Collections

There can be many objects in a scene: A typical stage scene consists of furniture, props, lights, and backdrops. Blender helps you keep everything organized by allowing you to group like objects together. Objects can be grouped together without any kind of transformation relationship (unlike parenting). Collections are used to just logically organize your scene, or to facilitate one-step appending or linking between files or across scenes.

Collections Tab

Reference

Menu

Properties ‣ Collection Properties

Restrictions

Selectable

Toggles the ability to select the objects from the 3D Viewport. This is useful for if you have placed something in the scene and do not want to accidentally select it when working on something else.

Disable in Renders

Enables/disables visibility of the collection in renders.

Holdout

Objects inside this collection will generate a holdout/mask in the active view layer.

Indirect Only

Objects inside this collection will only contribute to the final image indirectly through shadows and reflections.

Instancing

Instance Offset X, Y Z

Applies a spatial offset of the instanced collections from the original object’s origin.

Line Art

Todo.

Collections Menu

Reference

Mode

Object Mode

Menu

Object ‣ Collection

Shortcut

M, Shift-M, Ctrl-G, etc.

Move to Collection M

Move selected objects to an existing or new collection.

Link to Collection Shift-M

Link selected objects to a collection. A new collection can be created in the pop-up.

Create New Collection Ctrl-G

Creates a new collection and adds the selected object(s) to it. The name of the new collection can be specified in the Create New Collection Adjust Last Operation panel. This collection is not linked to the active scene.

Remove from Collection Ctrl-Alt-G

Remove the selected objects from a collection. If the object belongs to more than one collection, a pop-up lets you select the collection and an option to remove it from all collections.

Remove from All Collections Shift-Ctrl-Alt-G

Remove the selected objects from all collections.

Add Selected to Active Collection Shift-Ctrl-G

Adds the selected objects to the collections to which the active object belongs.

Remove Selected from Active Collection Shift-Alt-G

Causes the selected objects to be removed from the collections to which the active object belongs.

Collections Panel

Reference

Mode

Object Mode

Panel

Object tab ‣ Collections

Collections panel.

All collections that an object has been assigned to are listed in the Properties Object tab ‣ Collections panel.

Add to Collection

Adds the selected object to a collection. A pop-up lets you specify the collection to add to.

New +

Creates a new collection and adds the selected object to it.

Name

To rename a collection, simply click in the collections name field.

Remove X

To remove an object from a collection, find the name of the collection from which you wish to remove the object, and click the X button to the right of the collection name.

Specials

Unlink Collection, Select Collection, Set Offset from Cursor

Offset

Applies a spatial offset of the instanced collections from the original object’s origin.

See also

Appending or Linking Collections

To append a collection from another blend-file, consult this page. In summary, File ‣ Link/Append Link Select a blend-file and then the collection.

Tip

Selecting Collections

Collections can be selected, see Select Grouped for more information.