Troubleshooting & Known Issues

Quick Reference Table

Symptom	Section
Keybinds not working	Keybinds & Shortcuts Not Working
Fills not working	Fills Not Working (“Unable to Fill”)
Toggles get stuck	Modal Toggles Getting “Stuck” (Auto-Merge, Draw Behind, Sculpt)
Tool doesn’t activate	Installation & Script Activation
Performance issues	Performance & File Size
Layer reordering broken	Page Down Not Reordering Multiple Selected Layers

Keybinds & Shortcuts Not Working

My layer-switching keybinds (Shift/Ctrl/Alt + Numbers) aren’t firing

• Cause: Keymaps weren’t saved, or were corrupted on reload.

Fix:

1. Go to Edit → Preferences → Keymaps.

2. Search by key binding (type Ctrl+1, for example).

3. Delete any broken entries.

4. Re-import the keymap file.

5. Save preferences before closing Blender.

Critical

If you change keymaps and close Blender without saving preferences in the preferences menu, all changes are lost.

Camera view framing or centre timeline doesn’t work when I try to use the ~/` key.

• Cause: Your keyboard layout differs from US, OR another OS/Blender binding intercepts it.

Fix:

1. Go to Edit → Preferences → Keymaps.

2. Search for “View 3D Frame”.

3. Change the binding from tilde/accent-key (`` ` `` ) to another key.

4. If the problem persists, check your desktop environment (Ubuntu Studio KDE, etc.) for system-level conflicting shortcuts.

Note

Ubuntu Studio users specifically reported Alt+Accent/Tilde conflicts with default desktop environment shortcuts. Disable those in your OS settings.

My Ctrl+Number keys work but switch to WRONG layers

• Cause: Keymap properties defaulted all layer_filter values to 01L on load.

Symptom: Pressing Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3, Ctrl+4 all activate Layer 1.

Fix:

1. Go to Edit → Preferences → Keymap

2. Select a different keymap

3. Switch back to the correct keymap, to get it to register now that the plugin has loaded in fully.

This is a known Blender startup bug where StringProperty values fail to resolve before addon operators register.

My file seems to register keybinds strangely

• Cause: This is rare, but repeated installs without

Keybinds stop working after restarting Blender

• Cause: Multiple possibilities:

  • Keymaps weren’t saved to preferences

  • Addon wasn’t re-enabled

  • Timer didn’t initialize

  • GP object isn’t selected

Fix:

1. Verify preferences are saved

2. Check addon is enabled (Edit → Preferences → Add-ons)

3. Open Text Editor and run the script (Play button)

4. Select your Grease Pencil object

5. Test keybinds again

See Installation & Script Activation for addon activation issues.

“3” Key Doesn’t Open Layer Menu

• Cause: The binding may not exist in your keymap version

• Symptom: Pressing “3” does nothing or opens wrong menu

• Fix: Manually bind gpencil.layer_set_active to “3”, or use Layers panel directly

Viewport Navigation Broken (Can’t Zoom or Pan)

• Cause: Fred’s personal keymap overrides default Blender navigation keys. If you switch between Fred’s and Rex’s keymaps (or back to default), some bindings don’t reset properly.

Affected Bindings:

Function	Default Blender	Fred’s Override
Zoom	Ctrl + MMB	Ctrl+Shift+LMB
Pan	Shift + MMB	Spacebar or Spacebar+LMB

Fix:

1. Go to Edit → Preferences → Keymap.

2. Search for view3d.zoom — find any entry bound to Ctrl+Shift+Left Mouse and change it to Ctrl+Middle Mouse.

3. Search for view3d.move — find any entry bound to Spacebar or Spacebar+Left Mouse and change it to Shift+Middle Mouse.

4. Save preferences.

Fred’s Tip

“Anything zoom-related that is bound to Ctrl+Shift+Left Mouse (in the ‘Fred’ keybind set) needs to go back to Ctrl+Middle Mouse. Anything view.pan related that is bound to Spacebar or Spacebar+Left Mouse should go back to Shift+Middle Mouse.”

This mainly affects users who imported Fred’s personal keymap instead of Rex’s. If you’re using Rex’s keymap (recommended), this shouldn’t be an issue.

See Quick Menus for details.

—

Modal Toggles Getting “Stuck” (Auto-Merge, Draw Behind, Sculpt)

Symptom: Auto-merge, draw-behind, or sculpt mode stays enabled even after releasing the key (A, B, or Alt).

Cause: Blender does not register key press/release events while a stroke is actively being drawn. If you release the toggle key mid-stroke, the event is missed and the toggle hangs.

Fix:

1. Lift your pen off the tablet (complete the stroke).

2. Tap the stuck toggle key once.

3. Resume drawing.

Prevention:

• Always press the toggle key BEFORE starting a stroke.

• Always release the toggle key AFTER lifting your pen.

• Never press or release any modal toggle key while a stroke is in progress.

Fred’s Tip

“If you forget whether a toggle is on or off, tap it once. Don’t waste time checking the toolbar icon — that wastes more time than tapping.”

See also: Timer Doesn’t Initialize in Addon Mode (timer issues can cause stroke-mode auto-switching to fail).

Why doesn’t this affect the C key?

The C key is a tool swap (via wm.tool_set_by_id), not a boolean toggle. It doesn’t have a press/release pair — holding it just keeps the Trim tool active, releasing it returns to the Brush tool.

—

Fills Not Working (“Unable to Fill”)

The fill tool says “Unable to fill unclosed areas”

• Cause: Strokes don’t fully enclose the area, even if they look closed visually.

Fixes:

1. Increase Gap Closure: On the Fill tool options, set Gap Closure to 5-10 for large gaps, 1-4 for small gaps.

2. Enable Visual Aids: Check “Visual Aids” on the Fill tool to get drag handles that extend stroke endpoints.

3. Manual Connection: In Edit Mode, use C to connect unconnected strokes.

4. Zoom Out: If zoomed in very far, the fill tool may fail due to screen-based detection. Zoom out and try again.

Fred’s Tip

“If your lines look closed and you’re like, ‘what the fuck?’ pick something small like one or two for gap closure.”

Warning

Don’t rely on very small gap values forever. Build muscle memory to cross strokes over at least halfway when drawing outlines. This prevents gaps from forming in the first place.

Fill tool ignores my strokes (seems to fail consistently)

• Cause: “Ignore Transparency” checkbox is disabled.

Fix: Under Fill tool → Advanced, enable the “Ignore Transparency” checkbox.

Fills look strange

• Cause: You filled the same area twice without noticing the first fill.

Fix:

1. Press Tab to enter Edit Mode.

2. Lasso select the duplicate fill strokes.

3. Press Ctrl+X to delete all connected strokes/fills of the selection.

See also: Fill Tool Fails When Zoomed In Too Far (Screen-Based Detection) (zoom-dependent fill failures).

—

Installation & Script Activation

The tool doesn’t activate when installed as an addon

• Cause: The background timer (_my_stroke_check_material) does not start automatically when the script is installed as an addon.

Symptoms:

• Layer switching works.

• Material auto-switching (Stroke/Fill/Both mode based on material name) does not work.

Fix (Current Workaround):

1. Open the Text Editor in Blender.

2. Load the script file.

3. Click the Play/Run button to manually start the timer.

Warning

This is a known bug. Fred plans to fix this in v2.1. Until then, you must run the script manually after loading any .blend file.

See also: Keybinds & Shortcuts Not Working (if keymaps reset, you may need to reload them too).

The “Fred” tab doesn’t appear in the sidebar

• Cause: Script wasn’t run, or addon failed to load. CURRENTLY UNIMPLEMENTED

Fix:

1. Check the System Console (Window → Toggle System Console) for error messages.

2. Verify you’re running Blender 5.1 or 5.2 LTS (the tool uses GP3 APIs).

3. Run the script manually via the Text Editor if using addon installation.

Errors appear in the console after running the script

• (Likely) Cause: Version incompatibility or missing dependencies.

Fix:

1. Ensure you’re running Blender 5.1 or 5.2 LTS

2. Check System Console (Window → Toggle System Console) for exact errors

3. Verify all four brushes (MY STROKE, ERASE STROKE, ERASE POINT, MY FILL) exist

4. Ensure GP object uses correct layer/material structure

Addon installed but nothing happens when I press keys

• Cause: GP object not selected.

Fix: Select your Grease Pencil object in the Outliner or 3D Viewport before testing keybinds.

I’m in a blank file and the tool doesn’t do anything.

Important

The Violence Layer Manager is designed for a specific Grease Pencil workflow. It will not work with arbitrary GP objects.

This Grease Pencil Object must have:

1. Multi-layer format — Layers named and organized according to the Violence Tool convention (Body, Head, Eyes, Mouth, etc.)

2. Material slot setup — The 1234/QWER/ASDF material slot configuration

3. Blender 5.2 LTS or 5.1 — The add-on now uses GPencil conventions introduced in Blender 4.3 and finalized in 5.0+.

If your object doesn’t match this format:

• The layer switching operators will fail (silently, as of now)

• The panel buttons won’t select the correct layers, or possibly any

• You may see errors in the Blender console, or, it could fail silently depending on the issue.

• If you’re getting trouble like this on one of Fred’s files, report it right away in the GreasePencil channel.

Multi-Layer Format

The Violence Tool expects Grease Pencil objects in Fred’s multi-layer structure:

• Each body part has Line and Fill layers paired

• Names follow pattern: XXL (Line) and XXF (Fill)

• Layers are unlocked individually when switched to

Example Outliner structure:

GreasePencil
  ├── 01L Body Lines
  ├── 01F Body Fills
  ├── 02L Head Lines
  ├── 02F Head Fills
  ├── 03L Eye Lines
  ├── 03F Eye Fills
  └── ...

If your scene doesn’t follow this, the keybinds won’t find the right layers.

Required Brushes (must exist in your blend file)

The tool relies on four brushes that must be present in your scene:

Brush Name | Purpose |

|------------------|———————–| | MY STROKE | Primary drawing brush | | ERASE STROKE | Full-stroke eraser | | ERASE POINT | Pixel-style eraser | | MY FILL | Fill bucket brush |

If these don’t exist in your project, download the Practice File (v2.0) which includes them pre-configured.

Material Naming Convention

Your Grease Pencil object must have material slots following this pattern:

Slot | Naming Pattern | Example |

|-----------------|—————————-|----------------| | Line materials | {number} {letter} LINE | 1 I LINE | | Fill materials | {number} {letter} FILL | 1 A FILL | | Shadow layer | Shadow | Shadow | | Highlight layer | Highlight | Highlight | | Black fill | BLACK FILL | BLACK FILL |

The tool uses substring matching on material names to determine stroke type:

• ``LINE`` in name → Stroke-only mode

• ``FILLONLY`` in name → Fill-only mode

• Neither → Both stroke and fill

How to Fix Misnamed Layers

1. In the Outliner, right-click each layer

2. Rename to match the pattern (e.g., 01L Body)

3. Re-import the keymap if layer filters were hardcoded

Fred’s Tip

“The layer_filter is a ‘substring’ match, not an exact match. As long as your layer name contains the filter string somewhere, the operator will find it. For example, a filter of 01L will match 01L Body Lines, Layer 01L, or anything containing 01L.”

Material Slot Order

The material slots must be arranged in the Property Panel in this order:

1. 1 I LINE — Body Line

2. 1 A FILL — Body Fill

3. 2 I LINE — Head Line

4. 2 A FILL — Head Fill

5. (continue pattern…)

6. BLACK FILL — Secondary color (for pupils, noses, goatees)

7. SHADOW — Shadow layer material

8. HIGHLIGHT — Highlight layer material

Material order affects the material popup behavior when switching layers.

—

Performance & File Size

Blender is slowing down progressively

• Cause: Invisible fills (alpha=0% colors) still render and accumulate performance cost in GP3.

Fix: Use materials with “LINE” in the name for stroke-only data. Do NOT use alpha transparency to hide fills.

My .blend file is huge (>100MB)

• Cause: Excessive vertex count (vertex bloat), especially with pressure sensitivity.

Fix:

1. Select all strokes (or enable Multi-Frame Editing).

2. Press F3 and search for “Adaptive”.

3. Set threshold (start with 0.001).

4. Reduces vertex count with minimal visual impact.

Art looks distorted after rotating the camera

• Cause: Strokes were projected from camera to origin point.

Fix: Flatten art using Reproject Strokes:

1. Go to Edit Mode (Tab).

2. Select all strokes (A).

3. Press F3, search for “Reproject Strokes”.

4. Choose “Project from View”.

—

Layer Management Issues

Page Down doesn’t reorder multiple selected layers

• Cause: Bug in Blender 5.1 — Page Down only moves one layer at a time, even with multi-select.

Fix (Workaround):

• Move layers down one at a time.

• Or use the arrow buttons in the layer panel.

Known Bug

Page Up works normally. Fred has flagged this to the Blender team and they responded postiively. Plans to Possibly write a script workaround. May be fixed in 5.2. TODO regression test PgDn in 5.2.

Layers switch but nothing appears

• Cause: Target layer is hidden (eye icon off) or locked.

Fix: Check the Outliner — ensure the layer is both visible AND unlocked.

Warning

The tool does NOT automatically toggle Outliner visibility. Hidden layers are skipped even if unlocked.

See also: Keybinds & Shortcuts Not Working (incorrect filter values cause wrong layers to activate).

—

Known Issues for v2.0 (and Blender 5.1.2)

The following are confirmed limitations and bugs. Some are being fixed upstream by the Blender development team for the 5.2 release.

Timer Doesn’t Initialize in Addon Mode

The material-name-based auto-switching timer (_my_stroke_check_material) does not start when the script is installed as an addon. This disables automatic stroke-mode switching between Stroke/Fill/Both based on material name.

Workaround: Run the script manually from the Text Editor after opening any .blend file.

Status: Known bug. Fred plans to fix in v2.1.

Strokes Default to Cyclic When Using “Both” Mode (Blender 5.2)

In Blender 5.2, strokes drawn with “Both” stroke mode default to cyclic state, creating closed loops unintentionally. There is no user setting to disable this behavior, forcing manual intervention in Edit Mode to toggle cyclic state off.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Set stroke mode to “Both” (via material name).

2. Draw a stroke.

3. Observe that the stroke closes automatically.

4. To fix: Go to Edit Mode → select the stroke → press F3 → search “Toggle Cyclic”.

Status: Confirmed by Blender team (may be related to issue #157190).

Workaround:

• Manually toggle cyclic off after each “Both” mode stroke.

• Fred recommends using Stroke-only or Fill-only materials where possible to avoid this issue entirely.

Developer Note

This is a regression from 5.1.2 → 5.2. Fred has reported it and the Blender team confirmed a fix is incoming.

Page Down Not Reordering Multiple Selected Layers

Multi-selected Grease Pencil layers cannot be moved down together using Page Down. The undo dialog appears but no movement occurs. Page Up works normally for multi-select.

Affects: Both Timeline and Dope Sheet views.

Status: Confirmed by Blender team (YimingWu). Fix incoming for 5.2.

Workaround:

• Move layers down one at a time.

• Use the arrow buttons in the layer panel instead of Page Up/Page Down.

Fill Tool Fails When Zoomed In Too Far (Screen-Based Detection)

The Fill tool’s gap detection is partially screen-based. At high zoom levels, “unable to fill” errors occur even when strokes are closed.

Workaround: Zoom out to 50-70% of the viewport before attempting fills.

Status: Unknown. Fred plans to report to Blender if not resolved in 5.2.

Alt+F Doesn’t Auto-Smooth Connections (GP3 Regression)

In GP3 (Blender 4.3+), connecting strokes with C no longer auto-smooths the join. Additionally, the joined strokes don’t stay selected after connecting, unlike Blender 4.1.1.

Workaround:

1. Press C to connect the strokes.

2. Re-select the joined area (since 5.x deselects after connecting).

3. Press Alt+F repeatedly (a few times) to smooth manually.

Status: Unknown regression. No official fix timeline.

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Reporting New Issues

If you encounter a problem not listed here:

1. Check the Blender System Console (Window → Toggle System Console) for error messages.

2. Note the exact steps that led to the issue.

3. Report on GitHub Issues with:

   • Blender version

   • Problem description

   • Steps to reproduce

   • Any console error messages

   • Whether it’s reproducible in the practice file

You can also DM or @ Danweel directly on the AFIS sever. Can be faster!

Appendix: Blender-Side Bug Summary

These are bugs in Blender itself, not the Violence Tool. All reported to the Blender team.

Bug	Blender Version	Fix Expected
Cyclic stroke bug (#157190)	5.2	5.2 patch
Page Down multi-select failure	5.1, 5.2	5.2 patch
Fill zoom detection (screen-space)	All	Unknown
Alt+F auto-smooth regression	4.3+, 5.1, 5.2	Unknown