1.42 - Blender 4.1 Update

Hey, this release is just to catch Capsule up to the latest API and exporter changes inside Blender 4.1

This release should only be used with Blender 4.1.

I don't know why I didn't do this before but the release now includes a version of Capsule at the bottom of the page that will install with no fuss, no unzipping or renaming 👌

Special Notes

For a few of the Export File Types you may see a few options have moved or their names changed slightly, either due to API updates or as part of me trying to best organize and keep the menus easy to read and understand. In this update this warning mainly applies to GLTF.

GLTF currently doesn't export Color Attributes unless they are used in one of it's materials. This was a design mistake the GLTF exporter devs made and it will be fixed in Blender 4.2 but please keep this in mind (personally I just use UVs when I want to pack weird data into my models).

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API Updates

GLTF

In the last few releases GLTF has gotten a crazy amount of new export features and Capsule now has feature parity (more or less).

Around 15 new properties have been added from the most recent GLTF exporter updates, mostly focused on Animation and Rigging (which now gets it's own tab).

The only option to not be added from 4.1 is "Full Collection Hierarchy" as it's broken in 4.1 and doesn't export the collection hierarchy that's contextual to the objects or collections being exported.

STL

Capsule now uses the new re-written STL exporter introduced in 4.1, and a "Batch Individually" option was added.

USD

Five new properties were added:

• Export Armatures
• Only Include Deform Bones
• Export Shapekeys
• Subdivision Schema
• Root Primitive Path

Alembic

• Changed "Export Vertex Colors" to "Export Color Attributes" to match Blender's removal of the term.
• Evaluation Mode now defined as "Use Settings For" to match the exporter and other exporter terminology.

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Known Bugs

• Sometimes when creating Capsule Data an "Area not found in screen" error will appear.
• On rare occasions, changing settings in the 3D View for Collection Exports will not change the associated data shown in the Properties > Scene Panel.

1.41 - Fixed FBX Texture Embeds

There's various internal changes here but it's for the unfinished Pack Script feature. Still working on it very slowly :)

All exporters were checked for Blender 4.0 compatibility and this is now the supported version for Capsule 1.41.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where using the FBX "Use Texture Embed" setting wouldn't work.

1.40 - Polish and Wax (Blender 3.5 Release)

It's nice to spend some time making a bigger Capsule release, and while there's no big feature changes (yet) a lot of time was spent refining what's already there. Hopefully this release will make things easier and more streamlined.

Like the addon? Consider buying me a coffee, it really helps! - ko-fi.com/takanu

Special Notes

Some Export Properties have moved around and been renamed in the Export Format menus. but all options from the previous version should still be present.

New Features!

• Object Exports can now include their children through a new "Child Objects" setting. This notably hasn't been added to Collection exports due to technical reasons but hopefully it will in a future release.
• You can now filter through Export Lists using search terms and sort in chronological order, just like other Blender lists.
• USDZ is now an available export option by using the new "USD Type" in the USD file format (thanks Blender 3.5 for adding this <3)
• A new "Show Preferences Menu" button has been added to help you quickly get to Capsule's export presets (I wish I had added this earlier, whew!).

Enhancements

• All Export Formats were updated to meet Blender 3.5 specifications.
• Export Format options were combed through and rearranged to provide consistent groups and layouts, communicate function better and provide more warnings when potential issues will appear
• All buttons now have icons and some previous icons have changed to better describe intent.
• Lots of tooltips were rewritten to make more sense
• Some of the terms for important functions and properties were changed to make them easier to understand
• Added a few tutorial buttons to Stored Export Presets (the new name for Saved Export Presets) and Active Export Presets in order to make clear their purpose and how they are saved.
• Everything in a Capsule release is now bundled into the Capsule folder itself making installation much simpler - no unzipping required.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with Pie Menus that caused most of their operators to fail 🙊
• Fixed an issue where an unselected Export Preset would be deleted when using the delete item function
• Fixed an issue where "Clear Capsule Data" wasn't working (not a bug)
• Fixed dumb behaviors with the "Reset Capsule Scene Data" operator, it now works across all scenes and resets all data

Future Features

There's two specific things I'm working on that I wasn't able to release with this version but hope to in the future:

Pack Scripts

A feature that lets you customize your export targets just how you want them before it's saved using a tiny Python script. Lots of people have pretty specific export workflow needs that no amount of in-built features could solve so this is a nice way of bridging that gap and keeping the required technical knowledge for users as low as possible.

The main thing preventing the release of this feature is the need to provide a safe testing environment for Pack Scripts in Blender so that you can play around with scripts and make sure they do what you expect them to, and while I've made some progress on this I wasn't able to complete it before the release of 1.4.

You'll notice that there's a tick to enable Pack Scripts in the Addon Preferences but this should only be used by adventurous souls 👀

Performance Improvements

This becomes pretty important with large scenes. Capsule adds some overhead that is unavoidable but I have identified areas where the time Capsule takes doing things it needs to can be reduced and I need the time to test and implement ideas.

1.37 - Bug Fixes

In the background i'm working on performance improvements but for the time being I fixed a few important bugs:

• Fixed an API issue with OBJ exports ("scaling_factor" unrecognized).
• Fixed various issues related to creating Capsule Data from the Preferences Menu.

1.36 - Blender 3.4 Hotfix

Hey, nothing big in this release sadly, just a quick fix for GLTF.

• Fixed an issue with a GLTF property that changed it's name in Blender 3.4.
• Rewrote the Shape Keys warning to reflect a new behaviour change when using Apply Modifiers as an option.

1.35 - Quick Bug Fix

This fixes a typo that caused origin point exporting to fail with Object exports under certain circumstances. I don't normally post releases with just one bug fix but this was big enough to warrant fixing, apologies to anyone that encountered it!

1.34 - Blender 3.3 LTS Compatibility Release

NOTE - This doesn't fix any current bugs listed in the Issues page. I wanted to make sure this is out for the new version but I am actively working on them. If you have a bug please report it and I'll get it fixed! 😅

This is a simple maintenance release to ensure Capsule is compatible with Blender 3.3 LTS.

Changes!

• Added new GLTF option for exporting all actions of a single armature
• Miscellaneous fixes based on exporter API changes

1.33 - Blender 3.2 Compatibility + Bug Fixes

WARNING - This will only work on Blender 3.2 or higher and at the time of this release it is still in beta. This is because it contains some additional Python API changes specific to this version.

I'm still cooking the newest feature and it needs a little more time to make sure it's ready, but for now I wanted to be ahead of the newest Blender release for once and get some bugs fixed:

New!

• Added a new FBX option for triangulating faces that was introduced in 3.2.

Bug Fixes!

• Fixed a bug where Capsule's error checking system for Export Location directories would incorrectly report errors on Linux (#33, thanks zuranthus!)
• Fixed a context bug when creating Capsule Data in a new scene (#34, thanks seruminar!).
• Fixed an issue where the current View Layer would get deleted by the end of an export operation.
• Fixed a context issue involving 3D View mode switching when restoring the scene context after an export operation.
• Accounted for a (rather baffling) new GLTF exporter property which by default will export every selected object of every scene.
• Switched all context overrides to use the new override system to avoid any future bugs B)

Changes!

• Various internal changes and prep made for the upcoming feature.
• Removed the Saved Export Presets that come with Capsule by default - they hadn't been updated in a while and I think it doesn't really fit with the spirit of the addon. Capsule is designed to try and fit with many different workflows and pinning two specific ones on top of a list which cannot be deleted seemed like a bad idea.

(you can now also delete these if you still have them 👌)

Capsule 1.32 - Extreme Bug Extermination (Spring Cleaning Pt. 2)

(NOTE - This and the previous release will be merged into a Capsule 2.0 release soonish, I'm still finishing a new feature but wanted to get this out as there's so many bugs and issues that needed fixing)

I use Capsule almost every day so I am painfully aware of the amount of cleaning and fixing it needed to function better, so I dedicated these last few days to fixing bugs and improving underlying behaviors to make it more dependable and reliable.

New Features

There's a new feature that you can find if you're curious enough, but as it's not quite finished yet that's all I'll say until the next release. Have fun! 👌

Improvements

Export Lists

• Export Lists will now show you when an export target has missing information required by the plugin to reduce the guesswork involved in getting your scene ready.
• "Export Selected In List" has been added which will just export the currently selected item in the active list.
• Export Lists will now show when Objects and Collections have been deleted and their list entry will change to reflect that. Capsule can't remove them automatically without some unreliable scripting shenanigans so this is the next best thing.
• When a Collection is focused, it will no longer unhide viewport and selection settings (it still does for Objects though).

Selections Menu

• Export Selected will now only export the Object or Collection the selection is associated with, depending on what tab you have active in the 3D View panel.
• The Selection menu for Collections will now work when just a Collection is selected in the Outliner.
• Selection Behavior has improved and Capsule will now be able to better recognize the Objects and Collections you have selected in the scene.

Export Behaviors

• Capsule now provides more detailed and precise information when an export is completed, including the number of export targets that were filtered out when the "Filter by Render Visibility" option is used on Export Presets.
• Capsule now provides additional warnings when no or incorrect information is added to an export target or to a File Location, and if the problem is related to a set of objects they will all be selected to allow you to edit them all at once.
• When objects have their Render Visibility disabled due to a collection they belong to, Capsule now respects this and will omit them from the export.
• Selection Hiding is now preserved when exporting.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed various bugs that would occur during export due to export parameters, Capsule now checks them far more thoroughly and stops the export before errors can occur.
• Fixed various bugs due to a behaviour where if a Location Preset is deleted it wasn't removed from Objects and Collections. Objects and Collections now have their Location Preset set to 'None' when this happens.
• Fixed a bug where an object having their Render Visibility hidden could result in Capsule stopping the export prematurely.
• Fixed a bug where if a Collection is added to the Export List using the Selection Menu, it's Enable Export box in the list would not be ticked.
• Fixed various bugs that could appear during an export if a UI region was maximized or under certain other circumstances.
• Fixed an issue where if an object's selection is hidden it would never export even though it should.

Notices

• While this was not clearly codified in the previous version of Capsule, Collection export is only supported with Collections that can be seen in the View Layer and not Collections you can create in the Object Menu. Currently no interface is there to support this kind of editing with normal Collections.
• You wont be able to edit something selected in the Outliner if it has selections disabled. This has been a problem in previous versions but I have currently been unable to successfully get the selected items in the Outliner, but hopefully I'll be able to fix this in the future.

Capsule 1.31 - API Updates! (Spring Cleaning Pt. 1)

It's been too long (again!) since Capsule got updated, so here's part one of set of updates to help keep Capsule running well.

(bug fixes will arrive in the next day or two, dw!)

Export Maintenance

• All currently supported export formats have been updated to match the APIs of Blender 3.1
• Any additions to supported export formats have been added
• The OBJ export component of Capsule was rewritten to fit the new C++ exporter included in 3.1

Improvements

• The user interface was improved throughout the Export Type menus to add additional consistency and clarity.
• Information boxes will now appear when certain functionality is unavailable or to describe obscure interactions between export settings that might not be obvious.
• The interface and info boxes will improve in the next update.