Topbar
Menus
Blender Menu
- Splash Screen
Open the Splash Screen.
- About Blender
Opens a menu displaying information about Blender.
- Version
The Blender version.
- Date
Date when Blender was compiled.
- Hash
The Git Hash of the build. This can be useful to give to support personnel when diagnosing a problem.
- Branch
Optional branch name.
- Release Notes
Open the latest release notes.
- Credits
Open credits website.
- License
Open License website.
- Blender Website
Open main Blender website.
- Blender Store
Open the Blender store.
- Development Fund
Open the developer fund website.
- Install Application Template
Install a new application template.
File Menu
The options to manage files are:
- New Ctrl-N
Clears the current scene and loads the selected application template.
- Open Ctrl-O
Open a blend-file.
- Open Recent Shift-Ctrl-O
Displays a list of recently saved blend-files to open.
- Revert
Reopens the current file to its last saved version.
- Recover
- 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…
Saves a copy of the current file.
- Link…
Links data from an external blend-file (library) to the current one. The editing 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…
Appends data from an external blend-file to the current one. The new data is copied from the external file, and completely unlinked from it.
- Data Previews
Tools for managing data-block previews.
- 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 Paths to current blend-file.
- Make All Paths Absolute
Make all paths to external files absolute (= 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 can 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.
- Clean Up
- Unused Data-Blocks
Remove unused data-blocks from both the current blend-file and any Linked Data (cannot be undone). See the Outliner for more information.
- Recursive Unused Data-Blocks
Remove all unused data-blocks from both the current blend-file and any Linked Data including any indirectly used data-blocks i.e. those only used by unused data-blocks.
- Unused Linked Data-Blocks
Remove unused data-blocks from only Linked Data.
- Recursive Unused Linked Data-Blocks
Remove all unused data-blocks from only Linked Data including any indirectly used data-blocks i.e. those only used by unused data-blocks.
- Unused Local Data-Blocks
Remove all unused data-blocks from only the current blend-file.
- Recursive Unused Local Data-Blocks
Remove all unused data-blocks from only the current blend-file including any indirectly used data-blocks i.e. those only used by unused data-blocks.
- Defaults
This menu manages the startup file which is used to store the default scene, workspace, and interface displayed when creating a new file.
Initially this contains the startup scene included with Blender. This can be replaced by your own customized setup.
- Save Startup File
Saves the current blend-file as the startup file.
- Load Factory Settings
Restores the default startup file and preferences.
See also
- Quit Ctrl-Q
Closes Blender. The current scene is saved to a file called “quit.blend” in Blender’s temporary directory (which can be found on the “File Paths” tab of the Preferences).
Edit Menu
- Undo/Redo/History
See Undo & Redo.
- Menu Search
Find a menu based on its name.
- Operator Search
Execute an operator based on its name (Developer Extras only).
- Rename Active Item
Rename the active object or node; see Rename tool for more information.
- Batch Rename
Renames multiple data types at once; see Batch Rename tool for more information.
- Lock Object Modes
Prevents selecting objects that are in a different mode than the current one.
Note
This option can prevent accidental mode changes, such as when you’re trying to select a bone in Pose Mode to animate it, but instead click a piece of background scenery (which would normally select that piece and switch to Object Mode).
You may want to disable Lock Object Modes for example when weighting rigged objects or sculpting/painting where you intentionally want to switch between objects in different modes.
- Preferences
Open the Preferences window.
Render Menu
- Render Image F12
Render the active scene at the current frame.
- Render Animation Ctrl-F12
Render the animation of the active scene.
See also
Rendering Animations for details.
- Render Audio
Mix the scene’s audio to a sound file.
See also
Rendering audio for details.
- View Render F11
Show the Render window. (Press again to switch back to the main Blender window.)
- View Animation Ctrl-F11
Playback rendered animation in a separate player.
See also
Animation player for details.
Preferences for selecting a different animation player than the default one.
- Lock Interface
Lock interface during rendering in favor of giving more memory to the renderer.
Window Menu
- New Window
Create a new window by copying the current window.
- New Main Window
Create a new window with its own workspace and scene selection.
- Toggle Window Fullscreen
Toggle the current window fullscreen.
- Next Workspace
Switch to the next workspace.
- Previous Workspace
Switch to the previous workspace.
- Show Status Bar
Choose whether the Status Bar at the bottom of the window should be displayed.
- Save Screenshot
Capture a picture of the current Blender window. A File Browser will open to choose where the screenshot is saved.
- Save Screenshot (Editor)
Capture a picture of the selected Editor. Select the Editor by clicking LMB within its area after running the operator. A File Browser will open to choose where the screenshot is saved.
Help Menu
See Help System.
Workspaces
This set of tabs is used to switch between Workspaces, which are essentially predefined window layouts.
Scenes & Layers
These data-block menus are used to select the current Scene and View Layer.