Proper File System Thumbnails for .blend files
Could not find anything about this for 2.8.
I'm running Mac OS, and there's a spotlight add-on that will render a preview of your blend file. It's very primitive and low-res, but it is still really helpful for browsing my projects. As far as I can tell, it just takes a snapshot of the largest viewport at time of save and applies it to the file as a custom icon.
I think Blender should have this thumbnail generation built in, with the following options:
- Thumbnail resolution — To make sure it's large enough for the file system's icons. Also, for Mac OS, quicklook would blow this up for you to see more.
-
Choose what the thumbnail contains:
- Snapshot of the entire program UI (basically an OS level screenshot)
- Arbitrary Box Selection of the above
- Designated section of the UI (viewport usually)
- What Shading type to use for the thumbnail (you might be working in wireframe mode, but this might make a poor thumbnail). Default would be "Match Current".
- Include/exclude panels/widgets
- Optional white border around thumbnail (image programs tend to add this).
The thumbnail would simply update on save.
5 Comments
YES PLEASE! Blender actually had this years ago and I always wanted it back. This helps visual learners in a big way... also, in the same way, please add an image to this proposal so like-minded people can find it and vote it up.
Such an important usability feature ! (I have some more Apps that missed to offer Previews)
Wow, that took 5 years ... we are not yet there but pretty pretty close, as I have seen on Blender developer. Thank you very much for your effort.
I have been managing files like this for a long time. Enter a line of command in the windows console, you can see the thumbnail. But I can't see it in mac, I feel very troubled.
Would be nice to have the option for a custom thumbnail from an image file too.
This feature should still be in Blender. In User Preferences, go to the Files section. On the right, there should be a checkbox labeled "Save Preview Images". That should work both for the system file browser as well as Blender's file browser.