Sample Index node set in Point domain. The length of every traveled edge is accumulated by a Shortest Edge Paths node.
6. The vertex terminating all paths is colocated with the object origin, so the Length of its Position vector is 0 (or very close to 0).
7. The distance computed at step 5 is transferred from the path vertices to the input faces using a Store Named Attribute node set in Face domain, combined with a Sample Nearest node set in Point domain. The Sample Index node of step 5 is recovering this Value based on the path point Index returned by the Sample Nearest node.
Pattern builder
Up to 4 edges might connect a face center to its neighbors, along each cardinal direction (E, N, W, S). These directions are thereafter associated with the indices (0, 1, 2, 3). The pattern $p$ defined by these connecting edges is stored per face using a binary code. It is encoded as:
$$ p = d_0 \times 1 + d_1 \times 2 + d_2 \times 4 + d_3 \times 8 = \sum_{j=0}^3 d_j \times 2^j \label{eq_binary_code} \tag{1}$$
with $d_j$ the weight of direction $j$. $d_j$ equals 1 for a connection in direction $j$, 0 otherwise.
Faces with at least one 90° turn of the path are rendered in a distinctive way. Such a face is tagged with a negative value of $p$. To detect 90° turns, it is taken advantage of the Boolean Attribute Domain Interpolation rules. These state that the value at an edge is True (i.e. $\neq 0$) if and only if the value at both of its vertices is True. Let $j$ be the index of a "virtual" edge connecting the directions $j$ and $j+1$, and $e_j$ its weight. $e_j$ is thus calculated as $d_j \times d_{j+1}$. Let $c$ be the indicator of the face status defined as:
$$ c = \sum_{j=0}^3 e_j \label{eq_turn_indicator} \tag{2}$$
c is equal to 0 if and only if all $e_j$ are 0, i.e. $d_j=0$ or $d_{j+1}=0$ for $j=0,1,2,3$. Consequently if c is equal to 0 (i.e. False), the path is straight and $p$ is set positive ; otherwise it is set negative.
The top part of the following figure shows in the Spreadsheet Editor the achieved value of $p$ in the column labeled "pattern". The 3D Viewport next to it displays the faces index. (to be continued)

1. To probe the edges connecting a face center, a Mesh Circle with 4 vertices is instanced centered on each input face. Its diameter is arbitrarily set to half the face size. It is to notice that these instances are made real to get the position of each point probe in the local coordinates system. The resulting connected probes are displayed in the 3D Viewport, superimposed with the path built previously.
2. The computation of the Distance between a point probe and an edge of the path is triggered by a Capture Attribute node set in Point domain. The distance is returned by a Geometry Proximity node set in Edge domain. The captured value is the weight $d_j$ stored as a Boolean. It is set to 1 for a probe next to an edge, and 0 for a probe away of all edges, using a Less Than Compare node.
3. The computation of the pattern $p$ is triggered by a Sample Index node set in Point domain. Let $n$ be the index of an input face. The indices $i$ of the 4 vertices spawned at step 1 on this face are in the range $4n$ to $4n+3$, i.e. $i=4n+j$ with $j=0,1,2,3$. Thus $j$ is computed as $i\mod{4}$, and $n$ as the integer part of $\frac{1}{4}i$. These values of $j$ and $n$ are used by an Accumulate Field node to compute the linear combination defined at Eq.(\ref{eq_binary_code}).
4.
(to be documented)

Shader
Main shader

(to be documented)
Mask builder

(to be documented)

I'm not sure if this isn't multiple questions in one. First of all, you need to figure out which texture to draw:
│ ┤   ┐   └   ┴   ┬   ├   ─   ┼   ┘   ┌
for that you need a logic like this:
how can I make instances responsible to each-other
Now, as for giving the proper shade of red depending on the distance, you need to mark the source, and use geonodes "Shortest Path" functionality to calculate the cost-distance to it. Since "paths" operate on edges, you need to convert faces to edges and fortunately "Dual Mesh" exists for that purpose.
So in my example I first mark some faces of a grid as brimstone (red) and one face as (you could mark more) as the source (green) then delete all other faces, dual mesh, shortest path to green - read the total cost, save it and put on the original geometry, then read it in the shader:


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Intersecting cylinders

I need a single stl surface mesh for a cylinder tube intersecting another cylinder tube(+sphere) at 90 degrees. I managed to use the boolean modifier to get the difference, however, it is not 'cut' and there is an excess lip of the cylinder-tube inside. I have the same problem as above with the cylinder-tube + sphere intersection, where there is an excess cylinder lip inside the sphere (not seen in the image). There must be a correct way to do this. Any pointers are much appreciated.
Context, I need an stl file to run some molecular dynamics simulations. The big cylinder is a neuronal dendrite, and the smaller cylinder+sphere is a synaptic terminal.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/27383/join-two-cylinders

If the boolean operation went through then you should be able to select those inner faces and delete them?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Is it possible to bake the alpha-channel of holes from HP to LP?
I want to make a low-poly model of the truck and a cutout for windshield to make with the help of alpha texture instead of that-cut polygons in place of glass. Is it possible to somehow create a cutout using geometry on high-poly, bake this hole on alpha texture and apply this texture on low poly model to get a hole for the glass?

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


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How to transfer colors from blender to game engines?
Is the color reproduction in blender realistic? I want to transfer color palettes from blender to unreal engine and Godot Engine. How can I do it? That the color reproduction would be as natural and realistic as possible. Hypothetically, so that the scene can be compared to what you can see on a summer day in Europe, the same colors.


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Frame problems with video recorded using Camtasia
I'm using Blender only as a video editor. I've recorded several screen captures using Camtasia with 25 fps. They are encoded as AVI files with the video codec "TechSmith Camtasia Screen Capture (tscc)" and the audio codec "PCM S16 LE (araw)". All of them play fine using VLC.
The videos contain a Power Point presentation with a moving mouse cursor and me talking during the presentation as the audio.
Now the problem is: When I use these videos in Blender it looks like that the frame order is messed up. By this I mean that the mouse arrow in the video is not moving smoothly like it does when playing the video in VLC but instead is jumping around all the time.
I tried to fix the problem using a "Speed Control" effect strip but that doesn't help.
Has anybody experienced something similar or has any idea how this could be solved?
Thank you.

My guess is that the video is recorded with a variable frame rate(vfr), and Blender needs a constant frame rate(cfr). For this file to work properly in Blender you'll need to convert it with a gui for ffmpeg like Handbrake before you import it in Blender.

@tintwotin according this Camtasia support page you are right. I tried it and it solved the problem. If you care to post it as an answer I can accept it.


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How can I export 3D model to python script?
I use a "voxelizer" website where I can convert 3D model to voxels, and I need to import a blend.py file. I'm pretty sure it means python script.
Anyway, how can I export in this format?
Here's the voxelizer I'm talking about:
https://drububu.com/miscellaneous/voxelizer/?out=ble
I've checked a lot of tutorial on python scripting in blender but I still can't find an exact solution to my problem.
Thanks

I also searched and it looks like currently, it's impossible. I tried to using "Save as python" on voxelizer site and run downloaded python script in Blender app, but nothing happen. I still looking for a way if its possible to export to Python script in Blender app. Thanks all helping from here.

TL;DNR:  It is a script. It is meant to be opened in the text editor and run.  It is broken.  I think you should select the '.obj' version of the file and then import it into blender with the obj importer.  You might try their forums to see if there is another way.

I have downloaded their "torus" blender.py file and examined it.
It is, in fact, a script. It is meant to be run this way:

Open the Scripting workspace.
In the Text editor window click the File Browser icon (looks like a file folder
Navigate the browser to where you downloaded 'blender.py' and open it.
Click the right arrow (Run button)

But there's a bug.  The script is meant for an earlier version of blender and will fail when it tries to update the scene.  In the sample file it is at line 4163:
    bpy.context.scene.update()

If you comment out that line you end up reaching yet another bug.
This goes on for some time and the conversion to make it work with Blender 2.8 or later seems non trivial.
I recommend downloading the obj format file instead; although you could check on their forums to see if they're going to produce a version of the script that works with recent versions of Blender.

import bpy

# Create a new mesh
mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new("Human")

# Create a new object with the mesh
obj = bpy.data.objects.new("Human", mesh)

# Add the object to the scene
bpy.context.scene.objects.link(obj)

# Define the vertices of the mesh
vertices = [
    (0, 0, 0),
    (0, 1, 0),
    (0.5, 1.5, 0),
    (1, 1, 0),
    (1, 0, 0),
]

# Create a new polygon for the mesh
faces = [
    (0, 1, 2),
    (2, 3, 4),
]

# Assign the vertices and polygons to the mesh
mesh.from_pydata(vertices, [], faces)

# Update the mesh
mesh.update()

It is quite unusual to import stuff to Blender via a Python script, but sure, geometry or objects can be easily created by a script in Blender, so it's possible to use .py file to import something. If you trust the source of the script with everything you have on your PC, you can open it in or copy it to Blender's text editor and hit "Run script".

If you want to export something out of Blender, you need to either find an add-on for exporting in the format you want, or use existing export options in the File>export menu. Blender also comes with some import-export add-ons that you can find and enable in in the preferences(Edit>Preferences):

As far as I know, you cannot export anything from Blender in Python script format in any standard way, but the website you linked to seems to support other formats.


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Why does adding Bevel Depth to a Curve result in 2 objects?
This is easy to replicate. Open Blender, delete default cube etc and add a Curve. Notice that nr of selected Objects is 1/1. Go to Object Data Properties and add Bevel Depth to the curve. Now nr of selected Objects is 2/2. Why?

I presume this is because the bevel result is a mesh... but good question!

Just as @lemon says, because the bevel depth creates a mesh object - although only procedural and temporary until you set it back to 0, but as long as it is there you have a curve and a mesh object.
Blender also takes procedural meshes from modifiers into account. Something similar for example:
When you take the default cube, it is 1 object with 8 vertices. After adding a Subdivision Surface modifier at Level = 1 to it, the statistics now show 1 object with 26 vertices, although going in Edit Mode you see, those vertices are still just 8, the 26 are the procedural vertices. Toggling visibility of the modifier on/off will also change the vertices between 26 and 8.
But, when you use for example an Array modifier, the object count does not increase. Why? Because even when the meshes are far enough apart to not be merged, when you apply the modifier you still have one object but with multiple separate meshes.
And here is the difference to the curve: the bevel depth is a mesh, but the curve underneath is a curve. A single object cannot hold curve and mesh data at the same time, so they are treated (and shown) as two objects. I do not know why exactly it is not seen as just a mesh temporarily, probably because in Edit Mode you have the curve and the mesh on top of it - or even when converting the beveled curve to a mesh, you have the option to keep the original so that you now have curve and mesh as two actual separate objects.
At least this makes some sense to me. If there is more to it, for the real reasons you might have to ask the developers, we are just users here.

I assume it is intentional, but it is confusing. For instance, to know how many parts a model is made of, you'd select all your objects in the outliner and trust that the number of objects shown in the status bar is correct.

@Roderick Hm, no actually I would never do that. I use the Statistics overlay in the 3D Viewport which always shows me how many objects, vertices, edges and faces there are even without the need to select them. And to have an idea how heavy a scene is for rendering, the overall face count might be much more interesting than the number of objects. Because when rendering a scene with for example 1,000,000 faces it doesn't make much of a difference if they are produced by 99 or 100 objects.


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How to make sure the texture doesn't stretch on the inside of a cylinder?
I've been trying to put a brick texture on a cylinder, I'm running out of time since I've been stuck on this for so long. The sides as shown in the picture below are getting stretched out, I've tried UV mapping and scaling though I don't completely understand it yet so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. (The wall in the back and the cylinder are separated objects.) I also have tried the overlays>stretching and Minimize Stretch and Average Islands Scale.

When I try to do cylinder projection it looks like the picture below.

I'm using blender 2.8. Really thankful for quick answer.

it's not clear what you're trying to do, could you please show your Shader Editor?

did you try this?
Use UV texture coordinates as input into mapping, then it should work:

Note: i did not unwrap it at all, but if you already did, go to UV Editing tab, press A to select all vertices, then UV -> Smart UV Project

This worked, although there's an edge that cuts the texture so it doesn't line up. How do I get rid of it?

did you apply scale and rotation on your cylinder? if yes, a blend file would help. But of course you can "play" with the y scale value of the mapping node to make it fit, you can also "play" with the scale value of the brick texture

Welcome. It looks like you are having some trouble with UV unwrapping.
You'll want to mark seams on the end rings of your cylinder and then resize each of these UV 'islands' to correct the scale and 'stretching' of the bricks.

Alt+L-Click to select the ring at each end of your cylinder.
Ctrl+E opens the Edge menu, Select Mark Seam. This change will take effect in the UV Editor window.

Press A to select all, in the 3D viewport window
In the UV Editor hover over each UV 'island' and press L to select connected vertices.
Press S to scale and drag the mouse. L-Click to set the change. If you have a seamless texture you can scale the UV islands larger than your texture and it will repeat.
Switch to Rendered view in the 3d Viewport window and you can see the changes take effect as you rescale.

Make sure your texture is applied in the Shader Editor. With the Principled BSDF selected you can press Ctrl+Shift+T to import a Principled Shader setup and it will automatically connect all the nodes for you. (Note: You must have the Node Wrangler Add-On enabled in Preferences for this shortcut to work).

Hope that helps.


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Key frame locations are all being set to the same location
I'm new to blender and I pretty sure I pressed something but I don't what as it was working fine before, but my problem is in the animation. Whenever I set a location for a key frame for any object, then set a new location for a new key frame for where I want the object to move, the newest location become the location for the previously made key frame as it changes it self to the new location.
Interestingly if I make new key frames in between old ones that I had done before this problem arose, they work as before I started having this problem.
I've tried changing the location manually by putting the xyz values for location in the transform (with in object properties) but they just snap back to last value.
I've also tried changing the marker type and interpolation mode but nothing.
Any Help?

It would be helpful if you could provide a recording of your screen


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Wierd rendering of a model
I am quite new at blender and I am modeling an airplane. Somewhere along modeling, some strange things occurred. Probably I clicked something or miss-typed a shortcut or something and my model is shaded strange.
I have applied material to this object with default settings.

I am using blender 3.1. I used quads almost exclusively.
Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening and how to fix it?

hello could you please pack your image (if you use an Image Texture, go into File > External Data > Pack Resources and save) and share your file? https://pasteall.org/blend/

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/133816/bad-shading-on-imported-mesh https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/76513/strange-black-shading-cannot-fully-light-mesh-cycles https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57006/problem-when-importing-obj-to-blender


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How would I go about making a character have that twitchy/ jerky movement?
I'm working on an animation with a model of a monster and I want it to have that Twitchy/Jerky movement to give it that creepy and disturbing look. Any advice on this will be of much help.

Have you thought about using a Noise modifier for the keyframes? It will make it shake

I haven't, I will look into that

if you don't understand how it works, please tell, here is a tuto for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-43Dw0Lj08s

I will thank you

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/209512/how-do-i-give-a-keyframed-object-a-bit-of-vibration-shaking-when-its-at-the-des https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/107102/how-to-add-bumpiness-to-a-car-roller-coaster-motion https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/581/how-can-i-generate-camera-shake/


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Creating 3D block from the perimeter of an object
I'm trying to make a script which creates a block with flat surface and bottom, with the sides following the stencil (seen from above) from a 3D object.
Basically I want to go from this:

To this:

The closest I've gotten is to flatten a object by setting the Z-axis to 0, in hopes of being able to extrude that upwards again. However that doesn't truly flatten it, as you still have all the inner vertices and 2 layers of faces on top of each other

I can remove the "innards" manually in the editor, however the project I'm working on requires that it's done more or less automatically through code, so I need something that is repeatable and without manually going in and deleting vertices.

Is the bottom of the original object flat?

@MartyFouts Not necessarily, no

This is easy with Geometry Nodes. The idea is to isolate the bottom faces, then extrude them.

Extra steps will be required in case the bottom isn't flat and without holes. I can't say for sure from the pictures you posted.
To isolate the bottom you'll need to find the face with the lowest Z through the Attributes Statistics node. You'll zero the other axes to be able to compare all faces Z against your target, the Min Z.
The Face is Planar check is optional. You can combine it to the Z check to ignore faces that fall within the Equal node's Epsilon but aren't planar for some reason.
After separating the desired faces, you can then Extrude them to get the top and sides of your solid mesh. The normals will be wrong when using a negative offset like I did, so you'll need to flip the faces before welding the bottom to it:

I plugged a few options into the Group Input for ease of use. Tweak values as needed.

What type of node is that "Face is planar" node?

@Excludos It's a new node from the beta or alpha versions. Since it's an extra check performed to catch bad faces in the unlikely event someone stuck something not planar to the bottom, you can safely skip that part of the tree. Let me know if the bottom of your meshes has holes/isn't planar so I can add a method to deal with those to the answer. In this case please add pictures of it.

ah yes, sorry. The bottom isn't necessarily flat, and can (and in this case does) have holes in it

@Excludos Is the outer boundary of the meshes—the outer edge of the "walls"—continuous? (Please include the requested pictures in your question)


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How do I fix this weird vertex artefact

Hey guys, I am following this tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DncP3mKJB2M
At around 46:07, There is this weird thing happening on the sole mesh of my project which is completely different from the tutorial, how do I fix it?
here's the file :

I don't know anything but did you check your normals/backfaces?

I suppose you forgot to set bevel for this edge:

Thanks Crantisz, new to blender so didn't notice that, rookie mistake, also mean bevel weight was a bit tricky for me, looked at the tut for a min to realize it


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This weird stretching is happening with my design, how do I fix it?

I am following this tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DncP3mKJB2M&t=3778s
as you can see the design is very much looks like the mesh is being stretched to the max even though the vertices for the shrink/wrap modifier is not set to a big offset, I want to fix it, how do I??
Blend file:

I looked at your model and the modifiers you applied, changing the Shrinkwrap's Wrap method to "Target Normal Project" option made the texture smooth and not stretched like the below image.

thanks wiseman, can you specify why did the nearest point mode didn't work?

Nearest surface project can be complex as your object on which it was applied has vertices closes to each other. so it will select the nearest target but when you apply Target Normal Project, it points(to the vertices) to the object's normal position and adjusts according to it. You can read more about it on the Blender documentation, that will be a much better explanation.


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Getting this weird gap between mirrored mesh, need help!

Hey Guys so I ve been following this tutorial by derek elliot for creating a shoe, I have followed his tutorial to a point where if I delete the faces to make space for a foot to set in, the effect is not what is in his video, for reference, here is what he gets....

Any help is appreciated

In the modifier stack, put the Mirror above the Subdivision Surface modifier, otherwise it's the subdivided object that will be mirrored and not the inverse

Hi, when I do that the entire mesh suddenly disappears

please share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/

Oh I turned off gpu subdivision in the preferences tab, and it worked!! still, thanks for the help moon !!


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How can I recreate this "balloon" and distribute objects randomly and also resize them randomly, like in the picture?
I would like to recreate this picture but I'm unsure about what's the easiest / best way to achieve this. If you have any suggestions, I'd really like to test them out (I'm sure you could use geometry nodes)

You can create several balls, give them Rigid Body physics, Type > Active, link-duplicate them, create a Force Field > Force with a very low Strength (here -10,000), in the Scene panel cut the Gravity, and play:

When you're glad and don't want to animate anymore you can go into the header menu > Object > Rigid Body > Bake to Keyframes and choose the frame you want to bake:

This probably isn't the best way to do it, but at least it should give you some idea of a possible node setup for something like this. The only thing I'm not really happy with is the "base shape" so to speak, I kind of had to instance the "balls" on a sphere within a sphere to make the density seem right, but I know there must be a better way (I'm re-learning geometry nodes for the third time due to constant changes to the software - I could have done it before, so I'm sure there's a way - I'll keep working on it):

Using this material:


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Create unusuable preview of mesh
my problem is that I provide 3d models on a site where I wish to create downloadable previews for the users as obj's. The user should be able to investigate the mesh before buying it, without being able to use it. Or the effort to recover it should be simply a pain.
My first attempt is to select a random number of vertices and then dissolving them which would still give a pretty accurate representation of the mesh, but hard to use. My code so far looks like this:
obj_name='<name>'
obj = bpy.data.objects[obj_name]

num_verts=len(obj.data.vertices)
num_to_delete=int(num_verts/15)
arr=np.random.randint(len(obj.data.vertices),size=num_to_delete)

#my own function simply selecting vertices
highlight_list_of_vertices(dress_name,arr)
bpy.ops.mesh.dissolve_verts()
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')
bpy.ops.mesh.subdivide()

I am sure there is better ways of how to do this. Any suggestions are welcome.
Thank you

You should just implement some kind of 3d mesh preview in the browser using Three.js or a gltf file with the model-viewer web component.

@Jakemoyo Yes that is a great idea and I already implemented it. The problem is that the .obj needs to be present and can be easily downloaded from the browser.

So you both; want the user to be able to freely download your object...yet not be able to freely download your object?
Not to mention giving users the option to download a model to inspect the mesh before buying it only to have them download a horrible mangled version of the model,  will probably negatively influence their decision on whether to buy the model at all.
Why not just disallow them to download it by making it a 3d web element rather than an actual obj file? Sketchfab, allows you to inspect every component of the mesh, before buying, right in the browser.

@ Jakemoyo Thank you for your suggestions. You are right, I did not properly word my request. Basically I want the user to inspect the mesh as detailed as possible preferably in the browser. I just thought it would make sense to partially destroy the mesh in case some users managed to download the preview on the browser. The code above manages to do that without affecting the view quality. But of course this is not optimal so your suggestion of Sketchfab is great. Many thanks.


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Object following the wrong part of the path
For context yellow is doing the correct thing, the blue part should be doing the same thing but on the other end of the path but it always defaults to the same end no matter what.

Welcome to Blender.SE. For this kind of rig, usually one take advantage of the hook modifier and tie the curve to the end object. Without addon's, you should not be able to animate the curves control point in animation, so it's usually done the othe way around: control points tied to other object via hook modifier.
To my kolowledge you can't successfully rig the objects in the way you are showing: even the yellow parts where your method seems to work, probably falls apart when you try to run the animation with the play button, because you are parenting on an animated path...

I'm getting eyestrain trying to catch the menus on a blow-up of your .gif, as they flash by. Could you just give a description of how you're expecting this rig to work, please? It would be so much easier ..


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checkers pattern
I made a procedural pattern (photo 1) it works perfect on a cube but when i try to get it om my model it gives strange lines (photo 2). What did i do wrong?

Nothing :) Procedural textures are 3Dimensional ... in your case you would have to use 2D texture (image) and use UVmap Texture Coordinates.

A Brick texture is a more convoluted form of a checker texture.
The checker texture works in a simple way:

It's black (Color 2) in 0 dimensions.
In one dimension, it alternates: first it's black for some length $a$, then it's white (Color 1) for same offset $a$, then it's black again...
In two dimensions, on one axis it alternates exactly as in p. 1. However, it's true only for the distance $a$ on Y axis, and then rather than starting with black, it starts with white. Then after another offset $a$ on the Y axis, it goes back to be like in p. 1... You can think of it, as every 2nd row being inverted.
In three dimensions the logic continues: on height $a$ on the Z axis the textures is like in p. 2. Then on the next level for another $a$ distance on the Z axis the colors are flipped.

Here's how the checker texture can be implemented without using the Checker Texture node:

Keep in mind you could keep adding those ÷2 reminders to support 4 and more dimensions. For example, if you use a #frame driver, to treat time as a dimension:

To clear your confusion on why the checker texture looks weird on a sphere, try pressing Numpad digits, or clicking on navigation gizmo to switch to an orthographic view:

Now from this perspective the texture looks almost correct:

The reason for this is that now your perspective is almost 2-dimensional - still the surface of the sphere is not at constant X - and the circles between flipped colors denote where the X coordinate of the surface moves past another $a$ offset. You could multiply the X coordinate by 0, to disregard it:

And as already pointed out by vklidu and SleepyEngi, if your object is UV unwrapped, rather than using (implied) Generated coordinate, you can use the UV coordinate:

In case of a sphere, using polar coordinates will give you a similar effect:

Thanks a lot now I understand better what I am doing :) I just starting with blender I wil try to make this with UV textures.

The checker pattern is still there, but only in 2D- It's being "projected" from the top, as if it had depth. An alternative would be using UV texture coordinates from a properly unwrapped UV sphere.


text:
How to vary node inputs based on the fields of *specific* geometry?
First, I created my own arcMesh node group. It does the nearly the same as the builtin curve primitive Arc.

arcMesh was used in another node group ringMesh, which turns an arc into a ring by extrusion and scaling given parameters:

Now I created multiple instances of ringMesh along a line:

This is what I see if I remove the connection above the green arrow. The Inner Radius of all instances is uniform. Just like the then constant input to ringMesh.

Now I want to vary the Inner Radius depending on the z-Coordinate of the vertices that instance the ringMeshes (by restoring the connection above the green arrow):

Why is this happening?
It looks like as if the field resolution went wrong. Within each instance of arcMesh, input Radius should stay the same. Only Inner Radius should vary over the instances of ringMesh.
Instead, as you can see, Radius varies within each arcMesh... Leaving me with spirals... What can I do to get ringMeshes of varying (internally constant!) InnerRadius?


text:
Approaches for a quick STL turntable
I used Blender today to create a turntable animation for very simple model that I made and intend to 3D print. I've found that such animations are very effective for communicating the shape of a model and I'd like to be able to rapidly generate ones like the one below.

I'm very comfortable with Python, but haven't used Blender's Python scripting API much as yet, and there's a significant learning curve to Blender itself, let alone using it programmatically, and I don't want to assume I'm on the right track.
The process I used today, and the one imagine trying to automate is something like so:

Create new blend-file
Remove default cube
Import an STL

It would be great if I could somehow specify this via the command line, as that would potentially let me run batches or tie it to another application

Set STL's origin to be its center of volume
Set a camera to track the STL's origin
Auto-fit a camera view to the object.

I have no idea how to do this, and when I did my render today, I just toyed with the camera position and properties until it was about right. It was... very finicky.

Create/move a light to some position, probably camera high and left.
Insert keyframes at frames 0 and 250 to rotate the object

Total frames should probably another command line parameter, if possible.

Trigger a render

In summary:

Is this a rational process to create this animation, or is there something much easier?
Assuming these steps make sense, what is a good way that I can automate them? Python? Something else?

Related:
This is arguably a duplicate of python - Auto turntable animation, but I'm trying to ask both about the process and whether Python or something else (!) is the right way to make it minimally painful.

One easier approach is to have a template file that already contains a camera set up with a follow path constraint on a circle and also the lighting you want to use. You can have the path animated in this template. That only leaves importing the STL, positioning it at the origin and scaling it to fit the camera frame before running a render.  That bit could be automated in Python.  On the other hand, you can automate the whole process.  There are questions here that cover pretty much each step as you've described them.

@MartyFouts - It sounds like what I'm doing doesn't seem unnecessarily complicated, then?

You are doing what you have to do if you want to start from scratch.  So yes, not unnecessarily complicated.  Also, except for step 6, pretty straightforward steps.  6 involves creating a viewing frustum and placing the camera at its apex; but once you get the math down it should be easy to implement.


text:
I want the same blender start up for different profiles. We have 4 different people logging into a central computer( separate windows login)
We have one computer designated to use blender. We can all remote log into the computer using different windows log in. Because we have different log ins we all have different profiles or start up files.  We want one consistent start up file that we can all use. Specifically, we want all want access to the the same asset library without having to individual set up each link.
Is there a way to do this?

Look into setting up a "portable" installation https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/63648/what-is-the-proper-way-to-update-a-portable-blender-installation-while-keeping-u. Though it might potentially share other things like settings or addons

We have one computer designated to use blender.  This feels very weird.  Especially the remote login - Windows only allows a single user for RDP sessions (most Desktop licensing, anyways).  Note that if these are domain-managed machines, the "proper" thing to do is probably to get the blender preferences file added to the Windows user profile (although you'd probably want local instances of blender).

I think the quick n dirty method would be to maintain a repo where you can save the desired startup file, and make a batch file that copies the file from the repo to %appdata%'s blender directory.
Task Scheduler can be used to run the batch file on login, so any time you update the file it'll be loaded when each user logs in.
Not exactly turnkey, but it's free and fairly easy, and doesn't require any special environment (barely any permissions, even).


text:
Getting color at each vertex with python
I wrote this script to put vertexes and their colors into a JSON file for a project I'm working on. I was using this answer to get the colors. Here's the script that I wrote with that.
import bpy
import json

ob = bpy.context.active_object
me = ob.data

#check for edit mode
editmode = False
if ob.mode == 'EDIT':
    editmode =True
    #the following sets mode to object by default
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set()

j = {
    "name": "Fish",
    "mesh": []
}

verts = [ bpy.context.object.matrix_world @ v.co for v in bpy.context.object.data.vertices ]

color_layer = me.vertex_colors["Col"]

my_object = bpy.context.active_object.data
vert_list = my_object.vertices
color_map = my_object.vertex_colors.new()

# Get the active vertex color layer
color_data = me.vertex_colors.active.data

size = 15

i = 0
for poly in my_object.polygons:
    if poly.select:
        p = []
        r = []
        g = []
        b = []
        a = []
        for idx in poly.loop_indices:
            loop = my_object.loops[idx]
            v = loop.vertex_index
            x = vert_list[v].co.x * size
            y = vert_list[v].co.y * size
            z = vert_list[v].co.z * size
            p.append([y, z, x])
            r.append(color_map.data[i].color[0])
            g.append(color_map.data[i].color[1])
            b.append(color_map.data[i].color[2])
            a.append(color_map.data[i].color[3])

            i += 1
        tri = {
            "p0": [p[0][0], p[0][1], p[0][2]], # y and z are
            "p1": [p[1][0], p[1][1], p[1][2]], # switched in
            "p2": [p[2][0], p[2][1], p[2][2]], # my game
            "color": {
                "r": sum(r)/len(r) * 255,
                "g": sum(g)/len(g) * 255,
                "b": sum(b)/len(b) * 255,
                "a": sum(a)/len(a) * 255
            }
        }
        j["mesh"].append(tri)
        #for index in range(len(p.vertices)): # for each vertex in triangle 0, 1, 2
            #print(verts[p.vertices[index]]) # prints each vertex in triangle

#obj = json.loads(str(j))
json_formatted_str = json.dumps(j, indent=4)

try:
    f = open("F:/Leviathan/points.txt", "w")
    f.write(json_formatted_str)
    f.close()
except:
    pass

#done editing, restore edit mode if needed
if editmode:
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')

It worked great until it didn't. I'm not sure what I did but i get an error at r.append(color_map.data[i].color[0]) where it says AttributeError: 'NoneType' has no attribute 'data'. If I make a new project, paint the object, and copy the script, it works fine. I used it for a few minutes before i got the error. Any help is appreciated

@Jakemoyo by printing my_object i get Mesh("Cube") and so I'm not quite sure thats the issue... If it is the issue, how should i fix it?

r.append(color_map.data[i].color[0]) to r.append(color_map.elements[i].color[0])

I didn't scroll down to see the whole script, I deleted my last comment. The issue is to do with the variable on line 27, color_map.

@kemplerart that gives me the error AttributeError: 'NoneType' has no attribute 'elements'

@Jakemoyo I agree. Do you know why it would only work sometimes?

I'm not totally sure why this would be only working intermittently.
I can tell you for certain you need to go through your script and clean up the completely random use of bpy.context.active_object and bpy.context.active_object.data, in addition to a number of other things.
What might be happening is the reference to the object becomes old, and when you constantly try to refer to it directly rather than through a variable, it might return None, which means it has no attributes and trying to get a vertex color attribute from a NoneType object.
I'll show you what I mean in your script.
import bpy
import json

# This should be the main reference to your object.
ob = bpy.context.active_object

# Unless you change the object data in some dramatic way
# you shouldn't need to refresh the variable. Especially
# in a script like this where you just read some data and
# write it to a json file.

# same with the mesh data
me = ob.data

# now that you have these two variables declared just work
# with them in the rest of the script

editmode = False
if ob.mode == 'EDIT':
    editmode = True

    bpy.ops.object.mode_set()

j = {
    "name": "Fish",
    "mesh": []
}
# See right here, you are making a redundant reference to the context.object
# when you should just reference the ob variable you already declared

# I would also do this under the next relevant variable you're declaring, "vert_list"

# So don't do this:
### verts = [ bpy.context.object.matrix_world @ v.co for v in bpy.context.object.data.vertices ]

# Do this:
vert_list = me.vertices
verts = [ob.matrix_world @ v.co for v in vert_list]

# It seems like you can delete this color_layer variable, it doesn't have any references
# that I can see...(?)

### color_layer = me.vertex_colors["Col"]

# redundant reference again to the mesh data, now calling it "my_object" even though it's
# a mesh, which confuses things:

### my_object = bpy.context.active_object.data

color_map = me.vertex_colors.new()

# Since you alread have a reference to the "mesh.vertex_colors"
# you can use that in this next line,

# Don't do this:
### color_data = me.vertex_colors.active.data

#Do this:
color_data = color_map.active.data

# That's the whole point of variables, to take away redundant typing and
# to ensure we're always referring to the same object in the computer memory

size = 15

i = 0
# there are also a few Pythonic tricks we can use in here, unrelated to your
# issue.

for poly in my_object.polygons:
    if poly.select:
        p = []
        # uppercase these so we can use this trick down the line.
        R = []
        G = []
        B = []
        A = []
        for idx in poly.loop_indices:
            loop = ob.loops[idx]
            v = loop.vertex_index
            # this bit right here you can do a little easier
            # with "tuple unpacking"
            #Don't do this:
            ### x = vert_list[v].co.x * size
            ### y = vert_list[v].co.y * size
            ### z = vert_list[v].co.z * size
            # Do this:

            # x, y, z = vert_list[v].co.xyz * size

            # Also, you can access Vector information in basically every
            # possible configuration, not just in "xyz" so you can theoretically
            # get access to these vectors in "yzx" order, right out of the box,
            # reducing all of this to one or two lines like:
            locs = vert_list[v].co.yzx * size
            # and then just append that
            p.append(locs)
            # Same thing here, shorten it up and make it easier to work with.
            r, g, b, a = color_map.data[i].color
            R.append(r)
            G.append(g)
            B.append(b)
            A.append(a)
            # not a huge deal but it's just alot easier to read

            i += 1
        tri = {
            "p0": [p[0][0], p[0][1], p[0][2]], # y and z are
            "p1": [p[1][0], p[1][1], p[1][2]], # switched in
            "p2": [p[2][0], p[2][1], p[2][2]], # my game
            "color": {
                "r": sum(R)/len(R) * 255,
                "g": sum(G)/len(G) * 255,
                "b": sum(B)/len(B) * 255,
                "a": sum(A)/len(A) * 255
            }
        }
        j["mesh"].append(tri)
        #for index in range(len(p.vertices)): # for each vertex in triangle 0, 1, 2
            #print(verts[p.vertices[index]]) # prints each vertex in triangle

#obj = json.loads(str(j))
json_formatted_str = json.dumps(j, indent=4)

try:
    f = open("F:/Leviathan/points.txt", "w")
    f.write(json_formatted_str)
    f.close()

# Also don't ever use a plain "except" in a "try/except" block. This would
# even pass on things like "NameError: name 'json' is not defined" if you
# forgot to import the json module. Always use the relevant Error object,
# like:

# except AttributeError:
  #  pass

# or whatever.
except:
    pass

#done editing, restore edit mode if needed
if editmode:
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

Not sure why it's this way, but I just had to change
r.append(color_map.data[i].color[0])
g.append(color_map.data[i].color[1])
b.append(color_map.data[i].color[2])
a.append(color_map.data[i].color[3])

to
r.append(color_data[i].color[0])
g.append(color_data[i].color[1])
b.append(color_data[i].color[2])
a.append(color_data[i].color[3])

and now it works perfectly.


text:
using the G,S,R function, I keep getting a dotted line nad two arrows attached to the object. What are they and how do i get rid of them
i am very new to blender and do not know how the lines appered and hoe to get rid of the, I have tried the gizmo settings

Hello and welcome. As it stands this question is unanswerable and was put on hold for lack of essential details to understand the issue. Risking stating the obvious, only you have access to your scene, so unless you describe it thoroughly you alone know your exact setup, settings and what steps you took to arrive where your are now. Describe the issue in detail, add images of relevant settings and user interface, with the [edit] button above. Don't post comments or ask a new question, editing will automatically queue it for reopening review.

Unfortunately you did not add a screenshot. Without I can only guess the dotted line is the one indicating that you are using a transformation tool like move (G), scale (S) or rotate (R) connected to the pivot point and the arrows indicate that moving the mouse will increase or decrease the effect of the tool. So this is absolutely normal when using a tool... why exactly do you want to get rid of it or if you are talking about something else, please edit your question and add screenshots to it so that we know what you are talking about.

thanks for the adviced. i am new to this system and in future will include additional information.


text:
White lines on my mesh when Cavity is on
I'm having trouble figuring out why I keep getting these white lines when I turn on my Cavity. I tried playing around with the Cavity setting, but no luck. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Those lines come from the Type > World, from the Ridge settings in the World Space to be precise. The higher the value, the more visible the lines are. So they appear if you use World or Both.
To get rid of them you either need to decrease the Distance in the additional options (accessible through the gear icon on the right), but I mean really really low like 0.001 - which means the cavity type World is almost disabled and you can just as good only keep it at Screen.
Or you can increase the Distance value until the lines disappear, then it depends on what value is still giving some effect where you want it or otherwise it basically comes down to the same like before, you could just as well disable it completely.
Or you have to make the object much smoother with a higher mesh resolution, like adding a Subdivision Surface modifier or if you already have one, increase the Level value.

+1  Yeah, FWIW I just keep World turned off entirely.


text:
Recalculating Normals
I am trying to recalculate the normals for my model, however, the options appear to be missing. After a quick Google, I found a tutorial saying use the "mesh" menu in edit mode: mesh > normals > recalculate outside. For me, the mesh menu is missing in edit mode. I also tried using keyboard shortcuts "shift + N", in the preferences it states this is the shortcut to recalculate, but when I use it, it shows a "Recalculate Roll" menu that does not have the recalculate outside option anywhere. Is there a way to restore the mesh menu in edit mode?
I am using Blender 2.83, due to working with some older plugins, I can't use a newer version.

You have selected your armature, not your mesh object (example: Recalculate Roll is for the armature's bones), switch back to Object mode, select the mesh object and switch to Edit mode.

Thank you so much!, I'm fairly new to blender and this was driving me nuts.


text:
Hiding bones in 3d viewport only

I am trying to pose a model, but I only want the bones to be displayed in the orthographic views. Having the bones visible in the 3d port makes it difficult to see exactly what the pose looks like. Currently I am having to toggle the bones on and off to be able to do this, is there a way to switch off the bone display in the 3d port only?
I am using Blender version 4.2
Thanks.

It is not possible in Quard view.
But if you split view into separate views, you can hide armatures by object type:

Hi this solution works for me, further splitting the views essentially allows me to manually set a quad view where I can see all 3 orthographic views while still being able to control the overlays independetly. Thank you!

The best thing you can do in this case is to enable the filter button in the top right to be able to hide objects in the viewport:

From there you should be able to toggle this on or off using the newly added button in the outliner. It might also be a good idea to place your armature in a collection to easily toggle the whole collection instead.


text:
Vertices connect to Mesh

I want to connect these vertices to make a mesh, but I have no idea how to do it efficiently. I tried to do it manually but it cost a lot of time and I was probaby doing it wrong.

In this situation, I would use the f2 add-on and sit there for half an hour or more, or try convex hull, f3, and then search for convex hull.


text:
Geometry Nodes: How to randomly delete objects?
I've connected rectangles in an L-shape loop and staggered them across layers. However, I'm struggling to figure out how to randomly delete some of the rectangles on the four faces to create gaps.
have any suggested approaches?
Here is my node setup:

This is the cylindrical structure formed by stacking the rectangles:

Instead of first creating the arrangement of the four rectangles, duplicating them along the Z-axis, and then deleting individual instances, you could build it up a little more refined and thus enable more precise control.
If you first duplicate a rectangle (in this case, I use the node Curve Circle with four points) along the Z-axis and then instantiate the objects in the desired arrangement at these points, you can decide directly at each point whether a rectangle should be created at all or not.
It would look something like this:

(Blender 4.2.0+)

If you also want to alternate the rotation of the individual layers, you can easily extend this setup by using index and modulo to give every other layer a different rotation:

If you have each element as an instance, you can just delete instances based on random selection:

If there's no instancing, you can often (not always, e.g. Suzanne) get away with using mesh island index as ID:

In either case the result is the same:

Thank you for the suggestion!This gets very close to my goal!
I found that it successfully instantiates each rectangle, but this method doesn’t seem to be compatible with the staggered arrangement of alternating clockwise and counterclockwise layers.
Whenever I try to rotate the even-numbered layers by 180 degrees, the random deletion is applied to entire layers instead of individual rectangle objects.

Add the "delete geometry" node at the end of your node tree.
Select "instance" as geometry type
Add "random value" node and set it to boolean
Connect the value output into the selection input on the "delete geometry" node
Use the probability slider to control the amount of instances deleted.

Unfortunately, this would not delete individual rectangles, but entire instances (in this case "floor"). In this case, the setup would have to be set up a little differently in order to gain access to the individual points after (or before) instantiation.


text:
How would you fix a bone which deforms the mesh rather than simply rotating or bending it?
I ran into a snag while trying to rig this low poly character (I didn't model it, it's a practice model I downloaded). The mesh is deformed whenever I try to bend the bones:

Is this normal? Did I do something wrong and what is it?

Hello could you please share your file?

Maybe apply the scale of your armature in Object mode, if it doesn't work, please share your file

@moonboots
Sure thing! I’ll have to get my computer running though to get the file, I’m currently replying on my iPad.

How exactly do I do that on a comment? Or should I just edit the post directly.

Like I said, I'm fairly new to rigging in Blender, I'm new to Stack Exchange, I have literally no idea what I'm doing.

do what on a comment exactly? What I suggested is selecting your armature in Object mode and apply the scale (Ctrl A), does it work?

Ok, I'll try that.

I was asking how to share a blend file on here. It isn't a supported file like images are.

read the instructions here: https://blend-exchange.com/

oh thank you! Probably should've gone looking for that. Ugh, I'm such a newbie to all of this.

So did applying the scale fix your problem?

Haven’t tried. I’ve been pretty busy, but I should be able to test it out tomorrow. Thanks for the help either way! And sorry for taking up so much of your time.

@moonboots it worked! Thank you!!!

You've scaled your armature in Object mode but haven't applied the scale, so just apply the scale (CtrlA)


text:
How do I make a object(e.g. head) get controlled by multiple bones?
I wanted to make an enemy character whose head gets caved in as player hits a headshot upon it, so I tried to make the head controlled by three bones(from rigging with amature), where only one middle bones shrink while the others stay same to provide the effect. But when I tried pose mode, I couldn't quite make the desired movement. The best I could do was to only make two bones act same, both only shrinking the head as whole.

You could add another new middle bone (4 in total), and make the new bone, and the left and right bones children of the old middle bone (Ctrl+P, Make Parent >Keep Offset). The old middle bone will rotate and tilt the head, while the child bones can do the deformation when you scale them individually. Another option is Shape Keys (depends on the game engine, I guess)


text:
Completely disabling objects outside the camera's angle
Is it possible to write a ‘Script’ that will completely disable all objects outside the camera angle?
every time I start the script I want all objects except camera angle to be disabled.
The reason I want this is because I am using Eevee render and Render is running out of memory. There are thousands of objects in my scene. It is very difficult to disable them all one by one.
I’m just wondering if something like this is possible.
I don’t think the engine disabled it, I’m pretty sure it loads ‘Shaders’ for invisible objects.
What I really want is to prevent objects that are not visible from the camera angle from loading 'Shaders'.

I think eevee already does that by default. You can try using this technique with geometry nodes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoLF99PFLFM

Have you tried checking "Simplify" under the render setting tab?


text:
cant understand why "darken" blending mode not works correctly in the mix rgb shader node - possible bug
Using mix rgb node with the "Darken" option i can't understand why with different inputs we get different results (both wrong result)
i explain better:
Darken is a COMMUTATIVE function so changing the layer order does not change the result. Indeed:
The darken blending mode take every of the tree parameter of the color and compare it to the other 3 parameters of the other color and takes wathever color value is minor
For example: putting as first layer: red(0.5, 0, 0, 1) rgba color
second layer: blue(0, 0, 0.5, 1) rgba color
the output is red, but it should be black (0, 0, 0, 1) as photo below:

Wheter if i swith layer the output is blue:

While if u do this in photoshop, it always gives u back black as it should be:

even if u change layer, the output is the same as it should be:

even if i dont put the BSDF in the shader flow, it doesnt change the output

Haven't you asked this already here? https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/324777/107598 Set Factor to 1.0 and the result will be black.


text:
Vertex Paint problem
Well, right now i’m having a problem with Vertex Paint. I was trying to give some shades to a texture, but the Vertex Paint doesn’t show up. It’s visible on object mode, but not in my texture. Can someone tell me i’m doing something wrong or it’s a Blender problem? Thanks!

Are you meaning to use vertex color attribute as replacement for the material color or image texture? You can add an attribute node to your shader and reference your color attribute name to plug that vertex color into the color input of your principled bsdf.

Hello could you please show a screenshot of your Shader Editor?

Hello and welcome. As it stands this question is unanswerable and was put on hold for lack of essential details to understand the issue. Risking stating the obvious, only you have access to your scene, so unless you describe it thoroughly you alone know your exact setup, settings and what steps you took to arrive where your are now. Describe the issue in detail, add images of relevant settings and user interface, with the [edit] button above. Don't post comments or ask a new question, editing will automatically queue it for reopening review.

During vertex paint, colors are stored into an" Attribute".
You can access this information in the shader editor with Menu > Add > Input > Color Attribute, selecting the Attribute you painted on (they can be more than one), and plugging its Color output into the Base Color input of a shader.


text:
RAM usage maxing out on timeline anim
I’m fairly new to blender animations. But having looked at optimisation practices like switching to CUDA or OptiX and leveraging the GPU to handle rendering tasks. Which has worked well and I’ve managed to render out a few short animations.
However, I want to create a paint peeling animation as part of a larger project and requires modifiers.
After setting up a mesh and adding the various modifiers to it to create the peel, I try to quick view it in the timeline but my RAM immediately maxes out and Blender crashes. Are explode, cloth etc modifiers know to do this? Or am I missing some setting?
My PC isn’t the fastest but it’s no slouch either.
Blender: 4.2
PC Specs:

CPU: i7-5820k @ 3.6GHz.
RAM: 32gb DDR4 @ 3200 MHz
GPU: RTX 3070ti


text:
Boolean modifier with screw on rounded surface
complete newbie here.
I created a non-flat surface and a screw. I want to get a screw thread in the heart but when using the boolean tool the final result looks unfinished. I would prefer for the outside edges to be a complete circle while still maintaining the screw thread.
I'm sure I'm missing something. How would you experts go about this?
For clarity's sake: I literally just used the boolean modifier on the heart, selected the screw as the object which to use the modifier with and applied.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
|

Hi. I think the only way to improve that is by increasing the complexity of the mesh for the heart by a considerable amount..

I think you need to take the bigger radius of the screw, make it into a cylinder, bevel that cylinder, and use its beveled tip to boolean cut again in order to chamfer ("bevel") the opening in the heart. Otherwise you won't get a perfect circle, because a cross-section of a screw isn't a perfect circle.


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How to create realistic animal hair and fur?
I am trying to make hair in blender for 15 days, but can't get a better result. i,m beginner not  more know about blender. I wanna to create every type of animal hair and fur.

Here is my blend file

You probably need to work at least 3 things:

The color of your hair, you can use an Input > Hair Info (Intercept output) as node in your material to create a gradient:

Make the base of the hair thicker and the end thinner with the Hair Shape values:

Give your hair system some Children > type > Simple and play with the Clumping, Roughness and Kink parameters to make the hair mor realistic:

Result (needs more work of course):


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How to change the color of multiple object at once?
I tried to select a few cubes, then select a color but only the color of the active one is changed.

How to change the color of all selected objects at once?
I'm using Blender 3.2.0 on macos.

The previous answer is not quite accurate.
You do not have to have the same material on each object. You can have a completely new material for every object. You simply have to select a material from the dropdown list or select "new" if there are none available and then adjust the look in the shader editor.
If you want multiple objects to share the same material then you simply have to select each object and assign the same material to them. If there are many objects then the best way is to select all the objects making sure the object with the desired material is active (the last one selected) then type, "CTRL L" and select link materials from the list. This will assign the material from the active object to all the other objects and they will all share the same material which can be updated at any time in the shader editor.

If you're attempting to set the same color for all of them you would first need to assign the same material to all of them then change the color of the material.
You need to select this dropdown and make sure it is the same for each object

If you want different colors on each cube you would need to make a shader setup in the shading tab that resembles something like the image below. Though all the objects still need to have the same material
Add an Object Info Node, Plug random Into a ColorRamp set to constant and change the colors of the markers to pick which colors you want


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How to change Viewport Display properties for many objects at once?
I tried by selecting 3 objects and changing Viewport Display properties (Axis, Name) but it's only applied to the active object.

How to change Viewport Display properties for many objects at once ?

Do you try Alt + Click the button?

@XY That was it, thanks!!


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Make my smoke less fake
My smoke looks like coming from an electronic cigarette...
I used the particles system to create this smoke.
I tried to play with the density using shader nodes but it's been unefficient.
On which parameters can I play to make it look more detailled like in the second picture?

Try using Noise in Gas settings, it adds more details

It seems to be a great solution to my issue, thanks a lot! I need a little time to play with the settings before getting the wanted result! Thank you again

[https://youtu.be/MyV07JnL3DA] here this might help looks a little like it

Try turning on Noise in your domain settings.
Change the Upres Fac to adjust the amount of noise. There's also a Strength and Scale you can adjust.
You could try increasing the Vorticity as well, but it's easy to overdo, so use caution!

Another way to add more noise is to use a Turbulence force field somewhere in your domain.
(Awesome sim by the way!)

Thank you! It is really close of what I intented to get! (Thanks :) )


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How to start model this Film - Camera
i'm having trouble modeling this camera body.
Can someone explain me how to start? Should I use modifiers? It would be great if someone could explain a good way!

Choose a side, draw the inner shape, then extrude to get the outer shape:

Extrude to give thickness:

Pull some faces, etc:

For the other side, first thing hide the part you've already work, switch to the opposite view, and same thing, draw the shapes:

Then use the back view to pull all these faces:

Pull again some of these faces for the second plateau:

Etc, of course you'll need to rework to have a better topology and you'll need to work all the details

Thank you! I think the other side is my biggest problem. It would be great if you could explain a way to model it.

Thank you again! One last question: It was difficult to round off the corners and leave others sharp. How do you get these transitions on the shapes?

I'm not sure what you mean, to round a vertex you can use the bevel tool (Ctrl B then V to switch form edge bevel to vertex bevel)


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Raycast from vertex to vertex
I'm new to scripting in blender and I wanted to make a very specific addon, which makes it very hard to find anything useful.
Basically, there's a loop that goes thru every vertex at the top of the mesh, makes a raycast down starting from the vertex's position, goes to the bottom of the mesh, and searches for vertices on the X and Y axis in a specified radius. If a vertex is found, it's X and Y coords are set to be exactly where the ray is.
Let me know if blender or an addon already has a feature similar to this.
Sorry for the trouble if there's a simple explanation, this whole blender scripting confuses me.


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Cannot clear seam from individual edges
After modifying a mesh with an existing UV unwrapping, I am unable to clear seam from some individual edges. In the screenshot below, I created the leftward section of the mesh after the initial UV unwrapping by subdividing a face manually with the knife tool and then extruding it. After this, I wanted to clear seam from the highlighted edge (white) in the screenshot so that re-unwrapping the mesh would produce a result continuous with the pinned UVs on the face to the right of the highlighted edge, but clicking "clear seam" with the edge selected does nothing. Most other seams on the mesh can be cleared individually. If I select the entire mesh and click "clear seam," all seams are removed.
Is this inability to remove seams intended behavior, and if so, what rule justifies being unable to remove individual seams like this one? In this question, the inability to clear seam was due to non-manifold geometry, but this mesh should be a manifold. The Blender docs make no mention of clear seam being an operation that can fail, and no error is displayed in the interface when trying to clear the seam.

While writing this up, I thought to check for any degenerate geometry that may have been produced while extruding the face. Sure enough, after applying Mesh > Clean Up > Degenerate Dissolve, I was able to clear seam on this edge. There was a degenerate face between its two endpoints.
It would still be nice to know what rules affect when seams can be cleared. I find it surprising that this isn't mentioned in the docs.


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Preview texture in 3D viewport without assigning material to mesh
According to the note in this page of the Blender manual:

You can perform UV texturing on a mesh within Blender without assigning a material, and you will even see it in your 3D Viewport in textured viewport mode.

However, if I create a UV map for a mesh, assign an image to the UV map in the UV Editor, and choose "texture" as the color source in the Viewport Shading dropdown (with viewport shading set to Solid), no texturing is applied in the 3D Viewport:

If I further add a material to the object in the Shading workspace and provide a texture input for the material's base color, the 3D viewport does preview texturing under Solid viewport shading, but in a confusing way. It displays the mesh with the UVs of the map currently being viewed in the UV Editor, regardless of what map is chosen for rendering in Properties->Object Data Properties->UV Maps, but it uses the texture specified by the material, not the image active in the UV Editor. (Setting the viewport shading to Material Preview or Rendered uses the UV map chosen for rendering regardless of the UV Editor state, as expected.)

Is there any way to get the result described by the documentation: previewing a texture on a mesh without having to add a material first? And likewise, does the choice of image in the UV Editor interface ever affect the 3D Viewport?

The preview behavior you describe is how Blender used to work until extremely recently (I think it went away with 3.0).  Unfortunately, it was very confusing.  You kind of just had to know the magic incantation where you clicked your object , selected the faces in edit mode, then simultaneously select an image texture in the texture view.  It's better for everyone involved for the viewport to only be showing subsets of the material, not a weird display override mode where you can show something not true to the model.
To answer your other question, the texture selection is more of a preview when UV-ing, but comes up more when you are Texture painting.  You have the option of painting on the model directly or the texture directly, and the texture you have selected is what gets painted on in the Image viewer.

Personally, I would argue that texture previews away with Blender 2.8+ when Multitexture mode was removed in favor of keeping only GLSL (and soon Vulkan).


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Creating a new material without adding a new material slot
I'm trying to figure out how to create a new material at an existing material slot on an object. If you add a new material slot to an object, the interface displays a "New" button to let you create a new material for it:

But if you've previously added a material slot and assigned faces to it, and later want to create a new material for use with the slot, there's no obvious way to do this directly. The materials drop-down for the slot has no option to create a new material:

and I haven't found any quick way in other interfaces, like the Shading tab, to request creating a new material for an existing slot.
So: is there any quick way to tell Blender to create a new material without adding a new slot to an object? Yes, you can add a temporary slot, click "New" to create a material, delete the slot, and assign the new material to the existing slot where you wanted it to be, but it feels like there should be a less silly way to do it.

Remove the material from the slot and the New button shows up, or press the Copy button to the rigth

To restate Duarte's reply with a screenshot, click the "x" button next to the name of the material currently assigned to the slot to un-assign the material. After this, the "New" button to create a new material will appear.


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Problems with G and control
the original is G, moving items. However, it now moving like with G and control, block by block, and i have to click G and control to the original effect. what should i do to fix it?

You haven't got Snapping turned on (horseshoe icon hilighted in white/blue on the top toolbar) have you?

Horseshoe? I think you hurt all magnets' feelings

It didn't complain the last time I called it that, but 'magnet' it will be in future! :^)

are you sure you don't have the snap grid on ?


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Fluid Simulation is in the wrong place and positioning
so i was building a simple fluid simulation, I got everything set up like I usually would, and then I hit bake. my simulation and geometry for the Fluid domain are upside down. Any help and/or information with how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. Here are some SS's.

If I look at your capture, it appears to look fine in terms of the particle simulation portion -- slow (blue-ish) water at the topd, then spreading and turning to green (higher velocity) and yellow at the bottom where it splashes outward.  You may want to upload and share your file via blend-exchange

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iVbHjHoHwL41s709cJa7aAl-cGoSXURQ?usp=sharing

My clue:  I noticed that the "Voxel size indicator" (the little orange square at one corner of your Domain object) is in the upper right instead of lower left corner. This was somehow inverting gravity.
I applied all transforms to the domain object:

and all is healed in simulation land:

solution file:


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Sculpt mode - Paint tool removes viewport alpha/transparency?
In short, I want to trace over the edgeloops I painted for a model below some clothes. I start by adding viewport transparency to the coat (basically set Alpha to 0.5).
I do this using the Sculpt's "Paint" tool.
But, the moment I start painting, the clothes' viewport transparency disappears.

Why does this happen? Can I keep the coat's viewport alpha/transparency while doing Sculpt Painting?
(X-ray still adds back the transparency, so clearly it should be possible, right?)


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objects are deleted when rendering
I'm new to Blender, I have the following problem. When going to the rendering tab, the copied objects are deleted, leaving only the original. Would anyone know how to help me?

Make sure that the copies are visible for render in the Outliner, or if you use tools like Array modifier, make sure that the visibility for render is activated in the modifier

Thanks, they weren't visible

Make sure that the copies are visible for render in the Outliner, or if you use tools like Array modifier, make sure that the visibility for render is activated in the modifier.


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Extruding breaks geometry
I want to extrude along normals this object:
The result should be like this, but even. This action breaks the geometry which is why result is not even.
I think the problem is in the uneven cutting up, but i can't fix it. I tried to add and reduce geometry, but it didn't help.
Blend file -
Thanks in advance!

Any time you just cut across a grid of quads at an arbitrary angle, ignoring edge flow completely, the result will be ugly. Search: 3d edge flow topology poles It's worth studying, and the knowledge will help you in all your designs moving forward. This is universal to all polygon modeling software.

Your topology is too dense, you should simplify it:

Extrude along normals:

Bevel the edges and give it a Subdivision Surface modifier:


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How do I use an asset and change the material on it without changing all instances of that asset?
I have tried using make local and make single user, have tried making a user library of assets so I can import using append, anything I do to my asset is also done to all other instances of that asset. I need to change the colour of the asset without changing the other assets


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Help needed in writing Meta data information from the image sequence to the converted video in blender

I want to display each individual filename in my converted image sequence to video output in every frame of the blender. I tried with the sequence of numbers also. But it shows the same file name. I tried with all the metadata options. But no luck. Anyone there to help me!. Herewith, I attached the screenshot for the same.


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Is There a way to Apply Visual Geometry to Mesh with Geometry Nodes?
I am wondering is there is a way to apply the geometry of an object every frame using geometry nodes. I am attempting to make a lathe animation, but I need the Boolean of the cutting tool to stay in place after each frame. If there is a way to apply the geometry of the mesh using geometry nodes, or have something that does the same thing, I would greatly appreciate any responses. I am still a bit of a noob to geometry nodes, so sorry if it's really obvious.
Thanks

it depends what you want to do....(as usual). Normally a lathe is moving so fast, you will only see the "result", the normal human eye won't see the "little step" each rotation has, so you could just use a "normal" boolean modifier and e.g. make the cutter just bigger or smaller

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/79445/using-boolean-modifiers-and-shape-keys-in-animation/79449#79449

i just show the "principle" how it works - of course you can animate and do the same things with geometry nodes.
The principle is: just "hide" the cutter (and add a "real" cutter instead) and then just animate the cutter:
So here on the left side is the object which should be cut (box):

the cylinder is the cutter (which you should hide). Then give the box a boolean modifier with the cutter as object and move the cylinder like this:

then hide the cutter:

of course you can add more cutters, i added this:

and this:

added them to the boolean modifiers (you could also work with a collection):

result:

of course you should then animate the "real" cutters to it so that it looks real...and maybe some particles flying around for the shavings.
and here the same principle just with GN setup:

result:

This works for simple examples, however, I'm not sure it will for complex shapes. In my case, I will have the tool following an organic path that might not be possible with cutters.

If that is the case you should improve your question so that others don’t waste their time like I did because of your imprecise question. Thanks.


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Animations - problem with multiple actions
I work as AR Developer on various software and Hololens 2 from Microsoft. I have an assembly created in Creo which I've exported to OBJ with groups containing particular parts so I can move them in Blender separately. I want to create animations in single FBX file, and those animations will appear on Hololens from dropdown menu. I want to do it that way to show how to perform repair process of big industry machine. I know that I can do it by creating one Action in Action Editor for each step. But when I create an Action in which I rotate one part, I want to create another Action, I select different part in model and its drifting away to strange localization. I assume it is changing it's translation points or something
Is there any option to do it different way? What am I doing wrong? Maybe the Action is applied to one model at the time and selecting another model is translating it to this previous one?
But how to do it to still be able to export particular animations in one FBX file?


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Particle hair behaving strangely and falling through skull mesh. General mayhem
I'm new to blender. Really, the only thing I'm using it for is hair creation, so I can import the hair into Unreal Engine for animations.
I figured I'd start with a super simple slicked back hair groom, but I'm running into all sorts of problems. First, after I groomed the particles how I thought they should be, I switched from eevee to cycles to view it and I got this. The top turned out good and the back turned out (relatively) fine, but the sides should not be that thin.

This is what it looks like in particle edit mode. Here, the sides don't look particularly thin. The sides also look uniform in thickness, unlike in the rendered image.

As an experiment, in particle edit mode, I added about 500 new particle hairs to this left side of the head. When I combed them down however, they made almost no difference. They did fill in a little strip near the forehead and sideburn areas but seemed to do nothing nearer the temple where the hair is particularly thin. Possibly, when I add particles in particle edit mode, they don't have any children??? If that is the case, that would partly explain why they had so little affect, but not why they only seemed to improve one area--I combed them over the whole left side of the head!
Here is another issue that may be related. This image is back in eevee from inside the character's head. Obviously the hair should not be falling through his skull, lol.

I think this may be the reason no hair is showing up in the sideburn area on the right side of his face. I am pretty sure it is all falling through to the inside of his skull. Image one is the right side of his skull showing the weight painting of the vertex group. You can actually see little stubble in the mostly empty area. I think those are hair roots, but none of the rest of the hair is showing. The second image is that same section of the head, but from the inside. There you can see plenty of hair.

Finally, this isn't exactly related, but I saw a tutorial where a guy was combing the hair, and you could actually see all the children as he was combing it. I though that would be extremely useful, but I can't figure out how he activated that setting.


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How to make an object transparent but give it color to its edges using nodes?
I'm pretty new here and I have little experience with Blender, and I'm still struggling to understand how nodes work.
However, I like Blender a lot and I'd like to ask for help to achieve the effect you see in the attached image. A colored edge with transparent mesh. This effect should be achieved no matter from which angle you look at the model.

I saw a post with an answer to something similar using an old version of Blender and I'd like to see if anybody has a different approach to it using the principled bsdf shader, since I know it combines some of the nodes this solution uses.
Here is the link to that same post: How to render a mesh transparent with a color on its edges only, with nodes?
Thanks a lot in advance for any help you can provide.

You can use a Principled BSDF, but you still have to Mix it with a Transparent Shader using a Fresnel as a Mix factor as outlined in the linked answer (The Principled BSDF's built-in alpha won't cut it).


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How to twist an object's sides

Essentially, I've made this twisted mobius strip and I was wondering if anyone has any way to twist it where the sides of the shape twist and rotate.

if it's a curve i guess you need to convert to mesh then cut off and rotate the mesh so that the sides are twisted


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How can I fix the wobbly reflections?
The reflections on my car model look wobbly like this:

As an attempt to fix this, I selected all the faces and hit Mesh > Normals > Average > Face Area. After that, the wobbly was mostly gone, but it left some artifacts in a face.

I was able to "resolve" this by flipping the faces, but they now face the wrong orientation.

I will be exporting this model to Unity, so this is clearly not the solution.
Is there any way I can flip these faces back to their correct orientation without changing the behavior of these reflections, or a whole other way of fixing the wobbly reflections?

I would verify that this issue actually transfers to Unity before freaking out about it too hard. It could be some artefact of the preview view mode in Blender. Test it in Unity with a shiny material and see if it still has the issue.

Just flip again, now to the right side. You flipped the indivuduals, now flip the whole .

I already had this issue in Unity, for over a year to be exact. The issue most likely has to do with the model itself, I just haven't figured out the solution yet. ---
@DanielMöller what do you mean by "flipping the whole"? If you mean selecting all  the faces that makes up the rear window and hitting Alt+N > Flip, that's exactly what I did. Reflections are always only correct when facing the wrong direction. If I flip them, they become distorted again (just like in the second picture). If I flip them again, they're correct but on wrong side.

Can you share your Blender project file? Instructions for sharing.

Here

That's strange behavior indeed.... I noticed that the "merge" in the mirror is causing this, as if the geometry was flattened, which doesn't seem to make sense.


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Align vertices of different curves on one plane
I am currently trying to reconstruct a ship and have copied out a few frames of the hull as an example. I would like to use Bridge Edge Loops to generate surfaces between the vertices, which should represent the planks of the hull. Now I have the problem that the vertices lie at completely different spots on their curves and not on the same plane, so that the faces would not be straight later. I have already distributed the vertices evenly using LoopTools > Space, but unfortunately that didn't help either. Is there a way to align the vertices of the same spot of several curves all on one plane (so that they have the same value on the Z-axis)?
Thanks in advance!

You could simplify the edge loops a lot, also, do they have the same amount of vertices? Could you please share your file?

Sure and sry for the delay, I first had to learn how to share files:

Unfortunately, the curves all have different lengths and so also different amounts of vertices. What do you mean by simplifying the edge loops? Sry I'm quite new to Blender and have very little experience with it.

First you delete the edges in the middle and separate each curve.
(P in edit mode, by loose parts)

Then you add these geometry nodes to make each curve have exactly 50 vertices (or another number you like).
Add the same geometry nodes to the three curves, and apply it for each.

Now in object mode select the three curves and join them (ctrl+J)
Now you can bridge loops because they have the same amount of vertices.
This is the result applying with 25 points:

Thanks Daniel, thats awesome! Didn't work till I double checked your instructions and realized I missed the APPLY part (just like you highligthed it^^). Thank you again!

You could select each edge loop and X Limited Dissolve, then increase the Max Angle value until you get the amount of vertices you want (example: 24), keep the same amount for each edge loop:

Then select all and right click > LoopTools > Loft:

And move each vertex along its edge until you get a cleaner topology:


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How can I keep the texture on an object unstretched after rotation?
This is a follow-up question for this How can I apply texture with simple tiling without stretching or scaling? . The answer works in 95% of cases, but with the suggested vector transforming and mapping, the texture is being tiled along one surface/plane. If I rotate the object, the texture gets skewed. Example is shown in the screenshot. (The rotated plane is a duplicate of the top plane, both using the same texture configuration.)

I wonder if it is possible to force the texture to work like in the real world. For example, imagine you have a roll of wallpaper with a pattern. You can unroll it to get the necessary length for one strip/lane that will be glued to the wall. When you unroll it, the pattern is repeated. Now you have a strip of wallpaper prepared for one wall, but the next wall is rotated by 90 degrees. After rotating lane of wallpaper, the pattern on the lane remains the same.
For now, in Blender, if I want to keep the texture unchanged, I apply the same rotation value in the mapping node as duplicated object has.

Is there a reason to make the object bigger or smaller on last question? when you change an object size if the new size is equal to the same size, but smaller, you will get the same UV size, because you are just changing the 3D object. If you change the size to a different that the original size on a different dimension (Example: 120X20 to a 100X20) you are basically making a new shape from the original object and the UV are getting stretched and that's where the deformation occurs. An option is to make the image smaller or bigger to get a tile effect instead of changing the 3D object.

With the UV option correctly, it should work as in real world. Example :
https://imgur.com/a/GbdjsQl BUT i'm not sure what's your final goal

That isn’t the answer I gave to un-stretch the texture, and for this reason: Vector transformation will always have this problem.

If I understand what you're suggesting, the solution would be to fix/lock the UV map size, and then Blender will simply repeat it to fill the object with the texture if I will change object size.
I'm really new to Blender and I have to google everything I want to achieve. Could I ask you to provide more detailed steps for what you're suggesting?
As for the question about changing the size – yes, I want the object in Blender to behave like a real-world object. For example, if I cut a ceramic tile or wallpaper in the real world, the pattern or picture on them would stay the same.

You need to learn UV unwrap and textures. Basically, when you use the UV as a texture coordinate, your image is fixed to that object like in real world; and like in real world you can not make an image pattern that is on a paper, bigger (Unless you add another paper with the same pattern) in Blender but you could reduce your final size to make smaller parts of that pattern and cut them if you add the vertices for it. example : https://imgur.com/a/gtYCdpp

Because you are only making a plane, you need to first drop the VECTOR TRANSFORM. But that's only for a plane, for other shapes, you first need to learn a bit more about UVs and textures.

It seems you also have to learn the basics about working in Object Mode and working in Edit Mode. On your other question you wrote in the comments, you want them to behave like in the real world, i.e. when you rotate the object, the texture should rotate with it. But no matter which of the standard Texture Coordinate outputs you use, like General, UV or Object, in all cases the texture already rotates with the object - unless you rotate the mesh in Edit Mode. That's why it seems to me you have a lot of modeling and texturing basics to learn which is impossible with one question.

I might not understand all the theory, although I think I need a vector transform to make the texture behave like in the real world. I have a texture sized for real-world dimensions, for example, 249x100 cm. I am creating a plane/image mesh with that size and applying the texture to it. Now, if I want to cut the plane in half, I change its size and let the vector transform node handle the calculations to keep the texture's aspect ratio and size on the modified object, and will just "hide" that does not fit new size.

If I want to increase the object's size, the vector transform node, with the "repeat" setting on the texture node, will tile the object and maintain the texture's aspect ratio. Without using the vector transform node, if I change the object's size, I would need to manually calculate how much to scale the texture to keep its aspect ratio. In general, I have a mesh plane that keeps the real-world texture size projected onto the Blender object's size. I've also applied a -30-degree rotation to the object on the Z-axis. If I input -30 in the mapping node, the texture will correct its skew.

https://imgur.com/a/K5ez4wg I'm looking for a way to tell Blender to do this automatically. If this is called by a different word/term, please excuse me; I don’t know it. And if there is an easier method, please share it, I would really appreciate it.

As for UV unwrapping, I'm not sure how it applies in my case. I've watched a couple of videos about it. From what I understand, UV unwrapping is necessary for complex objects when I want to wrap them with textures and keep the aspect ratio. I am working with flat objects, such as ceramic tiles, where a standard flat projection works perfectly. All I need is to figure out how to make Blender repeat or tile the texture, maintain the aspect ratio, and prevent skewing when rotating the object.


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How to hide collision shape lines in viewport?
I don't know what I'm missing, it should be totally simple and I found nothing about how to hide the collision shapes in viewport.
(For some objects I chose a simple collision shape that doesn't necessarily fit the object shape)

There's no option in the Viewport Overlays panel so I guess you can't disable the shape display

@moonboots - thanks for clarifying it

It looks like it is not possible even with python. According to ChatGPT :) there is not an API to controlle visibility of collision_shape component. So the only one option seems to be disable all Overlays. As workaround I wanted to change Theme of 3Dviewport and set Alpha to zero, but there is only RGB.

@vklidu - is there a way to disable all overlays in the editor? I tried turning off everything but the wireframe of the collision shape stay.  That's really strange there is no toggle function for it.

It looks like it is not possible even with python. According to ChatGPT :) there is not an API to controlle visibility of collision_shape component.
As workaround I wanted to change Theme of 3D Viewport and set Alpha to zero, but there is only RGB.
So the only one option seems to be hide all Overlays (gizmo, outlines, ...)


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How to make GN group's input default value available for asset use?
I found that GN group input default values are not given when using the group as asset in another project. How should I solve this?
Example:
The follow is a simple GN group that scales mesh size. The default value for the input "scale" is set to 1.

I marked this group as asset

Now, using this file as asset in another project, shows default 0.0 and not 1.0 :/

Did you try pressing Backspace while hovering the Scale field ? Default shortcut to set to default value.

@Lutzi - it sets the value to 0, not the default value I made in the asset project


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how to set uvmap texture size
In order to learn uvmap and texturing, I want to create a model of King quest game pc box model.
The uvmap edges proportions are perfect, but much of the texture area is not in used (for example, the upper left uv coordinate is far from the upper texture edge - y=0.84). This is because the texture is squared, where the uvmap is set for a non squared image. I want the texture to be in the same size like the image I want to use - 1850x1260 pixels, while the default is squared one and I even can't find what is its size.

Here the process I did:
(1) Arranging an image for being the texture:

(2) Scaling a cube with the same proportions:

(3) Apply scaling, so transform's scale values are again (1,1,1)
(4) Remove default uvmap
(5) Create new uvmap with correct form by:

Creating a seam
Selecting all faces
Unwarp
Rotate and move uvmap and snapping to the grid to place it as was shown here above

While in the shader editor tab, create a new texture with your desired dimension, or simply import the texture you want to use. With the texture node selected, go to the uv editing tab. The uv window should scaled accordingly to your images size.

Thanks. first, in the image you gave, the uvmap lost its proportions. It should keep proportion, and just be placed over a correct texture size. Second, I followed your suggestion , add a texture node and set it to the image, but when going back to the uvmap editor nothing was changed.


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How to make quads after applying bevel modifier with non destructive way
I would like to use non destructive beveling with modifier, but also want to keep quads polygons for good topology. I used outer arch for beveling to have this nice arch, but it creates an 6-gon.

I tried to use triangulate modifier in order to keep all this non destructive, but it creates 3-gons while I would like only quads.

Here is an example of a good mesh topology made by manual editing (no modifier) - the screen shot was taken from "Blender Beginner Modelling Chair Tutorial - part 2" by Andrew Price.

Set the angle to 0 on the Bevel modifier, so it will bevel the flat edges too.

How it is going to solve the problem of the n-gon ?


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Askew material added to object
I am new to Blender and I am currently following some YouTube tutorials on how to do different assets, so that I can get some guided hands on practice.
For my present project I am trying to create a lemon and when following the tutorial step by step, when adding the new material that is supposed to be used as the inside, regardless of the image that I am using ( I had a free image with 2 lemons, then one lemon and eventually added a wood texture just to test), I get a slightly askewed view and I am unable to adjust it properly.
I redid the project and used the same tutorial and, again, when I use Project From View I get the same result.
I did try to goole the issue and I ended up thinking it could be 10 dfferent things so that is even more confusing...
Did I mess up the views? I am still struggling with the views and I may have misaligned something... is it because of the shape of the object or the surface and how I filled it?
I decided to ask since for some of you this might be trivial and as I am trying to document I am giving it a shot here.
Here is my result so far.
Blender Version 4.1.1 (4.1.1 2024-04-16)

Where, exactly, is your problem? I can't figure out what's not working right here.

What's your question? If your question is "What did I do wrong?" it's a lot harder to answer than "How do I texture a lemon?" We don't know what you have done, only you know that.

You should really edit this and form a clear and specific question that would describe the goal, the problem and what you would like to know clearly.

hello, we can't see your UV so it's hard to tell if you've correctly unwrapped but maybe share your file? don't forget to pack your image

@dramaticgarlic: hint: if you provide a blend file - people don't have to ask for technical details, you got much more attention and even quicker answers instead of comments.


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Why Won't My Gradient Work on SVG graphic?
I'm trying to make a gradient on this svg graphic but is not working. In the material preview I can see that I made this in the right way.

Hello please share your file

try using object coordinates and play around with the mapping values (scale and x location):

I changed to your settings and it worked, thank you

you are welcome