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User Interfaces

April 17th, 2020

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Sybren A. Stüvel
Sybren A. Stüvel Publisher

Buttons, panels, and menus. In this chapter of Scripting for Artists, Sybren shows the basics of creating your own user interface in Blender.

  • Finding existing UI code: 00:55
  • Ingredients of a Panel: 01:42
  • Different import styles: 03:00
  • Monkey Grid panel: 04:09
  • Adding operator buttons: 06:03
  • Basic layout tweaks: 09:21
  • Adding scene and object properties: 10:20
  • Conditional drawing: 13:26
  • Adding operators to menus: 15:30

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4 comments

Samuel Bernou
Samuel Bernou April 19th, 2020

A very clear and resourceful video. Even after making 30+ addons I learned a few things. e.g: I will certainly use columns starting now ;), thanks Doc.

Tijm Lanjouw
Tijm Lanjouw July 20th, 2020

Thanks for the tutorial. But how do I make the x, y and size values be defined by user input in the panel? I tried:

    def draw(self, context): #draw panel
        col = self.layout.column(align=True)
        props = col.operator('mesh.monkey_grid',
            text = 'Generate Grid',
            icon = 'MONKEY')

        col.label(text="Column Two:")
        col.prop(props, 'count_x')
        col.prop(props, 'count_y')
        col.prop(props, 'size')

The fields with the default paramaters show up in the panel, but I'm not able to change them. My guess is that I have to work with variables. I tried a couple of things, but I failed. Anyone?

Sybren A. Stüvel
Sybren A. Stüvel Aug. 4th, 2020

*@Tijm Lanjouw* You have to define the user-editable properties somewhere else. If they are to be saved within the blend file, you typically would add them to bpy.types.Scene. If they are temporary, you typically add them to bpy.types.WindowManager. You can then use them to assign for example props.count_x = context.scene.my_monkey_grid_count_x.

You cannot use operator properties with layout.prop().

Ludwig Heijden
Ludwig Heijden Jan. 2nd, 2021

@Sybren A. Stüvel For those searching, this is explained better in chapter 11 ;)