RetopoFlow is a suite of fun, sketch-based retopology tools for Blender from Orange Turbine that generate geometry which snap to your high poly objects as you draw on the surface.
This documentation covers the installation and usage of all tools included in the add-on.
You can read about the features and purchase a copy on our website or the Blender Market.
If you’re brand new to RetopoFlow, check the Quick Start page. Otherwise, jump right over to the Table of Contents.
Below is a table showing which versions of RetopoFlow and Blender are compatible.
| RetopoFlow | Blender |
|---|---|
| 3.4.0 | 3.6 or later |
| 3.3.0 | 2.93--3.5 |
| 3.2.4 | 2.8x--2.9x |
| 2.0.3 | 2.79 or before |
All versions of RetopoFlow will work on any operating system the Blender supports.
Future updates to RetopoFlow are funded by Blender Market purchases, and we provide top priority support through the Blender Market. However, we also made RetopoFlow accessible on RetopoFlow's GitHub Page, especially for students, teachers, and those using RetopoFlow for educational purposes.
You may download RetopoFlow from your account dashboard on the Blender Market once you have already purchased it or from RetopoFlow's GitHub Releases Page. For the more techie crowd, you can also symlink a clone of the GitHub repo to your add-ons folder.
Important: Blender has issues with the zip files that GitHub automatically packages with the green Code button on the main GitHub page.
Do not use the zip files created by GitHub.
Instead, use the officially packaged versions that we provide through the Blender Market or the GitHub Releases Page.
The code for RetopoFlow is open source under the GPL 3.0 license. The non-code assets in this repository are not.
The easiest way to install RetopoFlow is to do so directly within Blender. You can do this by going to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install. This will open a File Browser in Blender, allowing to you navigate to and select the zip file you downloaded. Press Install from file.
If your browser auto-extracted the downloaded zip file, then you will need to re-compress the RetopoFlow folder before installing, or use Save As to save the zip file without extracting the contents.
Once installed, Blender should automatically filter the list of add-ons to show only RetopoFlow.
You can then enable the add-on by clicking the checkbox next to 3D View: RetopoFlow.
If you have any issues with installing, please try the following steps:
- Download the latest version of RetopoFlow for your version of Blender (see Requirements section above).
- Open Blender
- Head to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons and search for RetopoFlow
- Expand by clicking the triangle, and then press Remove
- Close Blender to completely clear out the previous version
- Open Blender and head to preferences again
- Click Install
- Navigate to your RetopoFlow zip file (please do not unzip)
- Click Install Add-on
- Enable RetopoFlow
RetopoFlow 3 comes with a built-in updater. Once you've installed it the first time, simply check for updates using the RetopoFlow menu. If you need to update the add-on manually for any reason, please be sure to uninstall the old version and restart Blender before installing the new version.
The RetopoFlow updater will keep all of your previous settings intact.
If you need to update manually for whatever reason, you can also keep your preferences by copying the RetopoFlow_keymaps.json and RetopoFlow_options.json files from the previous version's folder before installation and pasting them into the new version's folder after installation.
See the Updater page for more details.
Here are ways to get help with a problem or a question that the documentation isn't answering:
- Get high priority support from Orange Turbine by sending a message from your Blender Market inbox once you've purchased a copy.
- Create a new issue on RetopoFlow's GitHub page.
- Reach out to us via email at retopoflow@cgcookie.com.
Please provide as much information and detail as possible, such as steps to reproduce the issue, what behavior you expected to see vs what you actually saw, screenshots, and so on.
See Debugging for details on getting as much useful information as possible.
Also, if possible, please consider sending us the .blend file.
Pull requests are welcome! If you'd like to contribute to the project then simply fork the repo, work on your changes, and then submit a pull request. We are quite strict on what we allow in, but all suggestions are welcome. If you're unsure what to contribute, then look at the open issues for the current to-dos.