Blender4FTC Guide

Basics of Blender with the Blender4FTC addon

Installation

The latest download for Blender4FTC can be found at this link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/pnzxsuaf22ica6u/Blender4FTC+v2.5.zip/file

Download the ZIP, and do not extract it.

Open blender. Go to Edit > Preferences > Addons click Install and navigate to the zip folder. After a few seconds the addon should show up in the addons list. Click the check mark beside it. Blender4FTC is now installed in your blender instance.

CAD Render Guide

In your 3d viewport press n to open the 3D Viewport panel. In the 3D Viewport panel there should be a Blend4FTC tab. Click on it.

In the Scene Management section of the addon, select your computer performance and theme(you can hover over options for details) Check/modify the compositing effects you desire, and click "Save and Apply" to apply changes. This will automatically make a compositing tree for post-processing and set up render settings based on your performance.

In order to import CAD it must be in the DAE format to work with SmartShade and much of the addon. If you do not have CAD in onshape, export it as STEP and upload to onshape. Next, export as COLLADA from onshape. Import to blender in File > Import DAE and find the file. Once the robot is imported, move the group imported above z=0

Click Import Default Material Library.Now you can click "SmartShade" and Blender4FTC will attempt to apply the correct materials to all goBILDA parts it can. You can click on parts in the 3d viewport, select the material in the material list, and click assign to assign them, or use the method described in Blender Basics

For a render in the field, first click "Basic World & Lighting" then click "Make Field" You can now "Adjust Camera" and navigate around until happy, then "Stop Adjust"

Go to Render > Render Image for a final render.

Import Custom Material Libraries

You can import custom material packs/libraries using the Import Custom Material Library button in the addon.

Panel Descriptions

MaterialLib The MaterialLib panel holds functionality for the material library and SmartShade. You can click "Import Default MaterialLib" to import the embedded material library stored in the addons file. You may also import custom material libraries from other blend files. SmartShade uses the names of parts imported to appropriately assign materials to goBILDA parts if possible. The selected material can be assigned to selected objects in the 3d Viewport using the assign button.

Scene Management The Scene Management panel is designed to optimize and configure render settings for generic renders. Performance maps to samples, theme mapping to color space and exposure.

Compositing Effects All of the compositing effects are compiled into a compositing tree on use of Save and Apply Compositing effects include:

Void Color - Color of transparent space/the void Lens Distortion - Slight lens distortion and fit Denoising Fac - Factor that the result image is mixed with a denoised image Contrast - Composited contrast modifier(0 is normal) Brightness - Composited brightness modifier(0 is normal)

Scene Presets The Scene Presets panel is designed to provide basic lighting configurations and scenes.

Make Field - Imports full field from the embedded material library inside of the addon. Basic World & Lighting - Enables AO & imports embedded HDRI inside of the addon to the world. VPanel - VPanel is a configurable plain background. Use VPanel Color and Roughness to adjust the look of it. NOTE: VPanel will NOT work without the default material library being imported

Material Workshop The material workshop is designed to expose properties of materials so that they can be easily configured and edited. To configure a material, click on it in the MaterialLib tab. Exposed properties will now be editable, and the ability to rename and duplicate the selected material. You can add your own exposed properties to the Material Workshop tab by renaming nodes in the shader editor to include the prefix "P]"