Contents

1. Purchase and Update
2. Installation
3. Get Support
4. Using Blender
5. Using MESHmachine
6. Other Addons

Purchase and Update

Where can I purchase MESHmachine?

All my addons are sold on two markets:

• Buy MESHmachine on Superhive^{formerly known as Blender Market}
• Buy MESHmachine on Gumroad

How to get the update?

If you have previously bought MESHmachine, you can get the update by going to the same store again, and then just download the latest version accordingly.

• Download MESHmachine from Superhive^{formerly known as Blender Market}
• Download MESHmachine from Gumroad

See update installation instructions for details on how to do the actual installation once you have downloaded the MESHmachine .zip file.

Installation

How is it done?

See the Installation guide and follow it precisely. Note the version requirement.

Will MESHmachine work in Blender 4.5.0-alpha (some current experimental build)?

Using experimental builds of Blender, you are at risk of encountering sudden failures of addons that used to work just fine the day before.

I can't make any guarantees if things will keep working. Fixing things that break in experimental Blender builds will not be a priority, until the experimental build approaches release.

Get support

Also note, that experimental features are excluded from product support!

General information

To provide help, I need the following:

1. Proof of Purchase
2. system-info.txt

Please use the Get Support tool in the help panel or and in the addon preferences to create the system-info.txt file and, and for further instructions in the README.html file.

Failed Installation

If your MESHmachine installation fails, it's almost guaranteed, that this is due to addon/blender version mismatches, other faulty or version mismatched addons, system python version mismatches or general Blender configuration issues, such as files in Blender's addon directory that shouldn't be there.
All of these can affect installation attempts of new addons and cause them to fail, as they often cause a cascade of errors.
None of this would be the fault of the new addon, but all of these would be obvious from the system console output.

If you encounter this and can't resolve these issues on your own, then it is essential to send me the entirety of the system console, not just a screenshot of the end. In fact the beginning is often more important in these cases.

Addon Error/Exception

If you are seeing an error/exception caused by MESHmachine, please also send me the system console output, ideally copied in text form, not just a single screenshot of the error popup, as that may not cover sufficient context.

.blend file to re-produce the issue

If an error only occurs in a specific .blend file or in a certain blender context and you can reproduce it, please attach the blend file to your email as well.
Please remove any part of the model that doesn't contribute to the problem to keep the file size small.

Contact

Use eMail, not X, not Youtube, not Artstation, not Superhive messages, and not the Blender Artists thread for reporting of any issues or problems you have with the Addon.

Blender

How can I get the Plug popup? How can I adjust a tool's properties afterwards?

In Blender the result of most tools, can be adjusted, after a tool has been called.
In case of MESHmachine's Plug tool for instance, you can set various properties to modify the way the plug geometry is integrated into a surface.

There are 3 ways to do this:

1. Panel

the operator properties panel at the bottom left of the screen

2. Popup from Keymap

Redo Last popup called via a shortcut

the default keymap is F9 or F6 depending on your chosen keymap

If you like using the popup, consider mapping it to a button on your mouse, which is how I do it in all feature videos.

3. Popup from Menu

the Adjust Last Operation entry in the Edit Menu

MESHmachine

Is this non-destructive modeling?

It's not non-destructive, no.

With MESHmachine you work directly on the mesh level. There's no continuous construction history as in CAD modeling tools, and there aren't stacks of modifiers either. Mesh manipulation is permanent.
What MESHmachine's chamfer and fillet toolset does, is reconstruct geometry, which is imperfect, but often good enough.
And so, I'd call it pseudo-non-destructive, or better reconstructive.

Can I use this with subdivision surfaces? Are plugs compatible with sub-d's?

Subdivision Surface modeling is generally understood as working on a low to mid poly model, and adding a live sub-d modfier on top, which produces a higher density, smoother mesh. While I think some of MESHmachine's tools can be helpful in this context, it's not really aimed at that.

You will likely have to manually remove ngons and avoid triangles due to the tight topology constraints of the sub-d workflow.

For me personally, sub-d's only play a role, if a sculptural surfacing is an important part of the form language. And in that case I will use it to generate the main forms, but then fatten the modifier stack.
In that scenario you can then abolutely use plugs on top of the mesh, but you loose the flexibily of sub-d modeling.

What you can't do is use plugs on the low or mid poly model while keeping the sub-d modifier live. This is asking for trouble.

So, if you use sub-d's as a finishing tool, MESHmachine is not your best choice. If you only use it for form generation initialy and are willing to apply the subsurf modifier, MESHmachine can be useful.

Why is the ... tool greyed out in the MESHmachine menu?

Every time you open the MESHmachine menu, each tool listed will check if certain conditions are met, before becoming available, a process called polling. This is to avoid having to deal with illegal selections a tool can't properly process.

Refer to the individual tool pages here in the docs, for details on what tool expects what kind of selection.

What is a chamfer? What is a fillet? What is a bevel?

A chamfer is a transitional surface between 2 other surfaces, often - but not necessiarily - at a 45 degree angle. It's also referred to as a flat bevel.
In blender it can be created using the Bevel tool and modifier, if the segments are set to 1 and with the Bridge tool if the number of cuts is set to 0.
A chamfer has a flat profile.

Similarly, a fillet is a transitional surface, with a curved profile. It's also referred to as a rounded bevel. In Blender it can be created using the Bevel tool and modifier, if the segments are set to higher than 1 and with the Bridge tool if the number of cuts is set to above 0.
A fillet has a round profile.

Both are used to refine and replace hard edges.

this chamfer has 2 micro bevels of its own!

And so in the context of MESHmachine, I think it makes sense to differentiate between fillet and bevel.
Bevel is a tool to create a fillet from a hard edge. And with MESHmachine's fuse tool, you can now also create a fillet from a chamfer. The chamfer itself, can of course also be created by the bevel tool or by using MESHmachine's Chamfer tool, although the latter is specifically made for post-boolean chamfers.

What are rail and sweep edges?

Rail edges are edges or edgeloops going along a bevel or chamfer. Sweep edges are edges going across.

chamfers have only 2 sets of rails

while bevels can have many rails

Rail edges are great to loop select across a chamfer or bevel, while sweep edges can be used to loop select along a chamfer or bevel.

What are triangular and quad bevel corners?

A triangular bevel corner is one, that has three corner vertices.
Similarly a quad corner is one, that has four corner verts.

a triangular bevel corner can be a single triangle, can include a single triangle in its center or may not contain a triangle at all

The Quad Corner tool can be used to convert triangular bevel corners to quad corners.

Other Addons

Are DECALmachine and MACHIN3tools required?

No, MESHmachine provides modeling tools that work on the mesh level. It does not depend on any other addon to do so.
MESHmachine is a mesh modeling toolset, while DECALmachine is a detailing toolset, using mesh decals.

MACHIN3tools is an ever evolving collection or tools and pie menus, covering a variety of simple (and increasingly complex onces too) and common blender task, including but not exclusively related to modeling.

Is HardOps or BoxCutter required?

HardOps and BoxCutter are not required to use MESHmachine.
They can complement each other well however, and I personally do use both of them.