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  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Xray just adds one more step (switching modes) *and* is unnecessary anyways.

    The misconception (in the mind of "engineer types", like the ones in the dev thread who think this would be "error-prone") likely comes from the assumption that people want to precisely select back faces. It's just isn't the case. Being able to select through the model is not a way to make a precise selection, it's a way to get to the desired selection  much faster.

    Also, when a model is made of clean loops it is actually very predictable too.
  • f1r3w4rr10r
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    f1r3w4rr10r polycounter lvl 9
    Since you say it would be an extra step, am I right to assume you consider select through *on* to be the default?
  • eltarbos
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    eltarbos polycounter lvl 7
    I think that the solution provided by addons like box-select-x-ray is even better. It automatically switches to xray when dragging the selection rectangle. There's also an option to desactivate the xray display if you don't like it.

    If you want to try it, be sure to get the latest version (2.014) at the end of the thread.



  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    @f1r3w4rr10r Like I said, XRay brings its own problems. Not only we should have an option to select things behind other things if we want to without having to toggle other modes every time, the way Blender works right now is that XRay will force a change in selection behavior, from area-based selection (click/drag anywhere inside the component to select) to center-based selection (only accepts centers).

    While such a feature can be useful in some situations, XRay doesn't have any reason to enforce this and should remain as a separate feature. Whether you want to see things in XRay, or how you wish to select things, are two different topics.

    There is a long devthread talk here about the topic: https://devtalk.blender.org/t/decoupling-x-ray-and-limit-selection-to-visible/3498/129 Feel free to comment there too on this. Best case scenario someone at Blender corps will eventually change his mind. This has been brought up to them several times though, and always they have a reason to say no, so it's sort of a long slow ongoing fight. 
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Here's another question for you all.

    Is there a way (either by default or through a clever addon) to jump directly from a material (say in the material list, or even under the mouse hovering on a model in the viewport) directly to a UI panel (floating even ?) automatically switched to shader editor, in object mode ? Having to proactively do that each time by hand really is a drag, as opposed to how most (all ?) other software let you click through naturally from object, to material, to material nodes.

    I personally always have a UI panel ready under my main viewport that I switch to UV editor, to image viewer, to dopesheet, to node editor, and so on depending on the needs. But even having that ready at all times doesn't really help and the process is a painful drag, to a point where I feel like I sometimes avoid doing some material edits/texture tweaks I should be doing. Thoughts ? Maybe the new layout presets could help, not sure though as that would really be a bandaid over an issue, and I feel like relying on them would introduce even more distractions/annoyances interrupting flow.
  • guitarguy00
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    guitarguy00 polycounter lvl 6
    Would be very cool if Blender remembered your selections in Vert/Edge/Face mode like 3DS does. Currently, if you have a vert selected and then switch to face mode and then back to vert mode, the selection is lost?
  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    @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
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    guitarguy00 polycounter lvl 6
    Justo said:
    @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. 
  • m00k
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    m00k polycounter lvl 3
    @pior
    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
  • birb
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    birb interpolator
    @pior Something like this?



    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!
  • Prime8
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    Prime8 interpolator
    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.
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    Justo said:
    @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
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    guitarguy00 polycounter lvl 6
    thomasp said:
    Justo said:
    @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.
  • Udjani
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    Udjani interpolator
    I can't make blender open on my primary screen, any tips? I am using windows.
  • aaguilar_art
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    aaguilar_art polycounter lvl 7
    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.

  • birb
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    birb interpolator
    @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.
  • Udjani
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    Udjani interpolator
    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.


  • f1r3w4rr10r
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    f1r3w4rr10r polycounter lvl 9
    @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.
  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    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...
  • Udjani
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    Udjani interpolator
    @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.
  • f1r3w4rr10r
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    f1r3w4rr10r polycounter lvl 9
    @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. :D
  • Udjani
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    Udjani interpolator
    @f1r3w4rr10r Yeah, have beeng using the experimental builds since forever, never had any problem. But i guess you can't be lucky forever xD

    Anyways before i submit a bug report can someone test this file so i know the problem is not only here..

  • VertexPainter
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    VertexPainter polycounter lvl 8
    In 2.90 broken shading.
    In 2.83 everything ok.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    @Udjani : that little popup is pretty great ! Where can one find the original (if it is even available for 2.8+ at all ) ?

  • Udjani
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    Udjani interpolator
    @pior The original has other stuff like vertex color and what not. But doesn't have the viewport display and the material properties.

     The autor:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRESMUenxa8

  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    Udjani said:

    [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.

  • Udjani
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    Udjani interpolator
     @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.

  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    @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
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    thomasp hero character
    Udjani said:
     @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.

  • RN
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    RN sublime tool
    melviso said:
    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.
  • guitarguy00
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    guitarguy00 polycounter lvl 6
    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?
  • f1r3w4rr10r
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    f1r3w4rr10r polycounter lvl 9
    @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.
  • wilson66
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    wilson66 polycounter lvl 8
    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?
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
  • RaphaelBarros
  • guitarguy00
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    guitarguy00 polycounter lvl 6
    @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  :'(
  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    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?

  • fdfxd2
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    fdfxd2 interpolator
    Finally questions I can answer!
    Justo said:
    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.
  • Udjani
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    Udjani interpolator
    fdfxd2 said: The one I prefer because it creates seams
    You can create seam from islands, On the uv editor tab Uv > Seams From Islands 
  • f1r3w4rr10r
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    f1r3w4rr10r polycounter lvl 9
    fdfxd2 said:
    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.
  • eugenius113
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    eugenius113 polycounter lvl 4

    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.


  • f1r3w4rr10r
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    f1r3w4rr10r polycounter lvl 9
    @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.
  • Surfa
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    Surfa polycounter lvl 12
    @eugenius113

    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

  • f1r3w4rr10r
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    f1r3w4rr10r polycounter lvl 9
    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:
    And here is the overview of tasks for the precision modeling improvements: https://developer.blender.org/T66337
  • eugenius113
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    eugenius113 polycounter lvl 4
    Wow! Thank you!!! So easy)
  • f1r3w4rr10r
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    f1r3w4rr10r polycounter lvl 9
    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. :D

  • Deforges
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    Deforges polycounter lvl 11
    @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.
  • Blaizer
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    Blaizer interpolator
    @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).

    With Blender i only had one crash. v2.82
  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    @fdfxd2 Thanks for the tips :D That U unwrap menu was everything I needed and more! 

    -------

    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.
  • wilson66
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    wilson66 polycounter lvl 8
    Can I somehow export face sets to another program? Like e.g. convert them to vertex colors?
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