Very very basic question

Support Basics & Interface
1

Hello, I just started studying Blender a couple of weeks ago. I did some 3D artwork before with Strata, but forget about that. Now I focus on Blender.
Here is my very beginners question:
The first thing I see when I launch Blender is a Cube in Model screen mode. I always like to give my objects a name, so I was thinking of giving the cube an original and meaningful name :eyebrowlift: “MyFirstCube”. In the Link and Materials tab I used the OB: field for that. Now can anyone tell me what is the use of the ME: field? When do I use that field and what is the relationship between the OB: and ME: fields?

Kind regards, Bertus Bolknak.

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Hello
Blender handles “data” in a special way ( get used to it, you’ll avoid some troubles).
In your case an “object” ( OB: ) can have different “meshes” ( ME: )… “linked duplicates”
Search in the manual for better( much) help!
Bye

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here is an example of how blender handles objects and meshes

create a cube (called cube)
and then create a sphere (called sphere)

now with the cube - press the arrows next to ME: and change it to sphere

the cube will now be a sphere
if you edit one - the other will change because they are both sharing the same mesh data but just have different object names
this is what is called linked duplicates

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Thank you out there for your quick answer. I did some practise with object- and mesh-naming, and I understand how it works now.
Another question comes up: With the same basic cube selected: If I switch to Materials (F5): in the Links and Pipeline tab there are some kind of curious toggle buttons between OB: and ME:. It seems that the Mesh has already applied a material to it and the Object not. I was wondering if there is a difference between applying a material to an object or to a mesh? And why do these toggle buttons behave a little strange? I mean no matter which one of the two (OB or ME) I click, the (toggle-)result is equal. So in fact it could have been one button instead of two? Or do I misunderstand something here?

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Bertus, you just taught me something.
I never noticed those buttons in the material window before, and I’ve been struggling with a problem which I think you just partially solved for me! Thanks!

To answer your questions, yes, there is a difference between linking the material to the object or the mesh, and it’s related to your previous question. It has to do with linked duplicates.

If you have two objects which share a mesh (linked duplicates), you can make sure that those objects always share a material, no matter what, by linking the material to the mesh data. That way, no matter how many duplicates you have, or what you do when editing the mesh, all copies will have the same material.

If you link the material to object, you can have two linked objects which always share the same shape, but have different materials. This can save a lot of work when you have lots of objects with identical shapes, but different colors.

And yes, it seems like it could have been just one button. I wonder why there are two…?

edit
After playing with it some more, I wanted to share a couple of notes:

–Objects can have two sets of materials mapped at once, one to “Ob” and the other to “Me.” You can switch between the “active” material (set) with the toggle buttons.
–If you aren’t going to use the mesh link or the object link at all, you can click the X button next to the material’s name to “unlink” it from the mesh/object.
–Material indices (indexes) work the same way, and remain linked to the mesh. That is, you can define multiple materials per object using Edit Mode, and the vertices assigned to each material index are part of the mesh data, so changing it for one object links across all objects sharing that mesh.
–If you link materials to object instead of mesh, you can assign different materials to each index of each object. So, “monkey.003” can have “dark_Fur” and “blue_Skin,” while “monkey.004” has “red_Fur” and “pale_Skin.”

This is a very powerful aspect of material assignment. I can’t believe I’ve been using Blender since version 2.31 and never knew about this… :frowning: :slight_smile:

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Bertus Bolknak,

the Blender Basics Part 4 tutorial here is GOLDEN (so are others from the list):
http://blenderunderground.com/learning-blender-3d/

when you watch it, you’ll know exactly how blender handles things

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Thanks a lot everyone. All your answers were of great help.

Kind regards Bertus.

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One way to get familiar with what is going on “under the hood” is to open up an outliner window. The oops schematic shows how data blocks are organized and connected in a graphical way. Experimenting with meshes and objects and materials and textures and seeing how they are added and connected up will teach you a lot about how Blender works.