How can I modify the mesh of a linked character?

Question

I have a fun problem:

In character.blend I have an armature and a mesh with shapekeys inside a Group. In a new scene (pose.blend) I have Linked in Group. I then created a proxy (Make Proxy) and posed out the character. Now I'm noticing a small problem that I would like to fix for just this pose.blend file. How can I modify the mesh?

In my Outliner (under All Scenes) I have:

• character which is just an empty containing everything that was in the group, however I cannot select the mesh or armature
• character_proxy which is the armature that I was able to move and manipulate

Some things I've tried:

1. Making local the whole group. I still cannot select the mesh
2. Making local the objects in the outliner, the mesh is no where to be found and I cannot edit character (it is stuck in Object mode.)
3. Running Make Single User U on character or character_proxy, there is still no mesh, and the mesh is not selectable from Groups Outliner.

Now I did successfully do this (thanks Olson from #blender irc!):

1. Select character from the outliner and Make Proxy the mesh
2. Make the mesh local and then manipulate it.

This works but the problem is the mesh is in T-Pose (ignoring the armature.) I can 'fix' the pose but it is cumbersome (since it is not posed out.)

Any help would be appreciated :D!

Answer 1

Just link in the character rig's group as usual, then append the object. It will be shown read-only in the outliner. To make it editable, select the object through the outliner, then convert both the object itself and its mesh to local instance.

Using Make Proxy for mesh object isn't recommended, because it will lose all modifiers and vertex groups:

Answer 2

If you still want it linked and be able to switch between the two scenes easily, go to Blender Preferences (Ctrl+Alt+U), click on Addons and search for Edit Linked Library. You will see an addon called that. Enable it, and in the 3D View (with a linked object selected) go to the Tools menu (T-Key on your keyboard) and at the bottom will be a small thing where you can switch back to the original model and back.