How can I render an edge only mesh as solid lines?

Question

I have a schematic of a raspberry pi that is completely flat, no solid faces, just connected vertices.

Is it possible to render these lines somehow, so that it looks like a 2D drawing?

Maybe with freestyle?

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2784/rendering-with-wireframe, http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2838/create-a-rounded-wireframe, http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2372/how-to-render-a-pixelated-occluded-wireframe-with-freestyle, http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/605/can-cycles-wireframe-material-be-coerced-into-displaying-tris-quads-and-ngons (Yes, lots of related stuff :P) — gandalf3, Oct 02 '13 at 19:25
For what it's worth, there are a lot of YouTube tutorials on using Blender/Freestyle to create blueprint-style schematics of objects. https://m.youtube.com/results?q=blender%20blueprint%20freestyle Since you just have a 2D object, it might be more than you need, but they're helpful in general. — TIA, May 20 '16 at 17:26

Ray Mairlot · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-27T15:25:15.070

14

Note: This answer is for 2.79 only. For 2.8+ you will have to look at some of the other answers.

The simplest way to render an object that has no faces is to change the material type in the internal renderer to a 'Wire' material:

enter image description here

The mesh on the left, when rendered, looks like the image on the right:

enter image description here

I also changed it to be 'Shadeless' in the shading panel of the material so that it wouldn't be affected by shadows and would be lit equally.

edited May 27 '20 at 15:25

answered Oct 02 '13 at 14:49

Ray Mairlot

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Thanks, this is exactly what I need, I'll accept that as an answer. Just out of curiosity is freestyle capable of that also, or it needs to have a solid mesh? – marchello Oct 02 '13 at 15:02
@marchello I'm afraid I'm unsure of that, I did try it (and failed) but I don't use freestyle enough to know for sure. – Ray Mairlot Oct 02 '13 at 15:14
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Is it possible to change the rendered edge width? Thanks. – ollydbg23 Apr 20 '15 at 07:50
How do I set this after the major UI overhaul in Blender 2.81? I can't find it in Materials Settings... – Paulo Carvalho Feb 07 '20 at 17:48
@PauloCarvalho You have to use one of the other answers. This answer is for the Blender Internal render engine which was removed in 2.8. – Ray Mairlot Feb 07 '20 at 18:20
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@RayMairlot What other answers? – Paulo Carvalho May 25 '20 at 21:00

Haunt_House · Answer 2 · 2013-10-03T17:55:46.413

It seems as if freestyle doesn't care for wireframe meshes. Even faces aren't recognized if they have 0 surface area (edge extruded and escaped).

If you want to achieve that effect with freestyle then assign a material to your mesh (with faces) that has Z Transparency enabled. Alpha and Specularity should be set to 0.0.

To make the flat edgelines visible for freestyle, just extrude them all away from the camera. Then select the edges that you want to keep seeing with a Border Select and hit CtrlE - Mark Freestyle Edge. Set freestyle to render nothing but Edge Mark. The transparent material will hide the surplus geometry.

enter image description here

Alternatively you can set the material to Cast Only in the Shadow panel. It works if your scene doesn't have shadows.

Or you can disable Solid in the Layer panel of the Render Layers. Then nothing gets rendered except the freestyle pass. I get the best results if I disable Chaining and set the Caps to Round in the Freestyle Line Style panel.

The advantages: You don't have to display every edge. You can control line thickness and line style very creatively. Dashed lines are possible, to name just one option.

blender wireframe freestyle comparison

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 02 '13 at 17:50

11

For the sake of completeness, there is also the possibility to use the skin modifier. It removes faces (if present) from your mesh and builds tubes intersecting at all vertices.

Below a screenshow showing original mesh (manually deleted faces), with skin modifier and last with skin modifier and subdivision modifier.

You can scale the tubing thickness at each vertices (use ctrl+A in edit mode).

Skin modifier screenshot

answered Oct 02 '13 at 17:50

Gunslinger

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You can reduce the polycount adding a decimate modifier set to Planar. In you exemple, I used 5°, from 15k vertices to 1700 without important quality loss. – Bithur Mar 19 '15 at 13:06

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 05 '15 at 03:47

5

You can also convert a faceless collection of vertices and edges into a curve:

alt-c convert mesh to curve

Then create, say, a simple circle curve then after reselecting your original curve object, set the bevel object to the circle curve.

answered Dec 05 '15 at 03:47

Chris Hanning

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Siegfried Heide · Answer 5 · 2021-04-02T16:00:56.197

Blender 2.9

(presumably also valid for 2.8 versions)

Two-part anwser:

Use Cuves
Use Skin Modifier

Curves:

A simple way is to convert the mesh into curves, then bevel it, what gives the resulting "wire" a solid appearance. In Object mode:

select object and in top menu go to Object > Convert to > Curve
in the Properties Tab under Curve select Geometry > Bevel > Depth. Set a meaningful radius here.

The resulting object can be rendered in any way using the material of your choice.

Pretty easy and fast way.

Skin Modifier

If you really need flat lines to be rendered, I suggest to rather not using curves. Instead, in Object mode apply the Skin Modifier as suggested above by Gunslinger. This way is a bit more complicated in order to achive "flat" lines similar to a 2D drawing. Because the resulting skin first appears like a bold tube. But this can be changed in Edit mode:

Select all
go to Sidebar > Item > Transform. Here change either Mean Radius X or Mean Radius Y so that it gives the desired flat look.

However, this method seems to be computationally demanding for big meshes with lots of edges (compared to the other method) so that it may be slow when it comes to rendering.

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered May 27 '20 at 15:41

In blender 2.8+ :

If you have an edge only mesh like for instance :

Disable all the overlays but the edges :

Setup your animation keyframes :

Resize and frame your viewport as it was a camera :

Set your output as if it was a regular render :

Render the animation with View > Viewport Render Animation :

Result :

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 17 '23 at 20:28

Freestyle is unable to output edges, only faced mesh objects are supported. Here is a simple workaround, tested in Blender 3.5:

Convert your object (whether consisting only of edges) to Grease Pencil in Object Mode
Set your view as you like, no camera needed
Optionally set thickness of lines in GPencil Object Data Properties > Layers > Adjustments > Stroke Thickness
File > Export > Grease Pencil as SVG.

How can I render an edge only mesh as solid lines?

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