Datasheet

User Preferences n 23
Accessing Data from Different Files
You often need access to objects or datablocks from other files.
Animation projects can quickly get far too big to store in single .blend
files, and yet many different scenes and shots may share the same
main elements. You can access datablocks between separate files in
Blender in several ways.
The first and simplest way is to use append. To append a datablock
from another file, select Append from the File menu or press Shift+F1.
A File Browser window opens, in which you can access .blend files
stored on your computer and their contents. In the File Browser win-
dow, when you click the name of a .blend file, you see a list of datablock types, just as if
they were directories. Enter the appropriate type directory; you see a list of the datablocks
of that type available for appending. Here is another place to be aware of the difference
between objects and object type datablocks. If you want to append a Mesh object from
another file, for example, you find the object in the Object type directory instead of the
Mesh type directory.
Another approach to using data across separate files is by linking the datablocks.
Linking can be done similarly to appending, except that in the File Browser header,
the Link button is selected instead of Append and the Tool Shelf area to the left of the
browser contains options related to linking. In this case, the data can be edited only in
the file from which it was originally linked, and all edits appear in the files that linked
to the data. The hotkey for linking is Ctrl+Alt+O.
Groups
Objects can be collected together into named groups using the Add To Group button
in the Object Properties area, as shown in Figure 1.20. Groups themselves can then be
treated as an object type when appending, allowing you to append whole collections of
objects easily.
User Preferences
You can access the User Preferences window in several ways. Because it is an ordinary
editor type, you can select it in any window using the Editor Type menu. You can also
access it in a window of its own either by accessing the File menu in
the Info header or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+U.
The User Preferences window is organized into seven pan-
els, accessed by buttons along the top of the window, as shown in
Figure 1.21.
Interface Gives you options related to Blender’s GUI and interaction
with the 3D space. Some of these options are self-explanatory, and
Figure 1.19
The Outliner win-
dow displaying all
scene information
Figure 1.20
Add To Group
button
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