SoftViz Pro
SoftViz Pro: Implementation & Technical Overview
SoftViz Pro is a high-performance viewport overlay for Blender 4.2, 4.5, and 5.0 designed to bridge the feedback gap in the Proportional Editing workflow. While Blender’s native tool uses a 2D circle to represent a 3D influence, SoftViz calculates and renders a per-vertex heatmap directly onto the geometry, providing feedback similar to industry standards like 3ds Max and Maya.
Quick Start
- Ensure you are in Edit Mode.
- Enable Proportional Editing (Shortcut:
O). - Open the N-Panel (Sidebar), find the SoftViz tab, and toggle the SoftViz Heatmap.
Technical Features
Geodesic vs. Euclidean Distance
- Euclidean (Connected Off): Uses a KDTree to calculate straight-line distance through 3D space. This is standard for "ball-shaped" influence.
- Geodesic (Connected On): Implements a Dijkstra-based pathfinding algorithm. It calculates topological distance by "walking" along connected edges, ensuring the heatmap accurately stops at physical mesh gaps or separate manifold parts.
GPU-Accelerated Drawing
Points are rendered natively using Blender's gpu module. By utilizing modern shaders instead of standard viewport primitives, the overlay remains performant even on high-poly meshes.
Depth Testing (X-Ray)
Users can toggle the depth state. When X-Ray is disabled, the script uses a LESS_EQUAL depth test against the current buffer, culling influence points hidden behind front-facing polygons.
Adaptive Scaling
- World Space: Dots scale with scene units (standard behavior).
- Screen Space: Dots are calculated based on camera depth and viewport distance to maintain a consistent pixel-width on your monitor regardless of zoom level.
Caching & Performance
To maintain high framerates, mathematical weights are cached. Calculations only re-trigger when the mesh selection, geometry count, or proportional settings (radius/falloff) are modified.
Operational Notes
Due to the architecture of Blender’s Python API, certain data is inaccessible while a Modal Operator is active (e.g., while actively dragging with G, R, or S).
- Scroll Wheel Sync: If you adjust the proportional radius using the scroll wheel while moving a vertex, the Python API cannot read the updated radius value in real-time.
- Update Behavior: The heatmap remains static during the scroll and will instantly recalculate and snap to the correct size as soon as the transform is confirmed (Left-Click/Enter) or the mouse pause-timer (0.2s) expires.
License
Licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. Copyright (c) 2026 Niels Couvreur.
What's New
No changelog for this release.
This Addon is great, I was looking for something like this for a long time in blender. I have some feedback to give to hopefully help make this even better:
an automatic disable threshold setting when trying to enter edit mode on meshes with too dense geometry would be ideal for comfort. 2) N panel tends to get cluttered easily, why not make the customization settings accessible from the Add-on tab in the Blender's properties, and put the SoftViz toggle button in either the Edit N Panel, the Proportional editing dropdown menu, or both? 3) When scrolling to adjust the size of proportional editing, the SoftViz heatmap doesn't update until you click to confirm the operation, it would be better if it updated itself with each increment of the proportional editing radius while scrolling.