The pages of this part are listed in the sidebar under Topbar menus.

File Menu

Detailed table of content

File Menu

The File menu contains file related functionality.

New

Creates a new scene, using the current active template.

New from Template

Choose to create a new file with predefined Application Templates.

Application templates is a collection of workspaces for a predefined purpose.

Standard Application Templates

General

The general application template comes with the workspaces to create 3D content.

2D Animation

The 2D Animation application template comes with the workspaces to create 2D animation.

All

The All application template contains all default workspaces.

Sculpting

The Sculpting application template comes with the workspaces for sculpting needs.

VFX

The VFX application template comes with the workspaces for motion tracking.

Video Editing

The Video Editing application template comes with the workspaces for video editing.

Open

Open a blend file.

Clear Recent Files List

Clears the recent files list.

Open Recent

Open last recent blend files.

More

Open a search field where you can search for specific files.

Clear Recent Files List

This clears the recent files list. When you clear, you will be prompted with which items you would like to remove.

Remove

Recent Context Menu - Open File Location

Opens the recent blend file file location in the operating system’s file explorer.

Revert

Reload the last saved file.

Recover last Session

Open the last closed blend file. (quit.blend)

Recover Autosave

Open the last autosaved blend file.

Save

Save blend file.

Incremental Save

Saves an already saved blend file with incremental file name. myfile.blend gets saved as myfile1.blend, myfile2.blend, myfile3.blend, and so on.

You need to have the blend file saved once to set this save method active.

Save As

Save blend file as.

Save Copy

Saves a copy of the current file.

Link

Link allows you to link content from another blend file. The content remains in the other blend file. The linked blend file will be required to work with the linked content.

When you click at Link then a file browser will open. Down left you will see some further options.

Advanced Filter

This filter allows you to filter the content of the blend file for specific object types.

Import Settings

At the right you can reveal the import settings.

Please Note:

When you select an Object type, it will be placed in your scene at the cursor. Many other data types - cameras, curves, and materials for example - must be linked to an object before they become visible.

You cannot move a linked object. Its position is defined in its source file. If you want to modify the object locally you can either use Dupli Groups or make the object local, in the 3D View, Object / Relations menu.

Appending data you already have linked, will add objects / groups to the scene, but will keep them linked (and un-editable).

Known Limitations

In general dependencies shouldn’t go in both directions. Attempting to link or append data which links back to the current file will likely result in missing links.

When linking objects directly into a .blend file, the Rigid Body settings won’t be linked in since they’re associated with their scenes world. As an alternative you could link in the entire scene and set it as a Background Set Scene.

Append

Append allows you to append content from another blend file. The content will be copied over, and become part of the current blend file.

When you click at Link then a file browser will open. Down left you will see some further options.

The difference to Link is that with Append the object becomes part of the current blend file. And it is editable.

Advanced Filter

This filter allows you to filter the content of the blend file for specific object types.

Import Settings

At the right you can reveal the import settings.

Data Previews

Data Previews is a sub menu with functionality around the Data Preview in the Bforartists file browser. The functionality in this menu creates and handles previews of the objects in a blend file.

Data Previews are displayed in the file browser when you link or append something from this file and when you use thumbnails as display method. It is meant for the case when you want to turn a blend file into an asset library. Materials, ready textured objects, etc. .

Workflow:

First create a scene with your assets. Make sure to remove the camera from the scene. It can work, but it can also make trouble, and prevent the batch generation to work at the blend file. And an asset library doesn't need a camera anyways. Not so important is lights, it does not make trouble like the camera. But you won't get a data preview icon for lights.

Save the scene. Restart Bforartists or create at least a new scene. We want to have a look what we currently get as preview when we want to link or append from this blend file. Make sure to turn the view in the file browser to thumbnails. It's always just the default icon for the assets. Left Materials, right the Objects.

Now let's run Batch Generate Previews at this blend file.

This process takes a while. Now let's try to append from the same file again. You will get proper preview thumbnails now. Left Materials, right the objects. Here you will see again that lamps have no preview icon.

Import

Import is a sub menu with the available 3D import file formats. You will be prompted to the load dialog which provides some further import options down left in the file browser tool shelf.

Note that im- and exporters are partially addons that can be disabled. So some content might miss.

Operator Presets

The operator presets exists on nearly all importers and exporters. Exceptions are for example the *.stl importer. They allow you to reset the importer settings to the defaults. And allow you to store your own presets. The presets are just valid for the importer or exporter with which you have saved the presets.

Operator Presets dropdown

Add Operator Preset

Adds a new operator preset. A popup dialog will appear where you can give the new preset a name.

Remove Operator Preset

Removes the active preset. Note that you cannot display the current active preset. So choose it from the list, and then click at the remove operator.

Import Drag and Drop

You can optionally drag and drop multiple files into the 3D Viewport to directly import different file types. This will batch import the selection from the explorer with a floating dialogue from the importer settings.

Alembic

The alembic file format is for static geometry. It does not support armatures, hair or particles.

USD

Imports a Universal Scene Description (USD) file. It reads *.usd, *.usdc and *.usda files.

General

Object Types

Material Purpose

Geometry

Rigging

Materials

Material Name Collision

How to import the material name when it conflicts with an existing material in the scene.

Set Material Blend

If the Import USD Preview option is enabled, the material blend method will automatically be set based on the opacity and opacityThreshold shader inputs, allowing for visualization of transparent objects.

Textures

Import Textures

How to import textures.

Copy

Copy files to texture directory.

Textures Directory

The textures directory.

File Name Collision

What to do if a texture name already exists.

Particles and Instancing

Scene Instancing

Import USD scene graph instances as collection instances.

SVG as Grease Pencil

Imports a svg file as a grease pencil object.

FBX

FBX is a proprietary file format from Autodesk. FBX is a general file format that is able to store and load animation.

General

Geometry

Vertex Colors

Import vertex colors if they exist. These are Color attributes.

Validate Meshes

Ensure the data is valid.

Animation

Import Animation.

Animation Offset

Adjust an offset in frames for the imported animation.

Armature

Ignore Leaf Bones

Ignore the last bone at the end of the chain.

Wavefront(OBJ)

Imports a wavefront obj file.

General

Scale

Scale factor for the obj import.

Clamp Bounding Box

Clamp bounds under this value. A value of zero disables this feature.

Forward Axis

The Forward orientation at import.

Up Axis

The Up orientation at import.

Options

Materials

Name Collision

How to import the material name when it conflicts with an existing material in the scene.

Stanford (PLY)

The Stanford Triangle Format was designed to store three-dimensional data from 3D scanners. It is a static file format for mesh data, and cannot carry animation data.

General

Options

Merge Vertices

Merges vertices by distance.

Vertex Colors

Import vertex colors if they exist. These are Color attributes.

STL

STL (Standard Triangulation/Tessellation Language ) is a standard format for many cad software. It is a format for static geometry, it cannot handle animation. The format is popular for 3d printing purposes.

General

Forward

The Forward orientation at import.

Up

The Up orientation at import.

Options

Motion Capture (BVH)

The Biovision Hierarchy (BVH) character animation file format is a file format to carry motion capture data.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

Scalable Vector Graphics is usually a 2D file format to describe vector graphics. But Vector graphics are also curves. Which can be used in a 3 dimensional space.

SVG has no import properties.

FBX

FBX is a proprietary file format from Autodesk. FBX is a general file format that is able to store and load animation.

Include

What data to import.

Vertex Colors

Import vertex colors if they exist. These are Color attributes.

Transform

Manual Orientation

Enables custom orientation instead of using the orientation from the fbx file.

Forward

The Forward orientation at import.

Up

The Up orientation at import.

Animation

Animation Offset

Adjust an offset in frames for the imported animation.

Armature

Primary and secondary Bone Axis

Manually adjust the bone orientation per axis. Note that this features are greyed out when Automatic Bone Orientation is ticked.

glTF 2.0 (glb, gltf )

The GL Transmission Format from the Khronos Group is a file format for 3D scenes and models, and is based at the JSON standard.

Shading

Define the shading of the imported geometry.

Lighting Mode

Mesh

Texture

Bones & Skin

Bone Direction

Heuristic method for placing bones.

Pipeline

Export

Export is a sub menu with the available export formats.

Note that im- and exporters are partially addons that can be disabled. So some content might miss.

Operator Presets

The operator presets exists on nearly all im- and exporters. Exceptions are for example the stl importer. They allow you to reset the importer settings to the defaults. And allow you to store your own presets. The presets are just valid for the im- or exporter with which you have saved the presets.

Operator Presets dropdown

Add Operator Preset

Adds a new operator preset. A popup dialog will appear where you can give the new preset a name.

Remove Operator Preset

Removes the active preset. Note that you cannot display the current active preset. So choose it from the list, and then click at the remove operator.

Alembic

The alembic file format is for static geometry. It does not support armatures, hair or particles. However, there are some options to export at least some data of it.

The alembic export options are divided into four sections.

General

Scene

Settings

Determines visibility of objects, modifier settings, and other areas where there are different settings for viewport and rendering.

Geometry

Triangulate

Triangulate meshes before export.

Method Quad

The quad method that gets used to triangulate the meshes. You need to activate Triangulate.

Polygons

The polygon method that gets used to triangulate the meshes. You need to activate Triangulate.

Particle Systems

Alembic does not support hair or particles. However, here you can find some options to export at least some data of it.

Universal Scene Description ( USD )

USD is a system for authoring, composing and reading hierarchically organized scene description. It is developed by Pixar.

General

File References

Units

Set the USD units.

Xform Ops

The type of transform operarators to write.

User Settings for

Use Render settings for object visibility, modifier settings, etc

Object Types

Geometry

Subdivision

How Subdivision will be mapped to USD.

Rigging

Materials

Export Textures

To which path to export referenced textures.

Overwrite Textures

Overwrite existing textures.

USDZ Texture Downsample

Choose a maximum size for all exported textures.

Experimental

Instancing

Istanced objects are exported as references in USD. Else they are exported as real objects.

Grease Pencil as SVG

Exports the grease pencil object as a svg file.

Scene Options

Object

What kind of objects to export from the scene.

Export Options

Frame

Which frame to include to export.

Grease Pencil as PDF

Exports the grease pencil object as a pdf file.

Scene Options

Object

What kind of objects to export from the scene.

Export Options

Frame

Which frames to include in the export. The active frame or the selected frames. The active frame must not be the selected frames since you can select more than one.

Wavefront(OBJ)

Wavefront Obj is a file format for static geometry. And while you can still create a sequence of meshes for animation with it (some software stores shape keys that way for example), you cannot store animation in the file. It is also unique since it is usually made of two files. A OBJ part that contains the mesh data. And a MTL part that contains the material including the connected textures.

General

Forward Axis

Which axis points foward.

Up Axis

Which axis points upwards.

Geometry

What kind of data to export. The labels should be self explaining.

Note that the OBJ file format cannot carry the Blender material settings. The Obj file format uses a primitive Phong shader.

Properties

Where to grab the object properties from. They can differ between viewport settings and render settings.

Grouping

What kind of relationship data to export. The labels should be self explaining.

Note that the OBJ file format cannot carry the Blender material settings. The Obj file format uses a primitive Phong shader.

Materials

Export Materials Checkbox

Export MTL Library. You need a Principled Node with a texture node connected.

PBR Extensions

Export MTL Library using PBR extensions. Roughness, Metallic, Sheen, Clearcoat, Anisotropic and Transmission.

Path Mode

The method to use reference paths.

Animation

Stanford (PLY)

The Stanford Triangle Format was designed to store three-dimensional data from 3D scanners. It is a static file format for mesh data, and cannot carry animation data.

General

Geometry

Vertex Colors

Vertex Color settings if available. These are Color attributes.

STL

STL (Standard Triangulation/Tessellation Language ) is a standard format for many cad software. It is a format for static geometry, it cannot handle animation. The format is popular for 3d printing purposes.

General

Format

ASCII

You can either export the file as binary format or as ASCII format.

Batch

Export all geometry to one file or create a file for every object.

Forward

The Forward orientation at export.

Up

The Up orientation at export.

Geometry

Apply Modifiers

Apply all modifiers before export.

Motion Capture BVH

The Biovision Hierarchy (BVH) character animation file format is a file format to carry motion capture data.

Transform

Scale

The scale factor for the export.

Rotation

The rotation order that is defined in the BVH file.

Root Translation Only

Only write out translation values for the root bone.

Animation

FBX

FBX is a proprietary file format from Autodesk. FBX is a general file format that is able to store and load animation.

The FBX exporter is divided into several panels since it would be too much to display all settings at once.

Path Mode

Method used to reference paths. Methods are Auto, Absolute, Relative, Match, Strip Path and Copy.

Embed Textures

Embed textures in the FBX Binary. Enabled only with the method Copy.

Batch Mode

Gives the opportunity to batch export independent parts. Like one file for each scene. Or one file for each collection. Methods are Scene, Collection, Scene Collections and Active Scene Collections.

Batch Own Dir

Setup the export directory for batch export.

Include

Limit to

Custom Properties

Export custom properties if available.

Transform

Scale

The scale factor for export.

Apply Scaling

How to apply custom and unit scaling in the generated FBX file.

Forward

The forward orientation.

Up

The up orientation.

Geometry

Smoothing

Define what smoothing information gets exported.

Vertex Color

Export vertex color attribute if available. You can export as sRGB 8bit and Linear 32 bit float color bit depths.

Prioritize Active Color

Make sure active color will be exported first. Could be important since some other software can discard other color attributes other than the first one.

Armature

Primary Bone Axis

The primary bone axis orientation.

Secondary Bone Axis

The secondary bone axis orientation.

Armature FBX Node Type

FBX type of node used to represent a Blender Bone.

Animation

Export baked keyframe animation.

glTF 2.0 (glb, gltf )

The GL Transmission Format from the Khronos Group is a file format for 3D scenes and models, and is based at the JSON standard.

Include

Transform

Y+ Up

Export all objects with the Y up orientation.

Data

What data to export. The menu items should be self explaining.

Scene Graph sub panel

Mesh sub panel

Vertex Colors

These are Color attributes.

Use Vertex Color

How to export the vertex colors. You can export them from the Material, Active vertex color selected in the mesh data or None.

Material sub panel

Materials

How to deal with materials at export. Export them, export with placeholders, or don't export.

Images

How to deal with images at export.

Shape Keys sub panel

Export Shape Keys. Also called Morph Targets.

Armature sub panel

Skinning sub panel

Lighting sub panel

Lighting Mode

Optional backwards compatibility for non-standard render engines. Applies to lights. Standard is the Physically- based glTF lighting unitcs (cd, lx, nt) and Raw is the standard Blender lighting units, now deprecated.

Compression sub panel

Compress the mesh data using the Draco algorithm.

The settings should be self explaining.

Animation

Export active actions and NLA tracks from the animation data.

Animation Mode

Export actions, active merged actions, NLA tracks or the Scene animation data.

Bake & Merge sub panel

Bake All Objects Animations

Force exporting animation on every object. Can be useful when using constraints or drivers. Also useful when exporting only selection.

Merge Animations

How to merge animations. Not at all, by actions or by NLA track name.

Rest & Ranges sub panel

General timeline rules for the animation export.

Negative Frames

Negative frames are slid or cropped to frame 0.

Armature sub panel

Armature animation export settings.

Shape Keys Animation sub panel

Shape Key animation export settings.

Sampling Animations

Sampling Interpolation Fallback

The fallback method for Sampling Interpolation.

Animation Pointer !experimental! sub panel

Export material, Light & Camera animation as Animation Pointer.

Optimize Animations sub panel

These options help to optimize the file size.

Extra Animations sub panel

The are considered somewhat experimental and require third-party extensions.

Prepare extra animations

Export additional animations. This feature is not standard and needs and external extension to be included in the glTF file.

Action Filter

This is a filter that will detect and list all the action clips of a scene. Here you can select one specific action clip.

Export All Collections

You find it at the top of File › Export. It stays greyed out until at least one collection has an exporter.

Export all collections that have been assigned Exporter Operators in the Properties Editor Collections Tab. When an Exporter Operator is assigned to a collection, it will export with the Exporter Operator properties and assigned file paths.

External Data

A Blend file may work with external data. Textures for example. Or text files. Or other Blend files, used as libraries.

In this menu you can adjust some settings for external data.

External data like textures or text files can also be packed directly into the blend file. This has some advantages, like that now all data is in one file. But also some drawbacks. Texture editing is for example not longer possible. You would have to export the texture first to be able to save the modifications.

Packed data displays a packed icon in the drop down box. This example is from the header of the UV editor. But you can see this icon also in the material editor at the texture node then.

Library Blend files cannot be packed. Use append instead of link to have the data of another blend file in the blend file.

Automatically Pack into .blend

Automatically pack all files into the blend file. Don't forget to save the blend file. Note that this greys out the two menu items Pack all into Blend and Unpack packed Files.

Pack Resources

Packs all external data into the blend file. Note that the paths must fit, and the external data must be available. A common pitfall here is that the textures uses absolute paths, and are moved to another location meanwhile. See Make all Paths Relative or Find missing Files. Or that you have a not longer existing file linked that shouldn't be in the blend file at all. See Outliner, Orphan Data.

You will get a warning when something is missing.

Unpack Resources

Unpack packed files exports all packed data. You will get an options menu choose between several different unpack methods.

Use Files in current Directory (create when necessary)

Extracts all files to the current directory of the blend file. If the files in the current directory exists, reuse it. Else extract the ones from the blend file.

Write files to current directory (overwrite existing files)

Extracts all files to the current directory of the blend file, and writes it to the current directory. Existing content will be overwritten.

Use files in original location (create when necessary)

Extracts all files into their original directories where they were before packing them into the blend file. If the files in the original directory exists, reuse it. Else extract the ones from the blend file. This feature uses absolute paths.

Clean Up

Here you can remove unused data. It removes all data from the scene that is not longer in use and has no fake user assigned to keep it in the scene.

It is similar functionality to the Clean Up feature in the outliner. But more granular. Unused Data does the same than the Clean Up button in the outliner.

Manage Unused Data

This opens a pop-out floating Outliner Editor in the Unused Data mode, so you can view and manage the unused data.

Quit

Quit Bforartists.

Edit Menu

Edit Menu

Undo

Reverts the last step.

Note. Bforartists uses two separated histories for the Object Mode and the Edit Mode. Means when you leave the Edit mode then you will loose the undo steps in the edit mode.

Redo

Rolls back your last Undo action.

Undo History

The Undo History is a list of the last operations. Here you can roll back to a specific step.

Note that this Undo History is a session history, and does not save to the Blend file.

Repeat Last

Repeat last repeats the last operation. For example, when you have moved an object by 5 in X, then it moves the object by 5 in X with every repeat last step.

Repeat History

Repeat History calls a menu with the last actions where yon can choose an action to be repeated.

Adjust Last Operation - Edit Menu

Some operations have settings, and can be further tweaked. It's the Blender ass forward concept for setting up an operation. In other software you set up an operation and perform it then with this settings. In Blender you first perform the operation, and tweak its settings afterwards. At least sometimes, this concept is not consistent. Bforartists is a fork of Blender. And so we have to live with this concept too.

For example, when you create a primitive, then you may want to adjust the size, or tick options like generate UV's at creation. This is done in the Last Operator panel. This Last Operator Panel is usually down left in the view.

Note that when you perform another operation, like moving the cube after creation, then the last operation content for creation is gone. It will now display the last operation content for the transform operation.

Menu search

Lists the available menus.

Operator Search

This menu item calls a search menu where you can search through all available operators, and perform them if needed. Think of it as one gigantic searchable drop down menu that contains everything available.

Even operators that have no menu entries are listed. Which is useful for scripting purposes, when you want to perform a script operation, but don't have a menu button (yet).

You can navigate with the mouse or with arrow up and down buttons. Performing an operator can be done by clicking at it or by hitting enter.

Note that this search just lists the old traditional operators from before Blender 2.80. Not the ones in the Tool Shelf, which is a completely independent tool system.

Rename active Item

Allows you to rename the currently active item. A rename dialog will pop up where you can type in a new name for the current item. You can have more than one item selected. Just the active item gets renamed.

Batch Rename

Allows you to rename more than one item or parts of the name at once. It will open a rename dialog with various settings.

Add / Remove Operator

This allows you to add more than one operator and method. And here you can remove the operators too.

Data Source

Rename just the selected objects, or all objects.

Data Type

Choose the data type that you want to process.

Type

Choose the operation method. The content of the panel will change with the different types.

Find / Replace

Find and replace names in the chosen objects.

OK

Accept the settings and apply the batch rename operation.

Install Application Templates

Load a new application template.

Application templates is a predefined set of workspaces with its own setup. It can contain its own layout, theming, its own startup file, its own add on set and scripts, a own key map and own lighting, and its own User Preferences.

Bforartists comes with six internal application templates already. Have a look at the "new" menu item in the file menu. Clicking at one of the menu items creates in fact a new scene by using one of the existing application templates.

How to create an application template

An application template is basically a zip file that contains a startup.blend, a userpref.blend, a splash.png and a __init__.py file that defines this all as an application template.

startup.blend and userpref.blend can be created in the Edit menu. So tweak everything to your needs, and save the startup file.

At Windows you will find them in the appdata directory in the Bforartists folder.

At Linux it's in /home/yourusername/.config/bforartists/2.80/config/

Copy those two files, startup.blend and userpref.blend, and throw them into a folder where you want to build the application template in. Rename this folder to AT_01, or to whatever name you want it to use.

Next create a png image as a splash screen for your template, and save it as splash.png into the AT_01 folder. The required size is 501x250. Everything else will throw an error, and you won't be able to see the new splash. You can alternatively also create a splashx2.png file in double size. This is for hi dpi monitors.

The required __init__.py file is a python file with a def register and a def unregister.

def register():

print(Registering application template : {0}.format(__name__)

def unregister():

print(Unregistering application template : {0}.format(__name__)

So copy over this text, and save this file as __init__.py in the AT_01 folder

We should now have four files in the AT_01 folder. Zip the AT_01 folder. The template is finished for installing.

But as a last step, and before you install the template, remove the startup.blend and userpref.blend that we have created to build the application template from the config directory, to have a clean environment.

Once installed you will find the new application template in the New menu.

To remove an application template you need to remove its data in the config folder. There is no functionality to uninstall it.

Save Startup File

Saves a startup.blend with the current configuration.

A startup.blend stores layout informations. Editor layouts, default values, if a panel is open or closed, etc. .

Load Factory Settings

Resets Bforartists into a fresh installed state. All customer modifications, like activated addons, changes at the layout, etc. will be ignored.

Open Preferences Folder

Opens the folder in which the Bforartists settings and addons are stored.

Preferences

Opens the Preferences window. Adjust various settings.

Render Menu

Render Menu

This menu contains functionality around rendering.

Most of the render settings can be found in the Properties editor in the Render tab. And here you can also choose the render engine.

Rendered images can be saved in the Image menu like any other image.

Render Audio

Mixdown and export the scene's audio to an audio file. You will open an export dialog when you click at Render Audio. Further Audio settings can be found in the Properties editor.

Options

The options can be found down left in the Save dialog.

Containers

Choose between different audio export formats.

Window Menu

Window Menu

Window related functionality.

Show Status Bar

Display the footer.

New Window

Creates a new instance of Bforartists. But without Top Bar.

New Main Window

Creates a new instance of Bforartists with its own workspace and scene settings and with the Top Bar.

Close Window

Close the current window, If this is the last open window, the application will quit.

Toggle Window Full screen

Makes Bforartists full screen.

Next Workspace

Cycle to next workspace.

Previous Workspace

Cycle to previous workspace.

Save Screenshot

Saves a screenshot from the whole application.

Save Screenshot (Area)

Saves a screenshot from the area under the mouse.

Toggle System Console

Toggles the System console. This is a Windows feature. Under Linux and Mac you can use the bash.

Help Menu

Help Menu

The Help menu contains some external links to useful resources. In this menu you can also find a utility to save the system information and to show the splash screen.

Splash Screen

Reveals the Splash Screen.

This includes New File templates which contain various workspaces.

It also includes quick links to get started, information about Bforartists, and common operators to recover your last session or open a new file.

In the footer you will find the Bforartists version and Blender relevant version.

About

Reveals the about box.

This includes the current version, the relevant Blender version, the date of compilation, hash, branch, and information about the license and software.