Reply To: [ENDED] BC1-1808 – August 2018 Class Homepage – Getting Started with 3D Modeling & Blender 2.8

[Jake Korosi]

Tips for Transitioning to Blender 2.8

This post will be a list of information that I and others have found while exploring the alpha builds of Blender 2.8, that may be of use to established users of Blender 2.7x and previous versions in transitioning from the old to the new version.  While the functionality and general layout of Blender 2.8 is substantially the same as in previous versions, there are some important and dramatic changes that may present extra challenges for experienced Blender users who are used to the way things have been up until now. 

New Blender 2.8 preview builds are released daily – sometimes more than once per day – and can be downloaded at this page.   Since Blender 2.8 is a work in progress, everything in this post is subject to change.   I’ll try my best to update this post from time to time through the length of the class with new information as I find it, and correct anything which becomes outdated.  Anyone else who discovers anything they think may be useful to add to this post can just let me know and I’ll get it updated when I can.  

So, on with the changes.

1. User Interface

• The biggest changes will be instantly visible when you start Blender 2.8.  The first thing you’ll notice is that by default, the 3D Viewport’s header is now at the top instead of the bottom, and is also partly transparent.  You can still move it to the bottom if you want by right-clicking in the header and choosing “Flip to Bottom”.  If you open a pre-2.8 Blender file in 2.8 and have “Load UI” checked, the header will be at the bottom of the 3D viewport.  The positions of some controls have changed, so explore these to get familiar with them.  On the right side of the toolbar, you’ll find viewport shading and overlay options that used to exist in the Properties panel and have been expanded upon.
• The toolbar is very different; the tool buttons are much larger and have icons, but they still change according to the Mode of the viewport.  The Properties panel (the “N” panel) is mostly the same, except for the relocated display options.  They still can be toggled on and off using the T and N keys.  Both of these panels are also partially transparent; you can get rid of the transparency in the User Preferences (System > uncheck Region Overlap).  User Preferences is now in the Edit menu instead of the File menu.  
• You can scale the size of buttons and other controls in the Toolbar and N-panel by holding Alt-MMB and moving the mouse up and down (if you didn’t know, you can do this in 2.7x as well).  You can also scale the size of the controls in the Properties Editor the same way.
• A neat trick: the Spacebar brings up a floating tool list at the position of your mouse pointer, it contains all the same tools as the Toolbar and is contextual the same way.  I can see this being especially useful in Sculpt mode, so you don’t have to reach all the way to the left side of the screen to change a brush.  For those used to using Spacebar for Tool Search – there is always a Search Commands button at the top of the Spacebar menu no matter which mode you’re in, although the direct hotkey for Search is now F3.  
• The Tool Options for sculpting and texturing brushes, now live in the Properties editor.  It has a new tab in the header, the Tool tab, and the tool options will be there.
• In Sculpt mode, some of the brushes aren’t there anymore.  Notably, the Inflate/Deflate and Clay Strips brushes are gone from the Toolbar.  However, if you click the thumbnail of the current brush in the Properties editor, the missing brushes are available and selectable there.  This seems like a bug and will likely be fixed.
• When you start to use an operator, the appropriate floating Operator Panel – the one you used to have to call up by tapping F6 – now appears in the viewport automatically.  There is no docked panel in the Toolbar anymore.
• The ~ key calls a Views pie menu, that allows you to switch between views in the same way as the numpad, without having to use your mouse-hand.
• In 2.7x, each editor had little triangle-handles in the bottom-left and top-right corners, that you could use to collapse or drag out new editor windows.  In 2.8, the triangles are gone; there are no visible handles, but you can now click on ANY corner and perform the same functions (the mouse pointer turns to a small crosshair when hovering over those areas).  This also includes holding Alt and click-dragging over an adjacent editor to  swap the two editors. Right-clicking between windows still gives you the split and join options as before.
• (Added 7/20)  The feature that allows Blender to display modifiers, such as Subdivision Surface, on objects while in Edit mode isn’t in 2.8 yet, although it will be at some point.  Same with Local Mode.  

2. Hotkeys (note, of all the recent changes in 2.8, hotkey assignments are the most susceptible to being changed again before the official release)

• When you launch 2.8, the splash screen has a drop-down box that lets you choose the 2.7x-style keymap if you want to use that.
• The A key no longer toggles between Select All and Deselect All.  Now the A key is Select All and Alt-A is Deselect All.
• Alt-A no longer starts and stops animation.  Shift-Spacebar does that now.
• The Q key opens an editor-specific Favorites menu that is customizable by you.  You can right-click on practically ANY button, option, even whole entire menus, in Blender and add them to your Favorites menu. For instance, in Object Mode you can go to the Object menu and right-click Smooth Shading and add it to Favorites.  Or, you can just right-click add the Object menu to Favorites.  Or, you can straight up add Object Mode itself to Favorites, if you want to.
• As mentioned above, F3 rather than Spacebar directly brings up the Search tool.
• While in Edit mode, the 1, 2, and 3 keys in your number row (NOT the numpad) will switch between vertex, edge, and face select modes.

3. Collections

• The big one.  Collections is the new system in 2.8 that has replaced the old Layers and improves upon them.   Collections live in the Outliner.  Like Layers they can be made visible or invisible; unlike Layers, they can also be named, rearranged, made deselectable, and objects can belong to more than one Collection at the same time.
• The M key that formerly allowed you to Move objects to other layers, now allows you to move them to other Collections in the same way, or to create new Collections to put an object in.  
• If you open a 2.7x or previous Blender file in Blender 2.8, the existing layers in that file will automatically be converted into Collections, that will be named relatively – for example, everything that was in Layer 1 will now be in “Collection 1”, while everything that was in Layer 11 will now be in Collection 11.  Of course you can rename the Collections as desired.
• For the purposes of LINKING and APPENDING from other Blend files, “Groups” in older files are now recognized as Collections by the 2.8 File Browser.  Linking and Appending works just fine; I’ve tried this with the Vonn Bots and had no problems.  As mentioned above, Collections will be generated as necessary in place of layers.  

The above is really all you need to know to use Collections in the same way as you used layers in 2.7x.  Of course Collections are a little more powerful than that, but Kent can go into any new abilities during the class if he thinks them important.

4. Addons

Addons should work the same way, but except for a handful of stock addons like the Node Wrangler, addons are DISABLED in the 2.8 alpha.  There will be some changes to the Python API, so addons will need to be “upgraded” to 2.8-compatibility once the new API is released.