Blender: Is there a way to get live update on instances with modifiers at all?

[Kyrah Abattoir]

Long story short: One of my modeling methods involve having two objects that share the same mesh data instance, with one having all the final modifiers, twisting, bending and subdividing it in place, while the other one has the bere minimum, and most importantly: remains flat.

This a method i picked on 3dsMax (back in the old days) that allows you to model "flat" and have an instant preview of what your changes will look like on the "final" version.

(the second object is an instance of the flat one with bevel -> subdivision -> twist -> bend)

The problem is that while it works on the paper, i cannot edit the "flat" version and see the changes live on the curved instance, I have to exit edit mode to do so. It is functional but it's also a pain because this is a very simple example, it cab gets way more complex on some projects.

It does works on objects that have no modifiers, ande while that's nice, it isn't entirely useful for my problem.

I also understand that this is pretty computer intensive so something you wouldn't want enabled by "default" if it exists.

But does the option even exist? is there a hotkey I'm missing? or some object setting?

If anyone knows

[Wulfie Reanimator]

From what I know, object instances cannot have modifiers (or at least differing modifiers from the original object).

As a sort of workaround, couldn't you disable the modifiers in edit mode? That way you could preview with a quick switch to Object Mode. I know it's not the same, but maybe it's better than nothing.

[Aquila Kytori]

[Kyrah Abattoir]

That's an interesting approach @Aquila Kytori but I should have mentioned that the main reason I use this method is with curve modifiers.

But using an array to have a "placed" duplicate of your object rather than using instances is neat.

EDIT: I appear to have found a very interesting method based on @Aquila Kytori's animation.

As it turns out you can effectively have two array objects under the control of two different sets of modifiers by using data transfer to change the vertex group influence of the copy but not the original by setting up a second object with a different vertex group weight for your "preview" zone vs the "work" zone.

It is a bit of a kludge but changes are visible immediately.

Ignore the model itself obviously, it's just a test.

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Kyrah Abattoir

[Aquila Kytori]

14 hours ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

I should have mentioned that the main reason I use this method is with curve modifiers.

Another.gif this time using two 3D viewports.

1 for editing in which X-ray has been enabled and set to a value of 0.0 and the Outline option unchecked in the Viewport shading menu, so that the preview is hidden and only the "flat" version is visible for editing. The second for viewing the live updates.

 

but of course the same thing is usually achieved in a single viewport with the modifier Display buttons (see this and the previous .gif)

[Kyrah Abattoir]

Pretty good too.