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Blender 4.5 LTS: User Interface

General

  • Improve "Saved" report message to better differentiate between regular saving, "Save As", "Save Incremental", or "Save Copy". (43b3c62a54)
  • Themeable RedAlert, Error, Warning, Info Colors. (5956752eb7)
  • Reduced size of warning icons on large dialogs. (497f2884e8)
  • Improved scrollbars with handles. (PR#135023)
  • Improved names shown for the various "Select" operators. (6035447ce5)
  • Collection Properties "Restrictions" reorganized as "Visibility". (ad9b5a1b00)
  • Default height of Tree Views increased. (72a38aee7e)
  • NLA scroll bars now hide if the area is made very slim. (9dbd20b369)
  • Light theme now defaults to transparent face orientation font color. (9dae51a3d4)
  • Improved typographical line breaking. (4894c888ee, 9dd4e90136)
  • Improved line breaking for file paths. (587a7f877c)
  • Wide Enum lists now work at extreme scales. (d61e4d0930)
  • Eyedropper tooltip can no longer show in non-active space. (28704a47a1)
  • Dragging regions into view now works more consistantly. (d9dbd1bafd)
  • Color pickers now scale down to miniscule sizes better. (3dc78529f2)
  • Improved handling of thumbnails while using Workbench engine. (f13bf270c6)
  • Better padding for Tree views without scroll bars. (e6b89924a0)
  • Possible flickering of active area highlight removed when resizing. (7215da9390)
  • Loading window background now uses theme color. (81efb13f49)
    Themed Loading Window Background - Before / After
  • Sidebar: Press numpad period to show the active sidebar tab. (5e2a856566)
  • Add "Remove All Materials" operator. (dd43ea4e9e)
  • Support for horizontal scrolling. (afd760f2b7)
  • Simplified message on the dialog to confirm saving over startup file. (e9cc07a24c)
  • Simplied options for fluids volumetric data settings. (932fa1afb4)
  • Search menu layout, alignment, arrows, etc all improved. (d66b171996)
  • Ctrl-Wheel while hovering text inputs can increment/decrement numbers in the string. (9741ced8c0)
  • Grease Pencil vertex groups now shown in Outliner. (3b1b05ded8)
  • Action Slots are now shown in the Outliner. (d30d4c0c04)
  • One can scroll over fully visible tree views now. (6e29616c49)
  • Support dropping a tree view item after the last element. (40177a8426)
  • Better display of disabled/hidden items in Outliner when using Light theme. (370d8956ae)

Pen Tablet Usage

  • Editor border outline (and hitzone) can now be increased. (a21481cbdd, 2690c0266a)
    Border Resizing
  • Region resize highlighting. (b847cc0426)
    Region Resize Highlighting
  • Tooltips easier to invoke with a tablet pen. (edf2706f8c)
  • Selecting Tool icons with a pen won't always bring up alternatives. (8c5393d4c0)
  • Pen movement before tool tips pop up no longer stops them from starting. (18d82c5164)
  • Hit space widened when resizing areas. (22ad0b9faf)
  • Corner zone for area maintenance increased in size. (dbf3a3979d)
    Corner Action Zone Size
  • Contrast increased for area resize feedback. (cc22de7acb)
  • Scroll Bars on the Left Side of Left-Aligned Regions. (3e29f3eaa2, 72e56ab27b)
  • Scroll Bars no longer full hide when in a transparent region. (b4194b08d4)
  • Increased hit size of the Close Region Action Zone. (daa417d304)
  • Feeback on Status Bar while pressing down on corner action zones improved. (3cb1749c31)
  • Less accidental opening of neighboring open menus. (166d45b80f)
  • Wide menus will stay open while navigating to their contents. (110b8fee41, 2f6a10c75e)
  • Consistent Pen Tilt Values from platforms and devices. (e1e250aa84, 914d2e8164, c551d2a819)
  • Increased hit sizes for Gizmo parts. (107c744540)

Tooltips

  • Tooltips now show disabled message above python path. (24fe1f2d5c)
  • Tooltips for assets now include the file name and directory path of the asset. (5ba668135a)
  • Tooltips for assets now incidate if they are from the current file or the Essentials library. (e5e7b6232a)
  • Tooltip contents now line break better, including multilingually. (3f65f700e5)
  • Enum names and descriptions rearranged into a more logical order. (89ad52b22a)

Icons

  • Improved "Presets" icons. (0381f18429)
  • New icons to represent error conditions. (e850a09762)
  • New vertically-aligned grip icon. (0dce68333f)
  • "Not Found" Icon shown when one is not available. (a021176ff4)
  • Specific icon added to represent previews while loading. (0ee642611c)
  • Colored, and translatable, icons added to represent red, green, and blue channels. (c13d3e2f7a)
    RGB Icons
  • Gizmos can now use user-defined or generated icons. (ec149a919a)
  • Vector icons now align with other types by using float positioning. (dd6b2e648e)

3D Viewport

  • Show object data name in 3D viewport text overlays. (55de54557c)
  • Shading popover: Move Cavity properties into separate subpanel. (9627bdfab3)
  • Drag & dropping collections into the 3D view snaps their position to surfaces and the grid. (103d535fe4)
  • Curves info now included in the viewport statistics. (128920633a)
  • Curve and Grease Pencil dimensions now shown in transform side panel. (2cc5143ca6)
  • Moved "Active Spline" panel from properties space to the "item" section of the 3D viewport. (5fe1051839)
  • Added rotation support to the "Snap to Cursor" operator. (c8ab27c5)
  • Layout consistency improvements to Shading popover (6329e00cd1)
  • Viewport shading mode tooltips are now more descriptive. (38a58a319d)
  • Grid and Axes can now be separately enabled/disabled in ViewPort Overlays popover. (836247a146)

Asset Browser

  • Generate Preview, Generate Preview from Object and Remove Preview operate on all selected assets instead of only the active one. (32cae542da)
  • New Horizontal List display mode for a compact view of assets that leaves names readable. (4499fad40e)
    Asset Browser Horizontal List display mode
  • New Import Settings popover. It contains:
    • The Import Method option previously located in the header. (7a6beb65f4)
    • New toggles for collection instancing for link and append. (6c1c5e8923)
  • Drag & dropping collections into the 3D view snaps their position to surfaces and the grid. (103d535fe4)
  • Improved spacing of icons and labels in Asset Browser (529ab6555c)

  • Asset names in the Thumbnails display mode are drawn with up to two lines (a8b031dcc6)

    Old New
  • The context menu for local brush assets includes Edit Metadata, Edit Preview Image, Save Changes to Asset and Revert to Asset

File Browser

  • Slightly decreased horizontal paddings for files in the file browser. (1ca05d3940)
  • Improved spacing of icons and labels in File Browser (529ab6555c)
  • File names in the Thumbnails display mode are drawn with up to two lines (a8b031dcc6)
  • Dragging files from File Browser will drag all selected, not just the active one (38c08b515f)

Timeline Editor

  • Timeline scrollbar thumb (circle at edges) now visible in Light theme. (101d8782f7)
  • Timeline allows using markers at a small minimum height. (0354136775)
  • Timeline can now be duplicated into new window while very small without error. (b2c4d71f1d)

Node Editor

Frame Nodes

A summary of the frame node improvements can be read on the blog.

  • (Named) frames are added with F now. The functionality that was previously on F is moved to J (8ec093a2d8).
  • Pressing F while transforming nodes now detaches the current frame or attaches the highlighted frame (578f935170).
  • Highlight the frame that dragged nodes will be attached to (1e23f9235c).
  • Frames use alternating colors now (99a2589217).
  • Improved frame label positions (691a2be7f0).

Node Groups

  • Panels in node groups can now have toggle inputs (2822777f13).
    Panel Toggle
  • Support expanded enums in node group interface (8a42e2b59a).
    Expanded Menu Inputs
  • Vector socket can now have Percentage and Factor subtypes (79d37720de).
    Vector Socket Subtypes
  • Auto-hide inputs when their usage depends on a menu input (5457cca3de).

Built-in Nodes

  • Input and output sockets on many nodes have been aligned to use the same row (7e4d50f1db, f19f260ca8).
    Inline Sockets
  • Value input nodes are smaller now (87c011f8bb).
    Minified Value Nodes

Adding Nodes

  • Support searching for specific node operations in Add menu (156a405dd5, fb86bf0367).
    Add Math Node
  • Support searching for various input sockets directly (c157fecc4e, 39a3b44a72).
    Input Node Socket Search
  • One can create new Group Input nodes by dragging inputs from the sidebar (309ce182b8).
  • "New Group" operator to create a new empty node group (9e0e94e6e2).

Error Handling

  • Show link errors directly on link instead of on node (4a760c1a70).
    Invalid Node Link
  • Invalid zones are visualized better now (f3294bbd06).
    Invalid Zone
  • Tooltip when hovering over error icon shows more quickly (a03d0fd512).

Miscellaneous

  • Internal links show on muted nodes regardless of whether outputs are linked (e87f744134).
    Internal Links
  • Vectors sockets now have a Dimensions property to allow 2D and 4D vectors. (02a95d088e).
    2D Vector Input
  • The width of the Find Node menu automatically adapts to its content (bf696320f6).
  • The viewer node jumps in fewer cases when it's activated (e4e49e1634).
  • Group node names are initialized from the name of the group (d9317046b2).
  • Node search (ctrl+F) now takes dynamic node labels into account (20a6956079).
  • Panels remain intact when creating a wrapper node group from a single node (367b7b240f).
  • The selection lists for socket types now show icons for each socket type (821e0024d4, e09b57c5d7).

Properties Editor

  • Individual tabs can be hidden via context menu or Options popover. (bf18e8f814)
    Properties Tabs
  • The context path now indicates when material is on object data rather than the object. (a0fdbf0fd2)
  • NavBar tabs area can no longer be accidentally hidden.(c9e7136161, 87dcf4907a)

Spreadsheet Editor

  • Domains that are not present in the current geometry set are now grayed out (4ba94714bd).
    Grayed out Domains
  • The column name is shown in a tooltip when hovering over it (b84e790b81).
  • Double clicking on a column edge in the header now makes the column width fit its content (734e3c5589).
  • Columns can be reordered manually now (66e96bf134).
  • The column width can be edited now (db7b5a480b).
  • Modified table layouts now persist (0b24f15939, 66a5469bcf).
  • There is a new option to display internal attributes (11dc71b258).
    Internal Attributes
  • Context path has been moved to the left side bar (9ac3e44ce6).
    Context Path

Status Bar

  • Spacing has been tightened (beaaa428e9).
  • Improved display during text and numerical entry. (16a4956ce8)
  • VSE Solo Preview operator now shows correctly on the status bar. (ac549dcfde)
    Text Entry Status
  • Info at the right side of the Status Bar no longer jiggles! (cb11e23605)
  • Transforming with proportional editing uses less space on the status bar. (1c2aaa8a57)
  • Page Up / Page Down keymap entries now shown as "Pg↑" and "Pg↓" rather than just "P↑" "P↓". (4e33627ebd)
  • Icons are now used for trackpad gestures. (48403607dd)
  • "Hyper" key now shown correctly. (405d9bc0bb)

Preferences

Keymap Editor

  • Show alert when keymap operator not found. (bb215a37e2)

Keymap

  • Use horizontal scroll wheel to pan in 3D Viewport. (fcc6e022b1)
  • Numpad Period keymap entry to show the active side tab without having to scroll. (5e2a856566)

Platforms

Linux

  • Wayland and X11: larger versions (24x24 and 32x32) of mouse cursors added for high-DPI monitors. (fcf57e2024, 86c0190924)
  • Wayland and X11: now support the "Hyper" modifier key, an additional modifier available on Unix systems which can be configured to use existing keys (caps-lock for example), see: PR#136340 for details. (5e2b421996)

macOS

  • Custom cursors no longer show very large. (60f480f21f)
  • Option, Command + Arrow Input Movement in text inputs. (380f9973b6)
  • Use busyButClickableCursor mouse cursor during long operations. (8325e7f5e4)
    Mac Busy Cursor

Windows

  • Dragging and dropping will now favor file paths over regular text. (b030acbe9d)
  • Initial white flash during startup now a less jarring mid-grey. (cf4778df74)