text:
How to extrude a 2cm base for an uneven surface?
I am trying to extrude a 2 or 3 cm solid baseplate for this landscape.
It has to be the same formation as the cutout, as I'm going to 3D print it.
What is the easiest way to do so? Thank you!
.

Hi :). Do you mean to add thickness with flat base, so it doesn't wobble?

My approach would be:

Select the boundary of your object.
Extrude it 2cm.
Make an N-gon face from the resulting edges, or grid fill, if that works better.


text:
How to easy create an office suit?
I'm looking for a way to create a classic office suit like in this picture:

Is there a fast way to make it? Maybe I should use a cloth simulation for it or shrinkwrap+subdiv modifiers?
I just haven't created a clothes so I don't know a good way to make it.

It's a philosophical question. What's easy? If you divide the job into small enough steps, none of them are hard at all. It could get time consuming... What's time consuming? How much time is too much to spend on this? Not sure if this question can be answered. Maybe you could tell us what you have tried as far and what you are struggling with?

There are many sites with low cost or free meshes that can be imported into your file.  turbosquid, cgtrader are two of my favorites where I've been lucky to find these.   DAZ studio (free) can also install some free characters and outfits that can then be exported/imported into blender.

@MartynasŽiemys thank you for your attention. I've tried to create cylinder without caps, apply shrinkwrap and subdiv modifiers and try to adjust it to character, so it should be the fastest way to achieve my goal (as I thought). But the result is not so good.

Hello, yes you can create the basic shape and shrinkwrap onto the body

@james_t thank you for advice but I can't use that because of 2 reasons: I can't pay for this because of sanctions and I can't download models from here because sites doesn't work with my country (at least, cgtrader).

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Why splitting material is breaking shading?
I can't understand, I have a character where hair's mesh have one material for haircut, eyelashes and eyebrows:

I'm trying to split this material (by assigning verticies of eyebrows to a new material slot) so I'll be able to change color of eyebrows without changing color of eyelashes and hair, but when I'm doing it the alpha pin is breaking:

Why is this happening and how to fix that?

Check Material Properties > Settings > Blend Mode ... (it is probably set to Opaque) ... if it is not your case share your simplified blend, just a part of eyebrow if issue persists.

In your first screenshot, the material is set to Blend Mode > Alpha Hashed which is okay. Make sure the new material is the same, so I agree with @vklidu here. Another thing is, if there is an alpha channel or map or whatever kind of mask, make sure it is still placed correctly and not somehow moved so that the transparent part has changed its location.

@vklidu yes, the problem was in Blend mode - the Alpha Hashed is right mode for this. Thank you! Can you post it as answer, so I can mark it?

@GordonBrinkmann yes, alpha hashed settings helped, thank you!

Great it helped ...

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


text:
How to use bezier curve in shrinkwrap modifier with vertex groups?
I'm trying to make neck part of sweater:

and I thought that I can do it like that:

create bezier curve
make vertex group for neck part of sweater
add shrinkwrap modifier to curve with selected vertex group
done

But I don't have any vertex group in modifier:

I've tried to make things like in this question, but I just can't select curve as object in shrinkwrap modifier. How to fix that? Or am I doing something wrong?

The vertex group in the Shrinkwrap modifier is supposed to be the vertices in the object that are going to be shrinkwrapped onto the target, plus I think there are not vertex groups in curves, so you're probably making some confusions here?

Could you duplicate that group of vertices, instead, convert to a curve, and use the curve for subsequent steps?


text:
What's happening with values when I'm passing value from color pin to scalar pin?
I'm trying to recreate color ramp node in ue5, so I need to understand what's happening when I'm passing values from texture output pin to color ramp's factor pin. It's just can't be a color because factor is scalar value, so what is it?

This is the mean of the color component (RGB) values.

@lemon  it's luminance, not average: $v = 0.2126r + 0.7152g + 0.0722b$

@MarkusvonBroady, thank you, I did not know that (of course...). and pff.. I had upvoted this answer in the past...

@MarkusvonBroady yes, but I want to clarify, is the formula v=0.2126r+0.7152g+0.0722b working for all cases with colors?

@Сергей not sure what kind of cases you have in mind, to my knowledge, yes, it always works and in the linked question you can see a test case proving that.

@MarkusvonBroady ok, thank you very much for your help.


text:
Why does Eevee take so long to render an empty scene?
If i open a new instance of Blender with the default cube scene and hit Render Animation, the rendering speed is something in the neighborhood of 2 to 4 frames per second. Even after making the scene entirely empty resulting in a black screen and disabling everything i can see and setting samples to 1, the situation doesn't change much.
I expected a real-time rendering engine like eevee to behave just like one, usually resulting in spikes upwards of 2000+ fps on empty scenes in my system. I was just curious to know why eevee is so glacial by comparison when rendering.

How did you measure those 2-4 fps? What hardware are you on? On my system Eevee can render several million vert geometry at 60 fps without tanking. You getting single digit fps in an empty scene seems unlikely to me

@TheBeautifulOrc I merely eyeballed how quickly the frame counter in the top left corner of the render window that pops up changes. I tried on a laptop with a i5-8250u, 16gb ddr4 and SSD (3 fps) and a desktop with i3-9100f, gtx1070, 16gb ddr4 and SSD (4 fps).

Your GTX1070 is definitely stronger than my old GTX970.
What you should look at is the number displayed by the frame counter. The UI might be updating slower than the actual viewport. Is moving around in your scene smooth for you?

@TheBeautifulOrc Moving around in the viewport with the "Rendered" viewport shading is perfectly smooth, including playback at 60fps or more. Apparently, i only have the problem when rendering (Ctrl+F12). To be sure i just checked and the "Render Engine" is correctly set to Eevee.


text:
Why does my extruding not work like this?

This is what mine looks like. Here is what I would like it to look like:

I cannot figure out why the edges of mine are not expanding like in the tutorial I'm following. I'd appreciate some suggestions.

is there a difference? on the video he just pulled it a bit less, no?

If you look at the edges of the area that I'm extruding close up it seems that his is different. I cannot figure out why.

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

If you zoom in you can see that the edges of his connect different to mine. I'm having trouble uploading the file. Is it not possible for you to see it through the images?

or use https://pasteall.org/blend/

https://pasteall.org/blend/fb1db737779542e6810c86a0fae60695

Also try disabling the snap function. It also create problems sometimes.

You have overlapping vertices, it messes up your extrusion, go in Edit mode, select all and press AltM > Merge by Distance.
The threshold in the Operator box should be enough.

Thanks so much! I got it to work. I am new to Blender, could you possibly explain what you mean by the threshold in the operator box?

I've edited my answer, the Operator box is on the bottom left of your 3D view, it appears as soon as you make an action that can be set up, here you can set the merge distance, it means that the merge operation won't happen between vertices that are separated by more than the distance.

@Morgan You had probably extruded the face and where moving the extruded vertices and then cancelled it. Cancelling the extrusion snaps the new vertices back on top of the original vertices.


text:
How do I get rid of this bump?

I want to get rid of this but the only option I can find is to delete vertices. I would appreciate some help. If needed, you can find the file at: https://pasteall.org/blend/27dda981439148c8a16237925d5b428e

You have vertices overlapping, in Edit mode select all and alt M > Merge By DIstance

Thanks again! You're a legend.


text:
What is this and how do I get rid of it?

I have no idea what that white ring is or how I applied it. Here's a picture of it in edit mode:
I want to get rid of it but I don't know how to go about doing so. I'd appreciate some help. If needed, here is the file: https://pasteall.org/blend/07f0ab12a84944e69b2afd50cf7d3f6f

Does it move when you move your mouse?

I've tried selecting the ring and moving it and it will move. The pattern just doesn't go away.

It looks like you're in circle select mode. Does it change when you press "W"?

The issue is being caused by the presence of an extra face inside the mug. Its a quick fix; in edit mode, select it and press  X  > Faces.

Also note that there's an Ngon near the base of the mug that could use some splitting, for uniformity's sake. In edit mode, select the top and bottom vertices and press  J .

This should do it, good luck!

Ok I found the problem. There is a face on that ring, and you have to delete it. I thing you accidentally made a face there and that is why you can't chose the whole ring if you select it with Alt + LMB
I am not sure if I made it clear, but look for a face which if shouldn't be there.

Alright. Will do, thanks!

I can't find a face that looks different. Can you?

Hello and welcome. Please don't add thank you as a comment, upvote the answer instead. If you feel it completely solved your problem consider marking it accepted


text:
Particle size as key frame
I want to render a scene with 300 frames. I have particles included and in frame 1 I want to have particle size 0.001 growing linear until frame 300 to 0.05.
I am already aware how to use keyframes for rotation, but here I seem to fail.

The parameter I am talking about is in the lower left.

While i am sure you have a reason to use the older version of Blender (update is much recommended though).
That said, you should be able to get it done by doing the following:

Go to frame 1, where the scale is supposed to be 0.001
Enter the value of 0.001 and then with the mouse over the scale field, press I to set a keyframe for that attribute at frame 1.
Now jump to frame 300 and enter the new value (0.05) for the scale and again with the mouse over the scale field press I to set another keyframe.

If you now play the animation, the scale value will be interpolated between 0.001 and 0.05 over the run of 300 frames. If you want a linear interpolation, you need to go in the graph editor and under key menu -> Interpolation Mode -> Linear. Or just press T and select Linear, like in the picture below.

I packed all in a little visual demonstration:

Happy Blending


text:
How to rotate object with array modifier without problems in blender
I am new to blender.
I modeled the clock with an array modifier and only then realized that I needed to rotate the entire object 90 degrees. But when I try, the array gets distorted and everything breaks. How can you rotate everything without any deformations and changes??

if you've used an object as Object Offset, rotate it as well

... even parent one to the other, so they always move together

In this case, the cube global Rotation is 0,0,0

delete the array modifier and copy two cube to this position

Setup the array modifiers with object offset

Hide the 2 cube in final


text:
How do I crate a plane(or object) that is invisible but can catch light(cycles)?
So I have went through alot of Answers and Questions about this, but could not really find a desired solution. I currently have a Particle Emitter creating Light on a plane in my scene.
However, I need that plane to be invisible, so that I can have the light of the particles on an invisible plane(simply so that when using it for irl videoproduction I can use the invisible plane as the ground in the video)
Here is a picture of my scene(rendered). (I gave the plane a blue color only to know when it is tranparent and when not):

I have heard of and used shadow catchers before, but of course they don't do the job, since, I only need to catch light.
I do not have a problem, if I have to change the plane into an 3d object for that.
Thanks in advance.
Hoping for help.


text:
Inversing rotation of one axis in relation to a parent bone
I have a mesh that has 2 heads. I want to rig the mesh in a way that;

when I rotate the main head on the Y and X axis, the second head rotates in identical direction
when I rotate in the Z axis I want the rotation of the second head be inversed, so that the heads turn to face each other

What is the most practical way of achieving this type of behavior?

You can do that with a Copy Rotation constraint, you need to enable all the Axis and also enable the Invert axis for the one that is supposed to be symmetrical. Also choose the right Target and Owner spaces:


text:
Smoothing issues on blender sculpt mode
Attached below are two screenshots of the mesh I'm trying to smooth down without any success.
I've tried:

Shift-left click
Smooth brush (adjusting strength & radius)
Remeshing + Shrinkwrap
Remeshing + Shrinkwrap + Bake

And they don't really seem to work. Feel free to download the attached blender file and try these methods, maybe I'm doing something wrong ..
Also, I'm trying to create a baby's skinfold on this mesh if anyone knows a good and efficient way to do so without rigging. Thanks for your help!

hello, I can't see any link to your file

I can't seem to upload the blender file through blend-exchange. Any other way to do so?

you should be able to do it, you need to copy paste the URL of this page. But you can also use https://pasteall.org/blend/

@moonboots sorry for the late reply. I just tried the website but it seems like the size limit is 24 MB. My blend file is 132MB. Also, what do I do after uploading it onto the pasteall.org/blend website? Where can I find the uploaded blend file and attach it to this forum?

you can just share the part with the problem. Once you've uploaded the file, copy paste here the URL it has generated

@moonboots sorry for the late reply, I was preparing for my finals. Now I'm back to this project. The part (with the problem) is the baby's body but that itself is still bigger than 25MB in size. Is there another way to share my blender file?

you can upload on wetransfer, send it to yourself, then share the link here

@moonboots Okay, done! Here is the link:
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/f1e675a8fcfdabd199c8b638e8a6dca420220502155557/9bd139e31faff96eb3d3224da979fb0d20220502155615/73b3e6

I'm afraid your file is a bit too heavy for my computer, I hope someone will help


text:
I accidentally hid my right "toolbar"? in Blender and don't know how to get it back
I was just working on my first ever Blender project when I pressed a key or a button by accident and my "toolbar" (Idk what to call it) just disappeared and I don't know how to get it back... I NEED MY MODIFIER!!

Type the N key when you are hovering in the 3D area.  It will toggle visibility of that bar, which is called the 'sidebar' in the Blender documents.

That wont' get the outliner and modifier panels back as you can see from the position of the gizmos. I suspect the 3D window is now maximised, so press CTRL-SPACE with the cursor in the 3D view.

@JohnEason Could be but shouldn't there be a "Back to Previous" button in the top bar in that case?

@MartyFouts Yes that's true. It's a bit difficult to see from the supplied image as it's so small, but just tapping the 'N' key wouldn't bring the modifier and outliner panels back. I thought when I first looked at it that the edge of the 3D window might have been dragged right to the edge of Blender's main window, but if you do that it stops before the icons down the side of the properties panel disappear, so I'm still scratching my head here! I do wish that all the questioners would add a comment letting us know whether the problem is sorted, but often you don't even get any reply. :^(

It just looks like you dragged the ui til the outliner and properties editor areas got closed. Nothing wrong here, that's how you manage areas anyways. And it's easy to get bag. On each area corner, there's a place where you cursor change. Click and drag towards the inside of the area to split it into two areas. Then assign the newly created area to any editor you like: outliner or properties. And repeat anywhere hou want and as many times as you want to get any other editor.

@L0Lock TYSM BRO that was so helpful!


text:
Remove a (non-master) collection without deleting objects via script
I'm trying to replicate the functionality of right-clicking on a scene collection, and selecting 'DELETE', which removes the collection but does not remove any of the objects.
However, all functions and answers I found (unlink, collection.remove, etc) always remove all the objects that are part of the collection, which I'm trying to avoid.

You need to relink the objects to a new collection.  Here's an example that removes all the objects from a collection called "monkeys" and moves them to the default collection while removing "monkeys".  Change the names to protect your innocent:
import bpy

collection_to_remove = bpy.data.collections.get('monkeys')

objects_from_collection = [object for object in collection_to_remove.objects]
bpy.data.collections.remove(collection_to_remove)

collection_to_link_to = bpy.data.collections.get('Collection')
for object in objects_from_collection:
    collection_to_link_to.objects.link(object)


text:
Blender won't install correctly on one of my computers
I have two computers and have never had any problems with installing Blender, but now one of my hard disks crashed so I bought a new one.
I installed Windows 7, 64 Bit on it and some programs, but when I tried to install Blender, it installed it, but there seems to be something missing. The install wizzard said Blender requires 0 Kb of space and in the start menu there is no uninstall Blender. Furthermore, there is nothing in my AppData/Roaming....
When I try to open Blender, it just flashes the command console and then the grey screen flashes and then it's gone. This happened with 2.77a, so I tried 2.67b, which works fine on my other computer, but it had the same problem.
My other computer is older and I can't install 2.77 on it (no OpenGl 2.1).
I tried the MSI and the Zip file, but that makes no difference.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

Have you installed the necessary MSVC Redistributable packages after installing Windows?
I am not sure but you may need a few different ones from across the years to run Blender. Try at least the newest one
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2977003

Thank you for your answer. The problem went away over night, so it must have had somethig to do with updates. Here is a list of the updates installed last night if anyone is interrested. I guess it was KB76932, or KB979099, but what do I know? (Not much!)

Sorry,forgot the list. Here it is:

KB976932, KB2387530, KB3015428, KB979099, KB90830, KB2607576, KB2467023 KB977074, kb2454826, KB3046480, KB2748349, KB3004469, KB979538 and KB2562937.

Hum yeah, fresh install of Windows 7 from a few years old medium might have been missing a few essential updates from more recent years

Sure, but I already had two seseions of windows update behind, just like I had to update all of my drivers, so I didn't think of that. Anyway I am so happy that It worked out!

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

authors: วิทวัฒ เหล่าภักดี


text:
Planar curve with width
I have a planar bezier curve, this curve is in general not closed but it can intersect itself.
What I want is to give this curve a finite width in the plane of the curve. I have found many ideas about giving a curve volume or extruding out of the plane of the curve but that's not what I need.
Is there a way to achieve a finite in-plane width (as if I was drawing the curve with a thick pencil) ?
Thanks!

If I understand correctly what you want, you can achieve this easily with bevel objects.
A Bevel Object defines a section to be swept or extruded along the curve object, if you want to add simple width to the curve object just create a simple linear bevel curve and use it as bevel object in your open curve.
Control the width of the 'ribbon' by controlling the size of the bevel curve

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


text:
Disable Blender autosaving files
It seems that Blender is auto saving my projects, because when I exit Blender and go to my .blendfile again my latest progress (even the ones I did not save nor want to save) were present.
Is there some kind of setting I accidentally changed?
Thanks for the help.

Are you talking about auto save or do you mean that when Blender opens up it automatically opens your last saved project?
Anyway go to File Menu > User Preferences > File Tab > Auto Save: on the bottom right
Disable either Auto Save Temporary Files, reduce the number of files, or disable Keep session if when Blender opens up for the first time it automatically brings up the last opened file.
Keep session doesn't really save the changes to you actual work file however, as far as I know the session is saved to an internal Blender file in the user folder in the last state it was before closing. The actual work file in its directory however should be unchanged and hold only the changes up until the last explicit user save.
Beware that some addons do an automatic save of the file on export (like Blend4Web for example) even if you don't save the file, on export it automatically saves any changes without warning the user or specific user consent, resulting in unwanted and unforeseen file saves. If you are using any addons check in it's preferences if there is such setting as 'auto-save'

Hi thanks for the response. Where do I find the preferences for the addons?

Depends on the addon, some are right in the User Preferences > Addons in the addon entry itself. For export addons (like Blend4Web) some export related settings show up in the export dialog right in file browser's Tool Shelf on the bottom left while exporting. Other addons may have the preferences directly in the addon UI integrated in the Blender UI though those are unlikely to auto-save your file.


text:
How can I change the density of an object based on material?
I have an object made in a single mesh with different materials applied to it (by face).
Is there a way to simulate its center of gravity considering the material's different densities?
Right now blender uses just a single material for the whole object if i am not mistaken.
Thanks!

As far as I know, Blender doesn't use materials to calculate the object center, it either uses the default shape primitive center or can use the geometry to calculate it's centroid.


text:
Black pixels in render when using Cycles material
I already tried adding more subivisions, tweaked the light bouncing parameters, etc, but I cannot get rid of the black pixels when using  Cycles material copied from a YouTube video.

Here is the source if someone wants to check it out:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1541106/spots.blend
Thanks!

Those can be partially noise caused by render settings, partially black light bouncing from the background.

@cegaton Nvidia GTS250 under Archlinuxx64, with 340xx drivers.

@MrZak i had the world background set to black, set it to white and the same thing happens. edit:i even "disabled" it.

Actually your file crashed Blender for me because of OpenSL usage.. However anyway I don't have any of those black pixels rendering on CPU. Rendering on GPU could be one which causing the problem (although I can't test that).

@MrZak i actually am CPU rendering.

GPU rendering here and no black noise to speak of, you just have to let your render calculate more samples over time, although you do have a very small frequency noise texture affecting your material normal. That is bound to cause some noise, especially having the Factor black and white socket affecting normals which may cause issues. Subdivisions won't help here, only make it worse

I am not getting those spots when I render the scene.  Perhaps try rendering with the CPU instead of the GPU.
I rendered with the CPU.  My results:

Actually, i'm struggling with getting CUDA to work on my system and i'm currently working with CPU.

@cegaton perhaps you are refering to CUDA v7 which dropped v1. CUDA, because i found nothing related in Blender. 6.5 should work fine with my card.

@cegaton oh, i see, bummer. Thanks for the hint!

Have you happened to read ? https://www.blenderguru.com/articles/7-ways-get-rid-fireflies/
When I use glossy shaders, I get a lot noise like stuff, and stuff from this article has helped me a lot.
Based on the screen caps, because the file actually crashed for me, I noticed your samples look kinda low. If your willing to let your computer crunch for awhile, up the samples and picture should look better.
And I never rely on the viewport rendering, that gives you a rough idea how it all come out, and lets you change things in real time because it isn't going ham on making a purty picture. But if your going to submit this to something, you gotta see the finished polished product.
Hope this helps.


text:
How can form an image composed of text characters with colors?
How can I draw an image like this text 3D and colors ?

I guess that drawing really all that detail in 3d geometry is just too much... you could try something like this http://www.text-image.com/samples/face.html then apply something like this https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/84129/is-there-a-way-to-add-fake-thickness-to-an-alpha-image-texture/84618#84618... on a curved surface... just guessing...

Definitely a geometry nodes thing. You would apply the texture to a surface, and then you instance all the little characters, and have them sample their entire material color from wherever they are on the surface.

@TheLabCat I thought about converting the text to mesh and setting the image resolution to the resolution of the grid of symbols.

I don't think you'll need to do that, but it would work I suppose.


text:
Particle System Subsampling
Any ideas how to subsample with particles, as my animation travels too fast between frames for the particles to keep up? I'm using 2.83.0
Many thanks!

I'm talking from an older version here.  In the particles 'Physics' tab, with Newtonian physics selected there's a slot called 'Subframes'  That might solve your problem.

Thanks for your help! I found it was actually under object velocity in 2.9!

Good to know you got there, that's what counts!  :)


text:
Copy Rig Animation To new Skeleton
Hi helpful blender gang!
I've been digging around heaps and haven't found a single consensus on how to animate one rig based on the animations from another.
Here is what I have done:
1. Named the bones the same across both rigs
2. CTL + L, then Animation Data to apply data
3. Once I then hit play, the armature I want animated flies off and doesn't follow the animations being imported 100%.
Screenshots below:
Before CTL + L

After adding Animation Data and hitting play

Dope Sheet shows no errors

The model I want the animation data to go into looks like it's close to working but isn't quite working

Any advice would be great, thanks for your time!

could you please share your file before copying the animation? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/


text:
I got problem when I rendering my character it only render my arm
Just only one object is rendered I'm using blender render and Version 2.79

on the top right panel, it looks like you've disabled the render for some objects ? (camera icon)

Sorry I new to blender but what ??

I see it now sorry


text:
Translucent vinyl plastic material
I am trying to make a material similar to this unanswered post: Creating a colored translucent material for Plastic/PVC roll
I tried the suggested methods and was unsatisfied with the results. I am most interested in recreating the effect that occurs at the edges of the material.
Below are two screenshots of my current setup that is giving the 'best' results, but is unreal as I use two materials for the one object.

Top left in the image editor is my reference image of the desired material look.
Bottom left is my super basic node set ups for the face material. the other image shows my edge material.
Right is the plastic strip rotated 45º to show the edges backlit by a spot light 50W.
I placed a Suzanne behind to test the material transparency.
I am using a HDRi environment texture and a power 1 sun lamp to also light the scene.
Does anyone have any ideas how to make the material look more like the reference image? Ideally, using one material? I can use either eevee or cycles for this project.

Hey :). Have you tried the linked thread? https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/74686/

Hi yes, i have. I originally used that and then modified it to achieve the results above.

This is the setup I use for glasses, producing results such as the one above. It works by rendering the material as regular glass, except for lightrays that bounce too much (that is, more than three times), in which case it gets rendered as a simple green, transparent material. The Volume Absorption node is there to make sure the effect still happens when the sheet of glass is viewed from the side.
You can adjust it to your own needs by substituting the Glass BSDF node for the one(s) you've so far been using and tweaking the colours to your liking.

You can check this and many other tricks for rendering glass-like materials in Vilem Duha's Blender conference, Everything you wanted to know about rendering Glass not only with Cycles.

Thank you this is very helpful!


text:
Auto change the composite by render engine?
Is there a way to automatically change the composite when I change the render engine?


text:
How to change the quick setup after opening blender for the second time?
Changing the selection in the quick setup menu after opening blender the second time

The first startup menu shows only on the first startup of a new Blender version. It's possible to make it think it's your first time again by deleting some preferences files, but that's quite overkill. Plus most of what the first startup menu shows is also modifiable in Blender's preferences anyways. So what do you need to so exactly?

as mentioned you can get quick setup menu back by removing userpref.blend but you would reset all your settings

You can find the options provided in the quick setup menu in Edit > Preferences
Language settings are under the Interface tab, keyboard shortcuts under Keymap, and the theme settings under Theme.


text:
Control several Modifier parameters via Modal operator
Let's say I have this code for adding the Solidify mod to the object by ctrl+W. By holding Shift I can control the Thickness parameter. How can I switch to the Offset parameter and still be able to control it by Mouse move event (switching by pressing the O key for example)? And by T key switch back to Thickness.
PS Could be without Shift, just start control with the same keys.
import bpy
import math
import numpy as np
class ModalOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "modal.test"
    bl_label = "modalctrl"
    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.object is not None
    def modal(self, context, event):

        if event.type == 'MOUSEMOVE' and not event.shift:
            self.first_mouse_x = event.mouse_x
            self.first_thickness = bpy.context.object.modifiers[self.mod].thickness

        if event.type == 'MOUSEMOVE' and event.shift:
            delta = self.first_mouse_x - event.mouse_x
            bpy.context.object.modifiers[self.mod].thickness = self.first_thickness + delta * 0.01

        elif event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':
            #bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(modifier=self.mod)
            return {'FINISHED'}
        elif event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            bpy.ops.object.modifier_remove(modifier=self.mod)
            return {'CANCELLED'}
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        if context.object:
            self.mod = bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='SOLIDIFY')
            for mod in bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active.modifiers:
                if mod.type == "SOLIDIFY":
                    self.mod = mod.name
            self.first_mouse_x = event.mouse_x
            self.first_thickness = bpy.context.object.modifiers[self.mod].thickness
            context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}
        else:
            pass
            return {'CANCELLED'}

Here is the keymaps part:
addon_keymaps = []

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ModalOperator)
    # Add the hotkey
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    kc = wm.keyconfigs.addon
    if kc:
        km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name='3D View', space_type='VIEW_3D')
        kmi = km.keymap_items.new(ModalOperator.bl_idname, type='W', value='PRESS', ctrl=True)
        addon_keymaps.append((km, kmi))

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

    # Remove the hotkey
    for km, kmi in addon_keymaps:
        km.keymap_items.remove(kmi)
    addon_keymaps.clear()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Default in thinkness mode
'O' switch to offset mode
'T' switch to thinkness mode
hold shift to do thinkess
import bpy
import math
import numpy as np
class ModalOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "modal.test"
    bl_label = "modalctrl"
    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.object is not None
    def modal(self, context, event):
        self.dx = event.mouse_x - self.event_x
        self.dy = event.mouse_y - self.event_y

        if event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            bpy.ops.object.modifier_remove(modifier=self.mod.name)
            return {'CANCELLED'}
        if event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':   return {'FINISHED'}
        if event.shift:
            self.modal_thinkness()
            self.event_x, self.event_y = event.mouse_x, event.mouse_y
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

        if event.type == 'O':       self.sub_modal = self.modal_offset
        elif event.type == 'T':     self.sub_modal = self.modal_thinkness

        self.sub_modal()

        self.event_x, self.event_y = event.mouse_x, event.mouse_y
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        if context.object:
            bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='SOLIDIFY')
            self.mod = bpy.context.object.modifiers[-1]
            self.event_x, self.event_y = event.mouse_x, event.mouse_y
            self.sub_modal = self.modal_thinkness
            context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

        return {'CANCELLED'}

    def modal_thinkness(self):
        self.mod.thickness += self.dx * 0.01
    def modal_offset(self):
        self.mod.offset += self.dx * 0.01

addon_keymaps = []

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ModalOperator)
    # Add the hotkey
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    kc = wm.keyconfigs.addon
    if kc:
        km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name='3D View', space_type='VIEW_3D')
        kmi = km.keymap_items.new(ModalOperator.bl_idname, type='W', value='PRESS', ctrl=True)
        addon_keymaps.append((km, kmi))

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

    # Remove the hotkey
    for km, kmi in addon_keymaps:
        km.keymap_items.remove(kmi)
    addon_keymaps.clear()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Here is the warp cursor verson
cursor will jump to other side if in limit position
import bpy
import math
import numpy as np
class ModalOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "modal.test"
    bl_label = "modalctrl"
    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.object is not None
    def modal(self, context, event):
        self.dx = event.mouse_x - self.event_x

        if event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            bpy.ops.object.modifier_remove(modifier=self.mod.name)
            return {'CANCELLED'}
        if event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':   return {'FINISHED'}
        if event.shift:
            self.modal_thinkness()
            self.wrap_cursor(event)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

        if event.type == 'O':       self.sub_modal = self.modal_offset
        elif event.type == 'T':     self.sub_modal = self.modal_thinkness

        self.sub_modal()

        self.wrap_cursor(event)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        if context.object:
            bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='SOLIDIFY')
            self.mod        = bpy.context.object.modifiers[-1]
            self.event_x    = event.mouse_x
            self.sub_modal  = self.modal_thinkness

            # use for wrap cursor
            region          = bpy.context.window
            self.L          = 20
            self.R          = region.width - 20

            context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

        return {'CANCELLED'}

    def modal_thinkness(self):
        self.mod.thickness += self.dx * 0.01
    def modal_offset(self):
        self.mod.offset += self.dx * 0.01

    def wrap_cursor(self, event):
        x       = event.mouse_x
        new_pos = x

        if x < self.L:
            new_pos = self.R - 20
            bpy.context.window.cursor_warp(new_pos, event.mouse_y)
        elif x > self.R:
            new_pos = self.L + 20
            bpy.context.window.cursor_warp(new_pos, event.mouse_y)

        self.event_x = new_pos

addon_keymaps = []

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ModalOperator)
    # Add the hotkey
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    kc = wm.keyconfigs.addon
    if kc:
        km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name='3D View', space_type='VIEW_3D')
        kmi = km.keymap_items.new(ModalOperator.bl_idname, type='W', value='PRESS', ctrl=True)
        addon_keymaps.append((km, kmi))

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

    # Remove the hotkey
    for km, kmi in addon_keymaps:
        km.keymap_items.remove(kmi)
    addon_keymaps.clear()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


text:
Change multiple lights
I am new to blender. I am trying to change the light strength on multiple lights. I cannot figure how to change them all at once. I see how to change objects, but not lights. Any tips out there?

Select all your lights, go into the Object Data panel, press Alt LMB on the Strength or Power value, type the new value and Enter. Or select all your lights, select the one you want to copy the strength from at last, and right click on its Power value > Copy to Selected.

Thank you for the reply. That is exactly what I was looking for. I did see the "Adjust Light Power" when I select all the lights and right click, but I see it adjust the lights from where they are initially set by the increase you change that selection to, but the change is only made by moving the mouse. I don't see where a keyboard input can be made with that option.

sorry I don't understand, could you please reformulate?

@Georgenikas where there's a slider that shows numbers you can either drag with the mouse or click on the number and type in a new value.  Does that help?

I just figured out how to use "Custom Properties" and add all my lights to that Custom Property and adjust them all at one time. I realize this is good only if I want a group of lights to have the same power. I was also able to use the "Custom Properties" to change all the light colors at the same time with one entry.


text:
How can you make a Custom Ellipse Tool through Geometry Nodes?
I have been working on this side project on and off for a few months now and I have finally come across a need for your assistance.
I want to create a custom Ellipse Tool Modifier for use in edit mode with Geometry Nodes. Here are my conditions for the Modifier,

Every independent first point added will be the Center
Every second point connected to the first point will be the edge of a circle (Radius)
Every third point connected to the second point will be the scale perpendicular to the direction of the first point (Second Radius)

Here, is my attempt.

My Node Group used

Bugs
Disappearing Radius 2.
Every time a new circle is added, the second radius disappears for one of my ellipses. There is something affecting the second radii of my ellipses. I honestly don't know what it is.

Inconsistent Order of Points.
Some new circles/ellipses added are inconsistent to the order of points already created. The first point is not the center of the shape. How do I keep the order of points consistent when I add them?

I am somewhat aware that whenever a new point is added through edit mode, its index may become the largest integer or the smallest, 0 (all existing indices +1). However, I'm curious if anyone has some workarounds to fix these bugs. Perhaps someone has a better node tree?

Blender 4.3.0

…whenever a new point is added… its index may become the largest integer or the smallest, 0 (all existing indices +1)…

This is not true… I never experienced indices being shuffled upon adding another… Always the next available (number equal to total before addition) index is given to a new vertex… Upon removing a vertex or more, all indices are shifted to the left in order…
When converting mesh to curve, indices can be changed, according to this…
Blender 4.0 Manual: Geometry Nodes: Inspection: Geometry Randomization
However based on my testing, only the order of splines is random, the order of points within the splines remains… So the first vertex of the mesh island becomes the first point of the curve…
The algorithm then becomes…

Imgur mirror (SE image hosting has problems)

Imgur mirror

I think relying on mesh elements indices is not recommended because they can be invalidated and shuffled in some cases (UNDO - REDO, obj.to_mesh(), append, etc) Not sure exactly but I wouldn't bet on it. However wouldn't this be a good test case for the new GIZMOs introduced in 4.3 ?

@Gorgious Yes, but the very algorithm described by OP relies on the two first indices of each mesh island having a different meaning than the third index. Or differently: the first edge of mesh island has a different meaning than than the optional second. You could change the algorithm and mark one edge e.g. sharp but then the tool is harder to use. As for gizmos: unfortunately this problem shows the limitations of gizmos: you can't have a dynamic number of gizmos, and there's no slick way to move a gizmo based on e.g. mouse cursor position to the nearest vertex.

Wow! This was Awesome!! You resolved nearly all of my issues. Thanks for clearing up the whole thing about indices. I guess I confused myself between mesh islands and connected points.


text:
Help! Symmetry isn't completely symmetrical on Z angled faces

The model origin is in the world centre, as well as the cubes, But for some reason the front angle isn't actually symmetrical. Why?

hello, hard to understand your image, but maybe you have rotated your object? in that case apply the rotation

It might be helpful to people trying to help you if you uploaded an example blend file to the site https://blend-exchange.com and add that link in the question.


text:
Get focus on Blender interface when working on a custom panel (pyside6 and Qt)
I created an Animation Picker panel using pyside6 and Qt, and so far, everything is going pretty well. However, the Picker has a feature which allows the user to click on a button and immediately control a bone without the necessity of 'selecting' the Blender interface first; its implementation looks like the following code:
import win32gui

window_name = "Blender"
window_handle = win32gui.FindWindow(None, window_name)
win32gui.SetForegroundWindow(window_handle)

However, the Picker sometimes focuses on the Blender Toggle Console instead of its interface. Anyone who has worked with pyside6 and Qt? Thank you very much in advance.


text:
Cycles not showing grass texture
My textures are not showing specifically when rendered in cycles.

If I use the material preview mode it's fine;

If I render in Eevee, everything is fine;

If I render (preview or output) in cycles, the texture is not used to generate the image.

Could someone help me with this? I've already tried tweaking some settings and searching here for the answer but nothing worked.
Eevee and Render Preview:

Cycles and Render Preview 1:

Cycles and Render Preview 2:

Cycles and Render Preview 3:

Hello could you please share your file? https://blend-exchange.com/

Hello @moonboots, I tried uploading the file but couldn't upload it because it's a large blend file. However, I have been able to rectify it by removing the normal maps in the node editor. If there are ways to optimize my blend file size, you can also help me with that. Thank you.

Use another platform like workupload for example?

Okay, I would do that and send you the link.


text:
Can you unlink action for multiple objects at once?
I know you can right click object and select unlink action to do so.
Or do it inside action editor.
The question is this is too slow. There are so many actions there for different objects, what if you want to switch animation from one to the other. That would be a nightmare.
Is there anything I can look into? Thanks.

If you got actions objects spread in an object hierarchy. (but they use same action)
Yes, you can modify action of them all at once by script.

for loop that object hierarchy and see if object got action element. save them in list or something like that
hard coded script or make a panel to pick the action name.
assign the action you pick to those action objects you found.


text:
Use same texture from the other object beneath target object
For example, there are two plane.

Plane A is the beneath one with ABXY texture.
Plane B is the upper one which is selected (show the green outline) and it's a decal mesh.
And I want no matter where plane B move. Plane B always get the projection of plane A as its texture. There's diagrammatic image below.

Plane B get the Y corner texture part as its texture.
What's the purpose? If the decal mesh is just for a addition normal. There's no method to get transparent+normal work together. So, I think get the same texture zone beneath it is the way out.

The UVProject modifier should work well in a simple scene as your example.

What do you mean by saying there's no method to get transparent+normal work together?

@Gordon Brinkmann
There's no way to use transparent base color with normal map right? unlike those powerful shader in game engine. For example: UE4 Decal Blend Mode

@Secrop
I think you misunderstand what kind of effect I want to reach.

@OkazakiNaoki To understand it correctly, you want something like a decal with transparent areas placed over some other texture... and the decal should have some bump through a normal map. In the transparent areas or the opaque areas? Or both?

This might not be the correct answer since I'm not sure if I completely understand your problem. Let's say you have a decal as PNG with transparency like this (the white part is actually transparent, unfortunately not visible here):

And the normal map looks like this, so that the blue bars and the text is raised (note that the raised part extend the opaque part of the decal):

You want to place the decal on some plane which has a different texture like this example:

So that it looks like this (sorry the image maps are very low resolution):

To achieve something like that I would use a node setup like this:

You can mix the decal over the base texture by using its Alpha Channel. The Normal Map node can simply be put into the Normal Input of a Principled BSDF node.
If you set the Image Texture nodes containing the decal image and the normal map to Interpolation > Extend instead of the default Repeat, you can move the decal around and scale it with a Mapping node.
If you want the decal to be not fully opaque in the image's opaque areas, you can use a Map Range node like I did in the example setup or maybe a Color Ramp. Decreasing the To Max value (or setting the ramp's bright value to some grey instead of white) will make the decal more transparent.
To move and scale the decal with a control plane you can use the Object output of the Texture Coordinate node and select the control plane as reference object like in the following example (but for more complex meshes the first version with UV might work better):

but in my case there's only decal normal map, no base color image for decal.

Then don't mix in a base color, just plug in the normal map...? But where do you have transparency, in the normal map? A normal map usually has no transparency.

I guess I completely misunderstand what you're trying to do so my answer is useless...

Maybe you can see the example on UE4. example

decal base color is simply transparent. and "only" normal map on decal mesh. it's like a normal only decal for adding normal by decal method.

@OkazakiNaoki, there isn't this functionality in Blender. There are plenty of tools that would let you accomplish that, But you still have to differenciate bettween UV projections, and texture mixings. They (and your question also!) are two problems alone on their own.. one works on a mesh level, and  the other on a material level (a mesh can have multiple materials, and a material can be in multiple meshes).

@OkazakiNaoki Well, with my method - if you do it within the same material - then you simply just plug in a normal map as I said before. You can move, scale and rotate it with texture coordinates. If you would an extra material with a simple Transparent BSDF the problem would be, it's only transparent - it has no glossiness or anything, so a bump created by a normal map would be invisible. You need the surface qualities of the underlying material to be effected by the normal map - and in this case you can add it in the material like i did. But it won't be a real decal.

yea, your method is like decal machine addon


text:
extrude plane along axes of cube
I want to extrude a face along the rotation of a the roof. How do i do that? Is there a keyboard shortcut.

You can create a custom orientation: Select the face, open the Transform Orientations panel and click on the "+" button:

The orientation is now selected by default, extrude along X, Y or Z, it will follow the face orientation:

thanks learn something new today :).

it's not good topology though, you should give some thickness to your roof


text:
Merging an irregular surface into a plane
I have a few meshes full of bumps and holes that look like this:

I want to modify this surface to fit within a plane so that it will look something like this:

I'm not sure where to go about starting this, though. I just want the edges to be perfectly rectangular, so I can line up several of these side by side to get one big surface where the interface between them nice and straight. Any insight on how I could approach this would be helpful!

related: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/75704/how-to-create-a-seamless-low-poly-terrain-with-displace-and-multiple-planes

This might suit your needs: Assuming the second image is of the bumpy object in the first image and a plane, i would add a Boolean modifier with Operation: Union on the plane. Then as Object target the bumpy object, Apply the modifier, and then delete all the vertices south of the plane.


text:
External data pack error
External data pack error
Missing file  blender 2.9
I want Blender to always be able to find the texture (even if the file is on a different computer).
But [all packed in .blend]
It says that the path cannot be found.
Why are you looking for that directory?
-Is there a problem with the directory?
How should I set up the directory?
-This object is exported from ue4.
Having trouble exporting from UE4?
Are there any tutorials that might help
Please help me

Because Blender caches textures, they won't appear missing right away, showing pink color. To become pink, they should be reloaded. Like when you reopen the .blend file or append/link their texture data blocks to another .blend file.
Before packing, you have to find all missing textures in the original file.
When you use Find Missing Files, you have to choose the folder with missing files. Blender will search in the folder's subfolders also. To find files on your computer use something like Everything.
In Blender, there is no such concept as a project or a project folder.
There are no requirements for strict directory management like in Unreal Engine.
You may also want to disable using relative paths so you can move a .blend file freely.

Some methods of importing, like with some add-ons, may ignore this setting, so you have to make path absolute manually.

Perhaps the idea of a project folder in blender is using relative paths. Relative to the location of the saved blend file.   Eg //textures/foo.png is in the folder "textures" in the same folder as the blend file.  Could use  to emulate the structure required by other software.  This folder could  be symbolically linked to any folder  on your system via the OS. Project can be distributed as a zip, or packed.  Will then unpack relative to the blend file folder.  Using absolute paths is far more likely to break if you use the blend file on another computer where the absolute paths may not exist


text:
I cant get rid of this camera that was set to my armature
I set a camera to my armature by pressing ctrl + b and now in my timeline there Is a camera icon with the words armature next to it. I can't get rid of it and whenever I set another camera as the primary camera, it gets set back to the armature camera

I solved it myself, it was a marker with the camera set to it

I solved it myself, it was a marker with the camera set to it


text:
No vertices after applying skin modifier
I am completely new to blender and I was looking for the tools I could use to practice basic models then I applied my first modifier (skin) to the vertices I made to create a tree trunk, but unlike in the video I looked at, new vertices on the edges didnt appear and I cannot unwrap the mesh. I have seen another question exactly like mine but they went into a private conversation

Hello could you please share your file? https://blend-exchange.com/

You need to apply the modifier to access the modified geometry

This may be a bit confusing, but "applying a modifier" in Blender does not mean to just put it on the object. It means after you are happy with the settings and you are sure you don't want to change it anymore, you can apply the modifier meaning to create a new mesh based on the modifier's settings, and after that the modifier is removed from the object and you cannot change it anymore. There is an Apply option in the modifier's menu or you could use the short Ctrl+A while hovering your mouse over the modifier.


text:
Blender hair systems
I'm new to Blender and want to use its hair systems. Despite watching numerous tutorials and researching online, I can't seem to find stable settings. My hair simulations either end up too jittery or clump together. I'm using Blender 3.6. Is there a node-based hair system with more stable hair dynamics available?

Welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue in such way that anyone searching for a similar problem may easily find it. Use the [edit] link above, remove anything superfluous, avoid words like "this","issue with" or "question about". Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors will see, answers you get depend heavily on how inviting it is. See "What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?""

thanks for nothings


text:
How to apply transform to root of Rigify
I made a motion capture of dance with video and after Wonder Dynamics.
I transferred the animation to a character to work with Rigify.
I'm having some issues with certain parts of the animation and the feet are moving a bit when they shouldn't.
I corrected some parts of animation with the position of the root bone. The character therefore no longer makes X/Y translations which he should not but the feet are not fixed on the ground although they should.
Is it possible to apply translation transformations as for an object on the root bone?
So that I can then erase the key points and secure the feet to the ground?
thank you very much and best regards

This sounds like the XY Problem. I find it a bit hard to know exactly what you are trying to do, clear examples and why not even a demo file would be helpful here. Maybe you could just correct the animation using layers from the NLA editor?

My approach would be to somehow capture the foot bones’ movement in the global space, then invert it, and apply it to the armature as a whole. But how to convert their forward kinematics into baked keyframes on an empty is the question I have. Can an object constraint be baked to keyframes?

I just transfert all keyframes from root to object ... arf ... sometime need a break ! thank you


text:
Blender 3.4.0 Startup Error in Mac OS High Sierra
I just installed Blender 3.4 on my ancient late-2011 iMac, as 3.4 is supposed to be the latest version that will run on my machine. When I try to run it, I get the following error message,

My iMac is one of the educational models. I'm wondering if the GPU is the problem?
My machine specs are as follows,

This is a Q&A site run by volunteers. No-one here is a Blender developer or has any association with the Blender Foundation and questions about what seems to be a bug are off-topic here. To report a bug go to https://projects.blender.org/

Ok, I was able to install and run Blender 3.3.7 just fine. I guess that's as far as I can go on my current Mac?


text:
Large purple thing around object
I purchased a rigged hand and when I use cycles it appears with this large purple thing around it and I have no idea what it is?
I've attached an image of it in cycles and in eevee.

That's the colour which blender displays on an object if it can't find the colour texture that is supposed to be on it.

Yep, but I'm not sure what the object is as it isn't there in eevee

If the material uses displacement it could be acting funny because of the missing texture

Ah yes it was a displacement problem, thank you


text:
How to fill missing part of character's head?
I have a  model where part of head is missing. Can I fill it fast?

I've tried to use grid fill, but it's just filling it like this:

How can I fix it and keep resolution of original poligons?

Follow the existing loops (extrude edges from the top in the shape of the head until they hit the bottom unconnected edges).

Grid Fill is worth a try, if you have matched vertex-counts (as it seems), with the right number of spans, and offset. For more control,  you might have more luck with Bridge Edge Loops > Blend Surface, for an incomplete fill, missing out the corners:

... counting the cuts to match, and filling the remaining faces as a second operation.

Sorry, but Bridge Edge Loops doesn't work for me at all. In your case you have right side of an eye and you can connect your edges with it. But I don't have it, so I just getting a total mess.


text:
How to combine few UVs to one using UDIM?
Good evening. I found out that ue5 supports only 4 UV layers for skeletal meshes, so I need to combine 3 UVs to one. I want to use UDIM for it. How can I do it? It should look like this:

Set up the UDIM workspace:
In your image editor, set up the UDIM workspace. This typically involves setting up a grid or guides to help you properly place your UV maps.
Assign UDIM coordinates:
Using the UDIM naming convention, assign unique UDIM coordinates to each of your placed UV maps.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/uv/workflows/udims.html

Hello. Well, I can't understand what to do at all. Link to workflow of udims is not helping, because its covering only texturing, but I don't need texture at all - I need to create UV UDIM.


text:
Is there any reason to use nodes with zero values?
When I'm looking at shaders of some authors, I see nodes like this:

and I can't understand - why? As I can see, these nodes don't do anything. I've tried to see the difference with/without it and there is no difference at all. Is there any secrets behind it or it's just some legacy author decided to keep? I thought maybe it's for runtime animation, but there's no variables connected to factors or values. Am I miss something?
I can't attach blend file, because this one shader is too big, and I'm not sure if I can share it at all, so, please, take this question as abstract situation.

The values with 'Clamp' will make sure the output value is inbetween 0 and 1. But my guess is that they are additional nodes with not that big of a purpose, try to change their value and see what it does instead of just enabling/disabling them

@Alex yes, in this case there is difference, but still can't see any sence of it, since there is no connected values to drivers or timeline. Do you think it could be undeleted legacy when you're trying just to adjust values?

Yes that's most likely the case

As @Alex said, one reason could be using them to clamp values. Without knowing what is plugged in there it's hard to tell. Maybe the input values can be outside the 0 to 1 range, then clamping could be a purpose. Or they are there as a kind of default settings, changing nothing, but are there to make it possible to tweak settings (and to first of all give an idea where to tweak settings). But that's just guesswork without knowing the intentions of the author or which effect changing the values will have.


text:
How to select all unused bones?
Good day. I have armature and hair mesh. But armature contains a lot of unused bones (I mean without any weight paint). How can I select and delete all these bones?

google is your friend: https://github.com/aoirusann/BlenderAddon_RemoveUnuseVertexGroupsAndBones i did not try that but i looks like exactly what you are looking for

@Chris well, I've tried it, and can't even install it. Description says: "Install as a blender addon.". But after installation I don't see this addon in addons menu. I've tried it with Blender 3.6 and 4.0.


text:
How to play animation with desired framerate?
I've created an animation for export and want to see how it will look in realtime. When I'm trying to play it in blender I'm getting ~11 fps. In solid mode I'm getting ~20 fps. How can I play this animation with, for example, 60 fps?

Just to clarify, you're trying to extend the amount of frames you have?

@Starry-EyedDonut, no, I just want to make it look like in game, where I have 60 fps. I just don't know how to explain it with other words... For now I have 20 frames per second, I want to see 60 frames per second.

if you "just" wanna see it in viewport (without rendering) i would recommend clicking "simplify" in render settings and maybe open that panel and set all subdivision to 0. if you have particle settings, set children to 0 as well. If you still don't reach 60 fps, try hiding "expensive" meshes by hiding them or just showing as bounds e.g.

@Chris simplify has no effect for me, I don't have any subdivs, and I have only one character's mesh with 58k verticies. And I don't have particles too, so it doesn't help me. Can I somehow "pre render" animation and play it with desired fps? I don't need to exactly "render" it, I just need to see it in viewport.

yes, you can e.g. use viewport render animation which is very quick and watch that after it is ready.

@Chris how can I do it?

Click in the viewport menu on View > Viewport Render Animation to do it. If you are in camera view, it renders from the camera, but you can render the viewport from any perspective you are currently looking at the scene.

By the way, it is a common misconception to think Blender would always playback the viewport with the desired framerate, especially with heavy scenes it is hard for Blender to keep with the framerate while computing everything on the fly. Read more about why the FPS setting exists in the first place in my comments here: How do I fix low fps while moving bones in pose mode

Blender does not do things like a game engine.
The whole pipeline is designed for a maximum flexibility and an ease of development within the constrains of it been an open software. If you see it lagging it means in this case Blender is reserved for or can do things that a game engine could not. It is sacrificing performance for capability. It can miss some critical optimizations but the main reason is the paradigm of it being a DCC.
For example: a game engine can utilize a GPU in an efficient manner. Blender would do the animation on a CPU and recompute the geometry in an "honest way" every frame to keep it available for other things.
Look for some other examples searching for "disney animation process 3d". They are not doing or previewing the animation with every bell and whistle turn on.
What you want is to search for "blender optimize animation playback".


text:
How to fix distorted UV?
I'm trying to unwrap character and getting distorted uv:

I've tried to scale/rotate/move it, but connected parts just follows it:

I've tried to unpin it, but without any results. What am I doing wrong? Why does only one part of uv can be so stretched?
P.S. Can't share blend file or give closer look because of NSFW.

Have you marked some seams on your model before trying to unwrap it and why have you pinned it?

"I've tried to scale/rotate/move it, but connected parts just follows it:" The reason the connected vertices follow is because you have "UV Sync" enabled! The UV Sync option is the second icon, top left corner of the UV editor. The very first icon top left that is highlighted in blue in your screenshots.

@JohnEason Aren't the red lines usually the seams? So I guess he has marked some seams.

It does look a bit like it. They seem to be in strange places though, particularly the head, and I'm not sure why he's talking about unpinning it, unless he means the UV Sync option that 3fingeredfrog mentions.

@3fingeredfrog when I disabled "UV Sync" the problem with movement/rotation was solved, thank you! Do you know what should cause this distortion? Why does one side of body is good, but another side is stretched?

@JohnEason Yes, I've marked some seems. Maybe that seams in strange places, but I have a reason for that - I'm trying to adapt uv to common character's textures, where we have main body, face, hands and legs. Like this

"Do you know what should cause this distortion?"
Assuming you have non of the vertices of the torso part of the character "pinned" in the UV editor, that's to say you have none of the torso vertices coloured red then it could be a simple as having the wrong options selected in the UV Unwrap Last operator panel.
In the 3D viewport > Edit mode, Face selection mode enabled, select the torso, L key, then open the UV menu and choose the Unwrap option. Now open the Last operator panel, (bottom left corner of 3D viewport) and check which method you have selected, Angle Based or Conformal and whether of not you have Fill Holes checked. My guess is you should have Angle Based and Fill Holes checked for a symmetrical UV unwrap, but you need to experiment to see which is best for you.
In the examples below I have unwrapped the Blender monkey head, notice how changing the options effect how the head is unwrapped:

IF the above hasn't solved your issue then you could try the following, (me using the monkey head as an example):
1: In the UV editor, Island selection mode, select the distorted UV island and rotate it until it is approximately correctly aligned horizontally.
2: then in Edge selection mode select the very middle line of vertices that run down the middle of the front of the torso.

3: With these vertices still selected right click in the UV editor to open the UV context menu and choose the Straighten X option. This should straighten the vertices along the X axis as in the screenshot below.
4: Next use the P key to Pin these vertices in place so that they will not move when we next UV unwrap the monkey head and hopefully all the other vertices to the left and right of these pinned vertices will unwrap symmetrically:

5: Still in the UV editor, select all the vertices A key then U key to open the UV menu and select the Unwrap option. With a little luck even with Fill Holes left unchecked we have a a symmetrical UV unwrap:

First, select your entire mesh, then in edit mode, press U then click Smart UV Project to unwrap it properly.

I'd be glad if it was that easy. Unfortunately, tre result is awful.


text:
How can I make a colorramp over multiple objects?
I am trying to make a color transition over multiple objects.

it should be, that the leftmost tile is red and from then transition to blue on the right.
How do I manage to implement it?
Thank you guys in advance!

The simplest way would of course be to join them all in one object and use the Generated output of the Texture Coordinate node.
If you need to keep the elements separate, one way to achieve this would be to use the Object output of the Texture Coordinate node. With nothing in the Object field at the bottom this uses the coordinates of each object on itself, but if you specify an object like one of those elements or perhaps an empty, you can manipulate the coordinates through this object.
On objects where the scale is correctly applied, the coordinate output will be in Blender units. For example, if you take the default cube located at 0/0/0 with an edge length of 2 m, the coordinates will be 0 on all axes in the center and each axis -1 from the front bottom left to 1 at the back top right. Which means, all values are absolute measures in meters, not normalized 0 to 1 like the Generated output.
In my example I've just used the element on the left and a Separate XYZ node to spread the color gradient in X direction. Since all objects together are wider than 1 m but the Color Ramp only assigns values to the 0 to 1 range, I'm using a Mapping node to scale the coordinates down (you could also use a Map Range after the separate X output instead) on X and I also moved them on X to place the starting point of the gradient and rotated a little on Y to have a slightly slanted gradient.
Of course there are ways to calculate exact values if you need to place the gradient in a certain way, it all depends on your objects and their size and placement. For a quick solution you can of course adjust everything Pi mal Daumen.

For the sake of completeness, here is an example with a Map Range node and calculated values (don't need a Mapping node here because I'm not rotating the gradient):
Using the X coordinates of the reference object from my example, you get the following values: The origin of the reference object is at X = 2.4, this is X = 0 of the coordinate system.
The object has an X dimension of 1.49 m, which means the left side is at -(1.49/2) = -0.745 and this is the From Min value for the Map Range node.
The objects that are farthest away on X have their origin at X = 4.8, so first of all they are 2.4 + 4.8 = 7.2 meters away from the coordinate system's center. Since they have the same width, the farthest right vertex is at 7.2 + 0.745 = 7.945 m, this is the From Max value.
With the Map Range node this will be mapped to To Min = 0 and To Max = 1 so that the Color Ramp can distribute the gradient from left to right.


text:
Blender 2.8 cycles on GPU compute just shows pink and purple noise?
Any idea what's causing this? I'm set to render cycles with gpu compute. I have 2 geforce rtx 2080 ti's. All I'm getting is this pink and purple garbled mess..

If you downloaded the file from the internet, chances are that the HDRi Background image wasn't included. You can also switch from Cycles to Eevee and see if stuff starts showing up. If that's the case you probably have a GPU/driver related problem.

looks like GPU driver related problem.

Two things;
1: You used textures that you didn't pack into the file. That shade of magenta means the texture is missing. Find the textures and reload them.
2: You're going to need WAY more than 32 samples to get something usable. Start with 100, move up from there to get a more clear image.

You don't have to pack the textures into the file. This is only useful if you are going to transfer your work between computers. The textures - if there are any - just need to be at their specific locations.

Packed or not, blender doesn't have the data. Regardless of whether he wants to pack the textures in the future, he needs to find the textures and open them in the image texture node. I mentioned the packed file because I've only seen confusion like this when I file is moved to another system, and the user assumes the textures are packed in the file. Either way, the process is the same. Find them, load them.


text:
How can you curve the faces of a hexagon?
I'm quite a noob at Blender (this is for 2.8 by the way), and I was hoping somebody could help me figure this out. I've been trying to make a 3D hexagon with the side faces curved inwards to sort of look like a six sided star, but I can't quite figure out how to do it. I've tried to delete the top and bottom faces, loop cut the side faces, add an empty plane axes, and then add a simple deform modifier to the side faces with the empty as the origin, but that didn't quite work out properly. The idea was that it would curve all faces in equally and then I could add the top and bottom faces back.
Here's kind of the shape I want. It's not quite symmetric since I'm not very good at drawing things, but I'd like for the actual result to be symmetric. Thanks for any help!

create a simple hexagon
Edit mode, subdivide as many times as you need for details but an odd number to get a vertex centered on each edge.
Select the central vertex
turn on proportional editing, spherical mode
scale down all selected vertex while adjusting the proportional editing effect radius.

Thanks so much! That's exactly what I needed.


text:
Rendering artifacts in flat shaded geometry only visible in cycles. What causes it?
I'm doing the Blender course from Polygon Runway, and in my second attempt I ran into some odd artifacts that I can't pin down. They are only visible when rendering in cycles, and I'm quite sure there's an issue with my geometry, but I don't understand what it is. I've also uploaded the file in question here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dx54f64w9yyt5v6/CyclesArtifacts.blend?dl=0

There don't seem to be any overlapping things, as far as I can see
The face appears to be flat
I tried merging duplicate vertices and the like, to no avail
I deleted the face to see if anything else showed, but also negative

It's probably something obvious, so I hope someone here can point me to the issue :)

you are dealing with non-planar geometry. Maybe these links can help you: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/119874/how-can-i-manually-fix-nonplanar-geometry and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/56755/flat-quads-or-why-is-my-mesh-so-funky

Thanks :D If you post it as an answer I can also accept it. Also is there a way to see this outside of cycles?

All 3D programs will suffer from this. You cannot "bend" faces. You need to subdivide them to have curvature.

Oh now I get it. I didn't look at it from the top. I was under the impression that they were all aligned, but they are slightly shifted. Thanks!


text:
How do I set up a driver that will be effected by an object location and also changes based on that location
So I want to a driver that will animate a shape key as another object moves along the y axis. But at a certain point, lets say past 6 units, I want the shape key to decrease instead.
How could I do this?

You can use the following formula:
max( 0, 1 - abs(y - 6) / 6)

max is used to stay above 0
abs(y - 6) is centered around 6, between 0 and 6 for y between 0 and 12
abs(y - 6) / 6, between 0 and 1

I followed what you did, but I got ERROR: Invalid Python expression ?

is the name of the variable correct? "var" is default and I named it "y" here.

I'm not sure, what I did wrong, but I just copied and pasted it instead and it worked XD
Thank you so much!

If ok, consider validating the answer.

So, I've run into another problem. Is there a way to achieve this same effect with using a center. Basically, I need the shape key to ramp up more slowly at the beginning, and when the object reaches it's point, it should rapidly decrease more than the beginning.

can use this kind of formula max(0,1 - abs(y-6)/6) if y < 6 else max(0,1 - abs(y-6)/3) above 6 will decrease twice faster.


text:
How can I animate the transparency of a image texture ontop of another image texture
Here are two photos of what the effect that I want. I want to be able to have a slider that will change the opaqueness of the "hi" and I want to be able to animate it.

You can multiply the "top" texture's Alpha by a value between 0 and 1 before feeding it into the Mix node's Fac. Use a Math node (Add > Converter > Math) to multiply. 0 will let the "bottom" texture through; 1 lets through the "top".


text:
Why does blender keep rotating off center on objects
I want to rotate around an object and keep the object in the center but it won't keep it in the center. The only thing that fixes it is to put preferences back to default but it just comes back later and for no reason. Annoying!

maybe numpad "."    to center on it?

That's what I'm doing, it doesn't stay centered

Could it be you moved the cube in edit mode, so the pivot point of the cube is now outside the cube itself?

Check out the "Orbit and Pan" options inside the navigation preferences. Looks like you have Orbit around unchecked or Auto Depth ?

press . in numpad as lemon said and ~ key and selecting view selected or simply press F3 and type view selected

@Gorgious Unchecking auto-depth in Orbit and Pan options fixed it for me — thank you so much! This had been driving me nuts for days


text:
Why does the lighting on this object not work properly? Imported obj
As you can see, the sun is pointing at it from a direction, and the light is on the other side?
I exported an OBJ from Daz3d and then imported it into blender. Even when I remove the material, the pink, it still doesn't work. Other objects in the scene receive light properly. What is going on and how do I fix it?

maybe a problem of normals? try to recalculate or clear custom split normals data?

Clear custom split normals data worked! Thank you so much!

It's a split normals problem that happens with some imported objects, go into the Properties panel > Object Data > Geometry Data > Clear Custom Split Normals Data


text:
How to freeze a falling rigid body animation for good?
What I've been trying to do is to make a simple bowl in which candies fall using the the rigid body animations for both. But after say certain key frames I want it to be the final(or rather the default) model, as if it was never animated and this itself was the default model. I want to use this model in another file.
I can't find any option like the cloth simulator where you can simply apply it and it finalizes. Any help would be appreciated.
I'll post pictures in a bit.

Select the object(s) you want, select the frame you want in the timeline, then in the header menu > Object > Rigid Body > Bake to Keyframes and choose the frame(s) you want in the pop-up.

Yup it worked thanks alot!


text:
Making a slanted pane that is more than a simple square with translation
I need a slanted pane for my model.
Normally I would just select one edge and translate it upwards (which I would need to do to keep the delta-width and -depth while changing the height), but my problem is that this shape needs a hole, and therefore this way of slanting it doesn't work.
It's kind of hard to phrase this question properly, so I made this crude drawing https://i.sstatic.net/j6WEC.png

In the top, there's a simple square pane, one of it's side is being moved up so it ends in the way I would like it to be.
On the bottom, there's the same pane but with a hole in it, and because the vertices of the hole aren't being translated, the hole itself stays where it is while the outer edges are how they are supposed to be, therefore deforming the whole shape.
Is there a way or a tool to raise that one edge and all the other vertices on that plane in a manner so the plane stays flat?

Do you need good topology? If not use a (2D) bezier curve object instead, if you do open the hole after slanting.

It would also help if I could make the hole after slanting, maybe with some "remove intersecting parts" option I'm unaware of, making the slanted pane, adding a cylinger and removing the intersecting parts.

You can insert the hole afterward using either Knife Project or Boolean Modifier.

You can model the mesh normally and then in Edit mode select it, select the edge on the right on the screenshot, choose pivot point as Active Element and rotate

Here's my alternate approach you may try, that uses proportional editing (linear) and some scaling.

Select the very end vertices of the plane, enable the proportional editing (set its mode to Linear) and translate upwards.

With the transform orientation set to Normal select all the faces of the plane and press S and then Z twice (to transform along the normal Z coordinate).

BTW @Duarte Farrajota Ramos 's method involving curves works as well. Just add a curve and set its angle to fit your needs. Then give the plane a Curve Modifier with a curve as a target.

Step 1: Select an edge of the plane and use Shift + S and choose "Cursor to selected".

Step 2: Rotate on an axis choosing using the 3D cursor.


text:
How To Get Super Parent in Custom Property Update Function in Python
I have Collection_A attached to Object and Collection_B attached to Collection_A,
Object > Collection_A > Collection_B

Now, In Collection_B update value function, we can access instance of Collection_A with self.
But, How can I access Object variable?

Yes @Gorgious it does, repr() function is awesome. Thanks for your comment.

Glad to help. If you want a pointer to the object use self.id_data

self.id_data can also solve this for objects, nice to know, thanks

@Gorgious, I tried id_data it is giving Scene for Scene Properties and Armature for Armature Properties, It's exactly doing, what is want...


text:
Unable to Access Registered Class Properties (Properties Grouped in Class)
I'm grouping my properties in a class
like this:
class CTL_test(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    variable = bpy.props.StringProperty(name='Variable', description='', default='', subtype='NONE', maxlen=0)

bpy.utils.register_class(CTL_test)
bpy.types.Scene.ctl_test = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=CTL_test)

After that if I access bpy.context.scene.ctl_test.variable,
This will give:

And, if I try to access, Scene.ctl_test.bl_rna.properties['variable']
AttributeError: 'CTL_test' object has no attribute 'variable'

Same, When I use this property in Interface, Like -
row_5.prop(bpy.context.scene.ctl_test, 'variable', text='Name', icon_value=0, emboss=True)

This will give Error:
property not found: CTL_test.variable

Where I'm wrong?

Problem is solved using,
variable : bpy.props.StringProperty(name='Variable', description='', default='', subtype='NONE', maxlen=0)
I think, class definition changed in new Python version.

can you please post it as an answer so we can close this thread :)

Does this answer your question? Can´t see the inputs in dialog box- blender 2.93

Hi, Mohit ... glad you found a fix.. I'm going to close this as fixed without needing an answer. If you'd like to answer it yourself. please edit to re-open.

I’m voting to close this question because it's been self-answered in a comment.

@RobinBetts Hello, I want to answer my question (this may help others), But I'm unable to do, How can I answer?

@MohitSaini  Hi, Mohit .. re-opened for you .. Thanks for your contribution!

The Problem is Solved,
class ClassName(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    # Normal Data in Python Class
    label = 'My CTL Group'

    # Blender DataProperty in Python Class
    new_property: bpy.props.StringProperty(name='New Property')

And,

This Output Shows that bpy.types.Scene.new_property has registered successfully,But class has not registered.
When, Both registers successfully, the output will look like this (default value)


text:
How to set grease pencil objects priority
I'm struggling with grease pencil objects. I've created a grease pencil object called Background containing some flat colors. Then I have another grease pencil object called Moon containing the drawing of a moon with a glow effect. Finally I would like to draw some trees on top of that through another grease pencil object. However my trees are drawn behind the moon instead being in front of it. I'm guessing then, how to prioritize between objects ? How to define which object is drawn first, and so on ?
Thanks !

Objects are in 3D space, just move it back by a small amount.  You can Arrange strokes and fills that are on the same layer, but I think Objects need to be moved in 3D space.

Thank you your advice !


text:
Grease Pencil - How to virtually divide the canvas into equal parts?
I would like to draw 2d assets for video games on Blender. For that, I chose my resolution, for example, 540x180. However, I need to know how to divide those pixels into 3 equal parts of 180x180 pixels. The division is just for visualization. Is it possible to draw vertical parallels ? Or to turn the grid on with 3 visible squares ?

Open Camera settings → Viewport display → Composition Guides
You can enable Thirds for 3x3 grid and Center for 2x2 grid.

You can also get some adjustable lines using safe areas:


text:
How to blur a single layer in a grease pencil object?
I was wondering, is it possible to blur a single layer in a grease pencil object like, for example, the gaussian blur in Photoshop ? I know there is a "blur" effect in the visual effects properties but it is applied to the entire object.

I don't think you can but you can approach it by using a combination of modifiers, which support layers.
Let's say you have two strokes created with the same material but on two different layers :

Add a Thickness modifier, in the influence set it to your target layer

Add an Opacity modifier, set the layer. Set the mode to Hardness and decrease it.

Add another Opacity modifier, set the layer again. Decrease the strength or the factor.

You might want to disable or enable Self Overlap on the material if you want to decrease the artifacts.

The artifacts are particularly prominent on sharp turns.


text:
Object has no material on it but still displays there to be a material
I did ask this question before, however, I accidentally put the old Blender file instead of the new one, sorry.
I'm quite new to Blender so sorry if this is an obvious question, but this cylinder has no materials added to it but still shows as if it has this metal material and I'm not sure why.
Blender file:
https://pasteall.org/blend/9993cea4b1df4396be8ceb93fbd7f823

Hello and welcome. Please don't post the same question more than once. If your previous question was put on hold, address raised the issues by editing it so it can be reopened rather than post a new one, otherwise see What should I do if no one answers my question?

didn't Christopher answer here? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/260601/object-has-no-materials-on-it-but-still-displays-there-to-be-a-material

Select the can, and choose from the material drop-down menu the "can" material. That'll add the material to the can, so you can edit the material further. Why the mesh had a hidden material in the first place is a bug of some kind.


text:
Pixelated brush Strokes

It is a low poly model, when I am using brush in small size it is making these dotted lines instead to solid stroke. The UV image is 2k*2k, still I am getting these pixelated result. I am only paining colors in the model.
How can I solve this.
Thanks in Advance.

Have you checked the Stroke panel > Spacing value? Bring it back to 10% if it was not already.

Spacing value is already in 10%, I even tried turning it to 1%.

maybe share your file (just this part)? upload and copy paste the URL: https://pasteall.org/blend/

https://pasteall.org/blend/87ecc9fd7c5a4cd39698d7f8d6694ccf
this is the blend file..
https://pasteall.org/pic/7df5eece93ec49679e185f0b4e60df0e
and this is the texture png

it works fine for me, maybe your image (or the UV island) is too small?

I just uploaded the UV image..

weird because it works fine for me: https://zupimages.net/up/22/15/pnwb.gif

try using a smaller brush size (like 1-2 px) while zoomed in.

it looks like a radius of 1 or 2 are below the size of your image pixel, so I guess it decides to draw a pixel every n pixels. For example if you scale up the size of your original image (like 4000 x 4000) it will works twice better

Thanks You so much, for your help...

It looks like if you zoom too much, a brush radius of 1 or 2 is below the size of your image pixel, so I guess it draws a pixel every n pixels, therefore these dots. But if you scale up the size of your original image (like 4000 x 4000) it will works twice better, or just increase the brush size up to 10, you'll have the same thickness and less dots.
You'll see more clearly what's happening if you switch your Image Texture from Linear (which blurs the pixels) to Closest . With this option you'll see the real image and the real pixel size, and the difference between the pixel size and the brush size. 1 or 2 is much too small compared to the pixel size of your image. Here the brush size is 15:

moonboots is the best

@BlenderMaster far from it but i try, i try  ;)


text:
Shading problem while creating a heightmap
I am trying to create a heightmap from blender GIS addon. I am pretty sure that i have applied correct nodes for creating a heightmap (following a video) but the shading viewport shows only bright white.

The way the mesh is rendered depends on the material: what material have you applied to your mesh?

well that is the problem, i want it to render based on its height. But everything is only white

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lsf6Lihf-YaA61btHyNEr6mcDj5q6DwP/view?usp=sharing
Here is the blend file

The problem is you're using an emission shader as a material for your mesh (something I missed when looking at your screenshot).
Since it's emitting light there is no shading on the surface of your mesh, and you won't see the structure properly.
The heightmap was already properly applied to your mesh: the surface is formed according to the height data. But it seems you wanted to apply a gradient to the z-axis, so that the top of the mesh would be white, and the lowest part a solid black.
In addition to replacing the Emission shader with a diffuse one (like a Principled BSDF), you need a Texture Coordinate node instead of the Geometry node you used, and connect the Separate XYZ node to its Generated socket, like so:

Now your mesh will show up with improved visibility:

Note that since your mesh already has the geometry of the heightmap (Mount Fuji), you can use different shaders or image textures.

Thanks, it solved the problem, but I still cannot use the rendered image as heightmap

@AyushKumar Oh, you want to use this mesh to create a heightmap?

yes, I want to create a heightmap.
Is there any other way of creating a heightmap in blender or may be other in other applications.


text:
Checker map size changes after packing uv
I am using TexTools and UV Packer AddOn on blender, I used TexTools to set a resolution to the checker map i have applied on the components of the object. but as soon as I use UV Packer and click on pack the size of checkers in the object changes to big one. It happens even if I use the blender default pack option.

I assume it's packing all the selected objects in a single UV map so each individual object has less texture space. Select only one object before unpacking

The appearance of the textures on the mesh is dependent on the size and orientation of the UVs. When you use packing tools these try to optimize the usage of the available space. In order to use as much space as possible, the tools have to scale and rotate UVs and therefore the appearance of course changes with the change of the UVs. If you would show the UVs before using the packing tools I guess there will be obvious differences (if not I would wonder what the tool actually does).

If I try to use fixed scale then the UVs goes outside the uv map in the uv editng space. I wonder if the uv map's resolution is the issue. If I try to fit everything in the map then the same checkered squares density get reduced.

In your first screenshot using Tex Tools, you have the UV space size set to  4096 x 4096 pixels but in your second screenshot the UV space is set to only 512 x 512 pixels. Try using  the same size UV space when using  UV-Packer as when using Tex Tools then perhaps you will notice less difference in checker square size on the models.

I tried using the same pixels but still the same result

Then my guess is that each object in your Scope Low collection has been first UV unwrapped individually into a UV space and now when they are all selected together, many of these objects UV's islands are stacked above other UV islands. When using the UV-Packer tool all the UV islands will occupy their own uv space (with a margin between them) and so need to be resized smaller to fit into the same UV space.


text:
How can I make objects created with the GPU Module visible in the final render?
I used the code example for creating a triangle with custom shader from the official docs:
import bpy
import gpu
from gpu_extras.batch import batch_for_shader

vertex_shader = '''
    uniform mat4 viewProjectionMatrix;

    in vec3 position;
    out vec3 pos;

    void main()
    {
        pos = position;
        gl_Position = viewProjectionMatrix * vec4(position, 1.0f);
    }
'''

fragment_shader = '''
    uniform float brightness;

    in vec3 pos;
    out vec4 FragColor;

    void main()
    {
        FragColor = vec4(pos * brightness, 1.0);
    }
'''

coords = [(1, 1, 1), (2, 0, 0), (-2, -1, 3)]
shader = gpu.types.GPUShader(vertex_shader, fragment_shader)
batch = batch_for_shader(shader, 'TRIS', {"position": coords})

def draw():
    shader.bind()
    matrix = bpy.context.region_data.perspective_matrix
    shader.uniform_float("viewProjectionMatrix", matrix)
    shader.uniform_float("brightness", 0.5)
    batch.draw(shader)

bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(draw, (), 'WINDOW', 'POST_VIEW')

The object shows up in the viewport, but doesn't show up in the final render.
Follow up question, in case I can't make such an object render: Can I at least program a GLSL shader for existing geometry that will show up in the final render?


text:
How can I know shader statistics?
I want to understand, how much time my shader needs to calculate with each node details. Like texture sample node requires 0.13ms to calculate, invert color needs 0.01ms to calculate. Is there any addon for it or built-in solution?

See: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/298272/i-dont-have-the-timings-option-in-the-node-editor

@JohnEason well, I agree that purpose of timings of each nodes is questionable, but it will be helpful for people with weak pc, who wants to, at least, decrease the calculation timings.


text:
How can I improve hairs on anime character?
I'm trying to create anime character with bob haircut, using curves. I've tried to follow youtube tutorials but I'm getting not so good result. For now I've achieved this:

And with shading:

I don't know why, but I'm sure that something is wrong. I can't understand "what" and "how to fix it", but hairs looks too plastic and low detailed (especially in back view). Can you give me advice? I'm doing it first time and maybe I've missed something?

It looks like "plastic" because of the shader. Look at the head. It has a toon/anime/cel shader which shades the model "flat". There is less detail in shadows and highlights and there is an outline. The outline you can create by the inverted hull technique and often is drawn on the texture partly. I think the hair also lacks of specular. Have a look here: Creating an Anime Cel Shader in Blender 2.8 and Blender Anime Shader series by Royal Skies

@Blunder yes, it looks much better, thank you! But I think there is a problem in model. I've added more details to nurbs and it looks better, but still something is wrong...


text:
How to change settings position?
I'm pretty sure someone already asked this question but I can't find information about it. How to change position of this settings:

I've tried to look in preferences but I just don't know what's the name of this thing. By default this settings is at top of viewport, but mine is at bottom.

right click > Flip to Bottom (or Flip to Top)?

@moonboots yeah, worked with "View", "Select", ... part. For another part needed to right click on mode - Header > flip to top again. Thank you!


text:
Does noise texture node parameters affect on performance?
I've connected noise texture node in my material and when I'm changing scale parameter, I hear that my graphic card starts work louder. So I suppose it's need more cooling - doing more operations. Am I right with my assumption that scale parameter in noise texture is affecting on performance? Of course, I know that other nodes has their effects (especially bump node) too, but I see difference with changing scale.
Here's my material:

When you're changing settings on nodes, the render viewport is constantly updating and resampling the scene.  The Detail slider does have an effect on how efficient the node is.

@AllenSimpson so the scale slider does no have an effect on how efficient the node is?

It may, but I've never heard anything definitive on it.  Probably negligible if anything.

@AllenSimpson can you give me a hint where I can find more about it? Documentation has no answer to my question(

I feel like I read a dev post about it at developer.blender.org but I can't remember now

@AllenSimpson oh, thanks a lot!

Generally speaking, and just looking at the node alone: No, not really. Only when changing a value, computing power is used. However, it always depends very much on what else you do with these values, so it always depends on your setup.