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In the image below, Is there a way to make A and B not interacting with each other, but both interact with the U meta-balls?

enter image description here

I need to prevent A (specific metaball) from connecting to B even if there surfaces intersect, but both (A and B) should keep connected to the U.

Hard to explain.

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    $\begingroup$ I don't think so, if A and B don't interact, then one of the two won't be able to interact with U, so you should find a trick, like for example there is U and U' that don't interact $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Commented Sep 27, 2018 at 7:15
  • $\begingroup$ @moonboots The connections will keep showing behind U', tried it before. or maybe I didn't understand your idea. $\endgroup$
    – Dohab
    Commented Sep 27, 2018 at 9:08
  • $\begingroup$ I mean you can pretend that your U shape is one unique shape whereas in fact it would be two independent shapes, you could also make a traditional mesh for this U then put metaballs inside this mesh to simulate all the interactions with A and B... actually it really depends on what U is supposed to do $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Commented Sep 27, 2018 at 9:51

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There isn't much that can be done in this case. Metaballs do not have a lot of functionality in Blender. You could just insert a plane between them and set it to negative. It does deform them, so it is not ideal, but there are no other solutions as far as I am aware if you want to keep them as metaballs.

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Hehe.. jumped my comment! I also applied mixed 'Child of' and 'Damped Track' constraints on the plane, to keep it between the balls I wanted to insulate from one another, in the correct orientation.. But it's a fudge. What's really needed is isosurfaces to be generated, not between balls in the same name-family, but between balls in the same group, (with the possibility of a ball belonging to more than one group). That would greatly extend the usefulness of metaballs. $\endgroup$
    – Robin Betts ♦
    Commented Sep 27, 2018 at 10:43
  • $\begingroup$ I think there are plenty of ways to improve metaballs in Blender, however they are not very popular and that might not be seen as a very attractive and exciting job by many developers. $\endgroup$
    – Martynas Žiemys
    Commented Sep 27, 2018 at 10:47

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