QuickField manual v1.2

Blender Add-on by QuickSand3D www.quicksand3d.com

Introduction

With the help of Quick Field add-on, you can quickly create soil surfaces for 3D printed miniature scenery.

Demo video: https://vimeo.com/752153731

It can save you time by procedurally generating:

    - Hills for miniatures

    - Gardens for plants

    - Mounds to support trees, beams, gallows, fences, signposts etc.

    - Dirt around ruins and walls

    - Craters

 Create the perfect surface by tweaking these parameters:

    - Ground Details / Muddiness / Gravel

    - Piles Height / Size

    - Pebbles, Stones and Rocks Density / Distance / Scale / Deviation

You can convert the surface to an optimized mesh by remeshing and decimation with just one click.

Installation

    - In Blender go to menu Edit->Preferences then select Add-ons.

    - Click the Install button at the top of the preferences window and navigate to the place where you downloaded the zip file, select the file and click Install Add-on.

    - Activate the add-on by ticking the checkbox next to it.

    - The Add-ons functionality is available through the Fields Tab in the Tool menu to the right of the main viewport. Press N to show the tools if they are hidden.

Uninstall

    - In the menu, goto Edit->Preferences then select Add-ons

    - In the search box, search All add-ons for "field"

    - Deactivate the Add-on by unticking the checkbox next to it.

    - Then click the Remove button.

Updates

    Make sure to uninstall the current add-on version and restart blender before installing the new one.

Known Bugs

   - It is not possible to generate a second field before you apply or delete the first one.

Getting started

Locate the QuickField tool at the right side of the screen. Press “N” if you don’t see the tools.

Create a control mesh, roughly designing a low poly shape.

Hit the Generate QuickField button.

Tweaking the parameters

Preset menu

You can choose presets from the drop-down list.

NEW

You can create a new preset by duplicating the currently selected one.

SAVE

Overwrites the currently selected preset.

DEL

Deletes the currently selected preset.

Ground

Ground Details

You can quickly turn on and off the details of the ground. Turn it off if working with big surfaces.

Higher number means higher resolution. Choose the optimal number for your project.

Ground Muddiness

Adjust the ratio of mud and gravel.

Ground Gravel

Adjust the strength of the gravel texture.

Decimate

Adjust the level of optimization. Turn it on and choose a number where you don’t lose important details. This is the slowest calculation, so turn it off when adjusting the parameters.

Seed

Generate new random placement of the pebbles, stones, rocks.

Piles

Piles Height

Adjust the amplitude of the piles.

Piles Size:

Adjust the size of the piles.

Pebbles / Stones / Rocks

Density

Adjust the density of the Pebbles / Stones / Rocks

Distance

Adjust the minimal distance between the Pebbles / Stones / Rocks

Size

Adjust the overall size of the Pebbles / Stones / Rocks

Deviation

Adjust the scale variations of the Pebbles / Stones / Rocks

Delete

You can delete the surface and the control mesh without applying them.

Apply

Once you finished tweaking the parameters, hit the Apply button. It turns on the ground details and the decimation, then generates the optimized mesh.

Adjust details

Transform the details in edit mode, or separate them.

Exporting and Scaling

With standard Blender units, the best way to work on 3D printable objects is to use blender unit of 1 cm. Just turn off the units inside Blender.

When exporting for 3D printing use scaling 10!

Importing and Scaling

If you import back your objects to Blender, use scaling 0.1!

Materials

The applied mesh contains separate material groups for earth, rocks, pebbles, stones, so you can adjust the materials of all the stones together, separate from the other material groups.

Happy Blending!

QuickSand3D team

www.quicksand3d.com