Reply To: Cleaning up a blender file

I cover most of it, but I’d like to mention that folder organization is very important. Especially if you’re working with a group of people. You need to have a consistent folder structure. Not only does this help while working with other people it also helps you to find where things are. This becomes even more important if you are using linking, because packing data doesn’t pack other blend files. Having a standard file and folder structure makes it easy to zip everything up. 

Now when I get things from people it’s usually not organized. I use 2 addons to help me clean them up. The first is Collection Manager which comes with Blender(at least up to 4.1. in 4.2+ you may have to download thru the extensions). I only use it while cleaning up a blend file. The other is my own addon I call DDS Name. If you want it you can goto my website: https://blenderclassroom.com/download.php or you can just select everything and run the following in the text editor. Make sure to add the tabbed indents.

import bpy
for ob in bpy.context.selected_objects:
     if ob.type != "EMPTY":
          ob.data.name = ob.name

DDS Name can take the object name and set the data name to match for all selected objects. Note: If you have link duplicates the last one in the selection list will the name used by all of them.

The collection manager still uses the M hotkey in object mode, but it allows you to add collection and subcollection along with moving select object to a collection or adding/removing selected to multiple collections. Along with various collection setting like selectable, and view in viewport all from the 3D Viewport. If you want to set rendering you will have to click funnel icon and add that to the options. I don’t leave it on, but when I have a large scene that needs to be organized or reorganized I use it. It also adds a thing on the header to quickly switch between 20 of the collections. In the M popup panel you can assign the “Layer” number from 1 to 20. This is helpful for people watching videos that use older blender versions that had the 20 Layers. You can also click on a X layer(Which means it has no collection assigned to it) and it will create a collection. Again it’s a great tool for large scenes, but for normal modeling and things I find it annoying which is why I turn it off after I’m done.

Additional note: If you use pack everything into the blend file you may want to do a save as(Ctrl+Shift+S) then in the file browser editor on the N-Pannel(Press N if it’s not already open or click the cog icon on the header) and check compress to compress the blend file.