Apply (all) modifiers should be much faster
I'm working a lot with geometry heavy CAD scenes and using a lot decimate modifiers to them or Weighted Normal. They can get quite slow but once processed the end result mesh is in memory and fast to use. BUT if I need to apply the modifiers into the mesh it takes a long processing AGAIN !!! Why doesn't Blender simply use the final mesh visible on screen and saved in memory to replace the base mesh + modifiers? It would be MUUUCH faster in 99% of cases (all modifier on, no need to think it through). Instead it's reevaluating the modifiers again for ages!!!
Same of cause on exporting meshes with modifiers and apply modifiers on. Just take the already computed end mesh and use it.
3 Comments
How are you applying all modifiers? Applying
Visual Geometry to Mesh?Hi Pablo, its a well known issue that Visual Geometry to Mesh is way slower than it should be.
As a example, if you have a bunch of modifiers and a very highpoly mesh. And its decimated using a decimate modifier, lets say it takes about 45s to do, it would then take another 45s to apply it with the Visual Geometry to Mesh, even if the resulted mesh might only be 10k tris!! Whats weird is that the calculated mesh is already there on the screen??
I made a add-on that fixes it, so instead of taking 45s, you instantly get the mesh with all its modifers applied in usually less than 0.1s. The operation is called "Instant Apply Modifiers" and can be found in this Add-on in the N Panel or using Alt C. extensions.blender.org/add-ons/key-ops-toolkit/
Hope it could be eventually added to Blender by deafult as well, as it would save a lot of time!
Edit - Another option that is also equal as fast is to use the Edit Mesh Modifier in the Modifier List add-on: extensions.blender.org/add-ons/modifier-list-fork/ The good thing is that this is more none destructive.
I would also give the user an option to save the end mesh into the Blender file, because on opening files the same duplicate calculations are made over the base meshes, costing time.