Topbar

Menus

Blender Menu

Splash Screen: Open the Splash Screen.

About Blender

Opens a menu displaying the following 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.
Windowing Environment: On Linux, this will show either Wayland or X11 depending on the windowing environment that Blender is running on.
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 the most recently opened blend-files. Select any of the file names in the list to open that blend-file.

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.

When an Application Templates is in use the following operators are shown:

Load Factory Blender Settings: Loads the default settings to the original Blender settings without the changes made from the current application template.
Load Factory (Application Template Name) Settings: Loads the default settings to the original application template.

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.

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.

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.