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Poly Source — Blender Add-on

A compact toolkit for game-ready 3D modeling workflows in Blender: polycount feedback, boolean helpers, transform utilities, mesh cleanup, modifier presets, UE-texture material setup, topology diagnostics, unit grid overlay, and more.

Version: 5.0.5 · Author: Max Derksen · Blender: 4.2+ · License: GPL-3.0-or-later

Location: 3D View (headers, context menus, sidebar panels, and popovers).

Table of Contents

Features

Viewport and UI

  • Polycount header counters with click-to-select by topology type (N-gons, Quads, Tris). Configurable placement: Top Bar, Viewport Header Left/Right, Tool Header.
  • Polycount overlay — viewport widget showing scene triangle count vs. target budget with color-coded feedback (green / orange / red). Supports _LOW collection suffix filtering.
  • Tool Kit popover for quick access to transform reset and display settings.
  • Check Objects panel — real-time topology diagnostics: non-manifold edges, isolated vertices, boundary vertices, E-poles (5 edges), N-poles (3 edges), extraordinary poles (>5 edges), Inline (2) vertices (vertices connected to exactly 2 edges, often left after edge dissolve with vertex preservation), tris, N-gons, elongated triangles, and custom vertex count.
  • Unit Grid overlay — configurable grid/box drawn in the viewport with padding, sub-grid, cell size, alignment, height, X-Ray mode, and custom colors. Settings in the sidebar PS tab.
  • Color Randomizer — header buttons to add/remove incremental color prefix (CR#_) to object names for viewport random-color shading.
  • Boolean tool buttons in the 3D Viewport header (Difference, Union, Intersect, Slice).
  • Camera Sync controls — camera view toggle, lock camera to view, and lock camera transforms from the header.
  • RMB context menu integration under "Poly Source" (Object Mode and Edit Mode).
  • Outliner header button — quick "Set Random Name" for selected objects.
  • Snapping angle presets — quick-access buttons (5°–90°) in the Snapping popover (3D View and Image Editor).
  • Wireframe for Selected — automatically display wireframe overlay only on selected objects (toggle in Viewport Overlays).

Selection and Mesh Tools

  • Select Polygons by number of sides — pick N-gons, Quads, or Tris and switch to Edit Mode.
  • Clear Dots — delete single-vertex islands (vertices with no connected edges).
  • Remove Non Manifold Vertex — delete vertices not connected to any face.
  • Reset Vertex Location (Edit Mode) — move selected vertices to object origin, world origin, or 3D cursor, per-axis or all, with individual/grouped mode.
  • Fill From Points — connect selected vertices into a mesh using a minimum spanning tree algorithm.
  • Fill Mesh — generate faces from selected vertices by computing a convex hull.
  • Set Edge Data — smart toggle for Seam, Sharp, Bevel Weight, and Crease on selected edges. Supports combined modes (e.g. Seam + Sharp).
  • Cylinder Optimizer (Edit Mode) — reduce cylinder polygon count by dissolving selected edge loops with configurable skip/nth/offset pattern. Includes a "Rounding Up" mode to shape loops into perfect circles.

Transform Utilities

  • Reset transforms for selected objects (Location, Rotation, Scale) per-axis or all; optionally relative to the 3D Cursor.
  • Reset All — reset location, rotation, and scale in one click.
  • Transfer Transform Data — copy location, rotation, and/or scale from the active object to all selected objects.
  • Distribute Objects — evenly distribute selected objects along the X axis with spacing based on bounding box sizes (adjustable expose factor).

Transform+ Panel

Enhanced transform panel in the sidebar (PS tab) with:

  • Per-axis display of Location, Rotation, and Scale with inline reset-to-default buttons.
  • Copy to clipboard buttons for each transform type.
  • Rotation mode switcher (Euler, Quaternion, Axis-Angle) with full W/X/Y/Z support.
  • Lock toggles per axis.
  • Edit Mode section — toggle Vertex/Edge Bevel Weight and Crease.

Materials and Shading

  • Add Material — create and assign a default "PS Material" to all selected objects.
  • UE Material — create an Unreal Engine-style PBR material from texture maps:
    • Base Color Texture
    • Mask Texture (R=Roughness, G=Metallic, B=AO — auto-mixed with Base Color)
    • Normal Texture (G channel inverted automatically for UE convention)
    • Emissive Texture (R channel with configurable color and intensity)
    • "Apply to Active Material" toggle to rebuild nodes in an existing material.
  • Tris & Weighted Normal — apply smooth shading and add Triangulate + Weighted Normal modifiers with configurable mode, weight, threshold, keep sharp, and face influence.

Modifiers Presets

  • Triangulate — add a triangulate modifier with optimized quad splitting (Fixed) and N-gon method (Beauty).
  • Add Subdivision And Bevel — combined bevel + subdivision modifiers with presets: Default (weight-based), Wide (no clamp), Angle-Based.
  • Solidify — non-manifold solidify modifier with flat boundary mode and even thickness.

Booleans

Fast boolean operations with modifier hotkeys:

  • Bool Difference — subtract selected from active.
  • Bool Union — merge selected into active.
  • Bool Intersect — keep only overlapping volume.
  • Bool Slice — cut active into two parts (difference + intersection copy).

Modifiers:

  • Shift+LMB — keep the boolean operand object.
  • Ctrl+LMB — non-destructive brush mode (keep modifier live).

Object Utilities

  • Set Random Name — assign random 11-character names to selected objects (also in Outliner header).
  • Add Camera — create a camera aligned to the current viewport view with camera lock enabled.
  • Lock Camera Transforms — toggle location, rotation, and scale locks on the active camera.
  • Clear Data — remove vertex groups, shape keys, color attributes, and custom attributes from selected objects.
  • Clear Materials — remove all material slots from selected objects.

Cleanup

  • Delete Long Faces (Edit Mode) — dissolve vertices where adjacent edges form angles exceeding a configurable threshold. Supports comparison operators (greater than, less than, equal to, not equal to), face split, boundary tear, and selected-faces-only mode.

Installation

Extension (Blender 4.2+):

  1. Download the add-on ZIP.
  2. Blender → Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions → Install from Disk…
  3. Select the ZIP file and enable "Poly Source".

Legacy (from source):

  1. Copy the Poly_Source folder to Blender's addons directory.
  2. Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → search "Poly Source" and enable it.

How to Use

  • Viewport Header (Top Bar): Polycount counters with popover to Tool Kit and Check panels. Optional Boolean buttons, Camera Sync controls, and Color Randomizer (enable in Preferences).
  • RMB Context Menu → "Poly Source": Modifiers presets, utility operators, edge data toggles (Edit Mode), edge selection helpers.
  • Sidebar → PS tab:
    • Unit Grid — grid/box overlay configuration.
    • Transform+ — enhanced transform panel with per-axis reset and clipboard copy (enable in Preferences).
  • Snapping Popover: Angle increment presets (5°, 10°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°).
  • Viewport Overlays: "Display Wireframe for Selected" toggle (when enabled in Preferences).
  • Outliner Header: "Set Random Name" button.

Preferences

Find under Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Poly Source.

General tab:

Section Options
Viewport Header Color Randomizer, Bool Tool, Camera Sync buttons
Polycount Placement (Header, Viewport Left/Right, Tool Header), _LOW suffix filter, performance limits (max vertices, max objects)
Panels & Tools Transform+ panel, Wireframe for Selected, Snapping angle presets
Mesh Check Point/edge sizes, highlight colors for each topology check, including Inline (2) vertices for detecting leftover mid-edge points that can cause Subdivision artifacts
Unit Grid Grid and box colors
Links Blender Market, Gumroad, Artstation

Keymaps tab:

  • Open Tool Kit panel via Space (customizable; may conflict with other add-ons/keymaps).

Compatibility

  • Blender: 4.2+ including Blender 5.x (minimum version is defined in blender_manifest.toml).
  • Booleans: boolean operators use Blender's EXACT solver path for stable, predictable results across Blender 4.2+ and 5.x.
  • Other add-ons: some hotkeys or header insertions may overlap; adjust in Preferences as needed. Cylinder Optimizer's "Rounding Up" mode requires the LoopTools add-on.

License

This add-on is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.

Thanks for using Poly Source! If you encounter issues or have feature requests, please open an issue on the repository.