2.79

PartitionRender add-on

Blender add-on allowing to interrupt the rendering process and resume it from the interrupted place. For those who are not able to have the powered-on computer for render for a long time.

For example, the whole image render takes 12 hours. And there is no way to have the computer powered on all the time, but it is possible to power it on for 5 hours with breaks. If you interrupt the standard rendering process to turn off the computer – the next time render starts from the beginning, and all progress is lost. PartitionRender add-on allows dividing the image into several blocks – partitions, each of them is rendered separately. Choosing division by X and Y in 2 parts, the image is divided into 4 blocks. Each of them will be rendered about 3 hours that fit in the time to work. Each partition after rendering saves to file. The next time (after rebooting the computer) PartitionRender automatically continues with the partition on which the break occurred. After finishing all partition renders, partitions automatically compile to the whole image in compositing.

Add-on is free and open-source. If you want to support it – you can buy the add-on for a convenient price, or set the price to 0 to download it for free.

Accurate Render Border add-on

Blender add-on allows setting accurate coordinates for render border.

After add-on installation in T-bar additional “ARB” tab appears. On this tab, it’s possible to set accurate values for left-top and right-bottom render border corners coordinates in pixels. Coordinates establish relative to the render size (Properties — Render — Dimensions — Resolution). After pressing the “Set Accurate Render Border” button render border determines in accordance with the entered values.

Add-on is free and open-source. If you want to support it – you can buy the add-on for a convenient price, or set the price to 0 to download it for free.

Creating panels for placing Blender add-ons user interface (UI)

One of the essential conditions of comfortable work is the convenience and speed of accessing add-ons functional. It is not enough to write an add-on and register it in Blender API system. Be sure to give the easy call add-on functions ability to the user. So, any add-on should determine a place to put interface buttons that provide access to its functionality.

This tutorial is for Blender 2.79 and older. For the last Blender versions, please see this tutorial.

All available Blender user interface located on panels. Three panels are the most used: T-bar – opens/hides by pressing the t keyboard button, N-bar – opens/hides by pressing the n button, and the Properties panel – called in the main menu of any window, typed it as Properties.

Blender API allows defining users panels to place add-on functional buttons on any of these three main panels.