Mesh Fairing addon

The Mesh Fairing addon allows us to smooth some vertices of a mesh and uses another algorithm than the build in Blender tools. Remarkable is that you can remove an ear or finger completely and still keep the topology intact.

Often when we smooth out some vertices with the build in tools in blender 2.8, we easily get pinching artefact. Therefore using the tools to smooth feels limited. And this Mesh Fairing addon is a welcome alternative smoothing out vertices.

How to use the Mesh Fairing addon?

We can use the Mesh Fairing addon in Sculpt Mode and Edit Mode. Try first with a mesh that is not to high-poly. This because if you select to many vertices, it could take a long time to calculate. And if you don’t use SciPy the chance is big you computer will freeze if you ask to much. So don’t ask to much in the beginning and see what your computer can handle gradually.

For Edit mode the following. First make two shapekeys for the mesh. That is in the properties panel > Object Data Tab. And under Shapekeys you press the + sign two times. Then you go in Edit mode, and select a few vertices. For example the nose of Suzanne. (A subdivided Suzanne 1x). Press Ctrl+V and in the menu you click on “Fair Vertices”. It will go quick this time. Because those are just a few vertices. Even if you don’t have SciPy installed. And you see now that Suzanne’s nose will be flat! Now, go out of Edit mode, and you’ll see that Suzanne’s nose will be normal again. But if you go back to the Shapekeys change the value of Key 1.

Now try it with Suzanne’s ear. First make another shapekey and do the same as with the nose. How magic is that?

When using Sculpt Mode you use the mask brush. For example mask Suzanne’s ear. Then in the menu “Sculpt” you will see the option Fair Vertices. This time an operator pops up with a few settings. The default settings are ok. There is not that much difference it seems, except the invert setting.

How to install SciPy for Blender on Windows

In the file-explorer, navigate to you latest blender build download. Then navigate in the file-explorer to: 2.80 > python> bin. Now, copy the location in the address bar of the file-explorer. In my case that is: C:\blender280\blender-280-June_17\blender-2.80.0-git.12da679fa094-windows64\2.80\python\bin. You can select it and copy it with Ctrl+C.

Next step is to open a command prompt. In Search (next to Start in Windows), type: cmd. Left-click on the search result, and in the command-prompt (black screen) you paste the location you just copied.

Then copy and past this: python.EXE -m pip install –user –no-deps scipy
And press on Enter. Wait until SciPy is installed which may take around 3 minutes. Restart Blender I suppose and test the Mesh Fairing addon.

Where to download the Mesh Fairing addon?

You can download the Mesh Fairing addon on Github. On Github there is the full documentation as well and on Blenderartists.org you can find the thread.

In case you have suggestions, questions or announcements, let us know in the comments.

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