When writing add-ons for Blender, it is important to place UI elements – buttons, fields, switches, etc., so that the user can easily find them and have convenient access to them. Blender provides to add-on developers the following areas to place their custom UI:
When creating custom properties, the values of which the user can choose from a list, it is often necessary to filter the list of values offered for selection. We can use the poll function to shorten the proposed list of values by removing unwanted elements.
Filtering values available for selection through the UILayout.prop()Read More »
Pressing the “Purge” button cleans the current open scene – removes all unused objects from it (mesh, nodes, materials, textures, etc.). However, this button is located very inconveniently, in the Outliner header and is visible only in the “Orphan Data” Outliner mode. For quick access to this button we can move it to the header of the 3D Viewport.
Adding the “Purge” button to the 3D Viewport header in BlenderRead More »
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.
For quickly finding the desired node in the Node Editor in the search box it is enough to type only the first letters from the node’s name.
This method works both in the shader node editor and in the Geometry Nodes search system.
For example, to search for the “Set Curve Radius” node, it is enough to type only the “SCR” letters in the search field. And to search for the “Principle BSDF” node, just type “PB”.
Switching the selection mode between vertices, edges, and polygons in mesh edit mode is mapped by default to pressing the 1, 2, and 3 keycodes on the keyboard. However, if it is more comfortable to use these hotkeys for other functions, we can change this mapping.
How to change the hotkey for switching selection mode between vertex-edge-faceRead More »
To create several identical UI panels with the same set of fields and buttons in different areas in Blender, the easiest way is to copy the panel code and replace the parameters that determine in which area the panel will be shown.
The main disadvantage of this method is code duplication, which can make difficulties in the future – when editing panels, changes must be made to each copy of the code, instead of changing it at once for all panels.
Creating the same UI panels in different Blender areas with no code duplicationRead More »
Sometimes it is necessary to register an operator that couldn’t be called by the user directly. For example, if this operator is supposed to be called only by another operator after a series of checks or additional actions.
To quickly maximize the working area in Blender to fullscreen we can press the following keycode:
ctrl + space bar
How to maximize the working area in Blender to fullscreenRead More »
Blender since version 2.80 has experienced a significant slowdown in objects selection in the viewport. This becomes visible when we quickly click in turn on several objects. The selection lag is sometimes so long that some of the clicked objects will not be selected. The cursor has already moved to the next object, and the selection of the current one still did not happen.
The selection delay occurs because by default Blender has the “Box Select” mode enabled in the T-toolbar.
.blend file on Patreon