SciBlend

Changelog

General & Build System

• New top-level ui module added implementing preferences panel for users to specify a custom output directory for generated assets (legends and shapes).
• The main init file uses a guarded import system.

Paraview Macros

• Support for a new volume data type has been added, with export options for .vtk, .vti, and OpenVDB (.vdb).
• The logic for VDB export can now automatically resample non-uniform grid data into a format suitable for VDB conversion.
• The export loop handles animation time steps more robustly

SciBlend

Advanced Core

• Centralization and simplification of the creation of visibility keyframes for imported animation sequences
• The importer now respects a new "Loop" setting, allowing animation sequences to be repeated
• Logging progress of ETA to the console when importing sequences
• The importer now recognizes .vtp (VTK XML PolyData) and .pvtp files.
• It can now split multi-component arrays (like vectors and tensors) into separate, named attributes. Users can provide a JSON map to specify custom component names (e.g., mapping a "Stress" vector to "XX", "YY", "ZZ", etc.). A "Magnitude" attribute is also automatically calculated for vector data.

LegendGenerator

• It introduces a "Choose Shader" button and an "Auto from Shader" toggle. When active, the legend's title, value range, and colormap are automatically populated by reading the node setup of the active object's material, based on Shader Generator properties.
• A method to automatic trigger this update whenever the active object or its material changes.
• New Customization Options
  • Master Enable/Disable: A toggle was added to completely enable or disable the legend overlay.
  • Advanced Text Formatting: New controls were added for:
    • Font size (in points).
    • Number format (Fixed, Scientific).
    • Number of decimal places.
    • Padding and offset for the main legend title.
  • Orientation Presets: Switching between horizontal and vertical orientation now applies a set of sensible default values for scale, position, and font size.

ShaderGenerator Module

• The UI panel was updated to include a dropdown that dynamically lists all available mesh attributes (FLOAT, FLOAT_VECTOR) from the active object. This allows users to easily create materials based on any attribute, not just the default Col.
• When a new shader is generated, the module now checks if the Legend Generator's "Auto from Shader" feature is enabled and, if so, automatically triggers a legend update to keep it in sync with the new material.
• The generated material now stores colormap name and attribute name as custom properties on the material itself, allowing other modules to easily identify them.

What's Changed

• v.1.1.2 by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/4
• v.1.1.2 by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/6
• 3 legend and shader generator update together by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/7
• 9 leggen doesnt modify labels in real time when shadgen has auto from shader enabled by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/13
• v.1.1.2 by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/17
• v.1.1.2 by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/19
• 16 presets for legend generator by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/20
• 15 cache path for temporary blender compositor images by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/21
• v.1.1.2 by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/24
• v.1.1.2 by @josemarinfarina in https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/pull/25

Full Changelog: https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/compare/v.1.1.1...v.1.1.2

Changelog

SciBlend 1.1.1

Release date: 2025-08-21

• Packaging

  • Switched to per-platform packages: windows-x64, linux-x64, macos-x64, macos-arm64.
  • Each zip now contains the exact wheels required for that platform plus common wheels.
  • blender_manifest.toml inside each zip remains unchanged and identical across all platforms.

• Dependencies

  • Kept matplotlib, pillow, fiona, pyogrio, pyproj, shapely, netCDF4, pandas, vtk pinned per platform (All of them are fundamental for the build).
  • Removed scipy from constraints by modifying the interpolation method inside of ShaderGen, as it was the only part of the extension using the library. It reduced the size of the addon from aprox 185 mb to 132 mb for better extensibility.

• Fixes

  • Replaced stray Scene properties with namespaced PropertyGroups:
    • LegendSettings → Scene.legend_settings.
    • CinematographySettings → Scene.cinematography_settings.
  • Registration hardened in SciBlend/__init__.py.
  • Removed threading; Paraview connector refactored to a safe modal operator. Currently working with GoP.py macro.

Changelog

Changelog summary

• Added

  • Integrated addons into a single View3D > Sidebar > SciBlend UI:
  • Legend Generator, Shader Generator, Grid Generator, Notes Generator, Shapes Generator, Compositor.

• Changed

  • Sidebar category unified to SciBlend for all panels.
  • Extension manifest blender_manifest.toml name changed to SciBlend.
  • Removed all submodule-level bl_info to comply with single-entry policy.

• Dependencies

  • Constraints updated: added matplotlib==3.8.4, pillow==10.4.0, scipy==1.11.4 (mirrored on macOS files).
  • Wheel fetch retained via scripts/fetch_wheels.sh; packaging via scripts/make_extension_zip.py.

• Fixed

  • Notes Generator: removed deprecated Material.shadow_method usage; version-safe shadow toggles for objects/materials.
  • Shapes Generator:
    • Always links last Alpha Over to Composite and Viewer.
    • LaTeX branch migrated to Matplotlib mathtext (text.usetex=False) for zero external TeX dependencies.
  • Shapes Generator panel typo fixed (custom_shape_path).

• CI/CD

  • GitHub Actions workflow builds matrix zips for Linux, Windows, macOS x64.
  • Artifacts named sciblend-1.1.0-{target}.zip.

• Docs

  • README updated and shorter.
  • Kept citation badges and added overview image.
  • Extensions list and install clarified.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/SciBlend/SciBlend/compare/v.1.0.0...v.1.1.0