text:
locked track constraint *with offset* on mechanical rig

I want the swivel to follow so that the aim bone points at the target bone.  using a "locked track" constraint.  (dealing with the up/down aim elsewhere)
problems:

it has to rotate from the swivel bone, but if swivel is aimed directly at target, then aim bone will be pointing just to the side of the target.
you could offset the swivel's angle by a little, but it wouldn't stay correct as the target gets closer or further away.
aim has to be a child of swivel (mechanical rig)

The only solution I came up with is giving the target bone a child that points back at the aim bone. Then, you transfer that angle to the swivel bone (flipping it upside down so the swivel gets the opposite angle). That works, but I'm probably missing some basic way to solve this without that complexity.
When trying to rig up mechanical arm machines, they often have this problem where the whole thing swivels from one place (the center), but by the time you get through a couple of arm sections, it is offset from the center.
any ideas?

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

I generally use IK for this kind of rigs.
In my example Aim Bone has a IK constraint targeting at Target, chain lenght 3.
Target is unparented to any of the chain bones.
The rest of the chain is parented connected.
Aim is stretchy and locked on all Axis.
Mid is locked on all axis.
Swivel is locked on X and Y axis.
Mesh is parented to Swivel bone only.
With this setup it's easy to implement vertical aim also: just unlock X axis of Aim, and add a copy of aim, which copies loc and rot from aim, and scale from Swivel.

That is awesome.   IK is a lot more flexible/useful than I realized.    Thank you!

You're welcome!


text:
How can I select 2 corner edges which make 90 degrees between them on a grid
I would need help with this please.
I want to select the corner edges which make 90 degrees. And then, I already have in the setup the mesh to points on the specific corner edges.
Thank you

With Blender and Geometry Nodes. In my setup I already deleted the inside of the grid and only have the perimeter curve.

2D solution
This solution evaulates at vertex domain:

vertices that have 2 edges (and only 2); and
the angle between the edges is 90

PS: you can remove the "has 2 edges" verification in case you need, but in a grid, all the edges will be selected unless you delete the center

Example:
Source mesh:

Result:

3D solution
This solution evaluates for each "face corner":

Corners whose edges form a 90 degree angle

If the edges fors faces, the faces are preserved, if not, only the edges are selected.

Example:
Source mesh:

Result:

The weird floating edges are within the "tolerance" (epsilon) in the angle comparison. When we deal with float values in computers, we can't use "equal", we always need a tolerance. We can lower it for those edges to disappear, but there is a limit for how much you can lower it without getting unstable results.

"we always need a tolerance" - theoretically there are specific situations when you don't need it, but working with this attitude I managed to provoke some bugs like this one - you'd think the normals of a bounding box would always consist of a single integer component $1$ and two zeroes, and yet not exactly…

As a software developer, hoping to get exact float values is completely out of question.

Oh wow! This is epic! Thank you so much! I have been stuck here, now I can move on.

Great, @GeoNeo, please consider marking it as answered to close the post.

@DanielMöller here's na example where the ε=0 is fine: https://i.imgur.com/lFux8PM.png

@MarkusvonBroady, well... just because you're comparing a number with itself. There is no mathematic operation involved.

@DanielMöller - accepted as answer! Thank you!

@DanielMöller in the case of the normal, there isn't really any maths either: the bounding box should have all top vertices on equal z, the normal should be <0, 0, 1>,the z component should be 1, so it's just number comparing too, but it failed for some reason :

@MarkusvonBroady, well... depending on the Z itself, it might not be a round value (some values that seem roud are impossible in float, they're represented round, but they're not exact), also, the normals might be a "calculation" from vertices instead of a stored value. You start multiplying/dividing things, rounding errors will definitely appear.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Trying to extrude a path\plane\road into a mountain - but it doesn't work as expected
would really appreciate understanding what I am doing wrong here. I imported the mountain from touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu and created the path from an svg file that I generated using Inkscape. I then used all the modifiers that you can see in the video and tried to extrude my plane into the mountain and then use a boolean modifier on the mountain - but it doesn't seem to work as expected.

Hello, so what are you trying to do exactly?

Could you show us the "Face Orientation" (the blue/red "thing") after applying all the modifiers ?

@StefLAncien nice catch! It was a big portion of the problem, but I still have "holes" where the boolean modifier doesn't work where it seems to suppose to work? https://imgur.com/a/4xmf1lN

You can try and play with the "Solver Options".

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


text:
Why is the mirror in sculpt mode dislocated?

I already mirrored it in x axis but why isn't it anchored to the middle? This is in sculpt mode and I haven't remeshed it. The x and y axis is also dislocated. What should I do?

hello what do you mean by anchored? Could you please highlitght the problem? Don't forget to apply the scale, the brush may be distorted because you have an uneven scale

Maybe add a few more screenshots, specifically one in object mode with the object selected and the object's coordinates visible (the location, rotation and scale tab open and visible). Also one with the modifiers panel if there are any modifiers on the object.
Avoid cropping the screenshots to a small area, try to keep the whole window in the screenshot because it may include information relevant to the question (even if sometimes the person asking doesn't know that the information is relevant).

It seems like 2 things happened here :

The model is rotated
Model's origin is not in the model's center.

__
To fix this go into Object mode and then (with only this model selected) :

Ctrl+A > Rotation - to apply rotation
Right Mouse Click > Set Origin > Origin to Geometry - to place Origin to the model's center


text:
Armour plate with curved edges and raised border
I am trying to replicate an armour plate of a cannon - it is a flat surface, with straight lines and curves and has a raised border, with rivets along its border.
I have tried various ways of doing this - I've attempted to trace vertices that I've extruded to form the shape of the plate.
However, I feel challenged when realising that I need to fill in the shape with vertices to create a shaped plane.
I have also tried creating a plane and subdividing it and then deforming it with proportional editing, but still doesn't look right, because then you have vertices overlapping each other within the outer curved sections etc.
Also, the main problem is also the fact that I need to create the raised border. But I supposed that I would need to ensure that the edges follow the curved perimeter, so I'm able to extrude the border outwards?
I've also tried to forget about the plane and started with skinning an outer edge to create the border. But then... how do you fill in the plate with vertices to make it solid?
The image shows the technique I used to "fill" in the plane with vertices, after skinning the border. But the distribution of vertices in the plane I have done manually and doesn't look right.

I've used an image from your screen as a background image.
Start with a single Vertex and E (Extrude) round the periphery of your image using F to fill the final edge.

Hit A to select All then F to create a face.

Go into Face mode and use I (inset) to create your surround

Then Ctrl-I to invert the selection followed by Alt-E > Extrude Faces along Normals checking Offset Even if necessary on the bottom-left Operator menu

Thank you for the answer. I haven't attempted your technique yet, but I am just concerned about one thing: - When the face is filled in. How is is filled in? As an Ngon? I would like to have an evenly distributed mesh so that I don't run into unwanted artefacts when rendering. Also, what if I want to add details in the face? I would need some sort of topology in an evenly distributed series of vertices in the mesh to be able to work on. Not sure if I've explained myself correctly... Thanks

It would be filled as a single face but you can subdivide the face that's left after creating the surrounding edge. I wouldn't worry about artefacts or evenly distributing vertices if the face itself is flat. They shouldn't be visible when it's rendered.


text:
Bump node create wrong normals from height

I attached a wave texture into a height input of a bump node, expecting to get normals corresponding to a sine surface, but instead I get normals of (0,0,1) and I can't find why.\
I checked the values by displacement as follows:
Texture factor output:
The values are as expected

Desired bump node output normals:
These are the normals I would like to obtained

Actual normals values obtained by a bump node:
Normals Z values are always 1 - Why?

Normals X values are always 0 (and the same for Y values) - Why?

Hello I'm not sure what you're trying to do here, you need to plug a Displacement node into the Displacement input

@moonboots - I built here a graph to inspected the normal components values obtained from the bump output node. The displacement serves as "value-meter" in this context.

oh ok sorry, too complicated for me   ;)

The normals you're getting out of a bump node from a wave texture height are correct.
But, you cannot use these normals as the input to displacement.
Displacement affects your base normals, because it moves verts (with true displacement) or changes their normals (with bump) or both, and your base normals affect the activity of a bump node (notice the "normal" input.)  This creates a circularity.  Blender doesn't make this circularity entirely clear-- its interface suggests that displacement is only output, never input, so it's not like it's anybody's fault for missing it-- but it still exists.
Blender always calculates displacement before it calculates bump.  Your noodles don't matter.  It can't calculate based on a circularity, so it decides to do things this way, no matter what you tell it to do.
But, there's a really simple workaround for this.  Two workarounds, actually.  Either plug your wave texture output into your displacement (via displacement node), or plug them into a bump node and plug the normal output of that bump node into the normal input of your diffuse BSDF.
Would it be possible to do things otherwise?  Yes.  In the case of a circularity, Blender could input pre-displacement normals into the input for the bump node and calculate it from those.  It does this with generated texture coords, for good or ill (leading to a lot of confusion sometimes for people who expect coords used for displacement to match coords used for albedo.)  But it doesn't do that with normals.
Could you use GN to store pre-displacement normals and use them?  You could store them, but Blender just won't run a bump node until after it's figured displacement.  You would have to recreate the bump node functionality within GN-- probably, something just reasonably close to a bump node.  It wouldn't work with adaptive subdivision though.

Is Blender always calculating displacement before bump? The bump on a plane gets distorted by the displaced geometry... also bump is visible in material preview as well, (shader-based) displacement only in rendered view. So I would have thought it is the other way round, but I admit I don't know it.

That's lights the point!!

@GordonBrinkmann I can see how you could think of the order, as pseudo-transformations, as occuring either way.  But while you can use a bump map with the normals provided by displacement, you cannot use displacement with the normals provided from a bump map.  Similar thing happens, for same reason, with the use of normal texture coords for displacement (which is more irritating than bump because it prevents live triplanar displacement.)  My conclusions are from experimentation, so no, there's no 100% certainty, I could have made an error-- but I don't believe that I did.

Actually I do not know if you only want to get the normals or the displacement shown in the question. I'll go for the displacement, because this seems more what you want since you are using the Displacement socket on the Material Output.
Two things: Firstly, you don't need a Bump node for displacement, there is a dedicated Displacement node. You can also simply use the Fac output of the Wave Texture node and plug it into the Z socket of a Combine XYZ node, but the Displacement has some options that might be helpful like setting the Scale or Midlevel (the Combine XYZ node works as if Midlevel = 0 and Scale = 1). But what you need is enabling Settings > Surface > Displacement > Displacement Only (or Displacement and Bump if you want bump as well) in the Material Properties:

Secondly, I cannot see it in your screenshots how high the resolution of your mesh is and I suspect it is a simple plane with only four corner vertices. This is not enough if you want displacement - because for displacement you need geometry that can be displaced. Either real geometry from a subdivided mesh or using a Subdivision Surface modifier.
Here is an example showing you the resolution of a plane for a decent displacement result, the orange grid being the mesh resolution and the small black grid inbetween the additional subdivision by a Subdivision Surface modifier set to Simple and Levels = 3. On the left the Fac output of the Wave Texture is plugged into a Combine XYZ node, on the right it is plugged into the Height of a Displacement node. With Midlevel = 0 and Scale = 1, they produce the same result:

Of course you can recreate the Midlevel and Scale option with a Combine XYZ as well: the value you enter as Midlevel first has to be subtracted from the Fac value, then you have to Multiply it with the Scale value. The order is important (at least if you want to replicate the Displacement node settings), first subtract, then multiply. Here I show it with Midlevel = 1 and Scale = 0.2:

By the way, what you can do with the Combine XYZ node directly while you would need Texture Coordinate and Mapping nodes for the Displacement is moving the displaced mesh around horizontally by changing the X and Y values.
Alternatively, you could also use Adaptive Subdivision, which requires you to enable the Feature Set > Experimental in the Render Properties, then appears another setting further down in the Render Properties called Subdivision which allows you to set the Dicing Rate in pixels for renders and viewport, i.e. the resolution of the mesh relative in absolute pixels of the screen/image size.
Then you do not have to subdivide the plane at all, only enable Adaptive Subdivsion in the Subdivision Surface modifier. Note that these shader-based displacements are only visible in rendered view and they only work in Cycles.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. The graph is to inspect the output values of the bump node, for checking what normal values it gives when connecting wave texture into its height input. But the normal values I obtained are (0,0,1) which is strange.

I guess there is a misconception here or a confusion between a Vector in general, the Normal of a face and what the Displacement does. I will simplify this in the explanations below, maybe not 100% accurate but you might get the idea.
A Vector in general is an $n$-tuple of elements, in Blender usually a 3-tuple holding XYZ coordinates (or a Color socket is basically a 3-tuple as well holding RGB values).
Displacement can use vectors to displace (= move) vertices in directions given by 3-tuple vectors holding X, Y and Z values moving them forwards/backwards, left/right or up/down depending on their local or otherwise submitted coordinates (for example from a different object). The main thing is: displacement moves vertices in a direction.
The Normal (and now I'm oversimplifying to later make clear why it seems your displacement setup cannot work) is the direction a face is pointing in and Blender differentiates between the frontside of a face and the backside. Now if you are looking on the frontside of a face, its normal is pointing towards you. Looking at the backside of the same face, the normal is pointing away from you. Normal values can range from -1 (pointing completely into the opposite direction of the according axis) to 1 (parallel to the according axis).
And here comes the problem: in your example, the displacement lets the geometry move from 0 to 1 on the Z axis in 3D space. This results in faces with normals where at the highest point the normal is pointing upwards (Z = 1) and at the lowest point as well. The faces inbetween have lower values on Z (but not 0 because there is no vertical face) and varying values on X.
In the image below I have split the normals in X and Y values, plugged them into a Map Range node mapping from -1/1 to 0/1 and used a Color Ramp to increase the contrast a bit. On the left you see the normals' X values and the Z values on the right. Faces pointing towards +X are bright (> 0.5), faces pointing towards -X are dark (< 0.5) on the left object, while faces on the right object that are more or less horizontal (pointing upwards) are very bright (Z value going towards 1):

Now I guess you expect these values to be converted into displacement by your setup. But the Bump node does not have a simple Vector output where the values which you can see above are the result. It converts the calculated height into normals, which can be viewed from two sides: the frontside of the face and the backside of the face. Which means, when I now change the view to the underside of the objects, the X values stay the same, but the Z values are no longer white at the maximum and minimum height - because they are pointing away from the view (I had to adjust the Color Ramp or it would have been completely black from the previous setting):

I admit I do not know why the Displacement node interprets the X values as 0 and the Z values as 1 (using a minimum? maximum? average? value), but I would strongly suspect that the Normal output simply does not supply valid data for Displacement since the values are inconsistent and depending on the view.


text:
Exporting to FBX breaks texture, adding polygons
I have been trying for hours to figure out what the issue is. I was using tiny eye procedural add-on and baked the textures as show in the tutorial because I need to import to unity. But when exporting to fbx all the textures in the eyes break and poly tripled Does anyone have clue whats going on? Everything is just fine before export. I'm use blender 4.2

@GordonBrinkmann The current consensus is that third-party addons are not out of topic here. It's only troubleshooting/debugging or paywalled 3rd-party addons that can't be properly answered.

Agree for the subdiv modifier, it's visible from the bent wireframe in the 3rd screenshot. Eirher disable the modifier, or disable "apply modifiers" in the FBX export options.

Eyes made somewhat realistically (with layers of meshes with transmission, diffraction and whatnot) aren't as easy to export as a simple matter of baking textures and exporting. Firstly it's not the most optimal thing to replicate in a video game environment, for performance reasons and also the game engine might simply not have the tech to do it efficiently in the first place. You have to study how this particular eye system is made, which layers do what, what can be baked, what should be simplified for real time rendering, ....

@GordonBrinkmann So, just letting you know.

I actually don't have any modifiers unapplied other than armature. But from the above i figured it was something far beyond my level of understanding. I have since just made a new eye with uv sphere and drawn texture.


text:
Is there a way to access the Transform Pivot Point position using the Blender Python API?
I am currently working on an project that operates in Edit Mode.  The problem I currently have is that I need to access the position of the "Transform Pivot Point" (the reference point that Blender uses when doing Edit Mode operations, i.e. Active Element, Individual Origins, 3D Cursor, Median Point, Bounding Box Center).
The Blender Docs say you can get the current "mode" of the Transform Pivot Point (https://docs.blender.org/api/3.3/bpy_types_enum_items/transform_pivot_items_full.html), but there seems to be nothing on the actual data of the Transform Pivot Point itself.
Are there any built in methods or means to obtain the position of the Transform Pivot Point?

Access the Value
import bpy

print(
    bpy.context.scene.tool_settings.transform_pivot_point
)

Calculate the position
You need to calculate it yourself based on your situation
import bpy
from mathutils import Vector

ob = bpy.context.object
mat = ob.matrix_world

enum_value = bpy.context.scene.tool_settings.transform_pivot_point
if enum_value == "BOUNDING_BOX_CENTER":
    print(
        mat @ (sum([Vector(v) for v in ob.bound_box], Vector()) / 8.0)
    )

Tips

Perhaps a dirty hack, but you could create a vertex and scale it down to 0 to discover the position of the pivot point.


text:
How do I copy a surface deform modifier on an empty hair curve to another hair curve?
new user here! I'm following this tutorial on YouTube and I'm running into some trouble creating the bun using Blender's new hair system.
https://youtu.be/ox6y7KFft70?si=ZeqDakknTdFmhugT
I've created the bun as the tutorial instructs, but when I convert the edge loops into a hair curve, the surface deform modifier doesn't automatically apply like it does when you add an empty hair curve to a random mesh. I was told to copy the modifier on the random mesh to the new bun curve, but I can't seem to figure out how to do that? Unfortunately, I can't really move on with the tutorial until I figure out how to get the surface deform modifier onto the hair curve.
Here's an image for reference:

With the desired objects selected, Shift+Click the curve to make it the active object, then click the arrow to the left of the X on the modifier, and you'll see Copy to Selected.

Ooooh! I had thought Copy to Selected was found by right-clicking the name. That's where I was going wrong. Thank you so much!

Select the target object, shift select the object that has the modifier.
Click "copy to selected" (you can select multiple things at once, as long as the last selection is the one that has the modifier you want to copy)


text:
Is there a measure addon that has the functionality that I tried to create in this addon
The normal ruler in blender has nice functionality, except that you cant lock the measurement to vertices/faces/edges. I need a addon that does this (for 3d printing purposes).
I tried recreating my own, but does someone know if this functionality is in some addon already?
https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/1gqed8c/i_have_been_working_with_a_measure_addon_in/

The MeasureIt addon comes with Blender and does exactly this.

As far as i know, measureit cannot do this. You can only measure between vertices. Like using a guide point for measuring is not possible, unless you extrude a vertex there

Can you explain how the second drawn line can be done in MeasureIt, without a vertex being at the endpoint?

You can use the link function in MeasureIt to connect objects other than vertices such as empties.  This might be close to the functionality you are describing.

this sounds very tedious, creating an empty and positioning it just to make a measurement

After seeing the comment by @common_goldfish regarding empties and part of an old answer on BlenderArtists: https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-i-measure-between-2-objects-using-measureit/1156781 I am rewriting this.
IMHO it isn't an overly difficult way to update the dimension change on the X-axis with Blender's improved snapping. I don't think there is a way to do this dynamically on the X-axis between two objects when they are offset on the Y-axis. Any of the other changes shown in your linked video the MeasureIt Tool can do without any extra effort.
Create 2 empties. I left them huge for illustration. In MeasureIT Tools Click link:

With Vertex Snapping on for all measuring, snap one of the empties to a vertex on an object:

Select the other empty and in this case press G->X and move the mouse pointer to the vertex on the other cube. The orange box is the location of the mouse pointer:

X-axis dimension with no changes to geometry:

X-axis dimension after change to geometry and selecting empty and pressing G->X:

Object moved on Z-axis and pressed G->X and G->Z. The empty will go where you place the cursor. This image is different, because I messed up the original:

Example operation on one object: Select 2 vertices and click Segment:

Move geometry and the dimension changes:

So, if you move the vertex or the cube from where the line was initiated, it doesnt stay locked to the vertex, so you have to measure the distance again, which is why i tried to develop this addon

It doesnt really change dynamically

I rewrote the answer. Maybe it will be of some help. See the rewrite about the dimension changing  dynamically on the X-axis.

alright, seems like alot of extra steps to do the that though, messing about with empties etc


text:
Bevel miter outer to arch creates artifacts
How can I remove artifacts that appear when I set bevel miter outer to arch type?
In this example, I cut a hole in a cube and then applied bevel modifier. When I set miter outer to arch, some artifacts line appear from any miter outer point to the face other edge.

Make sure you checked "harden normals"

and autosmooth


text:
How to create Meshline according to each geometric edge vertices using GeometricNodes?
I'm using Blender 3.5 , trying to create an instance of MeshLine for each geometric edge and to set each Meshline instance end points according to the corresponding edge's end points.
I succeeded to create one MeshLine for a specific edge. But I can't figure out how to make it automatically for all instances, because I don't know how can I set each MeshLine instance end points..
Here is an example for creating a Meshline according to specific geometric edge

Here is how I began to make it automatically for all geometric edges, but I have the problem shown.

Do you need to have several vertices per mesh line or only two, as the initial edges are?

shmuel's answer is the good one because this is the explaination we needed, but if you want a line made by two vertices for each edge, you can simply duplicate the edges (shifted up so that we can see them in the image below).

From that if you want to have each segment composed of 10 vertices, for instance, you can convert the mesh to a curve, resample in order to have 10 vertices per curve and convert back to mesh.
Below, in edit mode, the result on top, and the initial mesh below it.

Thank you @lemon, it is a valuable knowledge. But yes, I need MeshLine  for adding vertices.

@audi02, I' completed the answer. After that all depends on what you want to do with it...

Thank you very much - I see now the mesh->curve for resampling and adding vertices!

Preface
...so you're going to have to change the way you think about GN until they add loop nodes. The way we construct most thinkinsg in GN, is using fields (and not so much static values), and the way we go about it is backwards or reverse of the way you are doing it.
Solution Explanation
In your case you want to instance the mesh line and then set the position.
You want to hold the edge position data on the edges even after they are converted into points and instanced on, that way when we make the instances real we can still use the edge data, even though we aren't working with the edges anymore.
solution
The way you do this is by

capturing the edge vertices positions on the edges (using the capture attribute node. set the capture domain to edge).
Then you convert it to points (mesh to points node set to edge) ,
instance the line (on the points, using instance on points node),
and convert the instances to real geometry (so you can actually manipulation it properly) (using the realize instances node).
Then use the endpoint selection node together with a switch node (set to vector) to set one end of the curve to the fist vertex position and one to the second vertex position (these positions are the ones you captured).
This vector is going the be the position (position input) of a set position node.

Alternatively you could use the mesh to points node's position input to set the position of the points to one vertex;
that way you only need to capture one attribute (that of the second vertex position),
as well you wouldn't need to use a switch node, rather you could just use the set position node's selection (with the endpoint selection node).
Here are the nodes:

@lemon 's solution is better for your use case, but this is a good lesson on how GN work.

Hello. "until they add loop nodes" do you have information about that? Is it planed?

@lemon I don't really know much, but it's definitely officially planned, and we really have simulation nodes branch that has a frame based loop. try checking on blender chat. it's most probably in development or on the list.

@shmul - thank you very much. I don't understand step 5 in your solution. You wrote "to set one end of the curve", but after step 4 I have a realized geometry node - not curve,  nor input sockets for setting end points of the instances. I'm missing something and I guess I have to learn some more here according to your answer. I will do and respond. Or you may add a graph image.

@shmuel - Yes I see now the graph which allow to learn the lesson. I guess that as lemon suggested, I can resample the curve for having more vertices along it.


text:
Geometric nodes - How to set/offset position of a specific edge's vertices
How can I set/offset position of vertices of specific edge?
In the follow example given a plane with 9 faces. When setting a value in the node "Integer: Index of edge", the two vertices connected to the edge with that index should be offset up by 0.2.

(Using Blender 3.6.5)
The edge is firstly recovered with two Sample Index nodes set in Edge domain, before its end vertices index is recovered with Edge Vertices nodes. It is to notice that the node Set Position is acting in Point domain.

Resources:

The follow solution adds a boolean flag attribute for each edge. When an edge's flag is True, its vertices are selected because of the flag value that is interpolated into the vertices domain in the selection process.
This solution has several advantages:

It has a smaller graph.
When wish edge index is out of range, no point will be offset.
It can be easily modified for selecting several edges by changing the logic inside the "Edges chooser" frame.

For example, here is a modification for when we want edges 0,1,2,3 to be offset:


text:
How to get correct distance value using Mist pass
I'm trying to use Mist data for getting values of [0,255] for Mist range of [Start, Start+Depth]. but I'v got into two problems:

Output values range is only [0,206] for [Start, Start+Depth]
Output values are non linear relative to [Start, Start+Depth] values

I'm Using Blender 3.1.2
Here is how I did up to now:
Building a scene of 5 elements, with heights of 0m, 1m, 2m, 3m and 4m.

Camera was placed directly above at height of 12m.
Mist start was set to 7.99 (in order to ensure the 4m height is in the Mist range)
Mist Depth was set to 4.02 (in order to ensure the 0m height is in the Mist range)
The Mist Falloff was set to be Linear.

Camera was set to Orthographic:

Only Mist data was enabled for output, that is the only data I need:

Now, checking the Mist data output yields the values: 0, 144, 178, 194 and 206, while I would expect to have 0,64,128,192 and 255:

In order to solve it, there is need to set Color Management parameters.
Display Device: sRGB, View Transform: Raw
or
Display Device: None, View Transform: Standard


text:
What is the fastest way to highlight vertices or edges when using raycast on a dense mesh?
How can I highlight edges/verts by hovering them on a dense mesh fast? How is the built in ruler in blender doing this so fast? when I do this in my addon on a dense mesh it updates the redraws highlight really slow.
Which ways is the best to raycast to find the vert and draw the highlight fast during mousemove on a dense mesh?

I don't entirely understand your problem and specifically how you raycast, but in general native compiled code will be faster than Python probably by at least 1 order of magnitude. For performance on a lot of geometry you might want to consider using geometry nodes to evaluate big chunks of data, as there a single node can iterate over all elements, and each node is implemented in C++, so you get close to perfect performance.


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Seamless texture map is mirrored
How do I get my seamless map to tile correctly?  It is mirroring at the seam.

Show your shade nodes

Sorry, but I don't know what that is.

The model itself is only showing us the result, but we need a screen shot of your setup of how this is mapped. A few questions: Is this using a mirror modifier and displacement with UV mapping? Is this a sculpture that is mirroring after applying the texture to one side? Anything else you can show or describe to use about what you've done so far will help us to better help you with possible answers.

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

please share your file, make sure that you have packed your image (File > External Data > Pack Resources)


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Character movement problems
I have been working with Blender for almost a year and all the characters that have been using this design software until now have the same problem. I am new to this field. Is there anyone who has encountered this problem? and has solved it

All my characters are deformed when posing or moving, as you can see in the picture.

Hello, maybe smmoth the vertex groups? But apart from that, do you really need to use so many polygons for your character? Why not less poly with a Subdivision Surface modifier?

Yes, I can smooth it with the sculpt brush, and I want the clan to not have such a problem because I want to move it, about the number of polygons, because I wanted it to look like realistic details, I increased the number of polygons.


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How to uniform scale (link XYZ axis values)?
how can I input a value when scaling an object and have it linked in all axis (XYZ)?
For instance, I want to scale a box to 0.01. How can I scale it to 0.01 without having to input the value 0.01 three times (into X, Y nad Z)?

You just need to LMB and sweep on the 3 values, type the value and press Enter:

Thanks. I wish there was a button to link these values. Like in Photoshop.

@mts10 But why? If this method is too laborious for you, you can always use the method in my answer - then you don't even have to bother to click any input box, just enter the value right away. Seems to me even easier than Photoshop.

@mts10 As Gordon Brinkmann stated - this is even easier than Ps. Generally speaking (if you must compare the two programs), Blender tends to be more optimized for power users, with operations requiring fewer mouse clicks on interface buttons and more leveraging of keyboard shortcuts. One feature Ps borrowed from Blender is the ability to do logical operations when typing in a value. Example: 360 / 7 instead of having to do the math outside of the program and then type in that result: 51.428571 And I'm not mad at that at all. UI conventions that boost productivity are good for everyone.

Select the box, press S .01 Return. You can simply enter values when moving, rotating or scaling. And if you do not constrain it to an axis by pressing a key like X, Y or Z, the object gets scaled uniformly on all axes. This works this simple even if you have selected multiple objects, not just on the active object like entering values in the fields does.
If you want to enter a mathematical operation instead of a plain value (to avoid rounding errors for example), you can use the shortcut S followed by an equal sign = and then enter the formula, for example 2/3 or sqrt(2) etc.
The entered value shows in the top left with the scaling properties while the tool is still active:

What is the name of the keymap for S button? I changed the scale tool shortcut to E but pressing E doesnt give me a window to input a value.

You don't need a window, as I show in my question, the keys you are pressing are just S, the decimal point and the numbers, then Return (or left-click) to confirm the operation.

But what is the tool used for this? I removed S, so pressing S doesnt do anything.

@mts10 You said you changed it to E? Now do you have any shortcut for scaling or not? Just replace Swith E in my answer... I'll just leave it like that since the goal on this site is to be beneficial for everybody with a similar question, so I will not change the key to every possible custom assignment... I added a bit more to my answer if you want to use formulas instead of simple values.

I appreciate your help. Pressing E activates "Scale (resize) selected items." in the Toolbar. If I start typing 0.01 after pressing E that activates other tools. The value 0.01 is not being input into anything.

@mts10 I'm sorry, but you are doing it wrong somehow. I now changed my key to E as well, I press E . 0 1 and then Return. Typing 0.01 after E does not activate any other tools. Unless you do not enter the values directly after E, but instead you first left-click or Return and then enter the values. As I said, you do not input the value "into" something. It will just be shown at the top left of the screen where the scaling properties are shown (see my edit to the answer).

Wait a minute, it activates the tool in the toolbar? But the shortcut for that was Shift Space  >S, not just S. But what happened to the Sshortcut? This originally does not activate the tool in the toolbar... so what did you do to that? Are you doing all transformations with either activating the tools in the toolbar or changing the values in the sidepanel? Do you not use G, R and S for transformations directly in the viewport?

I'm sorry this is definitely caused by me changing the shortcuts. I also use 3dsmax, so I changed move to Q, rotate to W, scale to E. These activate the tools in the toolbar.

@mts10 Yes, I understand that now. But as I said in my last comment, just S never activated the tool in the toolbar, it was to directly scale (resize) in the viewport without having to activate the tool in the toolbar. So what did you do to that shortcut? Why is it not working anymore when what you did was changing the shortcut for activating it in the toolbar, not the one for the menu entry Object > Transform > Scale? Sorry, it is not easy to help you when you completely change all basic functions of Blender without knowing how to get them back... scaling uniformly could be so simple.

You should forget 3dsmax shortcuts and switch to Blender's, otherwise it will make things complicated

@mts10 Go to Edit > Preferences, Keymap panel, then in the search bar at the top type "Resize", it will come up with several results, find the one under Object Mode. When you press that button, it will do a uniform scale of the selected object (there are also modifiers you can press to restrict to a single axis). You scale by dragging the mouse, and commit by pressing enter or by clicking (note that how fast the object scales depends on how close your mouse is to the object when you press the button). 1/2

When activated, you can type in the values before you commit (there is no input window, but near the top, under the menu, there will be a sort of info on the XYZ scaling factors (see image above), and if you start typing, you'll see them all update (as if it was an input box), and if you press tab while doing it, you can cycle through each individual axis. Press Enter or click to commit. Here, scaling is relative to the current size of the object, while in the Transform panel the values are absolute (in terms of the "base" scale of the object). 2/2

I accidentally disabled the transform functions and they just disappeared from the keymap. I added them back manually and now I can scale by directly typing in the value.


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How to loop cut multiple faces?
How can I loop cut all the selected faces in half? Or multiple times? In 3ds max this is called connect edge.

The answer is Edge > Subdivide

Although it's done what you asked, a true loop cut would add an edge round the entire object, not just subdividing the selected edges.

@JohnEason A "true" loop cut might add an edge around the entire object, but the question explicitly asks to cut the selected faces, not the complete object. The Loop Cut and Slide tool doesn't always cut around the entire object either - if it reaches an edge that's part of an n-gon it stops the loop cut there.

You can also make a loop cut Ctrl + R (or Cmd + R Mac) and point where you want to cut.
With the mouse wheel you can select the number of cuts.
With this option you have to select 1 by 1 the areas you want to cut if you don't want to cut all your geometry.
Subdivide works too but it splits your selection in every direction.


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How to create material node instance?
I would like to create an instance of a color ramp, so that every parameter I modifiy in one node, that same parameter is modified in the instance. In 3ds max this is done with mapping controllers across different nodes.
Or how can I plug two image nodes into one color ramp? I doesn't work. Thanks

search for "Mix" node.

I'm not trying to mix any values,

Based on your screenshot you're trying to join two values into one, it's called mixing.

Please show me the material setup.

https://i.imgur.com/9BMNfzb.png

Yes I see what you mean. I'm still learning blender so connecting two images into one node isn't the way. I just need two instanced color ramps so the values are linked between them. I'm surprised that this is missing in blender.

Perhaps if you explained the effect you're going for, we could advise something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

3ds max has hidden inputs for all material node values where you can input controller nodes and link them between different material nodes. So by changing the value in the controller node you change the value of every input that controller node is plugged into.
https://ibb.co/5Mz5z95
Do you know how can I achieve this in blender?
https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/2024/ENU/3DSMax-Lighting-Shading/images/GUID-5E1C66FD-EBA8-4E9A-8486-339AC818E2F6.png

I don't know 3ds max, so I can't help, especially as on your sketch you have many-to-many relation, and on the 3ds max screenshot it's just one-to-one relation. Perhaps it works like portals

In 3dsmax it can be done just like I posted it in the image.  Been working in max many years.


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Grab by vertex in move transform
How can I grab these polygons by the circled vertex so I can snap them to the other side? I want to snap vertex to vertex but also move the selected polygons with it.

I solved it by setting the Snap Base to Closest.


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Switch between HDRI environments using a key
In my workflow I use two environments (hdris) plugged into a mix shader. I use one HDRI to light up the scene and the other HDRI to create materials. I switch between them using the factor parameter in the Wrorld Properties.
I would like to know if it is possible to somehow map a key that would switch between these two hdris? For example pressing A would active the first HDRI and pressing A again would activate the second HDRI and so forth.

It is possible using scripting.

Can you show me how?

Tricky way
Well, actually you can do it without scripting:

Add a new item in key map in window section, operator is wm.context_toggle, attribute is scene.world.node_tree.nodes["Mix Shader"].inputs[0].default_value, where "Mix Shader" is the node name. Your node might have different name, check that do you have in here:

Operator way
The more proper way is to do the operator. This is the script that I made from simple operator preset:
import bpy

def main(context):
    node_tree = context.scene.world.node_tree
    input = node_tree.nodes["Mix Shader"].inputs[0]
    input.default_value = 0 if input.default_value == 1 else 1

class ToggleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "wm.toggle_update"
    bl_label = "Toggle Operator"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.active_object is not None

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

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ToggleOperator)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ToggleOperator)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    bpy.ops.wm.toggle_update()

Your node might have different name (not "Mix Shader"), check that do you have in here:
This script creates operator. You can set it like this in keymaps:

To make this script works across files, you can save it as .py file and install as an addon. In this case, you should add addon info block.

Thank you so much, you are very kind. I will try it when I get home. I hope it works.

Oh man, this works just the way I wanted it. Thank you so much.

Hey I have a small request. So I would like to switch the environement when pressing the A key which I also use for Local view (isolating the object). So that everytime I isolate the object using the A key the environments also get switched. But since the key is mapped to two actions it doesn't work. How can I make it work?

I got it to work by setting the value from press to any. Thank you!


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How can I unlink duplicated objects so I can animate them independently?
So I duplicated an object and it seems that I can only edit the animation on the "mother" object. That means both of them are using the same animation. I wanted to animate them independently.
I tried object>relations>make single user but it doesn't seem to do anything. Am I doing something wrong?

your rig isn't setup correctly at all...you haven't applied scale/rotations. If you try to move your original mesh/armature, it ends in a mess. That's why copying doesn't work eiter....

and you origin points are just "somewhere" but not where it would make sense. Did you make the rig or did you get it from somewhere? If you made it on your own i would recommend watching some beginner rigging tutorials where you can learn what applying scale and rotation means and how you can use it.

unfortunately my rigging knowledge is too low to clean up that mess...but i am sure Josh could...hopefully he will help....

Thank you. I am a complete begginner. I'll try to deal with this mess first and then duplicate the object. Hopefully this will work

It should no problem, we all started some day. If you make a „clean „ rig, you can move it around and neither the armature nor  the mesh would mess up. Then the duplicating will work  maybe you should start with a less complicated rig just to see how it works


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How to change mesh color
How do I change my mesh color so I can identify them separately. The default color of every object in my 3d-window is Grey. I'm not talking about the Material Property itself. I'm talking about something sort of this nature.

A very similar question was asked on here in 2017. I don't how to attach a link to it, so here is a screenshot of an Answer to the said question. Hopefully someone will explain better because I'm confused.
Thank you.

Maybe you're talking about the Random mode in the Viewport Shading panel:

Yes. Definitely is. Thank you very much.


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How to locate "Asset found on hard drive (blender-kit)"
I was downloading an Apple basket mesh via Blender kit.
I couldn't tell if the download completed, as the download stopped at some point in time.
I have decided to try the download again and it says ASSET FOUND ON HARD DRIVE.
How do I locate it on the hard drive?

Look at the addon's settings under Edit > Preferences > Addons. Under Windows, the Global Files Directory in the addon's Preferences section shows the location where the Blenderkit files appear and I assume it's the same on Macs.

On Windows:
- This PC
- Windows(C:)
- Users
- (Whatever the name of your user is)
- Blenderkit_data
- Models

Before BlenderKit add-on starts download it checks if the asset is available locally. If so it starts importing it. However if the files are corrupted for some reason (broken previous download, or other reasons), it gives this error Asset not found on hard drive. Add-on then deletes the broken asset but does not start new download.
To fix this issue you should be able to just drag the asset into the scene again. This will then start the download as the broken asset is no longer available on disk.
I understand that this can be little bit confusing and process could be more practival if re-download was initiated automatically. Having this automatic re-download on our TODO list.


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Object showing behind an obstruction
I downloaded a pair of soccer kit mesh via Blender kit, and whatever position my view is in the viewport, the kits would be visible even if there is an obvious obstruction in front of it.
This is the front view

This is the bottom view

Considering that the shoes are above the rock, I shouldn't be able to see them in bottom view.
How do I fix this?

Untick In Front checkbox in the Object Properties tab.


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How to Hide vertices from view
I'm working on the model of a vehicle in my viewport. The reference images set on all sides of vehicle is set to only view from the Front

Now, I'm in the edit mode, my x-ray is on so that as I pick a vertex, i'm able to adjust it to the reference image.

But here is the conflict, its very hard to pick a vertex from the front as all vertices of the vehicle is showing as well.
Like I did to the reference images, is it possible to only view vertices from the front?
I cannot turn off the x-ray because that automatically hides the reference images from view.

You could enable the In Front option of the reference image in the Object panel > Viewport Visibility?

@moonboots Thank you.

If the reference image is in front of your object, you could check its Opacity on the image Data Properties panel and reduce it to around 0.2 or less then disable it in the Outliner.

Maybe there's another solution but you can enable the In Front option of the reference image in the Object panel > Viewport Visibility


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Permanently fixate the Gizmo to my mesh
Good Morning.
How do I permanently attach the Gizmo to my mesh, so that as I rotate my mesh the Gizmo rotates with it?
Whenever I add a new mesh, it's easy to rescale and readjust on every axis, but after a rotation it's tough moving the mesh from Point A to B: I have to move along the X and Y axis till I get to my destination.
But If I can permanently attach the Gizmo to the mesh, wherever the mesh rotates to, my Gizmo rotates with it making adjustments easier.

When you do G X it moves on the global x-axis. but you can also move it along its local axes by using G X X. just double xx or yy or zz. you can see it in the upper left corner a text saying global/local-x replacing the Object Mode combobox. try pressing G you will see Global by default. Then tap X again then you see Local.

Yes, @HarryMckenzie. This is what I am looking for. Thank you very much.

If you want to lock the movement to a certain axis, see the comment by @HarryMcKenzie under your question.
If you want to have the Move gizmo permanently visible, go to the Viewport Gizmos menu on the top right of the 3D Viewport, enable Object Gizmos > Move (you can also choose if it should be the Default or a Global, Local etc. gizmo).
You can either enable this everytime you need it or save this setting in your startup file. To do that, after opening Blender or a new "General" project, go to the top menu File > Defaults > Save Startup File.

Yes. Thank you.


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Create a hole at a position of a vertex
What would be the best and easiest way to create a hole at the position of a selected vertex?
Like this script does:
https://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/create-holes

Bevel vertex then remove it.

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


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How to change spinner Increment values?
I would like to change the spinner increment value from 0.1 to 0.01. So that when I press an arrow it changes the value by 0.01. Is this possible?

No, unfortunately not - see the answer from @MarkusvonBroady below. Alternatively you can only drag with the mouse, if you hold the Shift key while doing this you have an increment of 0.01, but I guess you knew already that you can make finer adjustments with this. Would have been convenient if it worked for clicking the arrows as well ;)

Thanks shift will do.

I don't think this is possible. The workaround I see myself and others using is to pass a "Value" node through multiply/divide like this:

Imgur mirror (SE image hosting has problems)


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Having difficulty with capturing the location of a geometry in geometry nodes in order to have it delete points in proximity

This setup perfectly removes geometry in proximity to the empty, which is an external object I've brought into the node tree with the object info
Now I wish to be able to do this removal but using the location of the placeholder node. I can't do this because it doesn't have an easy-to-access location output like the object info does, so I tried figuring out how attribute capture works but to no avail.
Does anyone knows how I may be able to capture the location attribute of the placeholde?

Well, it does not have a location output because the location of an external object is basically its origin rather than the positions of the individual vertices. An object generated within Geometry Nodes does not have its own origin though. It is usually placed at the origin of the base object, so the local (0, 0, 0) position and then maybe translated by an offset or instanced on the positions of some points. So the location is either (0, 0, 0), a given offset or a point's position. Reading any of these will give you the location.


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Does anyone know how to install Python packages correctly in Blender 4.2 LTS?
I am having an issue where when ever I install a Python package in Blender 4.2 it saves the package to C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python311\site-packages instead of C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 4.2\4.2\python\lib\site-packages. In the past versions of Blender it would install in the latter and I would be able to use packages inside of Blender scripting.
How can I either make it so that Blender understands where to look for the additionally installed packages or install it in site-packages at the Blender.exe as before?

Hi. Does the 2 year old answer in this post work for you? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/266287/how-to-install-python-packages-using-the-pip-that-now-comes-with-blender

Hi @curious_1! Thank you for that, that seems to be the solution.

Use the new blender_manifest.toml file to install Python packages.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/advanced/extensions/getting_started.html#manifest
# Optional: bundle 3rd party Python modules.
# https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/advanced/extensions/python_wheels.html
# wheels = [
#   "./wheels/hexdump-3.3-py3-none-any.whl",
#   "./wheels/jsmin-3.0.1-py3-none-any.whl",
# ]

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/advanced/extensions/python_wheels.html#python-wheels


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Array modifier separates objects
I modeled a Domino dice on my own as a Beginner I wanted to learn and understand.
After my design was completed I applied Ctrl + J and even Ctrl + P Keep Transforms, but the problem was after applying the Array modifier and following curve when I went into Edit Mode to separate the dice to animate, and when I applied the physics with all the settings and hit to play dice dots and dices separate.

Looks like the domino's and the dots are different objects, try selecting the domino tile parts and then the dots, then press Ctrl+J again to join them together.

I did but when I seperate the dice the above image problem appears

It's very difficult to know exactly what you might have done with the limited information you have given. Can I suggest you share your .blend file so we can take a look to help you learn what is causing this. Please follow the directions on this page https://blend-exchange.com/

So nice of you ok I will share the file

Hi muji. Your file does not seem have any animation in it, and I can't replicate your problem. I did however notice that all the objects have been scaled, physics and modifiers can behave strangely when the scale is not 1,1,1. Try applying scale to all the objects ad try again.

Thank you Psyonic.  I will do as you tell me. I will update you if it works. Thank you again


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How to create a 3D array of items based a matrix with Z-coordinates?
I'm new to Blender
I want to create an X-Y-Z matrix with identical glass spheres. This is the model for building a very nice lamp in my hallway. In the X-direction I have 27 available positions, in the Y-direction 11. Each position can only be used once. So the matrix of X-Y coordinates is fixed, the only variable is the Z-coordinate per X-Y position. This is the height where the glass sphere (the lamp bulb) is attached to the connection wire coming from the top.
I managed to define the glass sphere itself, and I know how the Array function works. This way, I can create the 27x11 array but only with one single Z-coordinate. So how can I project the 27x11 matrix with Z-coordinates onto my 2D X-Y mesh?
By the way I also added a light point into the bulb but I understand that this cannot be used for translations as it is not a mesh.
What is the solution for this? Drawing a sphere inside the glass bulb that is light emitting? I don't know how to do this.

Hello and welcome. Images illustrating what you have and what you are trying to achieve will go a long way for users trying to interpret how to help you

Thanks for the tip. I didn't see the option to add pictures...

Edit your question and the toolbar above the body text has an image icon on it. You can also drag and drop an image into the text edit field but you need to be careful to leave enough space above and below the image or it will appear in the middle of the text.

Are you talking about random height distribution on the Z axis or do you have specific height values for each of the lamps?

Thanks Gordon, I will prepare a picture. The Z-heights are defined, not random. The sphere diameter is 10 and the X and Y pitches are also 10. So I have a 27x11 matrix of spheres. When the Z-value is the same for all, they all tough each other. Now I want to define the Z-values but preferably not 1-by-1. I want to use a 27x11 matrix that contains the Z-values I have in mind. And I want to project those onto the 27x11 fixed X-Y matrix (with pitch 10 in both directions).


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Re-aligning an object
Suppose I have an object that has been rotated and the transforms have been applied. The local origin is now the same as the global. How can i align the object so it runs parallel to the bottom plane (blue line)?

Maybe something here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/6369/how-to-align-an-object-by-one-or-two-edges-to-xyz-axes?rq=1 will help.

You could pick an edge you want the object space to be aligned to, snap the 3d cursor( Shift  +  S  menu) to one end vertex, duplicate the vertex( Shift  +  D ) and move it constrained to one axis, then select everything except that duplicated vertex, make the other end vertex active and rotate everything with 3d cursor as transformation pivot while snapping rotation to the duplicated vert with Active selected as Snap Base:

There are other snapping settings combinations that can work for this as well. The idea is just to use rotation snapping in some way to snap it to whatever you create that is aligned to some axis.

Thanks. Pivot Transform addon might solve this problem.


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Add an instanced modifier on different objects
I want to apply an instanced modifier to 5 different objects. So when I change a value in the modifier the value is changed on all objects. Is this possible?

What about using drivers to copy the value entered in the "master" modifier, to the "slave" drivers attached to the remaining objects ?

Yes, it is possible.
To add a modifier to several objects, select them and then go to 'copy selected' in the modifier.

Secondly, to change the value of a modifier for a group of objects at the same time you can press and hold alt while changing the value.

If it doesn't work, it may be useful to turn off 3 button mouse emulation in preferences >> input.

Thank you. Does the job.

As far as I am aware, you cannot link modifiers. However it is possible to achieve a similar result using drivers in the following manner.

create the same modifier on all other objects.
now for each parameter you want to change repeat steps 3 to ...:
select the "reference" object and right click on a parameter you want to change and click copy data path
now select another object. and right click on the same variable, and click add driver
below add input variable click on the (X) symbol and select single property
now in the Prop: section select the reference object
In the path section you need to paste the path you copied
finally change the expression to be equal to 'var'

If you do this for each of the parameters and objects, changing the reference object modifier will automatically change all others accordingly.
Tip: Once you created one driver you can rightclick on the purple property -> copy driver then you can paste the driver over any other property.


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How can I render hair particle system as cylinders?
How can I render hair particle system as cylinders? As solid objects that have thickness?

if you use the classical hair particle system (and not geonodes), go into the Particles panel > Render > Render As > choose Object and then Object > Instance Objct > select the object

But I want the cylinders to be curved. And being able to control the curvature.

Maybe you should tell us exactly what you want in the question, not in the comments and only when someone presents something that does not work for you...

if you choose an object as particle you won't be able to curve each particle as if it was path hair, unless you apply the particle system in the modifier panel, it will make the instances real and editable through Sculpt mode for example, but maybe tell a bit more about what you want to achieve?

Gordon I am really tired of you complaining about every post I make here. Last time you told me that I completely changed all the basic funtions of Blender. Seriously? If my questions are not up to your standard, do not answer them.

@mts10 If you put more details in your questions you might not get so many complaints or requests for more information We can't guess what you are thinking! https://blender.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask

I posted while I was working and elaborated in the comments. Thanks @moonboots for the help.

Gordon was right though, you need to give more details  ;)

I did and I got the answer I needed.

@mts10 Don't worry, I will no longer bother you or try to answer your questions. But I'm not the only one asking asking you for more details in the past and on the other hand you are not the one to reward answers very often anyway.


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Compositor not using GPU
I have GPU/Full enabled in compositing but it doesn't work. Compositing is still using CPU. Any thoughts how to fix this. CPU is very slow in compositing.

What settings are you refering to ? How do you know GPU isn't used ?

In the compositing sidebar under options - performance you can set GPU or CPU. I know because I have HWinfo enabled and GPU CUDA stays at 0 while the CPU is working. Can also hear CPU fans when compositing.


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Blender distance map?
Does blender have something like a distance map? Where you can use other objects to influence an object only by using its material/distance map?
https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4528348048017-Corona-Distance-Map-3ds-Max
https://fstormrender.com/manual/fstorm-distance/

hello, I'm not sure this is what you want but maybe check Duarte's answer here, is it what you want? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/153177/worms-crawling-under-skin/153179#153179

Geometry nodes has a "Distance to Nearest Surface" node that can provide you with this data. Then you can store that as an attribute and use it in the shader editor with an Attribute node.

Hey, can you make a quick screenshot?


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Multitexture with one object/one material
I have 3 books and I want one book to be red, one green, one blue. However all 3 books should be one object. I do not want to separate them. How can I assign all three colors without using material slots and by using only one material output? In Corona this is can be achieved with a multitexture map. I managed to assign red and green by using a mix color node with a geometry/random per island plugged into factor. However I do not know how to do it for more than 2 colors.

You can group all the shader nodes besides the color input, and use this group in 3 materials. Everything inside the group will be linked between copies of the group. Does it answer your question ? Basically 3 shaders with the structure Color > YourGroup > Output

Can you please show me a picture of the material setup, I'm very new to blender.

Select all nodes besides RGB and Output, Ctrl+G (group), Tab (exit group), then create 2 other materials with only another RGB value. You can either duplicate the material or copy-paste the nodes in a new material.

Is it correct to assume that each book is a single mesh island ?

All three books are merged into one object. I actually need a solution for something else but I used books as an example.

Thats the thing I want only one material.

You could use a Texture Coordinate (Generated output) Gradient Texture > ColorRamp (Constant mode) with your 2 colors:

If you need to put different image textures onto your object, combine your different images into one, unwrap your meshes and move the UV islands over the image until you're good:

I used colors in my example but I actually need to plug different textures.

In that case use a multitexture map in blender as well?

How? Where is it?

create a map with your images, unwrap your objects and put each UV island over the part of the image that they are supposed to display?

I've edited my answer but I'm still not sure it answers

Yes this is possible, but the problem is when you have 10 wood planks with 10 rough, 10 bump and 10 refl maps.

Shoot, you didn't want a multi-material solution ... My bad, look at moonboots solution.

Nodes inside a group will all be the same between copies of the group. Basically any copy of, say, YourGroup will be linked between them.
Step 1
Starting with your shader :

Step 2
Group the nodes (including RGB just to simplify the process) with Ctrl+G

Step 3
Delete the RGB node and plug the color as input of your group

Step 4
Exit group with Tab, and add a RGB node

Step 5
Duplicate the material into a new one. There will be no link to the original material besides the group we created

Creates a new slot (hey Blender, I'll need another material on this object)
Select your red shader (hey Blender, I want this slot to use the red shader)
Make a single-copy of the red shader (hey Blender, make me a copy of the shader not linked to the original)

Step 6
Repeat for the third material.
Step 7
Go to Edit Mode, select one book, select the correct material, click Assign
And you're flying.

Anything inside the group will be the same between materials. Only difference will be the color you plugged as an input.
So all changes inside one copy of the group will also change the other copies :

Thank you, this was helpful.

(Using Blender 4.2.3)

GeometryNodes modifier: It is attached to the object made of parts. The Island Index of each part is cached using a Store Named Attribute node.
Shader: The Island Index is recovered using an Attribute node. Its value is Compared to successive integers to implement a Switch-Case operator.
(Blender 4.2.3+)

Thank you. I will try it.


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Imported model has no shading faces only an outline
I imported a glass model and in the viewport I can only see the outline. I can see a wireframe of the mesh only if I enable "Show overlays". Still no faces. I added a cube for reference. Why aren't the imported models shaded?

Are the glasses set to Wire in the Object Properties under Viewport Display > Display As? display as wire

No it is set to texture. But I did import a .max file. I think that is the problem. Still looking for a fix.

The solidify mod doesnt give any results. Copy polygons the same. Normals are ok.

I have no idea what "copy polygons" means in this case. I have thought about backface culling, but when normals are "ok", this should not be the issue either. I guess before we ask for every single possible reason it might be better if you upload your file here: https://blend-exchange.com and follow the instructions there to edit it into your question.

Got it to work by importing an obj file.


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Images imported as planes would only display content in the Display Render Preview
I have imported an image as Plane into my 3d view port, but it only displays the image content in the Display Render Preview.
What do I do so that I can also see the image content in the Display Solid Mode?

Enabling Import Images as Planes Addon gives us two features. We can import image as a plane, or as an Empty.

Plane won't show you the texture in Solid Shading Mode, while Empty will. The fastest way to add image as empty just drag and drop it into viewport.

Fixed it. Thank you!

@OgunlesiTaiwo You're welcome! =)


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Remove Easy Eaze/Easy In/Easy Out effect in Animation
Good Evening
I'm trying to animate a moving mesh from one point to another.
Having added the key frames, I realised there is an easy in - easy out effect at the starting and ending of the animation. Similar to an effect I often used in Adobe AfterEffects. The mesh comes in slowly, moves fast and then ends slowly. How do I remove this effect from the animation. Thank you.

By default the interpolation will be bezier (round curve which will cause ease in and ease out) but if you want a linear interpolation, go into the Dope Sheet (or into the Graph Editor), select the keyframe then go into Key > Interpolation Mode > Linear (or shortcut T):

Also you can go into the Edit > Preferences > Animation > F-Curves > Default Interpolation and choose Linear.


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How to rock a chair on a plane
Good Evening.
I'm trying to rock this Chair back and forth on a plane, but I'm not getting a hang of it.
From what I have attempted to do, the result, is the chair rotating/spinning round a spot/the X-axis.
I need to rock the chair first before I start adding the key frames and extras, but I don't know how to do it.

A rigidbody sim should be able to do this

Edit: oh ok the chair needs to move, I would do it manually and visually but there must be an intelligent way

@AllenSimpson -- I think I followed your approach in my answer.

There must be a smart way to do it but here is the dumb manual way:
Put the origin at the rotation center. Create a first keyframe at the default position:

Move the player along the timeline, move the chair and rotate it, create a second keyframe:

The third keyframe is a copy of the first one, the fourth is a negative copy of the second (here I just put minus before the location on X and minus before the rotation on Y):

It still needs a bit of tweakings in the Graph Editor so that it doesn't slide:

I think the "smart way to do it" would be Robin Betts' approach - which is also very helpful to know. Still, I think your method is very practical and easy to implement for the average user.

Thanks, i knew Robin would be here for the smart solution  ;)

Rockin' is Rollin'. Just not by very much, and in a straight line.
For any angle the chair rotates, in order not to slide, it must move by the arc-length swept out by angle of rotation. Since there are 2*pi radians to a circle, if the angle theta is measured in radians, then the distance moved must be theta  * r (the radius of the circle of which your rocker is a segment). So a driver is easy to set up:
For convenience, put the chair's origin at the center of the circle of which the rocker is an arc.

You can parent your chair to a 'Root' Empty, so you can move and rotate the whole rig  without screwing things up.

Then you can set things up to, say, rotate the chair about its Y while moving it in its X

Right-click in the chair's Rotation > Y field, and 'Copy as New Driver'

Right-click in the chair's Translation > X field, and 'Paste Driver'

Right-click again on the driven field, and 'Edit Driver'.

Change the driver to a scripted expression, and set the expression to multiply the provided Y-rotation variable by the radius of your rocker.

Then you can move the chair about using the Root Empty, and rock the chair by rotating it in Y.

per @AllenSimpson here is the Rigid body simulation approach.   I used a combination of a short puff of air (Force) to start a rocking motion, followed by a single hit of an (invisible) cube to have another rocking motion.

To continue the rocking motion --for either of these methods -- one could add either a cycles or a sine function F-Curve modifier so that the force will be applied again and again (in cycles).

The upside to this approach might be that you get a bit more variation around the rocking motion.   The downside is the dual: you may want a constant rocking motion, as in some ghost movie. Also it would be possible to apply cycles and noise modifiers to @moonboots solution, so get similar variations.


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Numpad shortcuts alternatives
I'm following a Tutorial that requires me to use the Ctrl + Alt + Numpad 0 to adjust the camera.
On my type of Laptop Keyboard, I do not have the Numpad keys.
Is there an alternative to that shortcut?

You can change your keybinds by going to Edit menu (top left) Preferences > Keymap. The one you're talking about is called Align Camera to View. Click on it and you'll be able to change the bind.

Thank you, Draco1660.


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How to identify Keyframes in the Timeline
I inserted Keyframes for both Location, Rotation and Scale in the time line, in the exact same spot.
It's easier to differentiate what Keyframe is for what location or rotation in the Graph Editor as it is listed on the left side, but I can't tell what exact Keyframes I'm looking at under the Timeline; is it the location Keyframes or the rotation. I cannot tell.
How do I identify what Keyframe Is visible?
I want to set a bezier interpolation on the location Keyframes, but looking in the Timeline, I can't tell if it's the location, rotation or scale Keyframes.

You can see what kind of track it is in the Timeline as well, you need to unfold the left panel

I'm just learning about this. Didn't know it was in the tiny left arrow on the side of the timeline. Thank you.

You can see the tracks in the Timeline as well, click on the small arrow on the left to unfold the panel:


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How to disable pie-menu for Ctrl + S
How do I disable the Pie menu for Ctrl S?
I didn't have it before, I don't know what I messed with, and now it shows up.
it shows Saving, Open, Append.
Just the pie menu for saving, how do I disable it?

Go to Edit > Preferences > Addons and search for pie. Scroll down the list of entries in the Interface: 3D Viewport Pie Menus and uncheck the Save Open Pie: Hotkey: 'Ctrl S' entry. If you don't have autosave preferences checked on the bottom-left menu, click SavePreferences.

I am grateful, Mr. John. Thank you.

You are welcome!


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Wood Material/Texture Extrudes unevenly on mesh
What I did,

created a handle for a frying pan with curve.
Gave curve depth and converted curve to mesh
Extruded and scaled one end of the handle so it closes up.
Added a wood material/texture to mesh
Looked good until getting to the extruded end of the mesh: the wood material had streched.

How I tried to correct it:

Removed wood material completely, applied All Transformation, and Append the wood material once again, still the same.
Went to edit mode > World tool > Settings > Options: Toggle Transform (Correct Face Attributes), still the same.

Reference images

What can I do to correct it?

Did you add a seam, and UV unwrap it?

@JohnEason Nothing of such, but I added a Sub-surf Modifier and it seemed better.

It's never going to look exactly right If you think about it because the end of the handle will show the end grain of the wood, whereas your material is presumably just a straight 'plank'.

As John Eason has commented, a UV texture will never simulate the surface of a wooden pan-handle, unless baked from 3D. They are turned from a solid piece, not veneered.
Following the principles here, you can, instead, make 3D procedural wood, and carve your handle out of it:

.. you would need to adjust this to scale, depending on the size of your model. The noise and distortions interact quite a lot, so I won't deny systematically tweaking can be quite a job. It remains a project to develop a procedural wood with more independent components.. that would probably mean abandoning the Wave texture altogether, and working more from the bottom up.
Anyway, this one flows OK across the piece:

.. and can stand variations in lighting:

I hope you might find it tweak-able enough to suit.


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.fbx imported in Blender won't show up in rendered image
I imported a .fbx Lavender plant and vase into blender. I scale it up and go ahead to render. In its rendered image, only the vase is displayed, the plant itself is no where to be found.
What I have tried to do:

Scale up mesh and re-render. Same outcome.
Parent plant to vase and re-render. Same outcome.
Scale up mesh & Apply All Transformation, and re-render. Same outcome.

What I realised:

After I increased scale of plant and vase from (1 to 10), I save the imported .fbx file as a blend file.
I opened the .blend file and realised that the vase stayed at scale 10, while the plant went back to scale 1.

Meaning, while I may not have seen the plant in the rendered image, I think it is still there inside the vase. I just cannot not see it as it did not increase in scale as the vase.

Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

It's visible in the Outliner, that you have some animation. That is probably the cause. The object has a keyframe with some property that makes it not visible in the render(location, scale, visibility...) and it comes back to it during rendering or when loading the file.

You should select the object(s) with animation and search( F3 ) for Remove Animation operator:

It's also in 3D Viewport header menu - Object -> Animation -> Clear Keyframes

Thank you very much. I have removed the key frame. The render is perfect.


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Subdivision and Face selection problems
I'm looking to accurately subdivide a face.
Please walk with me.

I have an object on my screen. In the edit mode, I'm looking subdivide that face.

I select the immediate top left vertex and the immediate top right vertex, subdivided it to create a vertex in the middle. I did the same to the immediate bottom left and right vertex

I select the newly created vertices and tap on the F button to join both vertices; It created an edge. Now the face is divided. It looks like it's divided, but apparently it isn't.

If I try to select a face either on the right or left, the whole face is selected. So it pretty much looks like the face wasn't divided at all.

Here is what worked:

I selected the whole face, right-clicked, subdivided it, and then dissolved the horizontal edges. It looked neat.

My question is: Why didn't it subdivide properly in the first attempt?
Thank you.

Use Ctrl-J to join the vertices, create the edge, and subdivide the Face. 'F' will just create a disconnected edge between them but not subdivide the face. You can demonstrate that by subdividing the edge created with 'F', selecting the centre vert, and moving it up with G Z.

@JohnEason Ctrl+J or J? With Ctrl+J you join objects in Object Mode.

@GordonBrinkmann Sorry, just 'J'. Had other things on my mind this week! I'm sure I did an answer here with an animated Gif explaining this a while ago but can't find it now.

 F  is for New Edge/Face from Vertices so it does that - it creates a new face or edge from vertices that can be separate from other geometry between those vertices, and it does not and is not supposed to divide faces.

Concect Vertex Path( J ) just below it in the Vertex menu( Ctrl  +  V ) does connect vertices with a path on surface dividing existing geometry:

However if you want to subdivide geometry, you can do just that with Subdivide operation alone. You just need to select the correct geometry to get your result - in this case that would be 2 edges of the face:

Thank you so much. This just helped.


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Camera view not adjusting as camera moves along its Local Axis
In the images below, we can see a vertical split of the screen. On the left is the camera view, on the right is the viewport view.
While moving the camera along its Local Axis, I expect the camera view on the left to expand, covering a wider space, but it just gets stuck on that particular view regardless of how close or how far the camera is.
In simpler terms, the farther you get from an object, the smaller it becomes(and vice versa), but here its just stuck on the same view.
Is there a way to get this back to what it should be?

Camera Type is orthographic. Viewport projection is Orthographic, and Orbit and Pan Auto perspective is toggled off.

If the camera is in Orthographic mode, its distance to the object doesn't matter, if you want to have a larger view you need to change the Orthographic Scale:

This is MIND blowing. I'm just learning about this. Thank you.

@OgunlesiTaiwo What is more mind-blowing: Consider that you can't build an orthographic camera in real life - unless maybe if you design a sensor so large that its area is equal to that of the subject to be captured (meaning no lens perspective). Expect it to be astronomically expensive and impractical. But you can get a good enough approximation to a flat field of focus with a macro lens, which is what photographers use to capture large art prints, murals, etc. So you can think of it like the ortho setting allows you to cheat and do something practically impossible with a physical camera. :-)


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Image in viewport different from final render AND Ctrl + S won't save their new changes
Good Afternoon.
Rendered image in  my viewport is different from final render. Nothing is hidden nor disabled. Viewport -
Rendered File (Max Samples = 10)
The interesting part is that, it don't matter how many times I SAVE or SAVE AS, each blender file  opens with this same viewport  after so many adjustments. .
Let  me break it down;
Desktop > Strawberry Folder >

Lotion Two.blend (Has 2 lotion bottles)
Lotion Three.blend (Adjusted to have 3 lotion bottles)
Lotion Four.blend (Adjusted to have 4 lotion bottles)
Lotion Five.blend (Adjusted to have 5 lotion bottles)

But each time these .blend files are opened, they all show up as 2 lotion bottles in the viewport. Now I have to start duplicating and rearranging their positions over and over and over again. Is this a technical problem?

Can you include a screenshot of an expanded Collection 2 and 3, and also include the filter icon :: Display Viewport?  This to see any differences in Viewport vs Rendering settings

Check that you don't have Holdout set on any of the desired objects (although you should then see a render with an object replaced with "no alpha" pixels, that I don't see).

Maybe some objects have animation keys on their Location ?

@thibsert Yes. The  keyframes were the  problem. I feel so embarrased right now. . Thank you so so so much.


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Object turns purple after image texture used in Shading gets deleted
Good Afternoon.
I dont know how well to organize the body of my question, so I'll write it out in bullets.

I use blender from an external drive.
I'm working on a project that requires me to use SHADING to add an image as texture for an Aloe Vera  Plant.
The Plant Vase was also Crtl + C from a separate project.

File location  for  both Image and Plant Vase is on Desktop (remember  Blender itself is used from an External Drive)
Somehow, both image and plant vase have been deleted from desktop.
Now Alove Vera Steam and  Plant Vase have turned purple. Most likely  because these files have been deleted from their original location (Desktop).

In case of future projects, I will have to Append objects from other projects, instead of Ctrl + C.  But for the image, what do I do so that the SHADING or Blender perharps, will retain it as a texture because it would have been the same story even if I had Blender on PC and the files on an external drive.
Thank you.

If you want to make sure that you'll always have your images available, pack them so that they are part of the blend file: go into File > External Data > Pack Resources, or into the UV Editor or Image Editor, select the image and Image > Pack

@moonboots I just had his issue again. Do I tick the "Automatically Pack Resources" box?

Sure but don't forget that if the image is not used (prefix 0) it will be deleted even if the image is packed, if you want to avoid that make it Fake User

@moonboots. Hi! I want to add that I am unable to Automatically Pack Resources of .FBX files/models that I had imported. Is there something I can do about it? Or do I have to save the .fbx file as a .blend file first, then Append instead of importing it?


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How to add face to object generated from a curve
Good Evening.
I'm trying to create an Aloe Vera stem. I had used a Bezier to create the curve of the stem, and deformed a circle to give the curve a bevel, i.e

Shift A > Curve > Bezier
Shift A > Curve > Circle
Deform circle to create "U" shape
Add Bevel (object) to Bezier curve.

The bottom part of the Aloe stem is hollow. How can I add a face to it?
If the Aloe stem were from a mesh, I would have the face already, but the steam is created from a curve and I don't know how to go about adding a Face to it. I have tried "F", but it says Cannot make segment.

If you need to keep your object as a curve, in the Object Data panel > Geometry, there's a Fill Caps option:

Thank you. This is better.


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How to cut out an extra Face/extension

I created a window space using a Bool Tool modifier.
Along the line, I realised there is a plane/face obstructing the entrance of the window. The plane looks like it's a face or extension from the wall of the window
I'm new to blender, and unfortunately don't know a few tricks to correct that defect.
Can you please teach me how to cut out/trim out that face?
Thank you!

What I eventually did was to create vertices with edges on the wall, that had the similar shape of the window, and then extrude it inward.


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Inset face problems
I'm trying to inset a face, twice. The first inset looks good, but doing it the second time has a little bit of problems to it. How do I do it correctly?

You cannot inset it again because it is too dense. Consider reducing the amount of outer vertices at those rounded corners.


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Embedding Image Texture in Spot Light
Please, walk with me.
I want to use an image to cast shadows in a room.
I put a circle in front of a spot light and using Image Texture node, I  added the image to the circle.
But there's no way I could hide the circle such that the shadows would retain but the circle itself wouldn't show in the camera view.....unless I put image itself inside the light.
It works well with an Area Light.
But not with the Spot Light.
Is the Spot Light just built different, or did I miss a crucial step?


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Deformed Solidify Modifier.(Even Thickness)
Ctrl + Alt + Q display shows the rear bumper of a vehicle from the Top view, Perspective view, Front view and side view.
The bumper has a Mirror modifier, Subdivision surface and a solidify Modifier.
In the Solidify Modifier, we can see that the Even Thickness option is toggled off.

By the time the Even Thickness is toggled on, there's an extension at the bottom.

I had thought that probably theres a vertex that had extended, but its not the case as I had tried to make a selection(click and drag) in that area, but no vertex seems to have been selected. The extension is just there, extended.
Is there an explanation for what I must have done wrong?

Possibly, the object has some scale?

Edit Mode > Ctrl + A > M > By Distance


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Duplicate and Align collection

In the image above, I have a small light bulb on the floor, every mesh regarding that lightbulb is parented to the glass head, then it's all in LOWER BULB collection.

I want to duplicate and arrange the light bulb such that there's like 20+ of it on the floor.
I have tried to duplicate the collection and arrange them one after the other, but it's time consuming and tiring.
Is there an easy way I can go about it?

(I'm not confident about the title of the question. If it can be edited for better understanding, please do)

You can use geometry nodes. From what I understand you just want to distribute copies of the glassbulb collection on the floor.
(In his setup I have added the selection to the distribute points on faces node because the surface you want to distribute on also extent to the background wall. Other wise this is not needed. So in this setup any face that has a value of 1 in the z-component of the normal is selected.(Please make sure that the face orientation is correct, if not go to edit mode and click alt+n and flip faces) Next points are distributed on the face. Then on these points the instances from the collection info node are instanced. (In the transform geometry node you will have to reset the location of the collection(you will have to do this only if you have moved the original object) Just do '1-location(for each axis)' and enter the value. Otherwise skip that node. After this the original ground object and these instances are simply joined through the join geoetry node). (You have to apply this geometry node modifier on the ground plane)


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Objects seem to merge and join, in Particle Property
Oranges in the image below seem to enter each other as they fall through(Particle property). How do I prevent it?
(Look at bottom of image for reference)

Maybe instead of particles use rigid body?


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Display in viewport becomes orthographic
Under World Properties, I added a Studio HDRI as an environment, and I suspect I must have messed with options within it.
It looks like this now (orthographic)
This is what I want (Perspective)

How do I get it back to the default perspective view?

Press the '5' key on the numpad to toggle between perspective and orthographic views.

@JohnEason Thank you, John, but I don't have the numpad keys. Do you know what else I can do?

On the View menu there's a Perspective/Orthographic entry to toggle betwen them or there are lots of YT videos on using Blender without a numpad since lots of people use laptops.

@JohnEason Thank you. I've been able to fix it.

Press the F3 button or click on the Grid Icon at the bottom of the Camera Icon


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Pinning Vertex group in cloth physics removes wrinkles
I created a bag of chips, added a cloth physics to it, and added pressure so it inflates.
I had created a Vertex group at the top and bottom of the bag so I can pin it in the cloth physics properties.
When the bag inflates (a typical product bag should have wrinkles and deformities on the sides), it smoothen out and doesn't show any form of wrinkles.
Upon removing the pinned Vertex group, the bag inflates and and the wrinkles on the sides are visible.
I don't know why pinning a Vertex group makes such difference, but is there a way I can retain the wrinkles and deformities even with the pinned Vertex group?


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How to Set the Origin to geometry following a curve

Plane is placed at Point A
Curve is placed at Point B

Using the Curve modifier, Plane follows the Curve path at Point B, but leaves behind its origin at Point A meaning the only thing at Point A is the origin of the Plane.

How do set the origin to stick to the Plane while it moves along the Curve path at Point B?
PS: Set Origin to Geometry doesn't make a difference.

You are using a Curve modifier. As other modifiers, it manipulates the mesh of an object, not the object itself. Which means, only the vertices of the mesh move along the curve while the object and its origin stay in place. Use a Follow Path constraint instead. I've explained how it works in my answer here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/278851/follow-path-set-start-point/278869#278869

@GordonBrinkmann Thank you very much.

@GordonBrinkmann Thank you very much.


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Can blender create a single composite video from multiple cameras?
I have a couple of high level questions that I am hoping you guys might have some answers for.
I would like to use multiple (2 or more) cameras set apart with a slight fixed toe-in (or out?) on a rig to create a single video. This is NOT  a video in video or split image.
What I would so would look something like what this guy did in the video, however without the end result being a 3D video, but a usual 2D video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJlkuHxQB20
Perhaps another analogy is the L16 camera:
https://support.light.co/l16-photography/l16-tech-part-1
It seems to rely on a technique called computational imaging. I understand that similar technology is used to create bird-eye view for cars.It seems to me that this technology is proprietary and cannot really be purchased as a piece of software to just install to your machine and pay a license to use it.
I am not so much against 3D videos. It is just that most of them look horrible without 3D glasses. Perhaps I have just seen the wrong videos
Questions:

Is there any "of the shelf" software that does this? Could Blender actually do this? I have watched a fair share of tutorials but most featured a virtual monkey dummy - I could not see a real recording. Did I watch the wrong tutorials?
In the L16 camera there is some distance between the mini-cameras (not to call them lenses as they are indeed complete cameras) how would this work with a foot of distance? Could it be calibrated in case there is some distortion?
Would it help if I am not too demanding with the end result, i.e. I don't need L16 pro level, just one quality level, done in real time video, and managing 2 or 4 cheaper cameras to get a slightly better video.

Hopefully what I'm asking for is really simple and anyone reading this is having a laugh as the solution already exists...

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/52231/rendering-a-stereoscopic-image-in-blender-2-77

Probably, you are asking about stereoscopy function which can be enabled in Output section:

Once enabled, you can edit the distance between cameras and the point where camera field of views intersects.

In multi-view mode you can set up custom amount of cameras.
You can read more about this here:
Blender wiki

Thanks a lot @Crantisz ! From your answer not much prevents me from doing a bit of experimenting!


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I get 2 stripes when doing texture painting
so Im following Andrew Price course of doing a donut in Blender 3.0 and in this part: Course Video where he does the white line in the middle:

Bute I get this:
It looks like there is no issue when I paint anywhere on the donut, but then 2 strips start showing, if i paint over those strips it paints the whole area, there also appear 2 thin lines in the inner hole of the donut, I did everything like in the course video I tried selecting all vertices and recalculating outsides, searched on goodle, on the youtube comments but cant find a solution.
Here is a video that I made showing the issue so u could understand a little better:
My issue video

Hello, your unwrap must be bad, or too much bleeding for your brush and not enough margin between the UVs? Please share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/


text:
UV Unwrap onto cylinder
This has to be unwrapping 101 level 0 beginner noob
But i cant get my head around it - can build a scene, can't unwrap a bottle
Here's the real thing

Heres a 3d version i quickly made with the design all messed up and i cant get it to simply wrap around the bottle and join so the name connects

Heres the edit mode

heres the image im trying to mockup onto it

.blend file
https://we.tl/t-pGYMQN4RnB
Can someone please help with this simple noobish hurdle?
ta

Select the cylinder faces, unwrap with the Cylinder Projection mode, in the Operator box activate Align to Object and Scale to Bounds:

It works:

Just like that - i knew it was one or two buttons away. Thank you so much moonboots

One way is:

Add a vertical seam where you want to place the middle of name.
Then unwrap the area where you want to apply the texture.
Scale the uv map so that the vertical borders of the map and of the texture match. If you only scale along the x axis the image on the cylinder will appear vertically squeezed. If you scale along both the x and y axis you will not be able to vertically cover the whole cylinder. Thus, with your setting the image will be repeated until the cylinder is covered. Instead, if you want only one copy of the texture at the bottom of the cylinder: first translate the uv map along the y axis so that the bottom borders of the texture and the uv map match; then, on the image node in node editor, change Repeat into Extended.