Blender objects

Back to Blender create scene

Overview

If you already have a completed Blender scene, you can skip these instructions (though, we recommend checking out the section below on Naming your objects). The instructions below will walk through some basics of creating the geometry of objects in Blender. These are general Blender instructions (not specific to the use of the Blender-to-pbrt exporter), as the exporter does not require any special modifications to object geometry.

The default Blender scene

If you are working with a new Blender scene, the default scene will come with a cube object (circled in red below) and a light (circled in yellow below). Delete the light (left-click on the light, then click [del]). Unless you want to use the cube in your scene, you can delete the cube as well.

Creating an object

To create a new object in your Blender scene:

• Click Add -> Mesh -> [your object of choice] (as pictured below).

Naming your objects

You will need to know the name of an object to edit it in iset3d, so we recommend giving your objects unique names in Blender (with one exception: planes will not be matched to their names). Our Blender tutorial will list the names of the objects in your scene, but you will need to know what name goes with what object.

You may also find it helpful to use the same string in the names of all related objects. For example, if you create a robot in your scene, you may want to name its parts "RobotTorso" and "RobotLeftArm". You will then be able to easily modify all related objects in iset3d by, for example, modifying all objects with names that contain the string "Robot".

To change the name of an object:

• Right-click the name of the object under Scene Collection (circled in yellow below).
• Click ID Data -> Rename, then type in the new name.

Moving and rotating your objects

• Select an object (left-click on the object).
• Click the Move button (circled in yellow below) or the Rotate button (circled in red below), then click-and-hold a directional arrow and drag to move/rotate the object in that direction.
• Alternatively, click [n] to open the Transform menu (circled in blue below) and edit the Location or the Rotation of the object by clicking on the X, Y, or Z location/rotation to edit it.

Scaling your objects

• Select an object (left-click on the object).
• Click [s], move the mouse cursor outwards or inwards to scale, then left-click to set the scale.
• Alternatively, click [n] to open the Transform menu (circled in blue above), and edit the Scale of the object by clicking on the X, Y, or Z scale to edit it.

Adding objects from other Blender scenes

You may want to copy objects from other Blender scenes (such as scenes downloaded from 3D scene libraries) into your Blender scene.

To copy a single object:

• Open the other scene in Blender.
• Left-click to select the object.
• Click [ctrl]+[c] to copy the object.
• Close that other scene and open your scene in Blender.
• Click [ctrl]+[v] to paste the object into your scene.

Alternatively, you may want to work with two instances of Blender at the same time to copy over multiple objects from the other Blender scene into your scene. To open a 2nd instance of Blender:

• Right-click the Blender application icon.
• Click Show Package Contents -> Contents -> Mac OS -> Blender.