@guitarguy00 Check out maxivz's Blender tools - there are sticky subobject mode scripts precisely for those needs. In my experience I found them to be a little faulty in certain situations, but give it a try if you really want them.
@guitarguy00 Check out maxivz's Blender tools - there are sticky subobject mode scripts precisely for those needs. In my experience I found them to be a little faulty in certain situations, but give it a try if you really want them.
Thanks for that, i will give it a try. I really dislike having lots of Plug-ins and scripts added to the base package cause if I ever have to update or re-install it just takes so much longer but this seems really useful.
I have no idea if there's already an add-on for that, I just wrote that stinky proof of concept snippet. I don't have the time to invest into turning it into a full fledged add-on right now, but I'll definitively do later because now I realize this is what I've been missing in my life!
Has anyone here tried the new adaptive sampling? I made a couple of tests with it, but didn't find any scenario and/or setting were it would be an improvement compared to standard sampling. When using it in combination with the Blender denoiser, adaptive sampling creates a blurrier result, mostly visible on textured surfaces. It even does so when setting the minimum sampling rate (e.g. 512) as high as the rate for a comparable standard rendering, of course it takes at least the same amount of time depending on the noise threshold setting.
@guitarguy00 Check out maxivz's Blender tools - there are sticky subobject mode scripts precisely for those needs. In my experience I found them to be a little faulty in certain situations, but give it a try if you really want them.
Thanks for that, i will give it a try. I really dislike having lots of Plug-ins and scripts added to the base package cause if I ever have to update or re-install it just takes so much longer but this seems really useful.
Yeah careful there. Experienced a few crashes using these selection modes.
@guitarguy00 Check out maxivz's Blender tools - there are sticky subobject mode scripts precisely for those needs. In my experience I found them to be a little faulty in certain situations, but give it a try if you really want them.
Thanks for that, i will give it a try. I really dislike having lots of Plug-ins and scripts added to the base package cause if I ever have to update or re-install it just takes so much longer but this seems really useful.
Yeah careful there. Experienced a few crashes using these selection modes.
Urghhh not surprised lol. Wish it was incorporated natively.
Is there a way to edit the mesh I want (the big cylinder to the right), and have the cylinders to the left be edited along with it? I tried using the Object Data Link function, but I want to keep the size and rotation of my other cylinders.
@aaguilar_art As long the changes happen in Object mode they won't affect linked meshes. You need to keep their data linked and change scale and rotation of the other cylinders in Object mode, doing the changes which should affect all instances in Edit mode.
Related tip: You can link materials in two ways, Data and Object. When linking to Data, it'll get assigned to all instances using this mesh. When linking to Object, it'll only affect the active object.
I am having a weird problem, if i use shade smooth in an object they look normal in object mode, but the smoothing breaks in edit mode. This cube has no custom normals, no modifiers, is a new cube with a bevel only.
This is happening with all meshes, even from older projects. Any ideas on how to fix it?
[Not related to the problem above]. Yoinked a material popup script from HEAVYPOLY and made a smaller version if anyone wants it. Install it like a normal addon then add popup.hp_materials to a hotkey.
@Udjani I just tried to reproduce your problem and was not able to with the information you gave. But overall this sounds to me like something you did with either the overlays, studio lights or theme settings.
You were also having problems with primary screens - Try saving a backup of your prefs, and resetting to factory settings? Usually if something misbehaves in my setup, I'll do that and start bringing everything back until the problem reappears, so that I can pinpoint what isn't working.
But if the problems still persist when resetting factory settings, then yeah, it may be a bigger problem in your install files...
@f1r3w4rr10r That's what i thought at first, but it can't be relate to my settings. I downloaded 2.83 and everything is working fine, so i removed everything from the 2.9 settings, then i downloaded the lattest version, did a factory reset and the problem still persist. After that i tried loading the 2.83 settings but also didn't work.
It just dosen't make sense, maybe is something hardware related.
@Justo Turns out that i had saved startup file on the second screen, kinda weird that this overwrites the windows stuff.
@Udjani You are using 2.90? That would have been nice to know, I tested with 2.83. But in any case, stuff like that can happen when you use an unstable build. The best you can do (which will also benefit others) is to look in the bug tracker if there is already a defect describing the problem and if not, open one yourself.
Welcome to the world of software development and early testers.
[Not related to the problem above]. Yoinked a material popup script from HEAVYPOLY and made a smaller version if anyone wants it. Install it like a normal addon then add popup.hp_materials to a hotkey.
This is very handy and unlike my own attempts does the job. Thanks!
However, the material viewport colors don't seem to update here in the scenes I tried (in 2.83). I've removed that entire section for now for an even more compact little floater. Perhaps it is user error though?
At any rate I suggest you up the popup's width a bit so longer material names are easy to read. I set mine to 240px and 3 rows. Which would allow you to condense the material options into two narrow columns arranged side by side.
@thomasp You need to have the material color selected on viewport shading. I decided to no put names on materials since you will remember what they are after one use. I agree with making it more compact, but i worry about the sliders since you loose finer control as they get smaller.
@RN Thanks mate Guys, if you have assets linked from one file to a scene, can you pack the mesh, all the textures and materials into .blend when click on File-External data- Pack all into .blend?
@thomasp You need to have the material color selected on viewport shading. I decided to no put names on materials since you will remember what they are after one use. I agree with making it more compact, but i worry about the sliders since you loose finer control as they get smaller.
Thanks, yeah that is my default 'workbench' view mode but I found the issue - I was treating the form as a material picker for the object instead of the dropdown list. Kept adding material slots instead of assigning a material.
Guys, if you have assets linked from one file to a scene, can you pack the mesh, all the textures and materials into .blend when click on File-External data- Pack all into .blend?
@melviso if you follow the breadcrumbs in the source code of operator FILE_OT_pack_all, the packing function used by it will only pack these items:
Images
Fonts
Sounds
Volumes (no idea what this is)
If you want to do the same for objects, meshes or materials, you need to use Object > Relations > Make Local > ALL (manual link) before saving the .blend file. This will make the linked content local to the file (it's a tradeoff, the links will be lost but the content will be packed in the blend).
Edit: and I think you still need the content to be used in the file. If there are zero users of a material, for example, and it does not has the force-fake-user flag on (the little F button on a datablock picker), it will not be saved in the file.
Personally I feel this garbage-collection, user counting system is flawed. Every other program has it simpler and foolproof: if content is in the file, it stays there until you delete it, even if there are zero users of it.
What are the chances of Blender adding an "Edit Poly" modifier that let's us modify the mesh on top of other modifiers? Is it too much of a task to incorporate at this point of the software?
@guitarguy00 I don't think it's easy to implement without fundamentally reworking how the modifier stack and mesh editing works. There were some ideas floating around on how to design it (not implement) when Blender would use nodes for modeling and offer a procedural modeling workflow. But as of now, I don't think there is something in the works.
When I have an array of objects, plus a curve modifier and curve (so the array instances deform with the curve), is it somehow possible to control the rotation of the individual objects along the curve in more detail? Can I e.g. define weights for the curve points/ vertices, and have the objects rotate/ twist around the curve on that basis? Can the rotation be randomized to a certain degree?
@guitarguy00 I don't think it's easy to implement without fundamentally reworking how the modifier stack and mesh editing works. There were some ideas floating around on how to design it (not implement) when Blender would use nodes for modeling and offer a procedural modeling workflow. But as of now, I don't think there is something in the works.
I see, thanks for the information. I'll stop hoping for that feature then
I piled up a few questions during the last weeks I wanted to ask you guys about in Blender:
1-What's the quickest, easiest way to get a camera-based uv mapping in Blender? I would like to hit a button / use a function to map everything that is being seen. Then make a selection of faces, and with the same function, map that selection as its own separate UV shell. I don't care much about it being properly unfolded, since I'd be only unwrapping shells before sending them to Rizom for more elaborate UV ops. Any native tools / addons that do this is welcome.
2-Also looking for the fastest way to do angle-based automatic unwrapping.
3-Does excluding collections from the View Layer in the Outliner improve performance or save any sort of graphical resources? Is it any different than setting those objects to invisible?
4-Is there any usefulness or arguments to be made in favor of the color gradient that extends from vert selection? In my case, on rare few occasions it actually makes it harder to see the changes in the object at rare, specific angles. Is there any way to toggle it off?
I piled up a few questions during the last weeks I wanted to ask you guys about in Blender:
1 - What's the quickest, easiest way to get a camera-based uv mapping in Blender? I would like to hit a button / use a function to map everything that is being seen. Then make a selection of faces, and with the same function, map that selection as its own separate UV shell. I don't care much about it being properly unfolded, since I'd be only unwrapping shells before sending them to Rizom for more elaborate UV ops. Any native tools / addons that do this is welcome.
Select the faces you want to project, hit U to open the unwrap menu, then hit camera projection.
2-Also looking for the fastest way to do angle-based automatic unwrapping.
The fastest? Open up the unwrap menu, the same one as the first question, hit smart uv project.
The one I prefer because it creates seams, "Select" Dropdown > "Select Sharp Edges", then adjust the angles to whatever you need, then ctrl + e to open the "edge specials" > mark seam, then U > unwrap.
3-Does excluding collections from the View Layer in the Outliner improve performance or save any sort of graphical resources? Is it any different than setting those objects to invisible?
Yes I have noticed that blender seems to still render the "hidden" view layers, the ones hidden with the "h" key or the eye icons. They do still impact performance. But if you hide them with the monitor icon, they don't, and it's also excluded from the polycount indicator on the bottom. Absolute lifesaver in some cases.
No need to have your highpoly in a separate file anymore.
4-Is there any usefulness or arguments to be made in favor of the color gradient that extends from vert selection? In my case, on rare few occasions it actually makes it harder to see the changes in the object at rare, specific angles. Is there any way to toggle it off?
It's a nice visual indicator to see which parts of your mesh are actually connected. Comes in handy in cases like the ones above.
Yes I have noticed that blender seems to still render the "hidden" view layers, the ones hidden with the "h" key or the eye icons. They do still impact performance. But if you hide them with the monitor icon, they don't, and it's also excluded from the polycount indicator on the bottom. Absolute lifesaver in some cases.
@Justo Just to avoid any confusion beforehand, the monitor button in the outliner is not visible by default. In the outliner, click on the filter dropdown (the little funnel icon) and enable which selectors you want visible in the outliner. I set mine to only show "Disable in Viewports" and "Disable in Renders" in the startup file, because those two are the only ones I really use.
Hello! I want to switch from Maya to Blender, but there is one problem. When I opened Blender for the first time, the Quick Settings window appeared, in which I could choose a hotkey for the toolbox. But when I switched shortcuts from Blender to Industry Compatible, the ability to set the “Space” hotkey for the “Tool” disappeared. Help me please how to set the hotkey “Space” for “Tools” in the Industry Compatible preset? I did not find such an opportunity in Keymaps. This only appears if I select “Blender”, but not “Industry Compatible”. Thank.
@eugenius113 You have to add a new keymap entry yourself.
In each section of the keymap you can click on the "Add New" button to add a new keymap. For the action add "wm.toolbar" and then assign whatever shortcut you want. I used Shift+Spacebar here because Spacebar was already used as Playback in the industry compatible keymap.
You can change the keymaps in the preferences window. In the industry standard keymaps you will need to add the Toolbar command manually as by default it is not bound to anything. The toolbar is under the Window keymaps by default. The settings for the blender setup are as follows
On a completely different topic, something amazing is happening with precision modeling! I just found this defect (T66422) and the accompanying fix (D5608). I have been wanting this for a long time, now it's finally here! Some images:
I just tested the snapping myself in 2.90 and it works already! You can finally snap to the intersection of two edges, even if those edges don't extend that far! I can die happy now.
@Blaizer As another modo user, how often does your modo crash? That was the main reason for my switch. Blender is hard to kill whereas modo would become suicidal when doing hard surface work at times (not all the time but crashing was a common enough occurrence). That and what I see as lack of innovation each release really got old.
I'm not looking to defend blender because I agree with you and I don't have to manipulate subdivided geometry much as you would.
@Deforges It crashes sometimes, but depending of what we are doing, with specific operations we can reproduce crashes easily. For example, while working in simmetry mode, with simple edge cuts, the program crashes after several cuts (modo 302).
@fdfxd2 Thanks for the tips That U unwrap menu was everything I needed and more!
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I've been unwrapping quite a few objects now and picking up some speed. To my delight, unwrapping things in Blender isn't quite as bad as I feared at the beginning. In fact, in some areas it's even faster than my previous methods in other apps!
Here's a few notes I made while working. I was hoping to see if someone could confirm or deny some of my remarks, and answer where needed.
1-In Blender, it seems like there is a fundamental difference between the term "Seams" and "UVs". You can make edges become Seams in the 3D viewport, and these will be remembered when you unwrap a model in the UV Editor.
However, when you select a bunch of faces and Project From View, this separated shell might not be unwrapped separately depending on your selection, since Blender does not yet recognize this shell as being divided by "Seams", but rather by separate "UVs". The two can be selected separately via Select Linked.
2-So, Seams are not saved onto the model by just using Project From View. If you want all separate UVs to become Seams, UV Editor>UV>Seams from Islands needs to be used. Is there a way to make camera projections that separate UVs AND save those boundary shell edges as seams, in 1 operation instead of 2?
3-How to be in UV Shell select mode? >In the 3D Viewport:
The only way is by using Select Linked? So if you want to select multiple shells in the viewport, you would need to select 1 face from each shell, then hit Select Linked All.
>In the UV Editor:
If UV Sync Selection is on: Same process as 3D viewport
If UV Sync Selection is off: Use the UV Selection Mode>Island
For the first two cases, isn't there a simpler solution, like the third case? Again, I would hope to reduce the operation from 2 to 1.
4-Is there a way to see all the UVs of an object in the UV editor, by only having it selected in Object Mode in the 3D Viewport? AFAIK the user must enter into Edit Mode.
1) I think you are misunderstanding some basics here that might be a cause for your misconception. Seams in Blender are properties of edges. Most often you use them to mark where polygons should be split apart when unwrapping, but not all projections methods use them (on purpose). In fact, only the plain "Unwrap" option uses seams.
UVs on the other hand are a set of coordinates (U and V) in 2D space, and are stored per vertex, just as the XYZ coordinates are. You can split UV islands on a vertex just as you can split normals on a vertex. In both cases you have two data entries for that one vertex. Meaning you don't need marked seams to split polygons into UV islands.
In general UVs are what is saved in most export formats and what most 3D applications have in common. Seams in a more general sense, not related to Blender then is just the phenomenon or artifact if you will, where textures projected onto two neighboring polygons don't transition well.
2) This comes back again to what I just explained in (1). You don't need marked seams to unwrap your model. If other unwrap methods already work for you, there is no need to go and do the extra work to mark all island edges as seams. That's also the reason why the other projection methods don't just mark seams on their own. But the way you described is already the fastest way to do it to my knowledge.
3) Select linked is the way to go, yes. But I would recommend using the hotkey for it (Blender default: L, while hovering over what you want to select). Then you also need to adjust the operator after you made your selection. Set it to "UVs".
All subsequent selections with "Select Linked" will select already existing UV islands in the 3D view. If you want, you can have it be delimited by UVs and seams by shift clicking on the "Seams" option as well. (Or any other combination as well. In the UV editor view port you would also use "Select Linked", but that version does not have that many options and can only delimit by island.
4) As far as I know there is no feasible way to do that. The only thing I can think of is baking them to a texture, but that is a VERY static thing.
@wilson66 If you mean the new face sets feature then I don't know of a way to export that. Also I did not find any expansive documentation on it. It is fairly new after all.
Meaning you don't need marked seams to split polygons into UV islands.
Yeah, I think this is what I was getting at too.
3) Select linked is the way to go, yes. But I would recommend using the hotkey for it
Don't worry, I already made a few hotkeys (and scripts where needed) to automate operations. Blender is so easy to mold to one's wishes, and that is so so powerful...
About the Smart UV Project function. Isn't it just a half-way angle-based mapping, strangely mixed and limited by a cube mapping? Using it to unwrap a cylinder primitive, and there is no setting I can find for it to spit out 3 shells. It will at most produce 6 shells - one for every axis view. You would think that if the Angle Limit was set above 90, it should be welding the top and bottom shells together with the sides if I'm not mistaken. Is there no "true" unbound angle-based projection mapping in Blender? Willing to search for reliable external addons if needed. (Normally the suggested way to unwrap a cyl is to use cyl projection mapping ofc, but my point is that apparently smart uv projection will always create seams at the axis plane divisions, even if the angles of the edges themselves should be well within the Angle Limit)
I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction for some tutorials that would show me how to create a script that reproduces the following behavior:
I often find myself in need of the Max Bevel functionality. That is similar to an extrude followed by a scale. It looks like this inside Max:
Now the issue with doing an extrude followed by a scale on inset faces like that is that it produces a result like this, with both sets of edges scaling inwards even with individual origins set as the pivot of the transformation:
Now there's 2 solutions that I've found which work, one being insetting with depth on the face selection, and the other being selecting the two sets of edges and using the Shrink/Flatten function. As seen below, the two both produce the desired effect:
What I'd like is to program the Inset functionality to a key that when pressed first allows you to slide the cursor (the same way extrude does) to change the value of the Inset Depth. Then, when click is pressed, the Depth variable is set and you can slide the cursor again to modify the Thickness variable. Upon click again the operation is finished (perhaps it could show the Inset Box with the bottom left side of the screen).
If anyone knows of an addon that does something like this, or any tutorial that could teach how to do something like this, it would be really helpful.
@Eedle There's a single line, horizontal display that appears in the lower left corner of the 3D view port when a tool operator is active. This displays will show the current input values for all parameters and the hotkeys for toggling the primary input to adjust the other input values. When the inset operator is active there is a hotkey (ctrl is the defualt) that switches the mouse input between the thickness and depth values. This should result in the tool behavior you're looking for.
@Justo I never really use smart UV project myself, but yeah I can reproduce what you are saying. The documentation mentions though it is supposed to be used for mechanical things, so a curved surface seems to be already too much for that fairly simplistic algorithm.
I never really found a need to use anything else than marking seams and using unwrap. But I guess if you need something faster, that can sometimes end up being slow.
Replies
I imagine a script can be written using:
https://docs.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_77_0/bpy.ops.screen.html to split or add a window
and
bpy.ops.screen.space_type_set_or_cycle(space_type='VIEW_3D') to switch editors
I'd write a script myself but I'm a bit busy atm
I have no idea if there's already an add-on for that, I just wrote that stinky proof of concept snippet. I don't have the time to invest into turning it into a full fledged add-on right now, but I'll definitively do later because now I realize this is what I've been missing in my life!
I made a couple of tests with it, but didn't find any scenario and/or setting were it would be an improvement compared to standard sampling.
When using it in combination with the Blender denoiser, adaptive sampling creates a blurrier result, mostly visible on textured surfaces. It even does so when setting the minimum sampling rate (e.g. 512) as high as the rate for a comparable standard rendering, of course it takes at least the same amount of time depending on the noise threshold setting.
Related tip: You can link materials in two ways, Data and Object. When linking to Data, it'll get assigned to all instances using this mesh. When linking to Object, it'll only affect the active object.
This is happening with all meshes, even from older projects. Any ideas on how to fix it?
[Not related to the problem above]. Yoinked a material popup script from HEAVYPOLY and made a smaller version if anyone wants it.
Install it like a normal addon then add popup.hp_materials to a hotkey.
But if the problems still persist when resetting factory settings, then yeah, it may be a bigger problem in your install files...
It just dosen't make sense, maybe is something hardware related.
@Justo Turns out that i had saved startup file on the second screen, kinda weird that this overwrites the windows stuff.
Anyways before i submit a bug report can someone test this file so i know the problem is not only here..
The autor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRESMUenxa8
Guys, if you have assets linked from one file to a scene, can you pack the mesh, all the textures and materials into .blend when click on File-External data- Pack all into .blend?
1-What's the quickest, easiest way to get a camera-based uv mapping in Blender? I would like to hit a button / use a function to map everything that is being seen. Then make a selection of faces, and with the same function, map that selection as its own separate UV shell. I don't care much about it being properly unfolded, since I'd be only unwrapping shells before sending them to Rizom for more elaborate UV ops. Any native tools / addons that do this is welcome.
2-Also looking for the fastest way to do angle-based automatic unwrapping.
3-Does excluding collections from the View Layer in the Outliner improve performance or save any sort of graphical resources? Is it any different than setting those objects to invisible?
4-Is there any usefulness or arguments to be made in favor of the color gradient that extends from vert selection? In my case, on rare few occasions it actually makes it harder to see the changes in the object at rare, specific angles. Is there any way to toggle it off?
The one I prefer because it creates seams, "Select" Dropdown > "Select Sharp Edges", then adjust the angles to whatever you need, then ctrl + e to open the "edge specials" > mark seam, then U > unwrap. Yes I have noticed that blender seems to still render the "hidden" view layers, the ones hidden with the "h" key or the eye icons. They do still impact performance. But if you hide them with the monitor icon, they don't, and it's also excluded from the polycount indicator on the bottom. Absolute lifesaver in some cases.
No need to have your highpoly in a separate file anymore.
It's a nice visual indicator to see which parts of your mesh are actually connected. Comes in handy in cases like the ones above.
Hello!
I want to switch from Maya to Blender, but there is one problem.
When I opened Blender for the first time, the Quick Settings window appeared, in which I could choose a hotkey for the toolbox. But when I switched shortcuts from Blender to Industry Compatible, the ability to set the “Space” hotkey for the “Tool” disappeared.
Help me please how to set the hotkey “Space” for “Tools” in the Industry Compatible preset? I did not find such an opportunity in Keymaps. This only appears if I select “Blender”, but not “Industry Compatible”.
Thank.
You can change the keymaps in the preferences window. In the industry standard keymaps you will need to add the Toolbar command manually as by default it is not bound to anything. The toolbar is under the Window keymaps by default. The settings for the blender setup are as follows
I'm not looking to defend blender because I agree with you and I don't have to manipulate subdivided geometry much as you would.
With Blender i only had one crash. v2.82
-------
I've been unwrapping quite a few objects now and picking up some speed. To my delight, unwrapping things in Blender isn't quite as bad as I feared at the beginning. In fact, in some areas it's even faster than my previous methods in other apps!
Here's a few notes I made while working. I was hoping to see if someone could confirm or deny some of my remarks, and answer where needed.
>In the 3D Viewport:
4-Is there a way to see all the UVs of an object in the UV editor, by only having it selected in Object Mode in the 3D Viewport? AFAIK the user must enter into Edit Mode.
Thanks for explaining
Yeah, I think this is what I was getting at too.
Don't worry, I already made a few hotkeys (and scripts where needed) to automate operations. Blender is so easy to mold to one's wishes, and that is so so powerful...
About the Smart UV Project function. Isn't it just a half-way angle-based mapping, strangely mixed and limited by a cube mapping? Using it to unwrap a cylinder primitive, and there is no setting I can find for it to spit out 3 shells. It will at most produce 6 shells - one for every axis view. You would think that if the Angle Limit was set above 90, it should be welding the top and bottom shells together with the sides if I'm not mistaken. Is there no "true" unbound angle-based projection mapping in Blender? Willing to search for reliable external addons if needed.
(Normally the suggested way to unwrap a cyl is to use cyl projection mapping ofc, but my point is that apparently smart uv projection will always create seams at the axis plane divisions, even if the angles of the edges themselves should be well within the Angle Limit)
I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction for some tutorials that would show me how to create a script that reproduces the following behavior:
I often find myself in need of the Max Bevel functionality. That is similar to an extrude followed by a scale. It looks like this inside Max:
Now the issue with doing an extrude followed by a scale on inset faces like that is that it produces a result like this, with both sets of edges scaling inwards even with individual origins set as the pivot of the transformation:
Now there's 2 solutions that I've found which work, one being insetting with depth on the face selection, and the other being selecting the two sets of edges and using the Shrink/Flatten function. As seen below, the two both produce the desired effect:
What I'd like is to program the Inset functionality to a key that when pressed first allows you to slide the cursor (the same way extrude does) to change the value of the Inset Depth. Then, when click is pressed, the Depth variable is set and you can slide the cursor again to modify the Thickness variable. Upon click again the operation is finished (perhaps it could show the Inset Box with the bottom left side of the screen).
If anyone knows of an addon that does something like this, or any tutorial that could teach how to do something like this, it would be really helpful.