Object Names

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Hello everyone,

I come from a structural analysis background. In most analysis packages (Finite Element, CFD, etc…) it is possible (in fact it is often mandatory) to name individual geomatric elements so that they can be uniquely referenced. An example of this is that each individual vertex has its own number so that you know exactly where the load is applied and what the deflections are.

Is the same thing possible in Blender?

Specifically, does each vertex have a unique identity that can be accessed, or is it only possible to select vertices manualy by clicking on the screen?

Furthermore, when the physics module applies a force to an object (for instance due to game logic) where/how is the force applied exactly? Is it applied evenly to each individual vertex or does it simply act upon the CofG?

Am I being to complicated here?

I understand that Blender is for animation and rendering but it seams to be so powerful I am just not sure where its boundaries are.

Cheers

2

Someone can probably answer this better than me, but now in 2.5 you can view each individual vert’s index, and some of its traits. We’re not yet at the robustness of Maya, where you can manually go in and set the normal direction, but with “everything animatable” it should be coming soon.

I myself am hoping for a method to override normals (AKA have them set permanently), so that meshes can then be broken in two (while still looking like their normals are contiguous) so you don’t get object seams in game engines.

3

hello,

I am currently using 2.49b 64bit. Is this important?

would moving to 2.5 give me the ability to edit vertex co-ordinates without clicking on the 3D screen?

thanks for your effort.