@jim_the_jim_boi Please use other threads to showcase your work. This one is to discuss the add-on only.

Regarding eevee, the material used for decorated elements do not compile, it includes too many base shaders and therefore it stops. This is also the reason why the material preview remains pink (which means that something wrong happened). The decoration material is a combination of all the other materials. There is no way around that as the goal of this add-on is to have an automated process. If you want to make it work with eevee, there are two solutions. First one is to wait for eevee to be able to compile more base shaders (which may never happen) and second one is to duplicate and rework manually the decoration materials on a per part basis in order to simplify them. That is not an easy and quick task.

I would also mention that eevee doesn't support the bevel shader which is the most valuable here. Besides due to the real time nature of the engine, it is not physically accurate an therefore effects like scene refraction are missing or not really realistic.

eevee is a good tool but not always adapted. You have to choose the right tool for your job. People seem to be really into it these days because I guess they see render time being cut drastically. However, you need to understand why it is that much reduced and if you can compromise. Sometimes it is acceptable sometimes it is not.

ok

@Scrubs Good explanation. That clears up quite a bit. Also what is a bevel shader? I've been hearing you use that term numerous times, but I have no clue what you're talking about...:-/

To simplify, this is a function that is modifying the normals to trick the light rays in believing that a sharp edge is actually rounded. The geometry remains untouched which is great for memory. This is generally good enough for a LEGO scenes (unless it is a closeup). Without it, it looks fake.
Here is an example of a very old and terrible Mecabricks render when bevel shader wasn't a think in Blender:

Super Speedster by Nicolas Jarraud, on Flickr

Many thanks for the opportunity to use Mekabricks and receive your advice.
Why do I have to export models from Mekabricks and use Blender? There is one reason - animation.
I make MOC for my two boys. They do not live with me. I take parts only from the sets that they have. I use Mekabricks screenshots for instructions. The boys watch them on the tablet. The models on the screenshots are not as realistic as the real ones. They look like a cartoon. This is a big plus for boys. Instructions are not enough. It is necessary to show the model well, to generate interest in assembling it. It is necessary to show an interesting story that will cause the creation of new models from parts of other models.
I tried to do step-by-step animation from the screenshots. Select an object. Choice to move. The choice of translation or rotation. Axis and value selection. Movement object. Screenshot. Save the file. This method works, but takes a lot of personal time.
Blender gave me hope to free up my personal time, but has not yet justified it.
I apologize for many words off topic.

@Scrubs Okay, thank you for your explanation, but how do you activate a bevel shader in Blender? Is there one that can be made/created by the average user?

This is a node that you plug to the normal input. This is only available in 2.79 daily build (not 2.79b) and 2.80

So, is there a way you can download it as an add-on?

Open a new thread to discuss that as this has nothing to do with the advanced add-on. This is a built in node in Blender.

Sure thing.

Thread: https://www.mecabricks.com/en/forum/topic/1299

So when it comes to animation, I'm wanting to be able to quicken my render process for some scenes with Eevee. I'm fine with not including any decorations in a simple background model, but for specifically the minifigure I'm wondering what the process is to add a decoration to a part, seeing as how the minifigure will be the most used in the animation.

Blender 2.80 Manual Render/Eevee Renderer/Materials/Nodes Support
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/eevee/materials/nodes_support.html
" Image Texture
Smart Interpolation always uses Cubic interpolation. Artifact present using Tube or Sphere projection with linear interpolation. This is due to hardware mip-mapping and Anisotropic filtering. This kind of artifacts will be also visible if the texture coordinates provided are not continuous. Using Box projection with Extend type set to Clip or Extend is not supported. It will always use Repeat instead."

I apologize if my questions seem naive to you. My experience in English and 3D is limited. Much in the text above is not clear to me.
Does Eevee work with textures if the correct coordinates are specified?
Does Eevee not work with textures as it is not yet complete (Beta)?
Does Eevee not work with object textures exported from Mecabricks because the correct coordinates are not indicated?
Have you tried to open textures from other sources in Eevee? Import Collada from STUDIO 2 (BrickLink) did not give any results. Textures are labeled as solid material.

@Dr.Gektor,

• Yes, Eevee work with textures if the correct coordinates are specified.
• Indeed, some features are still missing but it does not prevent the use of textures in Eevee.
• No, textured objects generated from the Advanced add-on work perfectly. The problem you encounter is more technical. It is a Shader compilation problem as mentioned by Scrubs. Maybe a limitation due to your hardware. Textures work for me, even if it slows my computer.
• If you import a Collada file from Mecabricks to Blender without using the add-on, you will certainly have a similar result than importing a Collada file from Studio 2. That is the purpose of the add-ons, to make your models built in Mecabricks ready to use in Blender.

@jaydotjay,

Could you be more specific ? Do you have the same problem than Dr.Gektor ? Or do you want just add custom decorations to your minifigure ?

@Helo,
Thanks for the detailed answer.
Please clarify this sentence.

"- No, textured objects generated from the Advanced add-on work perfectly. The problem you encounter is more technical. It is a Shader compilation problem as mentioned by Scrubs. Maybe a limitation due to your hardware. Textures work for me, even if it slows my computer."

Do textures on your computer work in the Eevee renderer? If yes, then I just need to buy a new comp. This is a simple way, but it will require money.
What hardware need to buy for Eevee work? What is the limit of sufficiency?

i just changed the material to mb_solid and applied a texture and it worked

the render result had decorations, but did not look like real plastic, the materials were not meant for EeVee

mb_decoration is a very complex material i guess

@jim_the_jim_boi
Boy, you're cool !!!
Thank you so much! It works!

@Dr.Gektor

Yes, the textures work with Eevee on my computer. It's just a guess. I'm not computer scientist or developer. Eevee is powered only by the graphics card and yours does not seem very powerful.

@jim_the_jim_bol

Yeah, it is a solution. If it works and the result is satisfactory, that's the main thing. ^^

Hey guys, wondering if the Mecabricks add on works with AMD ProRender? Has anyone tried this out?

I use a Mac and I'm thinking of getting an eGPU to speed up my rendering, though I've heard that Mac OS has dropped OpenGL and OpenCL support. Apparently this means GPU rendering with Cycles on mac is useless....?

AMD uses Mac OS Metal and is optimized for AMD gpu's so im wondering if this add on works with it.

Thanks