As a USER ( not as a DEVELOPPER ) what Blender Version do you use ?

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
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Hi Blender community !

I use blender since now some few years, and i confess i cannot get rid of it !

The version i currently use, mostly for modeling things i use in my unity3D indie toy is
the 2.49b !!! :confused:
ok okā€¦ i agree itā€™s a pretty old/rusty/dusty version butā€¦ imho itā€™s the only fully
operationnal and stable version ! I also agree it lacks MAAAANY new functionnalities that can be found in 2.6 versions but at least itā€™s just simply usable.

Some days ago, i decided to jump over my fear of the new, and tried out the 2.59.
I started a model from scratch. After some few hours of use, i felt it was a good new
version, i was surely going to useā€¦ juste before the crashā€¦ :no:
Hopefully i didnā€™t loose anything except my confidence in new versions of blender.
This was the first time ( iā€™m under win7 ) i saw a crash window from the modeler.
OK, letā€™s say it comes from my windows ( on wich the 2.49b works in a manner of
perfection ), and restart the 2.59. now on my model i want to use the knifeā€¦
You know ? the perfectly working and usefull SHIFT+K of the 2.49bā€¦ well where is it on the 2.59 ??? hmmmā€¦ damn !!! iā€™m this dumb that i canā€™t find it !!! Developpers must have put it somewhere my tight mind cannot imagineā€¦ well, nevermindā€¦ lets run to forums and grab the dumb answer to the dumb questionā€¦
1 hour later, after falling from surprise to unbelief, i had to admit that there isā€¦
NO KNIFE !!! OMG !!! theyā€™re cutting in the base tools !!! implementing many many goodies but throwing away mandatory tools !!! :spin:
Maybe itā€™s become an add-on ??? hmmm nope it seems there was one that has been quickly assembled with some rope and chocolate paper, but it just donā€™t workā€¦ nothing. the void !

I had to come back to my old faithfull 2.49bā€¦ And to be honest, as all the 2.5+ versions i tried out were uninterresting to me, iā€™m just bored of trying things that are developped in a obla-hi-obla-ho wayā€¦ Making me asking to everyone a question that donā€™t seems to have been asked on this forum ( the search button didā€™nt gimme any clue ) :

As a USER, what Blender version do you use, and what for ?

and hereā€™s my own answer:
2.49b for modeling, UVing, Rigging and animating ā€”> export to unity3D V3.4

I hope many of you can answer this question, as i guess it could save hours of tryout to many of usā€¦

Thanks for your help and for your answers, and alsoā€¦

Congrats to the dev team that really do a good job, even if they sometimes forget usersā€¦

Edit: Please donā€™t post details of what you think is missing or nice in versionsā€¦
Just give the version you use, and what is this use for. Your short answers should be able to give people
and idea on the most usefull version for what they want to do. Thanks a lot :wink:

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Sry.
deleted my duplicate useless post textā€¦

3

Youā€™re late for the party.

Get a latest 2.62 build from graphicall. This has Bmesh and has awesome new Knife tool, similar to 2.49 knife.

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Off-topic answer. Please read my 1st post before hitting reply. My question is not specifically about the knife. Itā€™s about usability and productivity. Iā€™d like this thread clear and unpoluted, for helping ppl choose the version they need.
Remember that newer is NEVER equivalent to better. so please dont answer with:ā€œtry this or thatā€¦ā€. Please answer with: ā€œi use Version X.XX for ā€¦ IK?bumpmapping?etc?ā€

thanks for you comprehension and your in-topic answers!

regards

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I apologize for my off-topic answer.

Now my answer properly formulated as you requested:

i use Version 2.62 (latest build from graphicall) for the Knife Tool (similar to 2.49 knife)

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Knife: Select all vertices, hold the [K] key and draw with your mouse.

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Why would you pick 2.59 out of all the other official stable releases, 2.60, 2.61, 2.62 ā€¦2.6x is as usable as 2.49. You just need to relearn some stuff yes.

select edges, press and hold ā€˜kā€™ key, LMB to draw cut line, F6 or tool panel to adjust your cut. You took too long to transition to from 2.49 so there is some relearning on your part.

If you do like Sago suggested and pick up a bmesh build knife is even way better than in 2.49, I mean way better. in the newer build its k(no selection of edges) or shift+k (select edges before cutting)

ā€¦I use 2.62(bmesh builds) because it rocks

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I think if you do game engine work, 2.63 may be a bit alien to you due to ngon support (this is a great boon to the modelling process but for exporting to game engines it requires a little extra attention) and maybe because the exporters may not have been properly rewritten yet. Still for animation and rigging 2.6x is by far a better series than 2.49.

Personally I am not a great modeller but I will thoroughly enjoy 2.63 for the modelling tools! Also for rendering architectural stuff and global illumination stuff in general you canā€™t beat cycles all you try with 2.49

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These days I use the latest SVN build that I have time to compile, so I can help debugging. I set my autosave to every minute: this way I never loose more than a minute of my work. In a month I experienced only one crash. I reported the bug and it was fixed the same day. Version 2.63 is due today BTW.

Now, I am sorry to say, mon petit bonhomme, the devs canā€™t fix crashes that arenā€™t reported. If you experienced a crash and didnā€™t report the bug blame yourself, not the devs. You may find this OT. I wonā€™t.

Bonne journƩe. :slight_smile:

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In started with 2.61 and now using the 2.62 build without crashes so far. I find it really stable tbh, better then 3ds max, which ruined a project of me for about 3 times ( real data loss ) But iā€™m really pleased with Blender 2.62 atm. :slight_smile:

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I have 13 builds installed and I switch between them as necessary. None of them is the official release.

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Up until a few days ago, 2.49b for modeling, and the latest release (2.5x ā€“ 2.6x) for texturing or animating. But with 2.63RC the modeling tools in the ā€˜newā€™ Blender have at last caught up, so the ā€˜old faithfulā€™ 2.49 has finally been retired.

Best wishes,
Matthew

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Blah di blah di blahā€¦ Im sorry if this is off topic but its my own opinion.

As far as I am concerned, if the OP switched to a later build of blender off graphicall, and evaluated the current version/release rather than 2.59, he might have different ideas.

I have used the latest releases and even used the 2.5 Alphas/Betas perfectly happily for major projects. For instance if the knife tool does no longer exist, I simply adjust my workflow around it.

Bugs/Feature removals are a necessary evil. Get used to them. 2.7 is supposed to be a big bug fixing series, if you really canā€™t tolerate 2.5/6 wait for 2.7

TS
My 2 cents

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Thatā€™s the solution.
Itā€™s what is working for me too , and with the ā€œstableā€ 2.63 that has several of the addons i use (and are available on the buildbots release and works good) , itā€™s not going to change with the ā€œstableā€ 2.63 release, iā€™ll continue to use several builds according to my needs, and thanks the buildbot too.

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I use 2.62, the latest stable release for most everything, on one project Iā€™m using 2.63rc - the release candidate for the upcoming 2.63 official release because it contains a fix for a bug I submitted.

Donā€™t really understand why someone would choose 2.59, itā€™s roughly six months outdated and a lot of improvements have been made since thenā€¦

Randy

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I use the most current version blender. At the moment itā€™s the prerelease of blender 2.63.
I choose to update my blender install almost daily or weekly and I suggest many to do the same.
Havenā€™t run into any serious problems using the dev builds. They might crash more (relatively because they donā€™t often crash to begin with). You just have to save more often. (every 2 minutes is my average CTRL+S + Click ratio). The plus side is that you are always up to date with the newest improvements and additions that blender has to offer.
That means that you only have to learn a new feature every 2 months or so, it keeps you up-to-date and you donā€™t get thrown into a new world everytime you update. It also keeps blender fresh & exciting to use.

For me right now, the blender dev builds are like candy. I get something every now and then, and it always tastes oh so sweet, but it doesnā€™t spoil my teeth because I donā€™t have to eat everything at once.

This might be the worst metaphore I ever came up with but that is what it feels like to me.

17

Edge slide proportional/percentage, the one tool in 2.49 that I seriously miss

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Please donā€™t double post? Itā€™s a bit annoyingā€¦

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heheheā€¦ I posted to this thread, just to add to the confusionā€¦:spin:

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Right now Blender 2.63RC
Itā€™s so fucking stable. Just crush once, but i think was my little netbook.