Datasheet

Part I: Wrapping Your Brain Around Blender

At first, working in a nonblocking, nonmodal interface may seem to be really

restrictive. How do you see different types of editors? Can you see them at the

same time? Everything looks like it’s nailed in place, so is it even possible to

change anything? Fortunately, all these things are possible, and you get the

benefit of never having your view of one area obstructed by another. Having

an unobstructed workspace is a great way to be able to see at a glance what’s

going on in your file. Furthermore, as of the Blender 2.5 development series, if

you absolutely need multiple windows that can overlap, you can have them.

For example, you might have two computer monitors that are different sizes,

and you’d like a full-sized Blender window in each. I show you how to do task

later in this chapter in the “Duplicating an area to a new window” section.

Resizing an area

You can modify and change all the areas in a Blender window in the same

way: Change the size of an area by left-clicking the border between two areas

and dragging it to a new position. This method increases the size of one area

while reducing the size of those that adjoin it. If you have only one area in

your Blender window, it’s exactly the same size as that window. To resize it,

you need to either adjust the size of its parent Blender window or split a new

area into that space.

Splitting and removing areas

While working in Blender, it’s pretty common that the default layout isn’t quite

what you need to work efficiently. Sometimes you may need an additional 3D

View, or you may want to see the UV/Image Editor in addition to the 3D View.

To create either of these layout changes, you need to split an existing area

into two. Splitting a new area doesn’t work like it used to in previous versions

of Blender. In earlier versions, you’d split or join areas by right-clicking the

border and choosing an option from a pop-up menu. As of Blender 2.5, a new

system uses the corners at the bottom left and top right of any area. These

corner widgets are marked as a triangular region indicated by diagonal lines.

To split any area into two, use the following steps:

1. Left-click one of the corner widgets and drag your mouse cursor away

from the area’s border.

2. Drag your mouse cursor left or right to split the area vertically.

Dragging it up or down splits the area horizontally. As you drag your

mouse, the areas update in real time so that you can see the result of

the split while you’re working. To cancel the operation, right-click or

press Esc.

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