Tag: Interface

Vertex selection fine tuning in Blender 2.8x

In Blender 2.79, mesh vertices were highlighted in the “tweak” selection mode by holding down the “shift” key and a slight cursor movement with the right mouse button pressed. This allows quickly add vertexes to the selection without aiming each vertex with sniper accuracy.

In Blender 2.8x, this method has become unavailable due to the left click selection change. For those users who remained on “the right click select”, nothing has changed, everything works as before. The “tweak” selection was broken only for those who switched to the left click selection.

To use the “tweak” selection with the left click select, you need to make the following changes into the keyboard shortcut settings:

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How to split and join Blender interface windows thruough the python API

A set of operators is provided in Blender for manipulating with the location of its interface windows.

To split the current window (using the current context) into two in a specified ratio, we need to execute the following operator:

With:

  • direction – set the splitting direction (‘HORIZONTAL’ or ‘VERTICAL’)
  • factor – percentage ratio of splitting windows

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How to start render in the main window in Blender 2.81

Render starts in a new window in Blender 2.81 by default. And there is no more render display mode settings in the “Render” menu. These settings were moved into the “Preferences”. To configure render execution window – open the “Preferences” window, press the “Interface” button and in the “Temporary Windows” configure the “Render In” parameter as you need.

How to open the File Manager in the main window in Blender 2.81

In Blender 2.81 the File Browser opens in a new window by default. To configure it always open in the current window – open the “Preferences” window, press the “Interface” button and in the “Temporary Windows” group change the “File Browser” parameter to “Full Screen”.

How to make the panel with system disks expanded by default in Blender 2.80 File Browser window

The panel with system disks list is collapsed in the “File Browser” window by default. But some times it is not convenient.

Not to expand it manually every time we can make a simple modification:

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Autoclick in Pie Menu

To increase the speed and convenience of working with the “Pie Menu” in Blender you can use its “autoclick” option. To use it press the desired “Pie Menu” call keys, don’t release them, move the mouse cursor in the direction of the desired item, and only then release the buttons on the keyboard. You don’t need to click on a menu item, the choice is made automatically.

Where are the icons for managing objects visibility in the Outliner window in Blender 2.8

In the latest Blender 2.80 builds, the visibility control icons are disappeared from the Outliner window.

They were not removed, they are just hidden from the interface by default. To return them to their usual place click the button with the funnel image and mark the icons you need to display.

After closing the dialog box, the icons will appear in their places.

How to return the familiar selection mode from Blender 2.7 in Blender 2.8

In Blender 2.8 the selection mode has been changed. The “select all” command is still mapped to pressing the “a” key, but the “deselect all” command in Blender 2.8 is now mapped to a double-click of the “a” key or to the “alt + a” key combination. However, it is easy to return the familiar selection mode from Blender 2.7 – selecting and deselecting all by pressing one “a” key.

To do this, in the “Preferences” window in the “Keymap” section type “object.select” in the search field. In the search results in the “Object mode” section in the line with “a” key snapping set the “Toggle” value to the “Action” parameter.

This will return the familiar selection in object mode.

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How to resize panels in Blender UI

In order to resize the T- or N-panel of the Blender UI, you just need to hold the edge of the panel with the mouse and drag it left or right. However, in this case, you can only change the size of the panel itself, but not the interface elements on it.

To change elements size and the font size of the panel, you need:

  • hover cursor on the panel
  • hold together the “ctrl” keyboard button and the middle mouse button (scroll wheel)
  • move the mouse up or down

This works not only for the side panels but also for all the “Properties” window.

Showing and hiding collections in Blender 2.8

Clicking the collection “eye icon” in Blender 2.8 outliner shows and hides the visibility of objects from this collection in viewport window. To show only objects from the necessary collection and hide objects from all other collections with a single click – click the “eye icon” with the “Ctrl” button pressed.

Top and bottom toolbar position in Blender windows

In Blender 2.8 the toolbars are located on the top of the working windows. But you can easily return them to the habitual bottom position.

Right-click on the panel and select “Flip to Bottom” to move the panel down. To return the panel back to the top, right-click on it and select “Flip to Top”.

This feature is not Blender 2.8 exclusive, the same can be done in Blender 2.7.

Automatically changing the orthographic mode – perspective mode in Blender 2.8

In the new Blender 2.80 in the “3D View” window (3D Viewport), when scrolling a wheel to zoom or pressing the num pad buttons (1, 3, 7, 9) to center the view to different sides, the projection mode automatically changes between orthographic and perspective.

To disable this automatic mode changing, in the “User Preferences” window – “Navigation”, change the value of the Auto Perspective checkbox:

 

Creating radio buttons in the Blender add-ons interface

State switches so-called “radio buttons” are used in the case to limit the choice by one value from several available ones. There are a lot of such buttons in the Blender interface, for example, switching between RGB and BW rendering modes or setting the texture mapping mode. Such buttons can be created in the Blender add-ons interface too.

Let’s create our own radio button switcher.

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