Modifiers Should Provide Option to NOT Deform
There are so many tutorials out there on how to get array/curve modifiers not to deform meshes. I can't even figure out how to do it yet despite all the tutorials. Why are there so many tutorials for something that should just be a toggle On/Off? On the array mod you should be able to just tell it not to deform right there. Shouldn't have to come up with this clever, many-step hack.
When 24,107 tutorials pop up for the exact same extremely basic problem that shouldn't even be a problem, that often points to an especially dumb part of the software that should be and can be made to be way less dumb.
6 Comments
There are several ways to do this now. Make a geometry node for yourself that does this action once and forget about the problems.
Or assemble a tool without geonodes and put it in the asset manager. Make an array of planes, make the object that you do not want to deform a child of the plane array, then in the properties panel for the plane array go to Object / Instancing / Faces
Well, don't use an array + a curve. It's a method that's rather outdated, and 24,107 YouTube tutorials haven't realized that geometry nodes are the better choice.
It's very convenient as a built-in modifier. Blender's modifier method for this is antiqued and forcing users to rely on a geo node network they need to build and save themselves simply reinforces Blender's strange aversion to convenience features that other packages have had for years.
The same issue was expressed for a long time regarding Radial Array: these are heavily used convenience features built in for very easy access in other packages. They should be available as built-in modifiers.
Geometry node have it's advantages, but the goal of blender is to reduce friction between complexity and abstraction, having a one click button that does lot of things is way more convenient than having to reinvent the wheel from scratch each time, and in production i'm sorry but i still use array with empty object to do an array circle than geometry-node setup as i really don't have sparse time to waste just to remember which was sota implementation and connect all the nodes each time i need this tool. And say "create your own tool if you need it often" is an euphemism, without proper way to like pip install softyoda-array-circle or copy/past settings from blender extension platform, i'll just never use it, i have around 3/4 blender install on my computer and 1/2 on the 8 other computer i use at work i use to do render or help colleagues, or the 20 computers student uses or the sparse laptop i sometime use, etc..
You make the geonode modifier once, and save it as an asset. You don't have to recreate it every time you want one.
An option to only affect origins and rotation would indeed be great, rather than having to set up proxies each time.