File

The options to manage files are:

New Ctrl-N

Clears the current scene and loads startup.blend.

Open Ctrl-O

Open a blend-file.

Open Recent Shift-Ctrl-O

Displays a list of recently saved blend-files to open.

Recover Last Session

This will load the quit.blend file Blender automatically saves just before exiting. So this option enables you to recover your last work session, e.g. if you closed Blender by accident.

Recover Auto Save

This will open an automatically saved file to recover it.

Save Ctrl-S

Save the current blend-file.

Save As Shift-Ctrl-S

Opens the File Browser to specify file name and location of save.

Save Copy Shift-Alt-S

Saves a copy of the current file.

User Preferences Ctrl-Alt-U

Opens the User Preferences Editor in a new window.

Save User Settings Ctrl-U

Saves the current scene and preferences to startup.blend.

Load Factory Settings

Restores the default startup file as factory settings.

Link Ctrl-Alt-O

Links data from an external blend-file (library) to the current scene. The edition of that data is only possible in the external library. Link and Append are used to load in only selected parts from another file. See Linked Libraries.

Append Shift-F1

Appends data from an external blend-file to the current scene. The new data is copied from the external file, and completely unlinked from it.

Import

Blender can use information stored in a variety of other format files which are created by other graphics programs. See Import/Export.

Export

Normally you save your work in a blend-file, but you can export some or all of your work to a format that can be processed by other graphics programs. See Import/Export.

External Data

External data, like texture images and other resources, can be stored inside the blend-file (packed) or as separate files (unpacked). Blender keeps track of all unpacked resources via a relative or absolute path. See pack or unpack external Data.

Automatically Pack Into .blend

This option activates the file packing. If enabled, every time the blend-file is saved, all external files will be saved (packed) in it.

Pack All Into .blend

Pack all used external files into the blend-file.

Unpack Into Files

Unpack all files packed into this blend-file to external ones.

Make All Paths Relative

Make all paths to external files relative to current blend-file.

Make All Paths Absolute

Make all paths to external files absolute. Absolute ones have full path from the system’s root.

Report Missing Files

This option is useful to check if there are links to unpacked files that no longer exist. After selecting this option, a warning message will appear in the Info editor’s header. If no warning is shown, there are no missing external files.

Find Missing Files

In case you have broken links in a blend-file, this option will help you to fix the problem. A File Browser will show up. Select the desired directory (or a file within that directory), and a search will be performed in it, recursively in all contained directories. Every missing file found in the search will be recovered. Those recoveries will be done as absolute paths, so if you want to have relative paths you will need to select Make All Paths Relative.

Note

Recovered files might need to be reloaded. You can do that one by one, or you can save the blend-file and reload it again, so that all external files are reloaded at once.

Quit Ctrl-Q

Closes Blender and the file is saved into quit.blend.