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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

Recover Last Session

This will load a blend-file that 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…

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

Managing Preferences.

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.