My goal this year is to expand internally and externally in our endeavors. We are always searching for additional help with things so as our team grows so does our potential and possibilities. And because of your continual support we are able to release “(2.8) HOps 009841_Neodymium_” after barely just having an event not even a month ago. 2020 will be the year of hopstool but doesn’t mean we can tighten up the other areas that have become “legacy” and build a better strong hops with all we have learned.
As 2.8 goes on we want to refine existing systems and continuing consolidating / removing things no longer needed. We hope everyone has been able to hang in there and continues to be patient as we add and calibrate new members to the team and our workflows / ideals. Also I want to expand on accessibility and the offerings it could have for workflow and user ease of use and functionality.
Without further ado. I announce the release of Hard Ops 984.1 Neodymium.
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Installation Issues? Clean those prefs.
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Dice
Dice was a Pro3 level task. And I gave it to Bonjorno7. The result is Dice. Dice is the crown jewel of this release alongside twist360 which will assist heavily with deforming boolean meshes. This version was intended to be a spin on loopcut for meshes needing dicing. In the future we hope to dice in more paths than just straight.
When it comes to dice H will display help with has option for axis.
Dice also works good with Bezier Mesh Shaper.
As we progress we aim to spin this off at some point and possibly give it an entire path. The art of deformation is something that has always interested us and this is just a part of the puzzle.
Twist360
Been so long since we talked about this tool. The original version was hacked together by me so seeing a remake done by bonjoro was refreshing. This time the origin is managed by a 2nd displace while offering the versatility needed while maintaining a perfect center for calculation.
Modifying twist 360 requires twist 360. Using array or displace to affect things will not perform the proper steps to maintain a perfect center so this modal was made for that purpose.
With twist 360 interior faces must also be taken into consideration.
Twist spawns with the mods disabled related in render. This allows for these to bypass sort (for now) and allow you to boxcut / boolean without issues. For rendering you will need to re-enable them.
Even as I type I want dice to twist360 in the same operation with a mirror level interaction for interior face removal. But that may be in the future plans. At this time I am curious for insight from users as to additional uses we could be using dice for. Creativity sometimes spawns ideas that previously would have been inconceivable.
Step
Step was previously a “Weight” thing. There was no non-destructive version.
And step was intended to hide mesh in edit mode, apply bevel / boolean, and add bevel. This was highly destructive and was no longer as needed in 2.8 so we were preparing to let it go. However I wanted to give it one last try and now step in the angle workflow is support of the non destructive workflow.
All it does is add an additional bevel at half the amount of the previous bevel. This helps it flow together and is easier on users than just not existing.
Even with this in place this is just fixing a hole in the workflow and still doesn’t even need to exist. Stepping is possible in hopstool and even bevel itself.
Direct Shift (shift + Q pie only atm)
Boolshift was revisited this version by AR and has been enhanced in the Q menus. I am proud to say that you can now shift a cutter directly into another state if needed. I still dream of this being possible in hopstool but this is the first step.
Of course you can still use modal shift in the Q menu to shift to any state and theres still things I want to do with this as well.
Smart Apply Improvements
Smart apply is intended to be what csharpen was on the apply side but not associated with csharpen. My goal is to have it work without UI or even options.
Until they are needed.
But for the most part smart apply will apply all mods except:
- last mirror (if more than 1 present)
- last bevel (if more than 1 present)
- weighted normal
This will allow you to completely apply shapes to be done with hopstool if needed but keep the last bevel since it adds more geo than needed and can be useful to toggle off for optimizations.
By being able to do this quickly shapes can easily be dice and twisted and handle differently in an all new way.
Blank Material V3 (alt + M)
Blank material has also received an expansion.
Users now can cut glass and emission as well.
Emission utilizes pulsing to create pulsing materials. This is intended to be used with greyscale off allowing colors to be vibrant and unique.
Drivers are being utilized for pulse so be aware that Blender can be unusual with processing them.
Menu Changes
Menus are always in state of refinement.
- last version there were too many options under mod.
- meshtools was slimmed out last version to make room
- cleanup
Notice custom modifier modals have been moved to meshtools and mark receiving an S in front to make it even faster to execute.
Hopstool improvements
I want 2020 to be year of hopstool. And I plan to enhance hopstool with each update to get it to the level I know it could be. Hopstool is ARs vision, so I would like to play off of his ideas for now before I begin adding layers and systems to it.
Dot Text
Dots will now display text on hover. Text size can be increased in the behavior panel.
D Helper
D inside of hopstool will activate a special helper.
In the future we’ll be coming back to adjust the hotkey since I still love my DecalMachine.
Smart Shapes
Smart shapes have also received small changes to ensure they will work with boxcutter out of the box.
Sorting should be the least of a users worries but if the sorting gives issues just bypass it with render visibility and it should behave correctly.
Array (hopstool)
This whole section is about hopstool but because we got multiple arrays, I have to be specific. While moving an object in hops presssing 1 will reset the object back to 1 to allow quick stacking of array parts. 
In Closing
New members is always an exciting time. I am glad and so so greatful for all who continue to support us and our dreams. It is thanks to hops that I could probably stop working but due to the uncertaintly of the climate I am not yet convinced to. Also resumes always need new ticks. I can’t wait to show why I needed dice in a hurry but it’s gonna be good. Also by the time I can talk about it we’ll be onto something else exciting.
I hope everyone enjoys this latest release and reports bugs / issues to us.
From Imagination To Creation 