Heya - If that is even possible, how does one revert the look of the search box to what it was just a few versions ago ? The current one truly is harder to read ...
Preferences -> Interface -> Developer Extras Removing the checkmark there should clean up the search box. I turned that on some time ago because I couldn't find my custom scripts through the search anymore. That it is on by default now must be a mistake though.
Hi there @WitchDev ! That does remove the extra entries so that's good. However the layout is still un-tabbed ... Would there be any way to adress that ?
Ha ! Well you totally solved my issue right there I was using "menu search" as opposed to "operator search". But then again ... things *have* been changed around recently somehow, right ? As shown by your screenshot, with f3 being assigned to menu search.
[edit] Is your last screenshot from the Operator Search? I haven't the same UI as you (v2.91.0)
I love you. Seriously, thank you! That cursed search box was the thing keeping me well away from 2.9+ and all (admittedly quick) searches I did on the subject kept drawing blank.
Given that my Blender is setup to inherit shortcuts from previous versions someone thought it was an awesome idea to swap the entire contents of the old operator for the new function forcing it into the old shortcut by default. If only they had mentioned the old operator still existed in the release.
Is it somehow possible to control the normals of a curve, to have them point into a certain direction? Or have them inherit the normals from a different object?
I need to create a telephone cable. Simple, I thought, just create a curve spiral (Add -> Curve -> Curve Spirals -> Logarithmic), go to the properties of the curve, and adjust the round bevel depth to give it a round shape.
I need the shape of the telephone cable to be kind of flat though. The profile mustn't be a circle, but a more flat shape, and the flat side must always point outwards (see attached picture).
I can create the profile for the curve as bezier, then assign it as a bevel object. The problem is that the generated spiral curve creates geometry that spirals in on itself. In the second screenshot I have simply selected a poly loop and assigned a red material to it. I need the red poly loop to always be visible, and always point outwards. If I assign the bevel object to the spiral curve, the bevel object spirals in on itself just as the red poly loop on the picture below.
You can adjust the normals manually per vertex for one. But with how many you have there, that would be rather tedious. In the curve options there was something like rotation options. I remember one of them being Z-up, so that could help somewhat.
@wilson66 is there any reason you couldn't use the Screw modifier on the profile shape? Then you could tack on a Curve deformer if you needed the whole thing to twist and turn.
Or make a short segment like the one pictured above as a curve with a profile, adjust the CV tilt values to your liking to align the profile then copy/paste this segment to the desired length and weld it together?
It's impossible to tell from just a picture, but make sure that the normalmap is fed through a Normal Map node, and that its Image node is set to Non-Color (as opposed to the default sRGB).
You will have to first pack the image or save it to disk after baking in order for the option to be available from the Image Node.
All these things are easier to do from the shader editor than from the linear material settings. But of course it could be any other issue.
Just catching up with Keymesh at the moment. It's pretty clever, but is there any way to display some or all meshes from the key set, to review the motion onion-skin style ? That would make it a ton more enjoyable to use, as otherwise one is just animating blindly ...
[Edit] Found Mesh Onion Skins, but any well tested suggestion is appreciated.
Hola guys - was looking to follow some Blender devs on Twitter if they show cool gifs and previews on upcoming tech. I only know Pablo Dobarro's - are there any others?
Just bought this and it's incredible how well it performs! The only slowdowns are during toggling the layers on and off / creating them / changing the intensity (~5s on my 8 yo notebook, i7 4700MQ, GTX780m), but the sculpting performance is basically the same without the layers, the ctrl + Z performs the same as well (tried it on a 2.7 million multires head sculpt).
Nice to see this fantastic animation studio trying out Blender for a new animated short film.
Animating in Blender, Director Mark Spokes said:
“For most of the animators, Maya is their comfort zone and having to switch to Blender is a little disorientating. Luckily the number of people who stepped-up to help out is huge so each artist is working on one shot each. This means that they have plenty of time to learn the ropes as they work. Also pooling our collective knowledge about Blender has been super helpful for troubleshooting issues as they crop up.”
While the examples are really not the greatest (gazillions of tiny pieces), the packing is indeed great even on simple objects, and more predictable than Shotpacker. Nice stuff.
However ... I am personnally getting a bad vibe from the website and documentation with the big "Download for FREE !!" claims everywhere. It sure is free, but the way it calls an external .exe isn't quite sitting right imho and would probably be considered an IT risk in production, since no one can check what the code does. Maybe it is calling an external server - and therefore could be shut down any time ?
Non-Windows users will not be able to run it either and I agree with you @pior that the external .exe can be an issue in an corporate IT environment. Much better than the default still, for those who are looking for a free add-on. Looks like it has been around for 3dsmax and was recently ported to Blender. The dev is planning to release the unwrap tool for Blender as well.
the exe usage in plugins is for non-gpl code a proven way to stay compliant with GPL code. They went so far (and take the rules about gpl serious) to even host the exe and GPL code on different servers.
Another method which is also popular is to build custom Blender builds which indeed would talk to a local server. Octane does or did this in the pursuit to stay compliant with gpl code.
Linux users for now can use the addon via wine but have to slightly modify the script.
regarding the concern with server bound stuff, I checked via Netlimiter (internet traffic control and monitoring tool ) and there is no trigger of the exe popping up and thus so far 0 outflow or inflow of data.
UVPackmaster also uses an external executable. I imagine the reasons for this are threefold:
- you can't write plugins for Blender in anything but Python (performance)
- it is easier to restrict access to and sell a compiled executable
- the GPL (GNU Public License) as already mentioned
Stuff like that is one of the reasons I don't like the GPL and mostly use the Apache or MIT licenses instead.
And if you want to be extra sure about network traffic, you could have a look with Wireshark. Otherwise just block the traffic on process level with Netlimiter for example or on a network level with a firewall.
Did you know ZenUVs has a integration with UVpackmaster2 to use their algorithm directly within its pie menus? I talk about that and other awesome little secrets on my latest video Its now my "Go to" UVs addon as it also has a Texel density tool built in!
Well, in a way this issue is a bit ironic given that the selection paradigm in Blender is actually pretty damn good compared to most other software Here there is probably a very specific reason why it isn't picking the one object that you want ("it's not a bug, it's a feature"), hence I don't think this behavior can be changed by the user. However, the built-in workaround for that specific case is to click multiple times, for the selection to cycle through all the possible overlapping models under the mouse pointer. I hope this helps !
(Also, you might want to keep a sample scene showing the issue at hand here and file a report about it, as it is not straightforward to replicate. If I am not mistaken , selection and UX issues are taken pretty seriously by the devs.)
Anybody have a quick fix for swapping the viewport background color in Eevee without editing the theme or messing with scene contents? I'd like to be able to go from default dark grey to white and back (to check silhouette).
The modern equivalent of a poke command (... ) with an RGB value would be really helpful, bound to a macro or the like.
@shogunato : Yes ! I can confirm that it does that too here, on 2.91, with the following options : Move tool with the Drag behavior set to Tweak ; or, using the Tweak tool directly.
This is clearly broken as I don't see any justification for it. I would assume that this must be an oversight, as long-time Blender users (used to pre-2.8 behavior) are likely not using such interaction method. For instance I am constantly using either the Select Box tool, or the Move tool with its Drag option set to "Select Box" - never using any flavor of "Tweak". Tweak is designed to replicate the Autodesk behavior requiring to click, hold down and drag to move things around, which is quite painful for the hand ; So from there my assumption is that the broken depth selection behavior you experience while in Tweak mode or when using the Tweak tool must have flown under the radar, and needs to be reported and fixed.
(also, note that it is still possible to "click drag tweak" objects even when using the Move tool with its Drag behavior set to Select Box, basically bypassing any need to even use the Tweak Tool at all).
@thomasp : you can do so by having one of the two backgrounds as part of your scene (an HDR or even a plain texture), and the other coming from the "Material Preview" HDR, with "Scene World" turned off. Hence switching from one to the other will essentially toggle backgrounds (and lighting).
Another way would be to script a toggle action change either the preview HDR from a bright one to a dark one, or to change the scene background HDR itself from a bright one to a dark one (depending on which mode you like to use to most : Eevee preview, or Eevee render).
@shogunato, am on 2.92 and using tweak a lot. Not having issues like what looks like the camera model. Selection only gets funky when polys are flipped. Did you check that? Top right of viewport, third dropdown from left, normal direction (or something) inside poly red, outside, blue.
@kanga i work on 2.91, i didn't tested on 2.92. This is exactly what Pior said. It's not a normal direction issue. i will check on 2.92 thanks for your help
Well, as far as I am concerned the issue is still happening in 2.93 alpha. @Kanga, are you certain that you are using exactly what @shogunato is talking about ? That is to say, using the actual Tweak tool (as opposed to using a regular selection tool set to Tweak mode for drag).
If yes then there must be some exotic setting somewhere causing the behavior to happen.
Hey guys, I've come across a strange problem. I've joined half of a UV sphere (using ctrl + J) to my mesh and after merging the verts these weird puckering points and lines show up between the boarders of the two meshes. I've merged them completely, checked for duplicate verts or extra faces and found nothing and deleted and reapplyed modifiers. I've also tried going into sculpting mode and using the smooth tool on them but that didnt work. The only thing I can think of is that if I were using 3DS max, I would check the smoothing groups between the two objects but I'm not sure if blender has something similar.
TLDR: Does anyone know how to get rid of these weird puckered bits?
Ha, so that would mean that the weird behavior some of us are seeing must be coming from some other setting then - perhaps multiple monitors causing an offset, and so on. It's a bummer as that sounds like a tricky one to pin point.
Has anyone tested blender for sculpting with 16gb of ram vs 32gb if it has too much difference, I have 16 and thinking about upgrade.
BTW 2.92 seems to be a bit faster for sculpting, also there was a bug that would reset your brush settings with CTRL Z even remove textures on the brush, it's fixed now. The decimate modifier still super slow though.
Hello all - Blender has that great feature allowing to ctrl-c ctrl-v contents from one scene/session to another (using its own copy buffer, which I assume consists of writing out a temporary blend file or something similar).
Is there any way to trick it into doing just that, but across different (yet compatible) versions ? I find myself needing to pass models from 2.91 to a custom 2.8 build and back, and being able to do it at one single press of a button would be great (as opposed to saving out/reopening, or appending from file). Any ideas ?
Replies
Removing the checkmark there should clean up the search box. I turned that on some time ago because I couldn't find my custom scripts through the search anymore. That it is on by default now must be a mistake though.
But then again ... things *have* been changed around recently somehow, right ? As shown by your screenshot, with f3 being assigned to menu search.
Given that my Blender is setup to inherit shortcuts from previous versions someone thought it was an awesome idea to swap the entire contents of the old operator for the new function forcing it into the old shortcut by default. If only they had mentioned the old operator still existed in the release.
I need to create a telephone cable. Simple, I thought, just create a curve spiral (Add -> Curve -> Curve Spirals -> Logarithmic), go to the properties of the curve, and adjust the round bevel depth to give it a round shape.
I need the shape of the telephone cable to be kind of flat though. The profile mustn't be a circle, but a more flat shape, and the flat side must always point outwards (see attached picture).
I can create the profile for the curve as bezier, then assign it as a bevel object. The problem is that the generated spiral curve creates geometry that spirals in on itself. In the second screenshot I have simply selected a poly loop and assigned a red material to it. I need the red poly loop to always be visible, and always point outwards. If I assign the bevel object to the spiral curve, the bevel object spirals in on itself just as the red poly loop on the picture below.
How would I go about this?
You will have to first pack the image or save it to disk after baking in order for the option to be available from the Image Node.
All these things are easier to do from the shader editor than from the linear material settings. But of course it could be any other issue.
[Edit] Found Mesh Onion Skins, but any well tested suggestion is appreciated.
https://gumroad.com/l/blender_sculpt_layers
Also, really recommend sculptors try the last experimental sculpting versions. Multires performance seems to have improved.
THE MAKING OF - SINKING FEELING
https://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/blog/making-of-sinking-feelingNice to see this fantastic animation studio trying out Blender for a new animated short film.
Animating in Blender, Director Mark Spokes said:
“For most of the animators, Maya is their comfort zone and having to switch to Blender is a little disorientating. Luckily the number of people who stepped-up to help out is huge so each artist is working on one shot each. This means that they have plenty of time to learn the ropes as they work. Also pooling our collective knowledge about Blender has been super helpful for troubleshooting issues as they crop up.”
However ... I am personnally getting a bad vibe from the website and documentation with the big "Download for FREE !!" claims everywhere. It sure is free, but the way it calls an external .exe isn't quite sitting right imho and would probably be considered an IT risk in production, since no one can check what the code does. Maybe it is calling an external server - and therefore could be shut down any time ?
Much better than the default still, for those who are looking for a free add-on.
Looks like it has been around for 3dsmax and was recently ported to Blender.
The dev is planning to release the unwrap tool for Blender as well.
They went so far (and take the rules about gpl serious) to even host the exe and GPL code on different servers.
Another method which is also popular is to build custom Blender builds which indeed would talk to a local server. Octane does or did this in the pursuit to stay compliant with gpl code.
Linux users for now can use the addon via wine but have to slightly modify the script.
Do anyone have a in-Blender solution to recommend (maybe the nodal geometry interface would let me replicate this with enough parameters/control ?)
Houdini Labs 'Mesh Slice' to cut a given geometry by Chunks on a 3d grid based on its bounding box
Very cool for large element streaming/culling, landscapes etc
I think so far what worked for me in Blender was Boolean with a single-element 3d grid (connected planes)
Its now my "Go to" UVs addon as it also has a Texel density tool built in!
Is there a workaround ?
(Also, you might want to keep a sample scene showing the issue at hand here and file a report about it, as it is not straightforward to replicate. If I am not mistaken , selection and UX issues are taken pretty seriously by the devs.)
If the objects are porperly named, there's also the option to use alt+select that will pop a menu where you can choose from a list of close objects.
This is clearly broken as I don't see any justification for it. I would assume that this must be an oversight, as long-time Blender users (used to pre-2.8 behavior) are likely not using such interaction method. For instance I am constantly using either the Select Box tool, or the Move tool with its Drag option set to "Select Box" - never using any flavor of "Tweak". Tweak is designed to replicate the Autodesk behavior requiring to click, hold down and drag to move things around, which is quite painful for the hand ; So from there my assumption is that the broken depth selection behavior you experience while in Tweak mode or when using the Tweak tool must have flown under the radar, and needs to be reported and fixed.
(also, note that it is still possible to "click drag tweak" objects even when using the Move tool with its Drag behavior set to Select Box, basically bypassing any need to even use the Tweak Tool at all).
@thomasp : you can do so by having one of the two backgrounds as part of your scene (an HDR or even a plain texture), and the other coming from the "Material Preview" HDR, with "Scene World" turned off. Hence switching from one to the other will essentially toggle backgrounds (and lighting).
Another way would be to script a toggle action change either the preview HDR from a bright one to a dark one, or to change the scene background HDR itself from a bright one to a dark one (depending on which mode you like to use to most : Eevee preview, or Eevee render).
If yes then there must be some exotic setting somewhere causing the behavior to happen.
TLDR: Does anyone know how to get rid of these weird puckered bits?
Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
BTW 2.92 seems to be a bit faster for sculpting, also there was a bug that would reset your brush settings with CTRL Z even remove textures on the brush, it's fixed now. The decimate modifier still super slow though.
Blender has that great feature allowing to ctrl-c ctrl-v contents from one scene/session to another (using its own copy buffer, which I assume consists of writing out a temporary blend file or something similar).
Is there any way to trick it into doing just that, but across different (yet compatible) versions ? I find myself needing to pass models from 2.91 to a custom 2.8 build and back, and being able to do it at one single press of a button would be great (as opposed to saving out/reopening, or appending from file). Any ideas ?