Execution system

You can think about the add-on as a custom modifier based on node editor (similar to geometry nodes modifier). Except that you won’t be able to find it neither in list of modifiers nor in modifier stack because custom modifiers are in BLender anti-features list. Instead, the main panel can be found in Property panel (N) of viewport editor. It has similar interface as Blender modifiers.

For now there are only two events which force building style to be applied to a base mesh:

  • When base mesh is edited in edit mesh. This will cause update only active object.

  • When building style is edited. This will update all objects which use the node tree.

Both updates can be enabled/disabled via main panel.

Note

Any other updates are not supported. For example shape are ignored. Also all modifiers are ignored. So you won’t be able to generate procedural shapes for buildings. But probably this feature will be added in the future releases.

Warning

For its work the add-on adds Geometry nodes modifier to the object receiving facade style. It’s not recommended to edit its tree. In new versions the tree can be recreated from scratch without saving any changes in previous one.

Warning

Also there is problem of copying an object with building style. When initial object is edited the copied object will repeat the shape of this changes. In order to make changes of the copy fully separate from initial object either building style tree should be updated (by dragging a link for example) or the copy should be put in edit mode.

Tree editor

In general the work in facade style editor is similar to work in any other standard tree editors except a few things.

  • Adding animation keys and drivers to the node properties is not supported. This is limitation of Blender and nothing can be done on the add-on side.

  • Muting nodes currently is not supported. Can be implemented in the future but not before Blender 3.1 release.

  • Node groups are not supported. Unfortunately during development of Geometry nodes project there was brought new problems (problem1, problem2, problem3) which prevent from using node groups safely in add-ons. It also means that there are no custom properties per building. So there won’t be node groups at list until crushing issues won’t be fixed.

Errors

During tree execution there can be some errors which prevents building being updated. Errors are shown on the main panel. It can be some low level error which message is not very helpful and can be considered as bug. Or it can be a high level error:

  • Size error

    It means that some of the panels has 0 height or 0 length. Panels can have 0 length along any axis but not when it used to fill some space. For example a panel should has length if it is used to fill a floor.