Arcane Rifter
Pixonix Studio
📖 Official Manual v1.6.1 LTS Blender 4.2 – 5.1+
ARCANE RIFTER DOCUMENTATION
Complete user guide, viewport shortcuts, modifier management, and workflow reference for artists and technical designers.
Quick Navigation
1. Installation & Setup 2. Interactive Drawing Workflow 3. Tab-Lock & G/R/S Transforms 4. Snapping & Mirror Symmetry 5. Hard Surface Pipeline & Shading 6. ModScroll Stack Inspector 7. Custom Cutter Asset Library 8. Mesh Doctor (Audit & Clean) 9. Game Engine Export Prep 10. Complete Shortcut Reference
1️⃣ Installation & Getting Started
Installing via Blender 4.2+ Extension Manager
- Download the latest release ZIP (e.g.
arcane_rifter-1.6.1.zip). - In Blender, go to Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions.
- Click the top-right menu icon (arrow dropdown) and select Install from Disk...
- Select the downloaded ZIP file and confirm.
- The add-on will instantly enable and register with no restart required.
🛠️ Toolbar Active Tool
Click the dedicated Knife-Cut icon in the 3D Viewport left toolbar (or press Space / active tool hotkey) to draw directly.
📑 N-Panel Sidebar
Press N in the 3D View and click the Rifter tab to access Pipeline tools, Preset Library, Solver Preferences, and Active Cutters.
⚡ Radial Pie Menu
Press Shift + Q on any selected mesh for instantaneous context-sensitive access to sharpening, baking, and drawing.
2️⃣ Interactive Viewport Drawing Workflow
With a mesh selected and the Arcane Rifter tool active, click and drag on any surface to start a cut:
1. Initial Click & Drag: Defines the 2D base width and height projected directly on the surface plane. Sizing starts uniformly, then remains independent.
2. 3-Axis Dimension Control (Key 'C' + Wheel): Press C to cycle the mouse wheel focus between Depth, Width, and Height. Scroll the wheel to adjust the active dimension (Shift for precision).
3. Cycle Boolean Operations (Key 'D'): Press D to cycle through:
- Difference: Inward penetration with calculated bevel clearance.
- Union (Join): Extends outward along surface normal with guarded watertight overlap.
- Slice: Cuts and splits the target into independent sub-meshes.
- Intersect: Keeps only the overlapping volume.
- Inset: Creates a recessed border panel cut.
4. Cycle Shapes (Key 'S'): Press S to switch between Box, Circle (with segment controls), NGON (freeform poly-lines), and Custom Presets.
5. Interactive Modifier Hotkeys:
• B or B + Wheel: Adjust cutter bevel radius.
• T or T + Wheel: Adjust Solidify thickness.
• V or V + Wheel: Adjust array count; press X/Y/Z to switch linear array direction.
• T or T + Wheel: Adjust Solidify thickness.
• V or V + Wheel: Adjust array count; press X/Y/Z to switch linear array direction.
6. Commit or Cancel: Confirm the cut with a second Left Click, Enter, or Space. Cancel cleanly with Right Click or Esc.
3️⃣ Tab-Lock & Standard Blender Transforms
One of Arcane Rifter's biggest workflow innovations is Tab-Lock:
1. While drawing or sizing any cutter, press Tab. The cutter preview freezes in place in 3D world space.
2. Press G to Grab/Move, R to Rotate, or S to Scale.
3. Use standard Blender axis constraints (X, Y, Z) or numeric typed values.
4. Press Tab again to unlock and resume fluid modal drawing, or press Enter to commit immediately.
2. Press G to Grab/Move, R to Rotate, or S to Scale.
3. Use standard Blender axis constraints (X, Y, Z) or numeric typed values.
4. Press Tab again to unlock and resume fluid modal drawing, or press Enter to commit immediately.
4️⃣ Evaluated Snapping & Mirror Symmetry
🧲 Evaluated Depsgraph Snapping
Hold Ctrl while dragging to snap the cursor to:
• Evaluated Vertices & Edges: Snaps to visual geometry produced by Subdivision, Mirror, or Boolean modifiers.
• Configurable Grid: Snaps to the grid increment set in the Drawing Assistance panel.
• Configurable Grid: Snaps to the grid increment set in the Drawing Assistance panel.
🪞 Mirror-Aware Cutting
When cutting a mesh with an active Mirror modifier:
• The cutter automatically duplicates the target's mirror axes, bisect settings, clipping, merge threshold, and custom mirror object.
• Press M during a draw to toggle symmetry on or off on the fly.
• Press M during a draw to toggle symmetry on or off on the fly.
5️⃣ Hard Surface Pipeline: Sharpening & Smart Apply
sSharpen (Smooth)
Applies smooth shading to selected meshes, assigns Bevel Weights (1.0) to edges exceeding the sharp angle threshold (default 30°), and adds managed Smooth-by-Angle Geometry Nodes + Weighted Normal modifiers.
cSharpen (Complex)
Bakes all live Boolean modifiers into the underlying mesh data, recalculates boundary bevel weights on newly formed intersections, and sets up a fresh non-destructive Bevel modifier.
Smart Apply
Bakes modifiers based on scope (Booleans Only, All, or Up To Bevel), cleans up orphan cutter objects automatically, and reapplies surface finishing layers.
Apply Finishing to Selected: Located in the Defaults & Solver panel, this operator synchronizes or updates the managed Smooth-by-Angle and Weighted Normal modifiers across any batch selection of mesh objects.
6️⃣ ModScroll: Interactive Modifier Inspection
Launch ModScroll from the N-Panel, Shift+Q Pie, or Cutter Editor to step through an object’s modifier stack step-by-step:
• Scroll Wheel Up / Down (or Up/Down Arrows): Advances or rolls back visibility through the modifier stack.
• On-Screen HUD: Displays the complete modifier sequence with active and visible indicators.
• Left Click / Enter / Space: Confirms and keeps the chosen visibility state.
• Right Click / Esc: Cancels and instantly restores original modifier visibility.
• On-Screen HUD: Displays the complete modifier sequence with active and visible indicators.
• Left Click / Enter / Space: Confirms and keeps the chosen visibility state.
• Right Click / Esc: Cancels and instantly restores original modifier visibility.
7️⃣ Custom Cutter Preset & Asset Library
💾 Save to Project
Select any closed mesh object and click Save to Project. The mesh is normalized and saved inside the active
.blend file as a lightweight preset. 🌍 Publish Shared Asset
Click Publish Shared to export the shape into your cross-project library folder with categories, search tags, and an auto-rendered isometric preview thumbnail.
• Folder Button: Select a custom local, external, or cloud-synced directory (e.g. Dropbox / OneDrive / Google Drive).
• Asset Browser Button: Registers your shared cutter library folder with Blender’s native Asset Browser in a single click.
• Search Bar: Instantly filter cutters by name, category, or tag in the N-Panel or Shift+Q menu.
• Asset Browser Button: Registers your shared cutter library folder with Blender’s native Asset Browser in a single click.
• Search Bar: Instantly filter cutters by name, category, or tag in the N-Panel or Shift+Q menu.
8️⃣ Mesh Doctor (Topology Diagnostics & Repair)
Hard-surface Booleans can occasionally produce non-manifold geometry or unapplied scale warnings. Mesh Doctor provides automated diagnostics and conservative repair:
Audit Mesh: Scans selected objects and reports boundary edges, wire edges, non-manifold multi-face edges, loose vertices, zero-area degenerate faces, NGON counts, and unapplied/negative scale warnings.
Clean Mesh: Safely merges duplicate vertices within merge distance, dissolves degenerate edges, purges loose geometry, and recalculates consistent face normals.
9️⃣ Game Engine Export Prep
Preparing complex modifier-heavy assets for game engines (Unreal Engine 5, Unity, Godot) is fully automated:
- Select the finished mesh and click Game Engine Export Prep in the N-Panel or Q-Menu.
- Choose export format: FBX, glTF 2.0 (GLB), or OBJ.
- Arcane Rifter creates a non-destructive duplicate, bakes all modifiers from top to bottom, triangulates the geometry to lock custom vertex normals, configures engine axis transforms, and exports the asset.
- The temporary duplicate is cleanly purged, leaving your original procedural model untouched.
🔟 Complete Modal Shortcut Cheat Sheet
| Hotkey | Function | Details |
|---|---|---|
| D | Cycle Operation | Difference → Slice → Union → Intersect → Inset |
| S | Cycle Shape | Box → Circle → NGON → Custom Preset |
| C | Cycle Wheel Axis | Switch mouse wheel focus between Depth, Width, and Height |
| Wheel | Adjust Dimension | Adjust active dimension (Shift for 10x precision) |
| B + Wheel | Cutter Bevel | Toggle & adjust cutter edge bevel with front clearance |
| T + Wheel | Solidify Cut | Toggle & adjust solidify thickness for hollow shapes |
| V + Wheel | Array Count | Toggle & adjust array count (X/Y/Z to change axis) |
| Ctrl (Hold) | Evaluated Snapping | Snap to evaluated vertices, edges, or custom grid |
| M | Mirror Toggle | Toggle mirror-aware cutting across target Mirror modifier |
| Alt + Wheel | Shape History | Recall recent cutter profiles and aspect ratios |
| Tab | Lock / Unlock | Lock cutter in 3D space to use standard Blender G / R / S |
| Backspace | Undo NGON Point | Remove the latest vertex while drawing an NGON shape |
| LMB / Enter | Commit Cut | Finalize non-destructive cut onto target geometry |
| RMB / Esc | Cancel | Abort the current operation without modifying the scene |
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| Blender Extension Compatible | Yes |
| Dev Fund Contributor | |
| Published | about 2 months ago |
| Blender Version | 4.2 - 5.2 |
| Extension Type | Add-on |
| License | GPL |