Installing Addon

1. Download the zip file
2. Open Blender 3.6-4.1(4.2 support coming soon)
3. Go to Edit>Preferences
4. On the left, select Addons
5. Select Install
6. Select the downloaded zip file
7. Click the checkbox next to the newly installed Addon

Adding Zippers to Your Mesh

To add Zippers to a mesh.

1. On the right side of the 3D View, open the side panel (Hotkey: “N” while mouse is in 3D View)
2. Select the panel labeled “Workman3D" and open the “Zipper Tools” panel if it is closed.
3. Adjust the “Scale All” setting to ensure it matches your scene, This will adjust the scaling of all assets to fit larger or smaller scenes. For example, if set to 1, stitch length will be in mm, while 1000 will be Meters. Default is set to 10 to be close to default scene size. If this number is too low it can cause scene crashes when trying to add Zippers, too high and Zippers may not be small enough to fit the curve.
4. (Optional): Adjust any default settings as desired in advance by opening each subpanel.
5. Click “Add Zipper to Mesh”. This will create an empty curve, add the needed assets to the curve, link the selected mesh to the assets, and set the curve into edit mode. No Zipper will be visible yet.
6. While still in edit mode, add vertices using the Curve Pen tool, or draw a curve on the surface using the Draw tool. Both tools are on the left side of the 3D View, if not visible open the tool panel(Hotkey: “T” while mouse is in 3D View). Draw tool should be set to “Surface” mode for best results.
7. Exit edit mode(Hotkey: “Tab” while mouse is in 3D View) when finished making/adjusting curve. Re-enter edit mode on a curve to adjust the curve as needed later.

Selected vs Default Settings

When a Zipper curve is the active object, settings in the panel will directly affect that curve, and the panel will say “ACTIVE” under Zipper Properties. When the active object is not a Zipper curve, or there is no active object the panel will control the Default setting and will say “DEFAULTS” under Zipper Properties(note, active object is not the same as selected objects. Deselecting a curve will still keep it active until you make another object active). 

When adding a Zipper to a selected mesh, the settings of the new Zipper curve will be the same as the current default settings. Additionally, with an active Zipper curve, use the “Set as Defaults” button to store the currently active Zipper curve settings as the new default settings. This will allow you to make more Zippers with the same or similar properties easily. 

Zipper Controls

This is a list of controls, separated by sub-panel. If a control only appears under certain conditions, conditions will be listed in parentheses.

•  Zipper Scale: Affects scaling of all elements to better match the scene. Too small may cause crashes, too large may cause Zippers to not be visible.
• Zipper Design
  • Reverse Curve: Reverses direction of the zipper(top becomes bottom and vice versa)
  • Teeth Type: Select which of the three type of teeth to use(Molded plastic, Metal, and Coil)
  • Zipper: Shows and hides the zipper from the curve.
  • Left/Right: Shows and hides the left/right side of the zipper teeth.
  • Connected: Adds a connector to the bottom to resemble a zipper that cannot be fully opened.
  • Stopper: Adds a stopper to the bottom where the Zipper will rest against when in the fully down position
  • Zipper Open Distance(coming soon with 2.0): controls how far apart the top of the zippers are when partially open.
  • Zipper Position(coming soon with 2.0): controls where the zipper is in the curve, allowing what is above the zipper to be open.
• Zipper Materials
  • Teeth Color/Roughness/Metal: Controls Material properties of the teeth, and similar items like the bottom connector.
  • Zipper Color/Roughness/Metal: Controls Material properties of the Zipper, and similar items like the stopper.

Linked vs Local Assets

This tools assets are imported using a link method from a source file imbeded in the addon. This will allow future add-on updates to apply to previous scenes made in previous versions of the tool. For future updates, updating the addon will cause all scenes made v1.x branch to use the updated add-on toolset after restarting Blender. While this will make updating the tools easier, it does come with a drawback. Opening a scene with linked assets without the addon installed will not have Zippers, and saving the scene in that state could permanently delete the stitches.

As a failsafe for this issue, I have added a “Make All Linked Assets Local” button. This will remove the links of all scene assets to outside files, making them permanently part of the current blender file. Note: This will also affect all linked assets, not just those from this addon, take caution if you use other linked assets in your scene. If needed, look up how to manually unlink assets, all assets linked are node groups.

Once assets are no longer linked, the file can still use the addon to add and adjust Zipper as before, but will not update to newer versions of the tools. This will also allow the Zippers to be visible when opened without the addon installed, though the panel cannot be used to add and adjust Zippers without the addon installed. I recommend saving the file as a copy after unlinking, so both the linked version and unlinked version are available. 

This tool is available for purchase on Gumroad