Alongside HardOps/BC/MeshMachine/KitOps I really like snap! for building kitbash sets,
snap! is a real timesaver for sure, especially after the April22 update.
CleanPanels for organizing the N Panel, and PowerSave to keep my files backed up.
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Well, there are some spectacular addons out there that are extremely cool like SSGI but others are a blessing to my workflow.
Modifier list panel, CAD Transform, TinyCAD and mira tools are very important and I just model “simple stuff” that doesn’t require milimetric precission.
Copy attibutes, vertex tools, and some small utilities like autosmooth, set viewport color are very nice and they’re on my list of addons I have noted to anyone that says they wanna use blender and I want to have their instalation being a bit more familiar and easier for me.
Other of my favorite addons are my own ones, shameless self promotion I guess (they’re free tho…) I have like 3, I made this one which I don’t use but I recommend it to newcomers or Max nostalgics https://github.com/xdanielc/select_panel
I also made a small little utilities that I use a lot (last file) https://github.com/xdanielc/blender-tools It includes a quick creases command on the edge menu that adds creases on every sharp shaded edge, no hustle like one of those gigantic hard surface addons, just what you see. It also adds a few hard-coded shorcuts like changing the origin of the mesh on the key next to the 1 on the numeric row and some pie menu from Heavy Poly that I got tired of copying everytime I installed a new blender bc his scripts aren’t an addon and his blender is too customized to use everything he has and installing an addon is much easier.
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PolyQuilt, Slide Edge (the paid add-on, not the built in Edge Slide), True-VFX, RandomFlow. I’ve purchased others but not had enough time using them to assess.
I’m still kinda new coming over from c4d, but those are my favs so far.
Ah yeah, I love Kushiros little helpers too, I forgot to mention these (Bend Face, Slide Edge and Facecutter).
Oh and another one I would not like to miss is Three Point Align by Nick Barre (https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/wwvRz/3-points-align-blender-addon)
We use lots of addons developed by ourselves during different functionality research, like F2, 1D_Scripts and other toolsets (mostly designed to solve CAD/precise modeling and datahandling issues).
I like Collection Manager, Offset edges, Edge flow, different UV addons like Smart UV, Sure UV (a life saver for archviz), Textools, texel density checker, Shotpacker/Packmaster and so one.
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Probably already ,mentioned
but my favorites for modeling
HOPSCUTTER (of course)
and Decal Machine
for VFX, Flip Fluids
and the free Houdini apprentice(for smoke& pyro VDB import)
And for Character work
Auto rig pro.
The animation layers addon( critical!!)
and the free Blender pipeline tool
for import of iclone Characters and motion data to them after converting rigify
As well as the DiffeomorphicDaz Genesis character importer along with the free Expy Kit retargeter to retarget Mixamo to rigified Daz characters.
For environments.
the Physical Starlight and atmosphere and SSGI for rendering with EEVEE
edited to add:the free Machine tools for interface customization
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I cannot exist without these:
BoxCutter
Hard Ops
RetopoFlow
SpeedSculpt
Save Selected
Photographer
Bezier Mesh Shaper
Conform Object
Machin3tools
MeshMachine
Meshlint
PolyQuilt
Volume Preserving Smoothing
Object Intersection
Pie Menu Editor
4 Likes
The addons I use for any project I currently work on:
- ND — Non-destructive / hard-surface modelling [free]
- UV Packmaster — UV packing / manipulation [paid]
- Texel Density Checker — As the name suggests [free]
- Cablerator — Easy cable creation [paid]
- PowerSave — Faster saving / auto-save etc. [free]
And then just the bundled Blender add-ons:
- Node Wrangler
- F2
- Modifier Tools
- Copy Attributes Menu
Nothing too crazy, but it gets the job done.
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- Node Wrangler
- Serpens
- Loop Tools
- Cell Fracture
- Shade Auto-Smooth
1 Like
In no particular order, listing only ones that don’t come bundled with Blender:
UV Packmaster
Mesh Machine
Decal Machine
Quad Remesher
Bake Wrangler
Hard Ops
Boxcutter
Group Pro
Zen UV
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BlenderKit, Botaniq, GrassWald and Human Generator!
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I suppose it depends on what you use Blender for generally, though, PowerSave and SimpleTabs are both indispensable for me personally. I also find the HDRI Sun Aligner super useful, as well as Batch Renamer. For animation and rigging, RBF Nodes is life changing, and there’s a onion-skinning add-on called Animation Extras, I think? Lastly, still for animation, the Dynamic Child Of Constraint is very useful
Thought of more for shader editor- Node Minimap and Node Tabber. For texture painting- Brush Toggle Add/Subtract
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Powersave, MiraTools, Bagapie, Geocables amongst so many others.
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Kekit, Jmesh, MiraTools and Forgotten Tools make modelling a lot easier and more pleasant, and make sure Loop Tools is activated.
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Hi, my opinion - the current blender, is not a blender without these add-ons:
MACHIN3Tools - Super organized native blender operators
DecalMACHINE - Must have for gamedev artist
MeshMACHINE - Same as DM
PunchIT - Intrude
TexTools - Additional UV functions
iOPS - My addon for daily usage with a bunch of operators
BoxCutter - Booleans
HardOPS - Extra Tools and Automation
ForgottenTools - Extra tools
Mifth/MiraTools - Additional functions
BMaxConnector - Bridge for 3dsmax
Blender to Rizom/UVLayout - Bridge for RizomUV
QuadRemesh - Remeshing
UV Packmaster 3 Pro - UV Packing
ZenUV - Extra UV tools
SimpleTabs - Addons “N” panel organizer
MaterialList - Additional Material functions
and more…
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I’ll add Polyhedral Splines which I just stumbled across on Github (I haven’t had a chance to use it yet but it looks very, very useful for modelling).
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New to 3.2.x having made the switch up from 2.7.x three and bit months ago as a game’s mechanical prop hard surface modeler which generally thus far has been an interesting informative period spent.
Anyhow, currently testing each pipeline task both native alongside 3rd party plugs.
So at the moment implementing Mesh / Loop Tools, Boxcutter coupled with HardOps for high res cage generation prior to low mesh decimation after fiddling about hence binning a edge / face weighted normals, data transfer, shrink wrapped sub divided conventional polygonal workflow, altogether.
Still pending, I do plan on further tests in terms of UV mapping by utilising Textools - UV Packmaster then once triangulated parse through Cycles baking texture maps whilst using SimpleBake. Next item on the list, creating PBR materials either done using Layer Painter / Mask Tools or PBR Painter until eventual asset finalisation with the intent of hopefully light and render quality output via Blender’s EEVEE rasterised engine.
Methinks, at a glance pretty much a straightforward process: 
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Free addon: Export to Blend. This saves your selected objects or collections to a new blend file.
4 Likes
Aw hell yeah…
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free but 1 USD?