Metaball - Edit mode - Metaball menu
The Metaball menu just exists for Metaball objects.
Edit Mode - Metaball Menu
The Metaball menu just exists for Metaball objects.
Transform submenu
To Sphere
Shapes a selection of Meta elements into the shape of a sphere. The calculation happens with the object origins.
Usage
Select the elements, activate the tool, then drag the mouse in the 3D viewport. In the header you will read the current factor then. Which tells you how close you are towards the sphere shape. This also works with meta elements in the same way.
Last Operator To Sphere
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Factor | The factor to transform the selection into a shape form. |
| Mirror Editing | Enable mirror editing. |
Proportional editing
Enables proportional editing. Activating proportional editing reveals further settings.
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Proportional Falloff | Adjust the falloff methods. |
| Proportional Size | See and adjust the falloff radius. |
| Connected | The proportional falloff gets calculated for connected parts only. |
| Projected(2D) | The proportional falloff. |
Shear
Shear shears the selection.
In Object mode this tools requires to have more than one object selected.
The shear tool works along a imaginary 2d plane. The shear axis controls if the items are sheared along the x or the y axes of this plane. This is the plane along which the transformation happens. You can shear along the x or the y axis of this plane.
To make things even more complicated, the orientation of this imaginary plane is defined by the Axis and Axis Ortho items below.
Last Operator Shear
Offset
Adjust an offset.
Axis
Defines one axis of the imaginary shear axis plane.
Axis Ortho
Defines the other axis of the imaginary shear axis plane.
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Orientation | Choose the orientation for the shear action. |
| Mirror Editing | Enable mirror editing. |
Proportional editing
Enables proportional editing. Activating proportional editing reveals further settings.
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Proportional Falloff | Adjust the falloff methods. |
| Proportional Size | See and adjust the falloff radius. |
| Connected | The proportional falloff gets calculated for connected parts only. |
| Projected(2D) | The proportional falloff gets calculated in the screen space. Depth doesn't play a role. When it's in the radius, then it gets calculated. |
Bend
Bends the selection. You need more than one meta element.
Push/Pull
It pushes or pulls the object positions relative to the center of the selection.
In Object mode this tool requires to have more than one object selected.
Last Operator Push/Pull
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Distance | Adjust the distance of influence of the tool. |
| Mirror Editing | Enable mirror editing. |
Proportional editing
Enables proportional editing. Activating proportional editing reveals further settings.
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Proportional Falloff | Adjust the falloff methods. |
| Proportional Size | See and adjust the falloff radius. |
| Connected | The proportional falloff gets calculated for connected parts only. |
| Projected(2D) | The proportional falloff gets calculated in the screen space. Depth doesn't play a role. When it's in the radius, then it gets calculated. |
Warp
Warps a selection between two defined points. This also works with Metaballs. You need more than one metaball element.
Last operator Warp
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Warp Angle | The strength of the warp effect. |
| Offset Angle | An offset angle to bend side-wards. |
Min
The start point.
Max
The end point.
Randomize
This tool allows randomizes the positions of the selected meta elements.
Last Operator Randomize Transform
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Amount | Adjust the amount. |
| Uniform | The uniform offset distance. |
| Normal | Align the offset direction to the normals. |
| Random Seed | The seed value for randomization. |
Move Texture Space
This tool relies at the move tool. With the difference that it moves the texture space instead of the object. It has also a very special use case, and just works with a material with a Texture Coordinate / Generated node. And requires to have the shading at Material or Rendered to see a result in the viewport.
In the viewport you will see the UV cage in black color. In the header you will see the values for the current position of the UV cage.
Note that once done and applied, there is no way to reset the UV cage back to zero. When you repeat the operation, then the values will start at 0 again. Even when the UV cage is already offset.
Last Operator Move
Move
Adjust in which directions you want to transform.
Orientation
Choose the orientation.
Mirror Editing
Enable mirror editing.
Proportional editing
Enables proportional editing. Activating proportional editing reveals further settings.
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Proportional Falloff | Adjust the falloff methods. |
| Proportional Size | See and adjust the falloff radius. |
| Connected | The proportional falloff gets calculated for connected parts only. |
| Projected(2D) | The proportional falloff gets calculated in the screen space. Depth doesn't play a role. When it's in the radius, then it gets calculated. |
Scale Texture Space
Scale Texture space is similar to the Move texture Space. With the only difference that it scales the UV space instead of moving it.
This tool relies at the scale tool. With the difference that it scales the texture space instead of the object. It has also a very special use case, and just works with a material with a Texture Coordinate / Generated node. And requires to have the shading at Material or Rendered to see a result in the viewport.
In the viewport you will see the UV cage in black color. In the header you will see the values for the current position of the UV cage.
Note that once done and applied, there is no way to reset the UV cage back to zero. When you repeat the operation, then the values will start at 0 again. Even when the UV cage is already offset.
Last Operator Resize
Scale
Adjust in which directions you want to transform.
Orientation
Choose the orientation.
Mirror Editing
Enable mirror editing.
Proportional editing
Enables proportional editing. Activating proportional editing reveals further settings.
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Proportional Falloff | Adjust the falloff methods. |
| Proportional Size | See and adjust the falloff radius. |
| Connected | The proportional falloff gets calculated for connected parts only. |
| Projected(2D) | The proportional falloff gets calculated in the screen space. Depth doesn't play a role. When it's in the radius, then it gets calculated. |
Set Dimensions
Edit Mode Only!
Normally all scale operations in Bforartists are relative to the current selection and dimensions. And you always start with a relative value of 1.
Set dimensions allows to scale object selections in absolute world values. No matter how the initial values are. The new values gets set in the Last Operator.
Set dimensions is an add-on. You can turn it off in the add-ons section of the user preferences when you want.
Last Operator Set Dimensions
New Dimensions
When you activate the tool then you will see the world coordinates of the selection. Change the values to other world coordinates.
Mirror submenu
Mirror mirrors the selected geometry along the defined axis.
Interactive Mirror
Mirror by hotkeys. You activate the tool, type in x for x global for example, or x x for x local. And the selection gets mirrored
X Global, Y Global etc.
Mirrors the selection around the chosen axis.
Last Operator Mirror
The Last Operator Mirror panel gives you tools to adjust the mirror action.
Orientation
Orientation is a drop-down box . Choose the type of orientation for the mirroring action.
Constraint Axis
Constraint Axis gives you again the possibility to define the mirror axis. You can choose more than one axis here.
Snap submenu
Snap
Choose several methods to snap one element to another. The menu items should be self explaining.
Last operator Snap Selection to Cursor
Some snap operations shows a last operation panel, some not.
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Offset | If the selection should snap as a whole, or if each individual element of the selection should snap. |
| Rotation | If the selection should be rotated to match the cursor. |
Operators
Duplicate
Duplicates the current selection. This can be a single control point or a whole curve.
The copy sticks to the mouse until you release it. A Right click while moving will reset the position of the duplicate. The duplicated part will be part of the same object.
When you drag the duplicate around you will see the position values in the header.
Last Operator Duplicate
Move X , Y , Z
Orientation
Choose the orientation.
| Entry | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mirror Editing | Enable Mirror Editing. |
| Proportional editing | Enables proportional editing. Activating proportional editing reveals further settings. · Proportional Falloff: Adjust the falloff methods. · Proportional Size: See and adjust the falloff radius. · Connected: The proportional falloff gets calculated for connected parts only. · Projected(2D): The proportional falloff gets calculated in the screen space. Depth doesn't play a role. When it's in the radius, then it gets calculated. |
Show / Hide
Show Hidden
Makes all curve geometry in the scene visible again.
Hide Selected
Hides the selected curve geometry.
Last Operator Hide Selected
Unselected
Hides the not selected curve geometry.
Hide Unselected
Hides the not selected curve geometry. The selected geometry stays visible.
Delete
Deletes the current selection.