Scattering

Flow 4.1 version adds several new options to scatter the assets from the Flow libraries. The assets can be simply scattered on the selected mesh, scattered along curve or added as an array (regular or randomized).

Important!

Since Flow 5.0 the operations will be using the Blender Asset Browser selected asset by default. They are available only when Instance linking type is selected.

Despite there are lots of Blender addons for scattering, we've decided to provide the possibility of scattering your assets from the Flow library in the easy way, without external addons. However, if you need more complex systems, it's just recommended to use one of the amazing scattering addons available.

Simple Scattering

To use the simple scatter, select the asset from the Library as usual, and then select the target object as an active. Then, press Scatter on Active button. In the popup window, set the density and minimal distance between the instances, then press OK to automatically distribute the asset on the active mesh. The new object with instances will be created, basing on the initial geometry shape, location, rotation, scale etc. To move the scatter, simply move the target geometry. Do not move the emitter object.

Adding further assets

Further assets can be also loaded to the initial target mesh with this feature. You can select the target geometry or the emitter, and the new modifier with another asset will be automatically loaded to the emitter object.

Scattering Along Curve

To scatter the asset along curve, select the asset and press Scatter on Curve button. If the currently active object in the viewport is a curve, the scattering modifier will be automatically assigned to it. Otherwise, the new curve object will be created and you will be automatically switched into the edit mode, with Draw Curve tool activated. Then simply draw a curve on the surface to see your asset scattered.

Unfortunately curves in Blender being drawn, are snapping also to the instances objects, so to draw curve eg. on the ground, it is recommended to switch viewport visibility of any scattering modifiers off.

To add further assets, it's recommended to create a new curve.