It was just 2 months ago we released 985. Release time is always an exciting time for us and this release is no exception. I am happy to announce the release of Hard Ops 986_1 Mercury. This release aims to expand on our last endeavors while also bringing back a few forgotten classics.
Shoutout to: AR, Bon7, Loof, Proxe, and ST3
Video Overview
Showtime
When using a modal the T an N panels could obscure the help which caused problems.
Update Notification System
HOPS now has an update notification system. I wanted to make it as unobtrusive as possible.
The button is the easiest way to find out if you are up to date. Clicking it displays about which will say in the bottom right.
In the event of an update being needed or available additional icons for market links will be provided as well as a button explaining how to obtain updates. We hope this makes it easier to keep up what is going on with Hard Ops.
Hotkey Helper / Ctrl + K
With the enthusiasm shown for the button tutorial, AR wanted to expand on it even more. Now the button is capable of listing the default hotkeys of Hardops to make it even more intuitive for new users.
Ctrl + K will now bring up a hotkey manager for adjusting or changing hotkeys in Hardops. As with all prefs to keep them across sessions its important to save the preferences.
Boxcutter Notifications
Boxcutter received a very small micro update and HOPS has also been enhanced to display modal information for boxcutter.
This is something users can opt into via the opt in panel.
Sequential Q Menu
The Q menu is a never-ending quest to shrink while also expanding towards our dreams. In this update we wanted to add and opt-in to allow users to stack the Q menu in a different fashion making the options more accessible for smaller displays.
Wrap / Auto T and N Panel
Modals now have a custom wrap and border that can be toggled in preferences to be corners or boxes. This was something I felt added a bit of serenity to modals by quieting the experience.
Edit Mesh Multi Tool (EM Macro)
EM Macro aims to replace all 4 of these and combine them in one and bring them back front row. Grate, Knurl and Panel were some of the oldest tools in HOPS and now they have finally been remade for the new generation. Now all of them have interactive capabilities and go so much farther than their predecessors.
Curve Extract
Multi edit mode is something I am still getting used to. With the latest update multi curves can be extracted from multiple meshes in edit mode.
Array V2
ST3 Array was our first attempt at making an alternative approach to arraying. While it is the most entertaining array yet we didn’t want to stop attempting to make something even better. This update brings forth Array V2 which can be opted into and will replace the options in the menus and helpers for array.
This array starts off feeling like 2d classic default.
Pressing V changes from 2d to 3d changing the experience. Even adding additional count is a different experience.
This array is experimental so there is additional madness to opt into. Pressing G in 3d mode will activate both circle and tractor beam for users to experiment with. The goal is to make an array that allows for understanding of 3d positioning while arraying.
Helper New Material
New material in the helper has also been enhanced to work better. Now multiple indices are no longer being nuked and blank materials can be stacked and assigned properly.
Material List Count Pref
The material list was capable of getting long when there were tons of materials. A user kindly wrote about it and provided a solution and now I am happy to announce a better way to deal with out of control material lists.
Blank Material Cut
I admit this one is a little random. But cutting a blank material per cut was a long time dream for reasons I can’t remember.
Modscroll Smart Apply
Smart Apply has come to modifier scroll.
When using modifier the following now applies.
- Ctrl + LMB – applies current modifiers and reactivates deactivated modifiers.
- Shift + LMB – applies current modifiers and duplicates the mesh while removing deactivated modifiers
Viewport To_Render
Viewport adjust is done by pressing Alt + V >> V or selecing (v)Lookdev +.
During lookdev pressing T will set the flag for the operation to exit to blank light allowing for users to adjust lighting post lookdev. Now there is support for rotation.
Blank Light also has a tab for expanded mode. It is still in the process of being sorted but it does have an experimental world edit tab that can be used for adding various types of fog.
Post Release
Post release we generally aim to keep fixing things found by users. This release was no exception.
About Boxcutter
Boxcutter also received a small service update “716_6” to ensure things worked well with 2.9 as well. We remain grateful for those who report issues and keep on keeping on with HardOps.
From Imagination To Creation 
[…] Hard Ops 986 Mercury Release […]
Thanks for a great product 🙂
I am suffering from a lack of icons which is a small issue.
I’m on Xubuntu 18.04 with Blender 2.82 LTS and a brand new copy of HOps + BoxCutter.
Here’s a couple of screenshots:
I’ve started Blender from the terminal and no “Missing Icon” message is appearing on the command line. The icons are all in the HOps/icons folder OK as far as I can tell so I suspect some name changes to the icons that haven’t been updated in the code?? I tried ripgrepping through the plugin folder to trace the icon references but my old brain started to complain and I had to have a lie down.
Thanks again for a very handy tool.
maybe clean install? I dont know anything about linux. We test on linux and it appears fine.
https://hardops-manual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contact_help/
This issue has been found to happen with old prefs. Sometimes loading from factory can help but something with your blender is causing the icons to fail load partway.
Yeah, that was it. Once again, the problem came down to my lackadaisical attitude to tidy working. My preferences folder had cobwebs and dust like a garden shed of rusty tools. Just removing — on Linux — the /home/ME/.config/blender/2.83/config folder to a temporary place, starting Blender then copying the …./config/scripts/addons folder back was enough. A day without icons has given me second vision. Cheers for the response and the scary-competent modelling videos.
I don’t know if this is a huge problem but I installed the latest Hard Ops release to 2.90 with default factory preferences on, and I noticed in the HOps keymaps in menu/systems between HOps helper and Material list I have “No hotkey entry found restore hotkeys from interface tab”. I tried to load factory preferences again, and deleted my configs and addons from AppData but it did not fix it. As I don’t really have any idea what is supposed to be in there, I can’t really fix it in Blender keymaps, and I couldn’t figure out what “restore hotkeys from interface tab” is supposed to mean.
Anyways, this and BoxCutter has been awesome and can’t wait to see what you and every one else involved come up with next!
when in doubt clean that config.
Well like I said, I had already tried that (twice), uninstalled Blender, deleted EVERYTHING from Appdata etc. and it did not work. Read your reply and gave it a third try. It did not work. At this moment I started to feel pretty dumb because I’ve tried to do the same thing thrice and expected a different result. There has to be something I am missing, right? So I went to a computer that has never had Blender installed before. I downloaded and installed the most recent stable Blender (2.90) and started it up. After clicking “save new settings” I went to preferences > add-ons, installed HOps 00986_MercuryX_18 from the zip file and…
In HOps keymaps in menu/systems, between HOps helper and Material list there is still the same message: “No hotkey entry found restore hotkeys from interface tab”.
I did an install test to ensure things are working. Hope it helps. .
Regarding “No hotkey entry found restore hotkeys from interface tab” – if anybody finds this and is stuck (this can happen when you have custom keymaps so doing a full restore isn’t possible) To fix simply add a entry to the 3D View (Global)
wm.call_menu
HOPS_MT_MainMenu
or
HOPS_MT_MainPie
with the mapping you prefer. It magically shows up in the Hops add in. Hops seems to lose it’s mind if the keymap drops off, so just manually restore it this way.
or uninstall the tool and reinstall. It happens when users do things undesired like trying to change the keymap.
This has been happening to me a lot too!
If you try to switch the hotkeys for the Menu/Pie and accidentally give them the same hotkey, one of the entries will instantly disappear.
It can also happen if you disable HardOps then re-enable HardOps – duplicate hotkeys are created (appears to be a Blender bug because this happens with all addons). If you then save these preferences, on the next load of Blender, HardOps will remove the duplicated entries entirely so you end up with missing Booleans/Edit Mode hotkeys.
Uninstalling/saving/Reinstalling doesn’t always work as it looks like some ‘ghost’ remnants of the hotkeys might be stored in the userpref.blend (and possibly startup.blend?). Manually adding the missing entries (copy/pasting from a vanilla Blender HOps install) and saving the prefs seems to help make the hotkeys ‘stick’. Would a button or feature in HOps called something like “Force Hotkeys” to brute force add the entries make it more reliable?
As a new user to Blender, editing/saving hotkeys has been the biggest headache! Hopefully it improves with future versions