For quick and rough checking of two objects geometry intersections, bounding objects are usually used – spheres or parallelograms in which all points of the object are inscribed. Bounding object intersections are often inaccurate, but they are very efficient in terms of speed. One of the types of bounding objects is AABB (Axis Aligned Bounding Box) – a parallelogram aligned with the global coordinate axes.
For quickly finding and selecting objects that do not have materials, we can use the Blender Python API and write a script consisting of just a few lines.
The convex_hull() function allows us to create a convex hull for a mesh – a shape that completely encloses the mesh at its extreme points. With its help, we can quickly build simplified models from complex meshes.
To make changes to menus in Blender UI, for example, add new items or overriding the menu completely, we first need to know the class of the menu which we need to change.
Mostly often Blender add-on developers use icons from Blender built-in library to personalize UI buttons. However, absolutely any external images can be uploaded and used as icons in the UI.
MatCap is a material with just one texture, but it allows to quickly and conveniently show how a mesh will look with a certain material and in a certain light. When we assign a MatCap by selecting it in the 3D viewport shading options (Shading – Lighting – MatCap), the MatCap is assigned to all objects in the scene at once. However, if we need to selectively assign a MatCap to some meshes, MatCap can be emulated using shader nodes.
Creating procedural mossy dirt material in Blender by Ryan King Art.
If we need to find and select all objects in the scene whose UV-Map map name matches the specified one, we can do this using the Blender Python API.
.blend file on Patreon