In all 2.8+ Blenders there is no wireframe colors in lit view modes, no any wireframe colors for objects like splines, empties, etc. what is wrong. They were not exist in 2.79 BUT!!! I been used groups for assigning different than black wireframe color for objects. Now I have no wire color difference option at all…
In all 2.8+ Blenders in Material View mode not work In Front (2.79’s X-Ray) and Clipping Region features. I don’t know is it some graphic engine limitation, bug, or those who work on it just forgot about this features, but in 2.79 they been worked in Material View… I need to bring them back in 2.8+.
Widely with pictures
(all pictures from 2.91, but described are true for all 2.8+ versions at the moment of writing)
What's about Wireframe Colors.
I work many years on architectural visualization for game engine. Exterior/interior/area around like yards & roads. My work almost always are based on drawings so comfort using this drawings is important. In Blender 2.79 I been using groups (which have options to set different wire color) to set different color for drawings. In newer Blender I have no more such option and it makes work with drawing as much uncomfortable as it can be…
It would be also good to set wireframe colors in lit modes not just for drawings but for any objects. Color coding in this way in complex scenes “mast have” thing, otherwise it really hard to manage such scenes with hundreds/thousents of objects.
After all a bit about X-Ray viewport feature and why this feature is questionable/can’t replace lack of In Front feature in Material View mode.Why also any other than 1 X-Ray value in scenes I working with makes things impossible to work on.
I really need wireframe colors in lit view modes to be able to do my work in new Blender after 2.8.(related RCS topic)
I really can’t do my work (I think lot of people have same issue) without In Front and Clipping Region features in Material View mode. (related RCS topic)
Thanks for reading. I would be glad to see here any reply from developers or discuss things and how they work.
If you, reader, one of developer who can handle this issues - please do something. If you know right developers who can handle it - share this topic with such. If you just another user like me and you have anything to add from your own user experience related to those issues - welcome in comment section.
I know about this thread … long long thread… but it’s liek my own experience based feedback which also about material mode + I made related RCS suggestions. I really want to bring more attention to this. I tired to wait for new Blender I will be able to work in.
Well, nice topic.
I am a workflow designer in architectural company, our workflow range spreads from ARTwork to CADwork, so I am familiar with such types of work like architectural modeling and multiref modeling.
There are no developers in BF who could be familiar with such a wide range of workflows, so indeed, during the redesign of Blender, all CADwork-related workflow requirements have been completely ignored, the balance was lost, which caused a massive community split between ARTwork and CADwork back in 2018.
So in summary: to have the best wireframe ever, which version of blender should you use today? 2.79b? Or the updated but unofficial 2.79 (dated 2019.07.29), which integrates some features of the 2.80?
As a company we use the latest stable - official 2.79b - for files compatibility.
We can’t afford to use unofficial/untested versions of software in commercial purposes.
Since the code is open-source, I was wondering why not investing in 2.79b by expanding it with some add-ons that improve the CAD tools. After all, the graphics engine is still the best at wireframe handling, and apparently there is no version of Blender scheduled to return to that way. Unfortunately it really seems that 2.79b is the last of its lineage, in every sense.
Before switching to Blender from max, maya and c4d we made a massive workflow research of abilities to investigate a range of possible Blender applications and compensate for the CAD weakness with addons toolsets like 1D_scripts, based on a market demands.
In 2.79 we still have better snaps, alignment tools, precise modeling tools, instances, names and materials/textures handling than 2.8+ ever had.
However, our researches and development was ignored during 2.8 redesign, in addition it was corrupted even at mesh display and selection level that made proper CAD work close to impossible. It is pretty much ok for character modeling, but precision modeling, especially with references was seriously injured, breaking “a software for any kind of modeling” paradigm.
Our development still going on though.
For example, aligning engine was generalized to a mathematical core to make it more stable, and another tool was made based on this stable core.
Speaking of 2.8+ we mostly trying to fix the issues when it is possible to fix with addons.
Wiremesh/ selection display is an issue that can’t be fixed with addons.
The point of Blender is that it reached the widest possible range of supported workflows, it is the only software which passed all our workflows tests - from hardsurface and lowpoly/gamedev to architectural, general plan modeling and historical reconstruction.
There is no reason to fork Blender for CAD modeling abilities - we are interested in its unique “a software for any kind of modeling” paradigm.
This is one of the most valuable part of Blender, one of the reasons we support its development.
Speaking of CAD applications (like AutoCAD, FreeCAD, NanoCAD, IntelliCAD family), they are build around special Solid/NURBS CAD cores (like OpenCASCADE), which are way more complex than mesh engines.
It is way more easy to build Blender-like shell around such a core than build it into Blender, so fork will not help there anyway.
In my opinion this topic is very useful, so it is nice that you created it.
It highlights CADwork (constructive modeling workflows) issues, and there is currently no devs that are familiar with CADwork in general, which sometimes leads to shrinking Blender scope to ARTwork (creative modeling workflows) as well.
So this issue is just deeper than regular wireframe display issue, and it considers general design, it probably need some more time.
I agree with @1D_Inc , this thread is great, as it brings this topic to the surface to a more general audience, i myself dont work in cad, but one day i might if Blender incorporates CAD-like features
Mr. developer, do you read “user feedback” section at least once in a year? Could I get at least any reply on my topic, at leat “f*** you, no one care about you and your issues” something? I would know at least that I don’t have to wait for any changes in this direction any more…
Whole my (I guess not only my) workflow on drawing based architecture modeling was just broken and no one care?
I don’t know what to say. This affects all architecture companies using Blender, including ours.
It looks like all the constructive modeling artists was locked in 2.79 by creative modeling artists.
At the moment it is a bit hard to explain that we didn’t invented anything special - constructive modeling with working from exact references is a pretty common and widespread workflow in the industry, and we was just using strong Blender sides properly to satisfy industry demands.
