Workspaces

Workspaces are essentially predefined window layouts. Blender’s flexibility with Areas lets you create customized workspaces for different tasks such as modeling, animating, and scripting. It is often useful to quickly switch between different workspaces within the same file.

Workspaces are located at the Topbar.

Controls

Tabs

Click on the tabs titles to switch between the workspaces. To cycle between workspaces use Ctrl-PageUp and Ctrl-PageDown. Double click to rename the workspace.

Add +

Click on the Add button to add a new workspace.

Context menu RMB

The context menu contains options to duplicate, delete and reorder workspaces.

Default Workspaces

Blender’s default startup shows the “Layout” workspace in the main area. This workspace is a general workspace to preview your scene and objects and contains the following Editors:

• 3D Viewport on top left.

• Outliner on top right.

• Properties editor on bottom right.

• Timeline on bottom left.

Blender’s ‘Layout’ Workspace with four editors.

3D Viewport (yellow), Outliner (green), Properties editor (blue) and Timeline (red).

Blender also has several other workspaces added by default:

Modeling

For modification of geometry by modeling tools.

Sculpting

For modification of meshes by sculpting tools.

UV Editing

Mapping of image texture coordinates to 3D surfaces.

Texture Paint

Tools for coloring image textures in the 3D Viewport.

Shading

Tools for specifying material properties for rendering.

Animation

Tools for making properties of objects dependent on time.

Rendering

For viewing and analyzing rendering results.

Compositing

Combining and post-processing of images and rendering information.

Scripting

Programming workspace for writing scripts.

Additional Workspaces

Blender has a couple additional Workspaces to choose from when adding a new Workspace:

2D Animation

2D Animation

General workspace to work with Grease Pencil.

2D Full Canvas

Similar to “2D Animation” but contains a larger canvas.

VFX

Masking

Tools to create 2D masks for compositing.

Motion Tracking

Tools to motion track and stabilize footage.

Video Editing

Video Editing

Sequence together media into one video.

Save and Override

The workspaces are saved in the blend-file. When you open a file, enabling the Load UI in the File Browser indicates that Blender should use the file’s screen layouts and overriding the current layout. See Load UI.

A custom set of workspaces can be saved as a part of the Defaults.