Blender ND Add-on Deep Dive - Part 1 (Getting Started)

ND (short for non-destructive) is a FREE Blender addon that provides many workflow enhancements, tools, operations, and generators - tailored specifically for non-destructive modelling.
- Download the addon -
Gumroad: hugemenace.gumroad.com/l/nd-b...
Blender Market: www.blendermarket.com/product...
Join our Discord server: hugemenace.co/discord
00:00 - Intro
00:26 - Installing ND
00:56 - Opening the main menu
01:18 - Using the sketch menu shortcut
01:24 - Changing shortcut key bindings
01:45 - Using the N-panel menu
02:15 - Using the fast predict menu
02:47 - Understanding the overlay
03:05 - Pinning the overlay
03:23 - Operator parameters
04:31 - Recalling operators
05:03 - Cancelling an operator
05:16 - Operator alternative modes
05:53 - How ND uses modifiers
06:22 - Outro
- Contribute -
Support the ongoing development and maintenance of ND by becoming a Patron: / hugemenace
- Support -
Documentation: docs.nd.hugemenace.co/

[@jenovaizquierdo]

Awesome, thanks for the add on 😊

[@Xianyx_]

It's such a good addon. Best part: It pairs nicely with some of the more advanced add-ons like Hardops + Boxcutter.

[@RetArm]

Best Addon Ever!

[@n0un3y]

I got into blender thanks to this add-on

[@NotSoMuchFrankly]

Have had ND and was waiting for something that gets a little deeper into some of the features whose names don't make the function apparent to me, so I'm looking forward to more.
If I can, I'd strongly suggest you change your Preferences>Interface>Resolution to at least twice the size. I'm on a 41" monitor and wow that's small in full screen. In fact, whatever you used to working at, it's probably best to ratchet that up to just below cartoonishly large b/c for a lot of people, they'd still need to squint a bit.
But, please keep going. 🙂

[@HugeMenace]

Hey, thanks for the feedback! I'll knock the resolution up a bit more on the following video.

[@FlowerPower3000]

You are back bro!)

[@mrdixioner]

The Sharpen (Q -> Sharpen) command of the HardOps plugin does not work due to the ND plugin. Please make it work. And the plugin is really very good!

[@HugeMenace]

We'll need more info than that (we don't use Hops). Can you hop on Discord or shoot us an email? - Tristan

[@monkmichel9477]

Really like the add on, using it for a while now. Not sure if you are aware (probably are), sometimes the fast prediction for filling a face/creating edge just disappears while doing manual retopology work from the f menu and only reappears after restarting Blender, not sure why, whatever. Looking forward to the 4.1 version.

[@HugeMenace]

Hey, glad you're liking it! And no, I'm not aware of that particular issue. Do you get any error messages when it happens?

[@monkmichel9477]

Sometimes there is a yellow error message that says "cant create face" and then its gone but mostly it just disappears from the menu without any errors. I cant for the life of me recreate the circumstances that make it happen, I always assumed it was faulty topology like zero faces or loose vertices and when the model allows for it I run machine tools clean up or 3d tool box check and then often it reappears and I can continue, but not always. When I cant run those and dont find anything manually, I just restart blender and after that its working again. Probably not really helpful and I would argue, it isn't really a big deal. Just something I noticed when doing longer retopology work.@@HugeMenace

[@HugeMenace]

Interesting... I've never had it occur on my end, but I'll play around with it a bit and see if that error comes up. But yeah, if you ever find a situation where you can repeatedly cause the error, please send through the details. If it happens and you can't catch/see the error, go to Window > Toggle System Console before restarting Blender. It should be logged in there somewhere.

[@dazecm]

I sometimes use multiple tools from other authors that add modifiers and I'm wondering if there's a case for addon authors to use a prefix naming convention when automatically creating their modifiers for placement into the stack? Sort of a like a 'namespace' convention used in the programming world. If I was clever enough with Python to create a tool that makes working with modifiers easier, I'd probably settle on a dot prefix notation based on my tool's name, such as .ND. in your case?

[@HugeMenace]

What would the fundamental purpose behind the namespaces be? All modifiers in Blender are built-in, so add-ons like ND can only add them to an object's modifier stack and give them a new name and change their parameters. - Tristan