Interface

Interface configuration lets you change how UI elements are displayed and how they react.

../_images/preferences_interface_tab.png

Display

Scale
Adjusts the size of fonts and buttons relative to the automatically detected DPI. During typical usage, you may prefer to use zoom which is available in many parts of Blender interface.
Line Width

Scale of lines and points in the interface e.g. button outlines, edges and vertex points in the 3D View.

Thin, Auto, Thick

Tooltips
When enabled, a tooltip will appear when your mouse pointer is over a control. This tip explains the function of what is under the pointer, gives the associated hotkey (if any) and the Python function that refers to it.
Python Tooltips
Displays a property’s Python information below the tooltip.
Object Info
Display the active Object name and frame number at the bottom left of the 3D View.
Large Cursors
Use large mouse cursors when available.
View Name
Display the name and type of the current view in the top left corner of the 3D View. For example: User Perspective or Top Orthographic.
Playback FPS
Show the frames per second screen refresh rate while an animation is played back. It appears in the viewport corner, displaying red if the frame rate set cannot be reached.
Global Scene
Forces the current scene to be displayed in all screens (a project can consist of more than one scene).
Object Origin Size
Diameter of 3D Object centers in the viewport (value in pixels from 4 to 10).
Display Mini Axis
Show the mini axis at the bottom left of the viewport.
Size
Size of the mini axis.
Brightness
Adjust brightness of the mini axis.

Warnings

Prompt Quit
When exiting Blender, a pop-up will ask you whether or not you really want to quit (currently only available on MS-Windows).

View Manipulation

Cursor Depth
Use the depth under the mouse when placing the cursor.
Auto Depth
Use the depth under the mouse to improve view pan, rotate, zoom functionality. Useful in combination with Zoom To Mouse Position.
Zoom to Mouse Position
When enabled, the mouse pointer position becomes the focus point of zooming instead of the 2D window center. Helpful to avoid panning if you are frequently zooming in and out.
Rotate Around Selection

The selected object (bounding box center) becomes the rotation center of the viewport. When there is no selection the last selection will be used.

Hint

This may seem ideal behavior. However, it can become problematic with larger objects such as a terrain-mesh, where the center is not necessarily your point of interest.

Global Pivot
Lock the same rotation/scaling pivot in all 3D Views.
Camera Parent Lock
When the camera is locked to the view and in fly mode, transform the parent rather than the camera.
Auto Perspective
Automatically to perspective Top/Side/Front view after using User Orthographic. When disabled, Top/Side/Front views will retain Orthographic or Perspective view (whichever was active at the time of switching to that view).
Smooth View
Length of time the animation takes when changing the view with the numpad (Top/Side/Front/Camera…). Reduce to zero to remove the animation.
Rotation Angle
Rotation step size in degrees, when Numpad4, Numpad6, Numpad8, or Numpad2 are used to rotate the 3D View.

2D Viewports

Minimum Grid Spacing
The minimum number of pixels between grid lines in a 2D (i.e. top orthographic) viewport.
Time Code Style
Format of Time Codes displayed when not displaying timing in terms of frames. The format uses ‘+’ as separator for sub-second frame numbers, with left and right truncation of the timecode as necessary.
Zoom To Frame Type

Defines what time range (around the cursor) will be displayed when the View Frame Numpad0 is performed.

Keep Range
The currently displayed time range is preserved.
Seconds
The number of seconds specified in the Zoom Seconds field will be shown around the cursor.
Keyframes
The number of animation keyframes defined in the Zoom Keyframes field will be shown around the cursor.
Manipulator
Turns manipulator on and off.
Size
Diameter of the manipulator.
Handle Size
Size of manipulator handles, as a percentage of the manipulator radius (size/ 2).
Hotspot
Hotspot size (in pixels) for clicking the manipulator handles.

Pie Menus

Animation Timeout
Length of animation when opening Pie Menus.
Recenter Timeout
The window system tries to keep the pie menu within the window borders. Pie menus will use the initial mouse position as center for this amount of time, measured in 1/100ths of a second. This allows for fast dragged selections.
Radius
The size of the Pie Menu set with the distance (in pixels) of the menu items from the center of the pie menu.
Threshold
Distance from center before a selection can be made.
Confirm Threshold
Distance threshold after which selection is made (zero disables).

Splash

Show Splash
Display the Splash Screen when starting Blender.