Add-ons

The Add-ons section lets you manage secondary scripts, called “Add-ons” that extends Blender’s functionality. Most of the time you can get add-ons as part of the Extensions system.

In this section you can search, install, enable and disable Add-ons.

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If the Add-on does not activate when enabled, check the Console window for any errors that may have occurred.

Filtering Add-ons

Enabled Add-ons Only

Shows only enabled add-ons for the current Category.

Add-on Tags

Add-ons are assigned categories by what areas of Blender they affect.

Add-on Settings

Refresh Local

Scan extension & legacy add-ons for changes to modules & meta-data (similar to restarting). Any issues are reported as warnings.

Install from Disk

Install an extension from a .zip package. This is installed to a Local Repository and no updates will be available.

This can also be used to install legacy Add-ons, for more information see: Installing Legacy Add-ons.

Enabling & Disabling Add-ons

To enable or disable an add-on check or uncheck the box to the right of the add-ons.

The add-on functionality should be immediately available.

Add-on Information

You can click the arrow at the left of the add-on box to see more information, such as its location, a description and a link to the documentation. Here you can also find a button to report a bug specific of this add-on.

Add-on Preferences

Some add-ons may have their own preferences which can be found in the Preferences section of the add-on information box.

Some add-ons use this section for example to enable/disable certain functions of the add-on. Sometimes these might even all default to off. So it is important to check if the enabled add-on has any particular preferences.

Installing Legacy Add-ons

To install legacy add-ons, click the Install from Disk menu item and select the add-on’s .py file (if it has only one such file) or its .zip file.

The add-on will not be automatically enabled after installation; click the checkbox to do that.

Refresh

Scans the Add-on Directory for new add-ons.

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While this screen doesn’t allow installing a folder-based addon with loose .py files, you can still do so by adding it as a Script Directory:

  1. Create an empty directory in a location of your choice (e.g. my_scripts).

  2. Add a subdirectory under my_scripts called addons (it must have this name for Blender to recognize it).

  3. Place your addon folder inside this addons folder.

  4. Open the File Paths section of the Preferences.

  5. Add a Script Directories entry pointing to your script folder (e.g. my_scripts).

  6. Save the preferences and restart Blender for it to recognize the new add-on location.

The add-ons in this folder will automatically become available; all you need to do is enable them.