Panel Cutter

Panel Cutter is a part of a series of small independent add-ons designed for those who want their external plugins efficient and lightweight. What it does is very simple and that is to create “panel cut” details from edges that are marked sharp inside Blender’s edit mode. This makes it easier to turn even the simplest geometry into a detailed scifi model.

Watch the installation instructions and tutorial in this YouTube video.

Watch this short demo video in YouTube.

Watch this YouTube playlist and subscribe for future videos.

Watch this YouTube playlist and subscribe for version changes.

Features:

Make panel cut details from marked sharp edges

Merge resulting geometry to source mesh or keep it non-destructive

Randomize panel heights

Vertex group to mark panel geometry for easy selection

Multiple possible workflows for a simple add-on

The add-on works in both object and edit mode. By default, the resulting panel cut geometry is a separate object but you have the option to “merge” it to the original object.

The operator button can be found quite easily using the W specials menu in both object and edit mode.

The redo panel or operator menu itself is quite simple and only has the functions necessary for you to create different effects and workflows.

The add-on can be used to quickly detail simple models to complicated ones. These panel details can also be easily baked as normal details for particular areas of the model or its entirety.

The model above is a mixture of manually and randomly generated panel details. The same result can be done using Random Flow with certain effects specific to Panel Cutter like not needing the clipping feature for mirrored objects or elevating the panel cut islands to random heights.