Blender Procedural Modeling and the Repeat Zone

[@joelgraff6550]

I like your approach of basically generating a "to do list" in the Group Input node first. It seems like a good way to brainstorm your requirements before building the tree.

[@danialsoozani]

Very nice tutorial specially for me as an architect! I didn't know you could zero out the repeat zone hence no divider when not needed. brilliant! Glad you're back ;)

[@npj5578]

Glad to see you back!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Thanks 😊

[@klever-kenneth]

Happy to see you back making quality content. Time to upgrade my patreon subscription!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

😊 thanks for watching and supporting!

[@mirko124]

Thank you. You`re explaining things so clearly

[@nunyabidnis3815]

Great lesson! Customizing the group Input from the start is _such_ a good idea, likewise, framing a reroute node with reusable values. Thanks also for the explanation of the repeat zone; hadn't realized you could use those without geometry plugged in!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Yeah, the repeat zone is super useful!

[@alexandreancel6423]

Great video, glad to see you back !

[@leodegrance5609]

Took me a couple of tries, but I got through it. Many thanks for illustrating this GeoNode method.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You're welcome!

[@arch.blender1178]

nice work, thank you

[@JohnnyMatthews]

😊

[@donstelfox6921]

What an eye opener. Thank you

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Glad it helped! 👍

[@_evildoer]

Nice to see the tutorials resume. Thanks.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You’re welcome!

[@claidisong4805]

Thank you very much! Exactly the kind of information I need.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Glad it was helpful. :)

[@marc.levinson]

So glad you're back! Thank you! It would be cool to see these shelves procedurally filled with random sets of records (Similar to your paper piles) and other collections of differently shaped objects (Like the simulated glass containers) I.e. How could you map and assign various collections of objects to each cubby?

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Great idea!

[@neilmarshall5087]

36:17 Its broken. You can see the vertical dividers in the video have a gap underneath, causing a shadow. The tops are also inserting into the shelf above. Its seems to be a fault with the Cubbies High number. Too late & I am too tired to figure it out. Already rewatched the whole video - so I will just leave a comment. Is it your 'second method seems best' that is the problem ??? The shelves sneak up as cubby high is increased. Great to see you again - but mutter mutter...

[@anicapalini]

I agree and there is a similar error with the horizontal Dividers if there are more than two Cubbies Wide the space between are not even. For example if the Cubby Size is 30cm. with 3 Cubbies Wide, the first space is 30.25cm, the second is 29.5 and the third is 30.25cm., but of course on this axis there is no Gap so it is only a precision problem. (Cubes are not Cubes 😕) I tried to figure it out but without success 😞 Great to see you back Johnny, as always I Love your contents and the clear and detailed explanations. Thank you!

[@23lkjdfjsdlfj]

This video also shows how quickly you can get a rats nest of route lines. A solution that works great for me is to calculate all of your constants (widths, heights, half-widths, etc.) on the main geo-node page (everything clearly marked by frames), then feed those into a placement sub-geo-node group. This works because the sub-geo-node group can freely duplicate the input node and place these wherever needed to make the routing clean and understandable. This was a game changer for me as it allows me to scale to vastly more complicated designs without losing my mind.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Yeah, that's a great way to organize things!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Also looking back through this video I didn’t spend nearly enough time keeping things tidy. 🫤

[@khellstr]

You can add labels to reroutes with F2. No need to add frame. Although they are a bit easier to move when framed.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Yeah, I like framing them, because they really stand out that way. Also you can change the color of the frame and make the text huge if you like :)

[@ShadowMakerSdR]

Very nice and detailed tutorial. Thank you for this. Especially the way you explain beforehand what you're aiming to achieve and how you intend to achieve them. One thing I was wondering about, before the repeat zone, you could also replicate shelves etc with instances etc if I'm not mistaken. I've seen people make very intricate arrays that way. What is the added benefit of using the repeat zone for this?

[@JohnnyMatthews]

I don't know that there is an overall benefit. Since the number of cubes is very low, instancing isn't going to save you much as far as memory goes. I think part of it goes towards your thinking process. Instancing can work well if you have a good scaffolding to put the instances on, but if your thought process is thinking more in a loop fashion, then this way might make more sense. Blender is great that way, there are multiple ways to achieve the same outcome. Find the way that works best for you!

[@quackers969]

Cool stuff, I think as an educational resource for showing how the Repeat Zone works, it's quite good. But a word of warning to anyone watching this, using the Repeat Zone like this in production is often times a bad idea. At least when compared to more traditional array techniques like with Instance on Points or Duplicate Elements. There's usually quite a steep performance overhead for Repeat Zone, usually 50-100x slower than setups that avoid them for a medium-size input. Input size does matter here because a key thing about the Repeat Zone is that the performance cost compounds the more iterations you do. So you wouldn't feel much of the cost if you made a 5x5 shelf, but making it 10x10 would usually more than 4x the cost. And scaling that to a 50x50 shelf would likely make Blender chug, if not crash, for a lot of systems. Whereas that would usually still be a trivial amount for something built with Duplicate Elements. The point there isn't that you'd need to make a 50x50 shelf in any practical setting, it's moreso that the cost for Repeat Zone adds up, and it adds up quickly. IMO a Repeat Zone should only be used in cases where what you're making is inherently iterative (like a point relax or raymarching), or it's recursive like a fractal. And only because a loop can't be avoided in those cases. In cases where other solutions, you'd almost always wanna avoid Repeat Zone. As you're using something that's more tedious to link up and ends up substantially slower anyways.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

That’s a good point. This was definitely a “let’s break down the use in a useful but simple situation”.

[@JohnWesleyDavison]

Ha! Revisit a geometry nodes set up after I've created it? I'm afraid to even use the geometry nodes monstrosities I've created.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Hahahaha. I feel you there!

[@Mix3Design]

This tutorial is great for beginners! However, it would be even better if you could visually show the nodes step by step and explain what each one does as you go. This way, it’s easier to follow along and understand, rather than adding everything at once before showing the result.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Yeah, this was more of a thought process video, than a node use tutorial. Thanks for your input and thanks for watching!