Beginner's Guide to Modding for Banished PART 1B - a simple fence with Blender

[scoutae4]

PART 1B: Same as PART 1A, only in Blender!

**Update 11/8/2023: numbers 22 & 23 revised to add APPLY LOCATION**

My thanks as always to @kid1293 who created the model and the original tutorial! Truly.

I am a beginner so this may have to be corrected/refined down the road as I learn what I don't yet know. All comments, corrections, suggestions are welcome!

CTRL + Z = UNDO <- this is your friend. 

Some basic navigation in Blender using a three button mouse:

ROTATE: Press + Hold the Middle Mouse Button
ZOOM: Scroll Middle Mouse Button
PAN: Shift + Middle Mouse Button


.01 Launch Blender and click outside of the WELCOME SPLASH (or press escape) to make it go away.



.02 SHIFT + CLICK to select the CAMERA, CUBE, and LIGHT from your 3D VIEWPORT, and press DELETE to remove them.



.03 Right click on the TIMELINE at the bottom of your screen and select CLOSE AREA as we will not need this (for now at least, possibly in the future if the game developer makes Banished open source?)



.04 From the PROPERTIES MENU on the bottom right, select the SCENE PROPERTIES tab, and toggle the UNITS section. Change the UNIT SYSTEM to METRIC, and the UNIT SCALE to 1.000000. A square on the grid in Blender will now equal 1 meter squared and 1 game tile square in Banished.



.05 Press Shift + A to call up the ADD options and select MESH > CUBE to add a cube to your scene. As you can see the cube sits beneath the "floor" in our 3D VIEWPORT grid. We need to make it level with the ground.



.06 Enable TOGGLE X-RAY in the top right of your 3D VIEWPORT (or press ALT + Z) so we can see through the faces of our cube for easier editing.



.07 SWITCH from OBJECT MODE to EDIT MODE in the top left menu of the 3D VIEWPORT (or press TAB to quick switch). Next to the EDIT MODE menu, select FACE SELECT to activate that option.



.08 Click the bottom face of the cube to select and make it active. Now let's display the SIDEBAR by clicking on the teeny tiny arrow on the top right of 3D VIEWPORT (or press "N" to undock it). This will show us the TRANSFORM settings.



.09 Under MEDIAN, we can see that the Z axis at -1. Change this to 0 to bring the selected face of our cube up to ground level. This is a good place to save your progress. *Credit to @Discrepancy wherever they may be!



.10 Now press TAB to switch back into OBJECT MODE. Take a look at the DIMENSIONS for our shape in the TRANSFORM settings. Also take a look at the SCALE numbers: 1, 1, 1



.11 Change the DIMENSIONS to X = .08, Y = .08, Z = .6 to match the fence we created in the SketchUp tutorial PART 1A. Zoom in and admire your new fence post! Notice that the SCALE numbers have changed. Blender thinks that your fence post is a distorted version of the cube and will apply textures accordingly: we do not want that!



.12 To get Blender to recognize that our fence post is in its' original state, we need to select it and then APPLY THE SCALE by pressing CONTROL + A > SCALE. The SCALE in the TRANSFORM settings should now be reset to 1, 1, 1. 



.13 We need to make a copy of our fence post, but instead of just making a copy, let's make it a LINKED COPY so any changes we make to one fence post will also be applied to the other. Tap ALT + D and see that your cursor now has a copy of the fence post loaded. We want to place it on the X axis, so tap "X" while it is loaded to constrain the placement along the X axis. When you "click" you will place your fence (don't worry about being precise, we will fix this in the next steps). You should now see in your OUTLINER section (top right) a Collection with 2 Cubes.



14. Let's rename your meshes. When you click the names the associated mesh is highlit in your 3D VIEWPORT. Name the first fence post we created that is sitting on the grid center point "Fence Post 1", and name the new one we just created "Fence Post 2".



15. Since we set up our workspace in Blender to have 1 grid square equal 1 game tile in Banished we know we need to move "Fence Post 2" to be one meter from "Fence Post 1". With "Fence Post 2" selected, change the LOCATION of X to = 1 in the TRANSFORM settings.



16. Now we need to build our railings. Create a new cube with SHIFT+A  > MESH  > CUBE. It's HUGE! Tap "S" to initiate the SCALE tool and move your mouse around to get a feel for how the tool works. Reduce the size to somewhere close to the example below and then CLICK to apply it.



17. Back in TRANSFORM settings, change the DIMENSIONS to match the railings we created in SketchUp: X = 1, Y = .04, Z =.08  Rename this "Rail Top" in your Collection if you wish.



18. APPLY the scale to your new railing: CONTROL + A > Scale. The scale should now reset itself to 1, 1, 1.  Now we need to move the rail into place. Tap "G" to activate the GRAB tool which will "load" the rail onto your cursor, then tap X to lock it on the X axis. Click to roughly place it in the center of your two posts (we made our rail wider than it needs to be so we don't have to be precise.)



19. Tap "G" again to activate the GRAB tool, but this time tap "Z" to lock your rail to the Z axis and lift to place it roughly where we did in the SketchUp version.



20. It's hard to tell from this angle if we've place it correctly. Press the TILDE key "~" to activate the PIE MENU, and select FRONT (or press "1" on your number keypad). This will give you a front view of your model.



21. Ah, we need to adjust it so it's centered. We can "eyeball" it using the GRAB tool (tap G, then X, then CLICK to place), or change the LOCATION of X to .5m in the TRANSFORM settings



22. We have already applied the scale to this item, but since we moved this to a new location we also need to APPLY the LOCATION with: CONTROL + A > Location. This will reset the LOCATION of X,Y,Z to 0 in your Transform settings.



23. Make a duplicate of your Top Railing with SHIFT + D and then tap Z to constrain it along that axis and click to place it. When you are happy with it's location, APPLY the LOCATION with: CONTROL + A > Location. Rename it Rail Bottom if you wish.



24. Deselect your rail, and then adjust your view using the middle mouse button. Toggle X-Ray Off (ALT+Z) and admire your new creation!


Save your fence! This will be the version we use in next parts.



A Little Extra   



As we did in SketchUp, let's create a decorative top for our fence posts.

Earlier in this tutorial we created a LINKED COPY of our fence post so that changes made to one will be applied to the other.

Activate EDIT MODE and FACE SELECT. Select the top face of one of your fence posts. Tap "E" to activate the EXTRUDE tool, and lift the top up a bit as in the image below, then CLICK to confirm the change.



Tap "S" to activate the SCALE tool and flare the face out a bit as in the image below, and then CLICK to confirm.



Tap "E" to again activate the EXTRUDE tool, and lift the top face up a bit as in the image below, and CLICK to confirm.

[scoutae4]

This YouTube tutorial series looks like it will be an excellent primer! He's only 2 episodes deep as I write this but the model he's creating is for Cites: Skylines AND he's structuring it as though you are a complete beginner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15UGt7_noUY&t=1s&ab_channel=MartinNorlin

[HappyLeighEverAfter]

i have too many chores to be able to start this today, but tomorrow or thursday i will try a "side by side taste test" for both the sketchup tutorial, and the blender one, and see how it goes.

thanks also for the yt link, i do love a good tutorial video! i am currently using this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XwGAliimSU to help me build my 1st pc! (all my parts finally arrived)

[scoutae4]

Whoa, exciting!! The closest I've come to a custom build is to use PC Partpicker to create a shopping list that I hand over to the dudes (it's always a dude) at Micro Center 

[scoutae4]

Having trouble SELECTING in Blender? ...me too sometimes Here's the solve! 

A common reason for not being able to select the object you want is that you are already in edit mode for another object.

When you are in edit mode, you can only manipulate and change the geometry and data that belongs to the object that was selected when you entered edit mode.

To select another object if the issue is that you are in edit mode, follow these steps:

    Check the top left corner of the 3D viewport and see if the drop-down menu there says object mode or edit mode (if you are in object mode, this is not your problem).
    If it says edit mode press tab to exit edit mode for your current object.
    Now you will be able to select another object in your scene

Keep in mind that you can be in edit mode for multiple objects at once. Just select multiple objects one by one by holding shift and click and then press tab to enter edit mode.

source: https://artisticrender.com/8-reasons-why-you-cannot-select-your-object-in-blender/