Cool things in Blender that aren't so obvious

#61

Really cool, didn’t know that. I just found this one I think it may have been mentioned before.

In edit mode when moving a vertex (G key) if you move it on the global X axis (Up/Down) then press the MMB it will be constrained to only move in that axis, or if you move it in X or Y axis then press MMB it will be constrained to move only in that axis.

You can always use the X, Y or Z key in grab mode, pressing once is global axis pressing twice is objects x, y or Z axsis. But I really like this MMB feature. Anything to speed up modeling is a plus!!!

#62

I don’t know if this is commanly known or not, it’s just that I’ve always used it and I don’t remember where I learned it.

Edit mode, when you click the RMB near a vertex that vertex (face or edge)will be selected, RMB again will unselect. By holding the shift key this will allow you to add each selected vertex (face or edge) in that highlighted group.

#63

another one,

After you have saved a blend file or an image you can then save it in progression that is:

car .blend. or car .JPG

Next time do “Save As” then press the + (plus) key which will advance the blend file by 1 every time it’s pressed. example: car .blend becomes car 1.blend. press again car 2.blend and so on.

The - (minus) key will subtract one. I’ve gotten into the habit of saving frequently. Yea I know there is now the undo feature but I like this better because it gives you a history in case you need to back a few levels of a build. You get a sved version at the level you choose.

#64

On the window render (open), you press “A” Leaves the channel alpha the render thing in screen.
JanSan

#65

What? (Now I have to type to get to 10 characters … :banghead: )

#66

Here’s one that I have never heard anybody mention:

Let’s say you have layers 1, 4 and 5 selected. If you press ~ (tilde), then all layers are visible. This I think everybody knows. But if you press Shift ~, then only the previous layers that you had selected will be visible. You can use Shift ~ to activate all, or show what used to be selected.

Pretty neat, huh?

#67

try blender -Y from the command line. There’s other animals than monkeys hidden in Blender.

#68

Interesting. How in the world did you stumble on that one?

#69

Programmer Trickery :slight_smile: I was trying to find out what the Python start up options might be.

#70

Weird, I tried that but all it did was talk about a python’s tongue in the command prompt. Do you mean that’s it? Or are there other animal meshes in Blender and how do you get to them?

#71

I tried -y too and could not find anything else. Where do you look for them?

FYI try -Y (capitalised) you’s get an explanation

#72

Hmmm, I can’t seem to find anything different. Just where are these other animals?

Is it specific to a certian version?

#73

Ok, maybe this will clear this up once and for all. There are no other meshes. This is just an Easter Egg … text … a programmer’s whim. I think it’s pretty cool. I always like these kind of “hidden” things. Sorry that there are no additional meshes … to my knowledge. :slight_smile:

#74

Thanks,

I thought that i would have heard it before if there was additional meshes, but the above post made me wonder.

Glad to hear I am not as out of the loop as I though I was for a second.

#75

What do you mean -Y ? I’m confused… what command line? Be more specific… I wanna see the other animals…

  • Ian
#76

Either open a dos window for Windows, or a console for Linux. Find the directory with Blender.exe, so you have something like this:- c:\Blender> At this prompt type ’ blender -y ’ then check in Blender’s console window when it opens, for the message.

Or// At the Windows Run command, type ’ blender -y ’

The Y looks like the tongue of a Python, Blender uses Python code, hence the ‘pun’.

There aren’t any extra animal meshes in Blender, just the monkey head. :sad:

In the same way you can type blender -h to get a display in the Blender console window, of all switches to control Blender from the command line. Useful for rendering without Blender running.

Hope this clears it up.

Sonix.

#77

There are no additional animals to see. The other animal he is talking about is the mention of a python and a link to a website (which seems to have changed since then) for a picture.

To see this, for Windows, go to Start->Run and tye in CMD. Then, navigate to your blender directory, and once there type “blender.exe -Y”

#78

I’m extensively using this technique to model my stuff, learned it from the Tutor Guide #1:

If you want to perfectly align a selection of vertices on a plane, you just have to follow these little steps:

1.) Before you are selecting the vertices you want to align, position your 3D cursor in the plane that you want to align to (you could select the 4 vertices of a big plane and hit Shift+S / Cursor->Selection for example, but you can position it anywhere)

2.) Now select those vertices you want to align

3.) Choose “3D Cursor” under “Rotation/Scaling Pivot”

4.) Now with the S-key start scaling mode, hit the key of the axis you want to move the vertices on (X,Y,Z)

5.) Holding down the CTRL-key, you can now move the vertices in one line towards the cursor, until the value for the chosen axis is 0.000.

6.) Hit LMB. The vertices are perfectly aligned along a plane through the 3D cursor.

This even works very well while in perspective view mode, so you can align on the fly and don’t have to switch to front/side/top view all the time.

Cheers

Gonzo

#79

UV mapping tip.

When you have the UV image/editor window open and have loaded an image you want to UV map to a mesh, click on the UV tab in the header bar and turn off ‘Snap UV to pixels’.

This will help to maintain the UV layout when moving/scaling/rotating UV co-ords.

Sonix.

#80

I just wanted to add, Blender automatically detects the number… meaning it does not need to be in any position. For instace: If you have a file named 001starport.png or .blend or whatever, pressing the + (plus) key will automatically name it 002starport.png. If you want to name it starport1.png, it will change it to starport2.png.

Two rules:
The filename has to have a number. It can be 0, or 1, or 3.141569.

If the file number is a negative, pressing + (plus) key will increase the “magnitude” of the negative number. I may have used magnitude wrong, if so, I mean pressing the + (plus) key will make -0.04 drop to -0.05. The - (minus) key will bring you only to 0, and then it will start to eat itself up. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the original tip Room335, this is going to save me alot of work.

–Neo