Guys as a noob to Blender I am really struggling.......

played the videos read, some of the manual/user guides, some of it makes sense, much of it doesn't.

Here's where I'm at:

just a simple circle, extrude/scaled a couple of times with a material applied (I think, though I've yet to see a render of it).

Q1: I installed 2.35a over the top of 2.35, when Blender loads, the splash screen still just says 2.35?? am I running the 'a' version or not?

Q2: selecting the top left viewport, pressing TAB has no effect... pressing A (not shiftA) gives a little box with an incrementing counter. I saw this mentioned in another thread recently - bug?

Q3: rendering the topleft viewport (supposedly the camera view) gives a blank render.

Q4: selecting Menu: View>Align View>Align Active Camera to View

Doesn't align the camera, it actually moves the selected mesh object as seen by its location changing in the other three views (and dissapearing from view in the topleft viewport).

Conclusions after 5 days: This is becoming a frustrating and disheartening experience. I've built nothing and rendered nothing :(

Bob

I got 2.35a and it also shows 2.35 in the splash screen, I guess they just forgot to update the splash screen? Sorry I can't help you with the other stuff, I'm even noober then you, heh.

You said that you installed 2.35a OVER 2.35. Maybe that is what is causing some of your problems? You should try to UNINSTALL everything, then just make sure only 2.35a is installed from scratch, get what I'm saying? Couldn't hurt to try.

Message edited on: 11/27/2004 15:58

"selecting the top left viewport, pressing TAB has no effect... pressing A (not shiftA) gives a little box with an incrementing counter. I saw this mentioned in another thread recently - bug?"

Tab is for switching from object mode to edit mode. Make sure that you have a 3D object selected that allows you to do that before you press TAB :D Like for example, I don't think a camera or light has an edit mode :D

I've mucked around with "A", it is for selecting all the 3D objects if none are selected already (pressing it once when an object is selected, deselects it). I'm not sure if there's other uses for these keys (there prob is), have a look at the hotkey database/reference to see if there is, Help --> HotKey and MouseAction Reference

Hope that info helps in any way.

Message edited on: 11/28/2004 03:23

Message edited on: 11/28/2004 03:24

Carlo hi, If you look at the screengrab, the 'object' is selected. but the TAB key doesn't toggle it between the two modes. As it is selected pressing A should deselect it you say, "(pressing it once when an object is selected, deselects it). " but it doesn't in this case. I mentioned shiftA because in another thread someone mentioned this incrementing counterbox appearing when he pressed A. One of the replies seemed to imply this should only happen if you press shiftA. Well I pressed A and get this counterbox too. Anyway I had a bit of free time today and completely uninstalled then reinstalled 2.35a. As you say it still doesn't acknowledge it is the 'a' version, but at least now the TAB key seems to be behaving properly. I still cannot get my object to render even though the material is applied to it. There are just too many weird things with this prog, its fine being different but not if it impedes the user. rgds Bob

Just a thought here, are you using F12 or the render button under the scene tab to get it to render? Also do you have one of the placement boxes for renders checked?

I don't think it's fair to say it impedes....you just gotta learn about the interface and how to use it, just like any other piece of 3D software. I keep hearing about how once learned, the interface is good. Anyway, why are you trying to render the camera viewport in the first place, wouldn't it be better to do a normal render with the popup window box? Go to render output options and the toggle DispWindow (or DispW forgot) button and see if it renders with that. There's other important settings for the window, like window size and format settings.

Edit: I tried to render in a camera viewport just like in your setup in the picture and it works fine for me. There is something screwy about your setup, maybe you enabled something by accident. Which renderer are you using? Built-in or yafray? Try the suggestions I said in my above paragraph, if it that still doesn't work, then maybe it's an issue with your graphics card? http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Graphics_Cards.201.0.html
http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Graphics_Cards.201.0.html#1120

Maybe someone else knows, sorry I can't help much.

Message edited on: 11/28/2004 10:05

Message edited on: 11/28/2004 10:11

I had problems with keys not responding too, very frustrating, when i installed the intell optimized they were gone, so try that and you have to install over the old one as its an update. see my prev mail for a link to the intelblender.zip

Well I been playing around with Blender and I've also discovered the same thing, the tab key not working. I've also figured out a solution, just press the following keys once after eachother:

alt
ctrl
shift
esc

do them all once or another time

so far it has made the tab button function again for me

You say it doesnt happen in the intel optimized build? Maybe it's a bug in the 2.35a build then, where keys get stuck, dunno.

Message edited on: 11/28/2004 20:26

Message edited on: 11/28/2004 20:27

i think its the way the code is compliled just try it ive been working now on the chalenge and no tab problems today i also had that with the 2.35 normal version i just show my newest wip to show whats posible in blender only thing when i moved some objects back in wings i tried manipulating things as in blender the mind boggles everything is diffrent and normal export from blender to wings doesnt exist can someone fix this as they are a great team.

I haven't used wings, but I hear it's good for certain specific things, but I reckon that as Blender matures it will soon be better :D I want to try using Blender by itself, I truly think this program is fully capable, because I have seen some "shock and awe" Blender-only models on some other sites, I couldn't believe it that they were only done in Blender. Plus, it will make learning and the workflow easier, since I don't have to go bonkers everytime I switch a program, trying to remember how to do so and so in this program, and then "now, how did I do that?" in the other program. :D Anyway, yea, the tab thing, it's gotta be a bug, hopefully it will be fixed by the next version. In the meantime you could try my solution, or try out the intel optimized version I guess. Nice pic by the way, how did you do that yellow and pink thing at the far right bottom corner? Is that an explosion or a glob thing? :D

Did you ever get your render? Would love to see the results. Something like this?

that explosion cloud is a deformed ball i imported from wings the cloud structure is a material with texture added in blender