Adding buttons to Blender areas header

With the Python API we can customize Blender interface as we need. For example, we can place the most frequently used operators to the header (top menu) of any workspace area. This way we can assemble our own ribbon with “quick favorite” buttons.

.blend file on Patreon

The header of each area in Blender is described in the API by its own type. For example, the 3D Viewport header is described in bpy.types.VIEW3D_HT_header.

The easiest way to determine the header type for the desired area is to click on any button on it with the right mouse button, select “Edit Source” in the drop-down menu (“Developer Extras” must be enabled in the preferences) and follow the code that opens in the Text Editor up to the class definition.

For the main Blender areas, the header types are:

3D Viewport – VIEW3D_HT_header

Image Editor – IMAGE_HT_header

UV Editor – IMAGE_HT_header

Compositor – NODE_HT_header

Texture Node Editor – NODE_HT_header

Geometry Node Editor – NODE_HT_header

Shader Editor – NODE_HT_header

Video Squiencer – SEQUENCER_HT_header

Movie Clip Editor – CLIP_HT_header

Dope Sheet – DOPESHEET_HT_header

Time Line – DOPESHEET_HT_header

Graph Editor – GRAPH_HT_header

Drivers – GRAPH_HT_header

Nonlinear Animation – NLA_HT_header

Text Editor – TEXT_HT_header

Python Console – CONSOLE_HT_header

Info – INFO_HT_header

Outliner – OUTLINER_HT_header

Properties – PROPERTIES_HT_header

File Browser – FILEBROWSER_HT_header

Asset Browser – FILEBROWSER_HT_header

Spreadsheet – SPREADSHEET_HT_header

Preferences – USERPREF_HT_header

To add any interface elements to the header, we need to define a function for drawing them, similar to the “draw” function for custom UI panels.
For example, the button for the operator adding the default cube “bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add” must be defined with the function as follws:

@persistent
def TEST_HT_view3d(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(
        operator='mesh.primitive_cube_add',
        icon='MESH_CUBE',
        text=''
    )

@persistent

def TEST_HT_view3d(self, context):

self.layout.operator(

operator='mesh.primitive_cube_add',

icon='MESH_CUBE',

text=''

)

Not to loose the function if the scene is reloaded, we wrapped it in the @persistent decorator.

Now, to place this operator button in the 3D viewport header, let’s add our function to the header with the “prepend” method.

bpy.types.VIEW3D_HT_header.prepend(TEST_HT_view3d)

1	bpy.types.VIEW3D_HT_header.prepend(TEST_HT_view3d)

When using “prepend”, all interface elements defined in our function will be drawn in the header before its own buttons. We can also use the “append” method, in which case all elements from our function will be placed in the header after its own buttons.

To remove our button from the area header, we need to remove our function from the header type by calling its “remove” method:

bpy.types.VIEW3D_HT_header.remove(TEST_HT_view3d)

1	bpy.types.VIEW3D_HT_header.remove(TEST_HT_view3d)