Reference/Release Notes/4.0/User Interface

User Interface

Files & Assets

• "Save Incremental" saves the current .blend file with a numerically-incremented name. (a58e5ccdec).

• Windows: Updated Registration and blend file Association (9cf77efaa0).
  • Can now be done for all users or just current user
  • Can now unregister and unassociate.
  • Pinning a running Blender to the taskbar will now properly pin the launcher
  • Allows side-by-side installations
  • Per-version recent file lists
  • Multiple Blender versions on the "Open With" list

• File and Asset Browser show a wait icon while previews are loading (4a3b6bfeac)
• File Browser Volume and System item tooltips no longer mention "renaming". (dad9e8e621).
• Image previews in File Browser now have checkerboard background if transparent. (e9e12015ea).

• File Browser now shows thumbnail previews for SVG images. (565436bf5f).

• File Browser side bar now showing Bookmarks, System, Volumes, Recent. (9659b2deda).
• Thumbnail views now allow any preview size from 16-256. (fa32379def).

General

• Tool settings headers in the 3D View and Image Editor draw with a fully transparent background (with the region overlap preference enabled) and the theme's region background behind clusters of buttons (55eaa755e3, ff78d33bb4).

• All rotational inputs now shown with maximum precision (b34ece48f8).
• UI showing multiplication symbol instead of letter "x" where appropriate (9b4749e7c7).
• Tree-view UIs draw hierarchy lines to visually communicate the nesting levels better (71273df2d5).
  
• Sidebar scrollbar can no longer overlap category tabs when zooming (080a00bda2).
• Resizing the toolbar no longer breaks snapping when dragged beyond the maximum available size (248b322896).
• New modal keymap to change jump height during walk navigation (f418e4f648).
• Windows & X11 Only: Color Picker can now pick outside of Blender windows. (5741a5d433, e5a0d11c4e)
• Windows Only: Explorer "Quick Access" items added to File Browser System List (f1e7fe5492).
• The Color Picker has increased size (0c7496f74d).

• Outliner Drag & Drop now works between multiple windows (d102536b1a).
• Outliner "Select Hierarchy" now works with multiple selected objects (594dceda7f).
• Scrollbars are no longer influenced outside of their region (4f6785774a).
• Ability to see per-item, and per-selection, statistics counts while in Object mode (6e20beba22).

• The Catalan language is now one of our six translations with complete coverage.

• Tweaks to the Object Types visibility popover (7405993cb7).

• Status text for modal operators now shown in the Tool Settings bar if visible (ca00c9aa3e).
• Consistent top-down content ordering. Menus no longer reverse order if opening upward (b122faf705).
• Many lists now highlight the currently-selected item. (9f4b28bba8).
• Some small changes to the Edit and File menus. (347e4692de).
• Improvements to color ramp drawing. (8a3766e241).
• "New Window" now works while having an area maximized. (bb31df1054).
• Ability to search within some menus. (7f9d51853c).
• Numpad Return key can add new line while editing Text Objects. (ff6b25a200).
• List items that are not multiple select are now shown as radio buttons. (6dd3c90185).
• Viewport Object/Mode overlays split into separate popovers. (4fa4f5432d).
• Window title improved order and now includes Blender version. (636f3697ee).
• Text output now more pleasing and typographically correct. (a0b4ead737).
• Default UI font changed to "Inter" by Rasmus Andersson. (f58f6d0338).

Snapping

The snapping menu has been reworked (8e059b569b).

• • Snap With was moved to the beginning of the popover
  • Align Rotation to Target and Backface Culling were moved closer to the snap targets
  • Snap With, Target Selection and Align Rotation to Target are no longer hidden by varying the mode and options
  • Project Individual Elements has been replaced with the Face Project option
  • Face Nearest has been moved to stick together with the Face Project option

Modifiers

• The "Add Modifier" menu has been changed to a standard menu and is extended with geometry nodes (Read more).
• A new "Shift A" shortcut opens the "Add Modifier" menu in the property editor (ef03121e52).

Nodes

• Node preview images have been moved to an overlay displayed above the node. The overlays menu has an option to show and hide all previews (PR #108001).

• In Preferences → Editing, a new panel was added to group all Node Editor specific settings (eb57163f).
• Improvements to Node links to help readability at different zooms and monitor DPI (899d723da8).
• Node snapping grid no longer changes size with changes to line width (04285c2d0e).

Theme

• The 3D Viewport background is now set to single-color in the default theme, since the vignette effect can lead to glitches in certain hardware according to community feedback (eef2b61e9)
• Allow transparency when editing text in widgets 2ec2e52a90
• View3D Header can now be made transparent (along with tool header) with theme color alpha change (d308f35896).
• UI element outlines have changeable opacity, allowing for flat or minimalistic themes (c033e434c5).
• Top Bar and Status Bar colors now exactly match their theme colors (d86d2a41e0).

Other

• The Options panel accessed in Object mode and Mesh Edit mode has been reorganized (560e9c654b).
• Preferences: Small layout and style tweaks (d0aa521ea8)
• Text object selection can now start outside of the text block. Improved selection with text boxes and when on curves (5b3ce7b740).
• Progress indicators now exposed to Python, including new ring version (c6adafd8ef).