Datasheet
4n Chapter 1: Blender Basics: Interface and Objects
Work Areas and Window Types
When you first open Blender, one or two windows will open on your system’s desktop,
depending on the operating system you use. In Windows, your main Blender window
appears in front of the Blender console window. In Linux, the console is hidden unless
you open Blender from the command line in a terminal window, in which case the Blender
console is the terminal. In Mac OS X, the console does not appear initially, but you can
access it from within the Applications/Utilities directory. In Windows, the console is a
solid black window with white text. It should read something like Found Bundled Python
and the path of the Python installation. The console displays output from Python scripts
and other plug-ins and integrated software, such as renderers. For the purposes of the
material in this book, however, you need only know that you should not close the console.
If you do, Blender shuts down unceremoniously, and you may lose some of your work.
Blender does not prompt you to save changes before closing. If you accidentally close Blender
without saving, simply open a fresh session and select File
➔
Recover Last Session. The most
recent Blender session is automatically saved in a file in your /tmp directory by default. Be
aware, however, that on Mac OS X this default directory is deleted whenever you restart your
machine.
The other window is the main Blender window (shown in Figure 1.1). If it’s not
already maximized, maximize it. Blender can use all the screen real estate you can give it.
Figure 1.1
Blender desktop
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