[Addon] Kjartan’s Scripts

This addon adds my personal collection of small handy scripts to Blender (mostly modeling tools)

Current Version : v0.2.7, Posted 21-Nov-2015

Update: I’ve decided to include my custom retopology addon + make “Kjartan’s Scripts” a paid addon and sell the whole thing on gumroad. So to get future updates you can either buy my “Modeling the Derposaur” tutorial (the scripts comes bundled with it) or only buy the scripts.

You can get the scripts in two places :
GumRoad – Scripts Only (9 euros)
GumRoadTutorial + Scripts (15 euros)
(both includes future updates)

  • You will find the ktools-menu at the bottom of the Edit Mode W-Specials menu.
  • This addon also sets “Shift+Q” as a hotkey to the ktools-menu (works in both Edit- and Object-mode)

[TABLE=“width: 750”]

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/customRetopo.gif
Custom Retopology (Early Access)

  • include fuctions for interactive tweaking, extruding, drag-create-face, merge verts, delete, collapse, insert loop and more all within one tool.
  • has pre-selection highlighting
  • allows you to move and navigate around while still being within a modal operator.
  • NOTE: This tool is still in development. The final tool will probably work a bit differently.

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/cutTool.gif
Cut Tool – mesh.cut_tool

  • context sensitive cut tool
  • cuts based on the currently selected verts, edges or polygons
  • if nothing is selected then it will start up the knife tool
  • options for Number of Cuts, Smoothness and Quad Corner Type
  • also has option for inserting loop cut on the selected edges
  • NOTE: cutting selected polys works best on single strips of polygons

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/buildCorner.gif
Build Corner – mesh.build_corner

  • builds corner topology
  • turns N-gons into usable topology (sometimes)
  • good for changing the edge flow of your model
  • preserves UV’s
  • modal operator (works interactively)
  • NOTE: currently only works on one face-region at a time

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/snapToX.gif
Snap to Axis – mesh.snaptoaxis

  • snaps the selected verts, edges or polygons to 0 in the selected axis
  • also has option for adding a mirror modifier

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/drawPoly.gif
Draw Poly - mesh.draw_poly

  • Shift-Click inverts the face
  • works in both Object- and Edit-mode
  • MiddleMouse gives you a quadrangulated result instead of an N-Gon
  • Ctrl-Click toggles off snapping
  • if nothing is selected then it will create a new object and draw within it

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/quickBool.gif
Quick Bool – object.quickbool

  • quickly carves out the selected objects from the active object with one click
  • also works in Edit mode by carving out the selected polygons
  • in Object mode it has options for not deleting the “carve” objects
  • also has option for moving the “carve” objects away to layer 10 (layer 10 is what i use as my “garbage layer”)
  • NOTE: this tool uses the boolean modifier, so it works best with manifold meshes

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/shrinkwrapSmooth.gif
Shrinkwrap Smooth – mesh.shrinkwrap_smooth

  • smooths while trying to keep the original shape with a Shrinkwrap modifier
  • great for evening out topology
  • options for pinning the selection border and changing the Shrinkwrap Mode
  • NOTE: the default Skinwrap Mode (“Nearest Surface”) is the most reliable, but the “Project” mode usually gives a better result

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/toggleSilhouette.gif
Toggle Silhouette – object.toggle_silhouette

  • turns everything black so that you can evaluate the overall shape (which makes this tool very useful while designing)
  • works in every mode

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/paintSelect.gif
Paint Selection – view3d.selection_paint

  • Select multiple objects, verts, edges or polys in one stroke
  • Shortcut = CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+LEFTMOUSE
  • Has options for Toggle selection and Deselect
  • Clicking outside of the mesh with Toggle on will deselect everything
  • NOTE: This script will not appear in the menu. Also, having the Toggle option on might cause a delay before the tool starts selecting (on heavy meshes)

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/shrinkLoop.gif
Shrink Loop – mesh.shrink_loop

  • shrinks the selected loop
  • works on vert-, edge- and polygon-selections
  • option for shrinking multiple steps at a time.

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/autoTubes.gif
Auto Tubes – mesh.autotubes

  • creates a tube based on the selected edges
  • options for changing the Width and Bevel Resolution
  • NOTE: this tool will creates a curve w/Bevel. Curves can easily be converted to a mesh with “Alt+C / Convert to Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text” (in Object mode)

http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/path_select_ring.gif
Path Select Ring – mesh.path_select_ring

  • path select partial edge rings
  • option for interactively picking edges
  • also option for instantly collapsing the selected edges

[/TABLE]

(the following tools still don’t have GIFs: Grow Loops, Extend Loops, Autosmooth, Calculate Normals and Basic Renamer)

Update history:
v0.2.7 – 21-Nov-2015
new feature: Path Select Ring
cut tool will invoke knife in more situations
fixed “cull faces” bug in Shrinkwrap Smooth
fixed bug in Shrinkwrap Smooth if vertex weight was not set too 1
fixed bug in Shrinkwrap Smooth where it would add selected verts to existing vertex groups
removed Nearest Vertex option in Shrinkwrap Smooth
added subsurf option (more reliable, but slower results) in Shrinkwrap Smooth
added separate hotkey input for edit and object mode menus. This solves a bug where the menu would give an error if the object was not on a visible layer.

v0.2.6 – 31-Oct-2015
new feature: Toggle Silhouette
new feature: Paint Selection
added options to QuickBool for Union, Intersect and Difference
changed DrawPoly to not snap by default
fixed bug in QuickBool where it would remove existing Boolean modifier
fixed obscure bug where the wrong menu would show up in Edit mode if no object was selected but you still had an object active

v0.2.5 - 25-Oc-2015
new feature: drawPoly
fixed selection bug with shrinksmooth
fixed small bug with mirror mod in snapToAxis
fixed bug with with menu where it would fail if there was no active object
quickBool does a “select linked” first, so now you only need to select one face/edge/vert in Edit mode to carve out that piece

v0.2.4 – 19-Oct-2015
Converted Snap-to-X into SnapToAxis. This tool will now snap to any axis. Also has option for adding a mirror modifier
Added the menu into the W-Specials Edit mode menu
Also added a shortcut to Shift+Q for the ktools menu
RMB-click or Esc while using the BuildCorner will reset the tool

v0.2.3 – 14-Oct-2015
First version online

NOTE: I’m a newbie at making scripts, so some of these tools will be slow on big meshes (and some might have bugs). Use with care.

Hope you find them useful

Thank you!

  • Kjartan
2 Likes

This sound nice, well done !

Wow!!!

AWESOME!:eek:

Ho wonderful @ktysdal,
You are welcome with your new add-on!
Thanks for sharing to us.

Super nice set of tools

thanks a lot guys :slight_smile:
If you encounter any horrible bugs then please let me know

Nice, thanks for this!

Sweet! There’s a lot of handy stuff there, looking forward to try this out, especially the Silo-Knife :wink:
For the longest time I wished for a Silo Knife in Blender, I’m really excited to try that out.
Much appreciated.
… BTW, I know you from way back of the olden days of Silo Forum :slight_smile:

oh really, nice :slight_smile:

yeah the Silo cut-tool is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I just really love those kind of “swissarmy” kind multi-tools. And its a nice bonus to not have to remember so many hotkeys

Wow great tools! However, I noticed one small “bug”. When I use Shrinkwrap smooth and change the settings in the side panel, the operation gets executed every single time and I have to click ctrl+z first before I can try my new settings. That’s kind of breaking the workflow in my opinion. Would be nice if you could fix that =)

Hi Phalaris. Thanks. Yes i totally agree. It breaks my workflow too. I’ll look into it

Great tools, good work! i have quite a lot of bugs when using it. For example when i use the shrink wrap modifier on some faces, then do it on some other, blender for some reason highlight the old ones aswell. also when you have selected an entire edge loop you cant shrink it, i would pressume this is because Blender doesn’t understand where to start but the wrong place is better than nothing here. I also got some errors, will try to post that soon, keep up the great work!

Hi Ktysdal, very good tools, just one sugestion, could it be possible that shrinkwrap smooth works only on the selected faces?

hi servapunk and jumpaw80. Thanks. Looks like you both have the same problem with the shrinkwrap smooth. I’ll look into that one.

@jimpaw80 maybe I’m understanding you incorrectly, but you cant use shrinkLoop on a closed loop. You have to have at least one element deselected to give it an idea of where to start.

This is great! The Cut Tool is almost exactly the way I had my custom hotkeys set up in Nvil, and the Smooth and Quick Tube scripts are fantastic timesavers. I’m assuming you’re a Silo refugee as well? :smiley:

Would it be possible to set up more of these tools with interactive versions, where pressing the hotkey puts you in a mode where dragging the mouse tweaks the main parameter? I’m hoping to then set it up so an ‘on press’ event launches the regular script, but holding the key down (like Silo’s sticky keys) starts the interactive tool.
For instance, with the Cut Tool you could tweak the number of cuts with the mousewheel, change the smoothness with the mouse movement, and change corner type with a hotkey.

That looks like an amazing collection of tools, thank you for sharing them with us.
Downloading this right now :slight_smile:

Great tools

Thank you for your great work and your time which you gave for our community:)

thanks a lot guys!
I updated the original post and uploaded the newest version of the addon.
This version has a few bugs fixed + a new feature:
Draw Poly – mesh.draw_poly
http://www.kjartantysdal.com/images/scripts/drawPoly.gif

  • Shift-Click inverts the face
  • works in both Object- and Edit-mode
  • MiddleMouse gives you a quadrangulated result instead of an N-Gon
  • Ctrl-Click toggles off snapping
  • if nothing is selected then it will create a new object and draw within it

hope you like it!