Chocofur Model Manager 1.0.0 Released!

Coding Released Scripts and Themes
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Hey Everyone!

After few months of tweaking and testing we’re now ready to finally release the Chocofur Model Manager 1.0.0! It’s a free addon that allows you for quick access and management of all your Blender assets (3D models and materials). It also comes packed with +100 free 3D models and +100 free 4k shaders to set you up and running for work!

I’ve created a video tutorial that walks you through the general usability of the Addon and all the newly added features and you can find the full documentation here.

Addon download link here.



A quick scope of the features available in 1.0.0:

Dynamic Categories

Chocofur Model Manager 1.0.0 generates categories on the fly, based on the folder structure you create in your models library. You can seamlessly name the categories and subcategories the way you want and all the changes will be applied in Blender instantly!

Foldable Menus

Each category you create can be folded, making the Addon’s layout much cleaner and organised. You can freely choose which models or categories will be visible on the screen during your work!

Append / Link / Center / 3D Cursor

You can now decide if the assets are Appended or Linked to your Blender Scene. They can be also added both in the Scenes Center or at 3D Cursor.

Custom Library Paths

You can now store your Blender assets anywhere - just use the custom library path for linking your models with the Addon. It also allows you to share the same library with multiple users for example in a studio network envirnonment.

Automatic Cloud Update

Chocofur Model Manager 1.0.0 features the automatic update from the Bitbucket Cloud! You don’t need to manually update the Addon once the new version is out - it can be done automatically every couple of days if you want!

Windows / MacOS / Linux Support

The Addon was designed to work on different operating systems. Its main test ground was Windows 7, 10 and MacOS. We also did several runs on Ubuntu 18.04 so we’re hoping to satisfy all users at this point :slight_smile:

Blender 2.79 (official) Friendly

The Addon was designed to work with official Blender 2.79 build. Some of the test builds may require Python module “extensions_framework” to be installed. It can be copied from the official Blender build directory: 2.79\scripts\addons\modules\extensions_framework

Future Plans

  • Getting ready for Blender 2.8
  • Updating all Chocofur Assets for Eevee
  • Adding Cloud Sync feature to the asset so you can get all the Chocofur stuff directly inside Blender

I hope you’ll find both the Addon and Chocofur assets usable in your Blender work :slight_smile: As always feel free to leave a comment, your feedback is much appreciated!

Cheers!

12 Likes
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Hi @lechu , thank you for this great plugin! This update/release covers almost every feature that has been missing from the ‘beta’ versions. :+1:

Also please consider including the download link for the model manager in your post and placing it at the beginning of your documentation instead of somewhere in the middle.

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Thanks @filibis I forgot I could add the box widget link here. Fixed now!

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How about using existing scene materials option, now its the same than v0.75.

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Hey, could you tell what exactly you think could be improved in regards to the materials?

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Yes, when importing the same object twice, it creates all different materials. Thats not usually what you or me want. Option to force imported objects using existing scene materials.
Example: object has one material “Gold”. Then you import it again and it will use Gold material also, not Gold.001.

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Got it, thanks for suggesting that!

I’m wondering how many people would find that actually useful - you can always duplicate / copy the object already present in the scene to avoid material duplication. I can also see situations where having separate materials by default is actually usable (ie you import the same car multiple times to quickly make it available in various colors).

Nonetheless thanks for your input again, do you have any suggestions how else would this feature be helpful?

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Yes, when your assets are based on your material library, you want that objects are using them also after importing. So if you change one material properties, fex. saturation or image texture on scene, all objects using that material will change.
My example wasnt the best but think the case all your assets are based on your material library.

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I quote @JuhaW .
It should be good to have the same material for the same source. Not a duplicated one.

In my daily job I use 3dsmax and there, when you import an object that has a material with the same name of the material already in scene, it offers you 3 option:

  • rename the merging material
  • ovverride the scene material with the merged one
  • use the scene material

If it’s not possible (or too hard to implement) something like this, I prefer to have that the merged object use the already in-scene material like @JuhaW proposed.

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@JuhaW @marcatore thanks for your input, I’ll see what we can do with it. Perhaps it’ll be possible to add an extra button allowing you to switch between both material import modes.

I’ll let you know as soon as I have more info on that!

2 Likes
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Useful add-on, thanks for the release.

btw link in the first post leads to the script 0.9 (not the 1.0 version)

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No way, I’m not able to load the library. Everything’s there but I keep getting blank previews and a log error
RNA Warning: Current value "0" matches no enum in 'Chocofur_Model_Manager_WM_Properties', '', 'Chairs_previews'
Maybe it’s because I’m on 2.79b?
By the way I’m on Os X

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Thanks for the feedback guys!

@Netrieb - the 0.9 and 1.0.0 are basically the same, we just did some minor tweaks between the two. It’s advised to update the addon as soon as you install anyway for all the bugfixes.
@kabu - Is this happening on the official Blender build?

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Honestly this is one awesome plugin, will so need to test that asap.

And my wishful thinking is that blender team sees this and adds this as an integrated plugin to 2.8 (with your permission of course)

This solves so many things for me.

Again thanks, and will sure test it out very soon.

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Hey @kabu just to double check, did you already try applying the following steps from the Addon’s description?

The Addon was designed to work with official Blender 2.79 build. Some of the test builds may require Python module “extensions_framework” to be installed. It can be copied from the official Blender build directory: 2.79\scripts\addons\modules\extensions_framework

Please let me know, if it’s still not working we’ll dig to find out what’s causing the problem.

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Yes, the framework is installed. HTH

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Hey @lechu , I noticed linking objects doesn’t appear with blue outline and we can move them around. And it breaks the group relation that is created in the original file. How does addon behave when linking an object/group? (Also how to prevent breaking group?)

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When I try to add a fabric to an object in my scene, it adds the ball with the fabric that you see in the preview window, to my scene. How do I fix this? Thanks

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@bkjernisted: Delete the ball, keep the shader.
@filibis: thanks for mentioning that, I’ll see what is the problem to be honest our main focus will be now moving the addon to Blender 2.80 so I can’t assure the 2.79 update will come anytime soon…