As an evolving 3d artist I am always looking to learn new skills and software so I decided to check out Blender. I am currently using 3ds max and although I do like many things in it I getting a bit tired of many things as well. ( cost, heavyness of the overall package, features not working correctly etc etc )
I am enjoying learning Blender and trying to add it to my production pipeline. A few things that I was wondering if you have and or can do in Blender.
Presets…is there a way of saving out the look and setup of my UI and loading it on a different machine?
Material Libaries…One thing I really like in 3ds max is the way I can save out and load in different material libaries. Please tell me there is a way of doing that in Blender?
Also tearing off windows inside the UI and placing them on a different monitor. I love how responsive Blender is but I miss having the ability declutter my work space. I typically move things to a different monitor to free up viewport space. How is that possible in Blender?
Is there way to launch Blender in command mode? I have 2 machines I use to network render my work both machine do not have stand along graphics cards, so Blender cannot startup when I double click the Blender icon.
Those are just a few of things that I have run into. I would appreciate any insight.
Use CTRL+U to overwrite the startup file. You can move that file to other machines.
It may not automatically save your window arrangements if you have separated some parts off to a second monitor.
Shift+click on a draggable editor corner for tearing off.
Everything in Blender is considered a “library” and can be appended between files. Go to file, append, an navigate inside .blend files to append materials, textures, objects, etc.
I actually tried that but no luck. I will dig around and see what I can find. Actually I all I really want to do is use the cpu power of each machine when I render. I actually do not have to luanch blender.
Re: Saving preferences to another computer Copy the folder C:\Users…Your User Name…\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender and the version number to the new computers Blender folder. There might be a more elegant way of doing this but this is what I have done. I have it copied to dropbox so it can be accessed from multiple locations.
Re: Material Presets: I use the Asset Manager addon- makes more sense to me than the Blender method of appending from existing blend files. It creates intuitive thumbnails and allows for drag and drop ish behavior.
For OpenGL Error, download the on board graphics driver from the manufacture website and “NOT” Microsoft as MS removed a lot of OpenGL stuff from their Windows drivers. The manufacture website should have the full driver that includes required OpenGL dll’s
Though I haven’t tried it myself, Blender Cloud offers free sync of user prefs. All you apparently need is a Blender ID, i.e registering as a user on blender.org.
Also check into the Network rendering Part of the Manual. You can setup a simple Renderfarm and use your networks CPU’s and GPU’s with just a simple .blend and a .bat file.
A free way to render on multiple machines at the same time (animation) you can also open the .blend file on each machine, make sure “use Placeholder” is checked and “Overwrite” is off. Select the same folder where all the renders go and render it. Each machine will create a placeholder file at the start of the frame, then render to it. This stops other machines from taking the same frame, they take the next one (because overwrite is off).
