Where’d that button go?

When you open the brand new Blender 2.5 Alpha version, you will notice that a lot has changed. For one, buttons are now vertical, and most of them have new icons and names.

When they rebuilt Blender from the ground up, a few things were moved for the better. You know all those “industry professionals” that complain how awful the Blender interface is? Well these changes were designed to keep them happy. Most of your favourite functions are still there, just hiding.

This 2.5 interface guide should get you back on the straight and narrow. I have tried to include all the frequently used functions, as well as common blunders encountered when using Blender 2.5 for the first time.

Set Smooth/Solid

Previously…

Now…

Add Menu

Previously…

Now…

Join screen

Previously…

Now…

(similarly, dragging the cursor in the opposite direction splits the screen)

Spin/Screw/Flip Normals/Rem Doubles

Previously…

Now…

Background Image

Previously…

Now…

Logic buttons

Previously…

Now…

IPO Curve

Previously…

Now…

Move Header

Previously…

Now…

Buttons

Side-by-side comparison…

Window type

Side-by-side comparison…

Radiosity buttons

Previously…

Now…

its-gone

Missing something?

There’s a chance that the button you’re looking for is not actually hardwired into blender yet. But fear not! Because a useful function has been added that lets you create your own button.

For example, I use the ‘Center New’ button constantly, but strangely it’s missing from Blender 2.5.

Here’s how to add it to your toolbar:

You can do this for virtually any function in Blender. So if you’re tired of looking for a lost button, this can provide a temporary fix.

That concludes the Blender 2.5 interface guide. Was it useful? Is it missing something? It is by no means complete, so if you think something should be on the list, drop a comment below and I’ll see if I can help!

Tags: tips

About Andrew Price

User of Blender for 9+ years. I've written tutorials for 3d World Magazine and spoken at three Blender conferences. My goal is to help artists get employed in the industry by making training accessible and easy to understand. I'm an Aussie and I live in South Korea ;)

View all posts by Andrew Price →

← Creating Depth of Field

Getting your work digitally printed →

http://www.facebook.com/CobyRandal Coby Randal

Andrew, thanks so much for sharing this. I had flashbacks from those “then, now” menu comparisons when I used blender 10 years ago. Very helpful info here.

I can see how you would enjoy living in South Korea. It’s beautiful. I got to visit once on a mission trip. Thanks again!
-Coby
jbirch

Im new to blender and having a problem when adding cylinders or sphere the options for changing the fill type or number of segments,verts etc doesnt appear in the toolshelf any ideas why this is happening? Would also like to say thank you for all the work you put in providing great tutorials for blender neewbies like myself.
sarah

when we run our program in blender, it is ok, but when we compile it
into a .exe file, labels, inputs and outputs in the textfield only shows
the ‘@’ symbol, does anyone know how to solve our problem? tnx
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FAJ6AYFWWZPLQTW235IAWUEIGI jerri c

2.64 64 bit version missing “add tool” is there a way to get it or should I drop this version and go back to older one, thing is training videos I am watching (sending a shout out to Neal Hersig) he is explains how to use this, and I think it is cool and want to, but button missing any help?

anonymous

“the tool shelf was removed because you couldn’t save the buttons you add
in the file (developers sais that it will be back in later releases).”
source: http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=82473&sid=cffffb68a5f157c4165454b074283635

had the same problem but essentially it’s just a short cut.
Alternative: hit space to open a menu with textfield and type in your command e.g. “set origin”

gtop

is there somewhere a rot90 button for textures?
Sunny

T_T I don’t suppose you’d know anything about where baking shadows is? @_@ Or textures, you know? Also, can we change it back to the spacebar? I totally still can’t get over this change. It’s just…too much at once for me. YEAAA SPACE AGE BLENDER 2.48b STILL ROCKIN IT. For. Forever. Still.
http://www.wagezine.com sohail

my blender doesn’t show record button????? can some one help me out?
Bruno

Hey Andrew

Do you know where that button “Add Tool” in the Tool Shelf is go? Is it gone or replaced somewhere?
Pingback: Tutoriais + de 100 tutoriais de Blender (Atualizados e Completos)
riza

where can i find the button for converting a bezier curve to poly?? pls help… PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE !!!

http://www.blenderguru.com Andrew Price

Alt+C
http://curious-apprentice.blogspot.com Curious Apprentice

Im facing a big problem with blender : The problem is whenever Im trying to edit user preferences it hangs up.

Any ides why this problem is occurring !

Im on Win7 32 Bit OS
No external graphics card
4GB RAM

Bruno

You could try to reset your settings “Load Factory Settings”

The_Diver

I started out Blender with version 2.58 and I just got version 2.60. I’ve noticed a few changes in this new version. In the right 3D editor viewport properties panel the Dimension sliders/buttons have disappeared. I assume you have to make do with just the Scale sliders/buttons? Still I agree these versions of Blender are looking very professional and polished although it takes some time to que used to them.
http://oficinagrafica.com Germán Mad

I’m not find how to show normals in edit mode. Please some help
PATRICK

Ive got blender 2.5 ver 90 im struggling to use array modifier .I have downloaded alot of video that show me how to do it but when i try it it completely comes out skew and sometimes bigger than the original and some even show different dirrections.Andrew Price can you please help me man nowhere on the internet can i find a good tutorial about this.
luis pereira

this is a very good blog!!!
im new at blender so can u tell me where can i find the oops schematics in blender 2.59??…thank´s
javito

@AliSpark

Using to sphere…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX6rELdgjNM
AliSpark

Where is the ‘To Sphere’ button now? (I’ve now got Blender 2.58)
z666zz666z

One more thing…

When i press T the panel hides, if i press T again the panel is shown again, but on it i do not see “Tool Shelf”, so i do not see “Add Tool” button anywhere.

I see “Object Tools” and “Operator” tabs on Tools panel but not “Tool Shelf”.

How can i make it to show “Tool Shelf” tab?

Thanks!

Tina

Did you get an answer to your question?? I too am having the same problem. I can see the tool shelf panel…but I do not see the Add Tool button anywhere or the Tool Shelf section on the panel…
Nick

I have the same problem can’t find the (add tool button), its not there in 2.62.

z666zz666z

I have a huge problem… all tutorials on Internet talk about old version and in 2.58.1 i can not find Buttons Panel.

I am trying to make a Circle and set the number of points, so the circle can be a Triangle, Pentagon, etc…

I see on Internet tutorials that old version it could be configured on Buttons panel, but i do not find where such configuration is now, neither where is buttons panel.

Thanks for the rest, will help much.

P.D.: On Internet there are out there a lot of tutorial, but most of them are for version 2.4 and on 2.5 most of things of such tutorials do not work or do something different, such as Shift+F, Buttons Panel, etc…

http://www.stjohnpeaster.com St. John

Press F6 emediately apon creation of the circle. Or if you have the tools panel open “t”, you will see those options at the bottum of that list of tools. However as soon as you move the object those options dissapear.

aaa

Where is frame per second button????
adb

Where are “Real-Time Properties” for animated textures (UV editor) in 2.5 ?
http://infiniteoasis.com dvnobles

Excellent! This is exactly what I needed coming from 2.49 —>2.57, kind of a update for existing Blender users. Thanks much! I think this interface looks great and I will really like it once I get comfortable with it.
//dan
JayT

Just tried blender 2.5 (was using 2.4+) – i understand the devs had to make serious changes to the interface, but man, i’m lost, can’t find most of the tools. For me, the changes (especially the hot keys) are too much! , too quickly! – i feel like i’m starting from scratch again. Looks good, but for me , this has come at a big price….
nisaza

To see normals,
1.- Press Tab to enter to edition mode.
2.- Press “n” in the 3D view to open options at the right,
3.- scroll down to “mesh display” there it says Normals, select Face
graham

Where did bevob go? aka the curve and surface panel

Mahir

if its not too late…
its given here.
read the post by walshlg
http://forums.blenderunderground.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4768

Mr. Bryant

Thanks for the tut!
But I have one small question.
How do you zoom out of a panel.
As if I were to open my properties panel, and then I wanted to zoom in or out to save space.

Or is that not possible?
http://Website(optional) oem sofware

I am totally delighted with strong your blog greatly that saved me! God bless you “I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.” – Charles De Gaulle
Hell’s

for center new, you can also type T for calling the tool Shelf, then under “Transform”, click on “Origin” then “Origin to geometry”.

Requires two clicks
BigQ

@Shaeope Thanks bro! shift ctrl alt C to set the center! I was getting bored looking for it!

Where’d that button go?

Set Smooth/Solid

Add Menu

Join screen

Spin/Screw/Flip Normals/Rem Doubles

Background Image

Logic buttons

IPO Curve

Move Header

Buttons

Window type

Radiosity buttons

Missing something?

About Andrew Price

Twitter Stream

Recent Posts

Newsletter

About Blender Guru