-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 193
Preferences Menu Settings
This documentation topic will detail the settings, info, and links in the FLIP Fluids Preferences Menu. This menu can be found in Blender's Add-on preferences menu.
Navigate to the Blender Add-ons preferences with Edit > Preferences and select the Add-ons tab. You will be able to find the FLIP Fluids addon preferences by entering FLIP Fluids in the search box.
Shortcut: Use the Help > FLIP Fluids > FLIP Fluids Preferences operator to quickly navigate to the addon preferences menu.
This section is common to all addons and displays information about the installed addon. If you are sending us a message and are not sure which version of the addon you have installed, send us a screenshot of this info section. Feel free to send us a message at support[at]flipfluids.com anytime!
| Description | This field will display a description label of our addon: A FLIP Fluid Simulation Tool for Blender. This label will be followed by the exact version number, release type (such as stable, demo, or experimental), and the release date. |
| Location | This field displays where you can find our addon within Blender. Most of the addon's operations can be accused using the FLIP Fluid operator found in the physics properties menu: Properties > Physics > FLIP Fluid. |
| File | This field displays the location of the addon files on your computer. |
| Author | This field displays the names and contact info of the authors of the FLIP Fluids addon! |
| Version | This field displays the version number of the addon. |
| Internet | Links to our documentation/wiki, and a link to info on how to report a bug to us. |
The FLIP Fluids addon contains a few preferences for configuration.
If you're new to the FLIP Fluids addon or new to fluid simulation, we recommend trying out these settings:
| Beginner Friendly Mode | Beginner Friendly Mode will show only the most important settings used in basic simulations and hide the more advanced settings. Enabling this mode will simplify the UI which will help you focus on the settings that matter the most while you learn. |
| Display Documentation Links in UI | Display relevant documentation and troubleshooting links in the UI. Documentation links will open in your default web browser. Reading the documentation links will help you understand common fluid simulation concepts and help you master the addon! |
These settings can also be activated through the FLIP Fluids Helper Menu.
The FLIP Fluids Helper Menu contains helpful operators and settings to enhance your workflow. The Helper Menu can be found in the FLIP Fluids tab within Blender's toolshelf area.
| Enable Helper Toolbox | Enable the FLIP Fluids Helper Toolbox menu. |
| Panel Category | Set the name of the helper toolbox tab (FLIP Fluids by default). Tips: If you have many addons installed, the toolshelf menu can become cluttered with many tabs. If this is the case, you may want to shorten the name of our helper menu, to FF for example. You may also insert the helper menu into an existing tab by using the same name as that tab. For example, setting the name to Tool will place our helper menu within Blender's Tool tab. |
| Re-launch Bake After Crash | When using the command line bake operator, if a bake fails due to a crash or an error, attempt to automatically re-launch and resume the baking process. This value is the maximum number of attempts that the addon will try to resume the baking process. Set to a value greater than 0 to activate. |
Current bugs in Blender or stability issues in Blender can affect some features of the FLIP Fluids addon. Since these features are affected by an issue that is outside of our control, these features will be hidden by default. Enable the developer tools option to unhide these features.
Current Issues: An open bug in Blender (T88811 (03-jun-2021)) that can cause frequent render crashes or incorrect renders will affect the following features of the FLIP Fluids addon and are hidden by default:
- Rendering of surface or whitewater attributes including color blending simulations.
- These features are located in the Domain > FLIP Fluid Surface > Geometry Attributes panel as well as in the Fluid and Inflow object properties.
- See Domain Attributes documentation for more information on attributes in Blender.
- Rendering variable viscosity simulation features.
- These features are located in the Domain > FLIP Fluid World > Viscosity panel as well as in the Fluid and Inflow object properties.
Workaround: When using these features, rendering from the command line will be necessary to prevent this bug and for complete render stability. The FLIP Fluids sidebar helper menu contains command line tools to help you automatically set up and launch a command line render (read more).
| Enable Developer Tools | Enable to unlock features that may be affected by issues related to known bugs in Blender or issues related to Blender stability. |
The FLIP Fluids addon contains two versions of the simulation engine:
- The Debug Engine: This engine is slightly slower, but is able to generate errors that may be helpful to us if you are experiencing a sudden crash during simulation.
- The Release Engine (default): This engine is faster, about 10% - 15% faster than the debug engine for medium to large simulations. However, this version of the engine may be unable to generate any errors after a simulation crash. If you are experiencing a persistent simulation crash at the same point in a simulation, this is likely a bug and you may be able to generate an error message by switching to the debug engine. You may also send us a .blend file that reproduces the crash to support[at]flipfluids.com and we would be glad to check it out!
Our FLIP Fluids simulation engine is incredibly stable and simulation crashes unrelated to hardware issues are quite rare. You will likely never need to switch to debug mode - this setting is mainly for the developers.
| Engine Debug Mode | Enable to switch to using the debug version of the engine. When disabled, the faster release mode of the engine will be used. This value must be set before starting or resuming a bake. |
Operators to help report a bug to GitHub and for retrieving your system information. Reports can also be sent through the marketplace messaging systems or to support[at]flipfluids.com.
| Report a Bug (GitHub) | This operator will open the FLIP Fluids GitHub issue tracker and pre-fill the _New Issue_ form with your system and version information. Not all information may be found out depending on system and Blender version. A GitHub account is required to post on the issue tracker. This operator can also be found in the Blender > Help > FLIP Fluids menu. |
| Copy System Info | This operator will copy your system and version information to the clipboard. Paste this info when sending us a message through the marketplace messaging systems, support[at]flipfluids.com, or elsewhere. Not all information may be found out depending on system and Blender version. This operator can also be found in the Blender > Help > FLIP Fluids menu. |