N Panel Sub Tabs
installation:
Steps as below:
- Edit > Preferences > Add-Ons
- Click the “Install…” button in the top right of the window
- Find the Add-On file to install
- Click “Install Add-on”
- Check the checkbox to enable the addon.
Addon preferences:
Preferences:
- Popover Width: the width of the Settings Panel
- Max Tabs Each Row: the max number of tabs in each row in the Sub Tabs Panel(also called Title Panel). But it has an optimization algorithm. For example, your Max Tabs Each Row is 4, and you have 5 tabs in one of your categories. It will display 3 tabs in the first row and 2 tabs in the second row, that is 3+2, not 4+1.
- Auto Apply On Startup: Auto Apply categories settings on Blender Startup. If you check this option, there's something to note. In some situations, the auto-apply does not work. For details, see the FAQ.
- Auto Apply On Settings Close: If you check this option, it will auto apply the settings to update your sidebar when you close the settings panel.
- Startup Delay: How long it will wait to apply categories settings after the Blender startup, counted in seconds.
- Exclude Tabs: The exclude tabs. This addon will ignore the panels of these tabs. After you change this field, you should restart the Blender.
- Show Sidebar: Whether to show the sidebar after applying categories settings.
Notes:
- The categories settings are not in the addon preference, but in the head of the editor.
Settings:
After installing and enabling this addon, the categories settings can be found here. They are not in the addon preference.
Categories management:
- Add categories: Add one or multiple categories with the 'Add Categories' button. To add multiple categories, use commas to separate their names. In most cases, a category is a container for similar tabs or workflow-related tabs.
- Remove category: Remove a category by clicking the cross button. Before deleting, it will ask you to be sure.
- Rename category: You can change the name of the category in the category name field. It has some verification, and if the new name does not meet the requirements, it will restore the original name.
- Fold/unfold categories: You can click the triangle button beside the 'Categories' to fold/unfold all the categories, and click the triangle button beside a certain category to fold/unfold a single category.
- Reorder categories: Clicking the Reorder Categories button will pop up a dialog with a list of all the category names. You can reorder the categories with the up/down arrow button. Here, we don't care about the details of the categories. We just care about the category name in the order.
Tabs management:
- Add tab: By clicking this button, it will pop up a search dialog. You can choose the tab names you want to add.
- Remove tab: You can remove a tab by clicking the tab itself.
- Reorder tabs: With this button, you can reorder the tabs in the Sub Tabs Panel.
After you finish your categories settings, remember to click the Apply button on the top-right of the panel to apply your categories settings. Or check the Auto Apply On Settings Close option to auto apply. It will update your sidebar.
Workspace Settings
You can create multiple settings for an Editor Type, then check one to be activated. You can switch settings manually, or choose to automatically pick up a matching one when switching workspaces. The matching pattern uses the python fnmatch module. * matches everything, ? matches any single character. For more detail, search python fnmatch. When matching, the addon searches from the last one of the list until found. If not found, keep privious. To edit settings name, you can double click or Ctrl + click it. But double click may not work in some older Blender versions. When editing, left right arrows key in keyboard may not work. Holding the Alt key to make it work.
Renaming
This add-on provides two types of renaming: Simple Renaming and Advanced Renaming. Simple Renaming only changes the display name of a tab, not affecting the way you manage them. Advanced Renaming changes the tab names of the add-ons, affecting the way you manage them. That means after advanced renaming, the original tab stops working for that add-on. In Advanced renaming, you can change all tabs from that add-on to a new tab name, or specify a new name for each tab from that add-on. Some creators like to put all of their add-ons into one tab, you can use this feature to separate them. The Renaming settings work for all Editor Types (this add-on supported) and Workspace Settings. Don't rename too much if you are not very familiar with renaming, otherwise, it may lead to confused.
Usage:
You can click the tab to enable/disable the tab. When you enable a tab, the other tabs in the same category will be disabled, and the panels of the disabled tabs will be hidden. A tab can be placed in multiple categories, but its panels will be only shown in the last category which enables it. If you find a tab in a category is enabled, but its panels are not showing. They can be placed in another category or be hidden. You just need to re-enable the tab, thus it's the last category that enables it. If you still do not find the related panels in the category, you have to ensure you have enabled your related addon and meet certain conditions(for example, select an object or in certain mode, that's because some panels need to meet certain conditions to be shown). You can enable multiple tabs in one category by holding the Shift key.
About the Blender N Panel
Blender N Panel is also called Blender sidebar. It only means the right sidebar, not including the left sidebar (Toolbar) and the Header bar.
In Blender, addon not equal to the N Panel tab, and the tab name is often different from the addon name. Although most of the add-ons have an N Panel tab, there are still a lot of add-ons that do not have an N Panel tab. Some add-ons may have more than one N Panel tab. And one N Panel tab can contain panels from different add-ons. The relationship between the add-on and the N Panel tab is not 1 to 1, but n to n. That means one add-on can have multiple N Panel tabs, and one N Panel tab can contain multiple add-ons' panels.
This add-on only manages the N Panel tabs where most creators like to put their panels. It is only about N Panel tabs.
About Module and Addon
You may need module names if you want to use the Advanced Renaming feature. Generally, one module one add-on. However, the module name is often different from the add-on name. You can find the add-on name in the Add-ons section in the user preferences. The key part of the module name is the name of the folder where the add-on files are stored. You can find the folder name in the add-on detail.
For example, Add-on Auto-Rig Pro
Add-on name: Auto-Rig Pro
The key part of the module name: auto_rig_pro-master
In most cases, you can use the search feature to get them because they have the same keywords. But sometimes, they are far from each other. In this case, you need to find its folder name.
About Editor Type and editor
Blender has multiple Editor Types. Each Editor Type includes 1 or multiple editors. This add-on supports the following 3 Editor Types:
- VIEW_3D which only includes 3D Viewport.
- IMAGE_EDITOR which includes Image Editor and UV Editor.
- NODE_EDITOR which includes Composister, Texture Node, Geometry Node, Shader Editor
One activated settings for one Editor Type. It works on all of the editors that the type includes.
Issue about the Title Panel not at the top
Sometimes, the Title Panel(i.e. Sub Tabs Panel) is not at the top. It's possible that you changed the category settings and it wasn't applied, or you mis-dragged the order of the panels, or for some unknown reason. You just need to re-apply the categories settings or drag it manually to the top by dragging the eight-dot icon on the top right corner of a panel. By the way, if you change the category settings, remember to apply the category settings to update the sidebar. For more answers to the other issues, see the FAQ.
FAQ:
See it here.
Tips and Troubles shooting:
Tips:
- If you change the categories settings or import them from a file, remember to apply the settings (or check auto apply option).
- If you update the Exclude Tabs in the Add-on Preferences, remember to restart Blender.
- If the auto-apply categories settings do not work on Blender startup, you can manually apply, they are the same thing.
- If you disable this add-on, the settings will be lost. If you want to disable this add-on and your settings are important, remember to export them in the add-on references.
- In order to restore original categories or use another N Panel manage add-on. Other than disabling this add-on, you can just uncheck the Auto Apply On Startup option and not apply categories settings manually. This add-on will do nothing to your sidebar, except for the HardOps and BoxCutter add-ons which may need you to modify their tab names in their add-on preferences if you are using version 1.x of this add-on.
- Don't use T as a category name, it's a reserved category name. Edit, you can use it in version 2.x and later.
- About updating this add-on and retaining the settings. The first method is to export the settings first, then remove the old version, and then install the new version, and finally restart Blender and import settings. The second method is to install the new version directly without removing the old version, and then restart Blender.
Troubles shooting:
- Most of the problems I encountered have been included in the FAQ, and you can see them here.
- If you have any trouble or feedback, please contact us.
Update:
version 2.0.2 (02/04/2025):
- Fixed an issue about the side-effect of the removal of the T category. If you update this addon with this version, you need to restart Blender.
- Fixed an issue about the exclude tabs settings.
version 2.0.1 (02/01/2025):
- Fixed an issue about duplicate panels.
version 2.0.0 (01/31/2025):
- Refactored the settings data structure. The settings exporting from version 1.x not working in version 2.x any more.
- Added renaming feature. Simple Rename changes the display name of a tab, and Advanced Rename changes the addon tab names.
- Added Workspace Settings. So you can create multiple settings for different workspaces or workflows. You can switch settings manually or auto-pick up a matching one when switching workspaces.
- Removed the T category, make your sidebar cleaner.
- Added an option to hide left tabs that are not in any category. It can make your sidebar cleaner.
- Added features to batch-add categories and tabs. So you can quickly get your settings up.
version 1.2.2 (12/12/2024):
- Fixed some potential issues.
version 1.2.1 (12/04/2024):
- Added the auto_apply handler to the handlers.version_update, as a backup. Because some addons clear all handlers in the handlers.load_post, the 'Auto Apply On Blender Startup' feature of this addon stops working. That's not the fault of this addon, but others. This change only reduces the chance of being cleared but does not completely prevent it. So when you find an addon using the code 'bpy.app.handlers.load_post.clear()' to clear all handlers in handlers.load_post, you need to contact the author of that addon to stop that, because that code is damaging the handlers of other addons in the handlers.load_post.
version 1.2.0 (11/16/2024):
- Fixed an issue about the 'bl_order'
- Fixed an issue about the 'Hide_Header'
- Fixed an issue about the order of registering/unregistering panels.
version 1.1.3 (08/22/2024):
- Added the blender_manifest.toml file.
- Made some adjustments to make it more suitable for Blender Extensions. In addition, because the panels of HarpOps and BoxButter are some kind of special for this add-on, when they are changed to Blender Extensions form, we may need to make a little more adjustment. If you find that they are changed and there are some issues with managing their panels, you can report it to the maintainer of this add-on.
version 1.1.2 (07/23/2024):
- Made some adjustments along with the release of Blender 4.2.
- Changed the settings icon.
version 1.1.1 (02/05/2024):
- Fixed an issue about Auto Apply On Startup. And changed the default delay time after startup from 5 seconds to 2 seconds.
version 1.1.0 (01/19/2024):
- Filtered those panels that have no modules when applying categories settings or switching tabs. These panels are generally left behind by removed/disabled addons. No longer need to restart Blender when you remove/disable such addons.
- By holding the Shift key, you can enable multiple tabs in a category.
- Added a title panel to the T category to describe the T category. To dispel the users’ confusion about this category.
- Improved performance on applying categories settings and switching tabs.
version 1.0.3 (12/17/2023):
- Fixed a bug that occurred in the panels of the Dream Textures addon.
- Fixed the issue "Failed to unregister class ... missing bl_rna attribute ...".
- Modified some descriptions.
version 1.0.2 (12/03/2023):
- Max Tabs Each Row preference also apply to Settings Panel.
- Canceled the poll check when update panels(apply settings, switch tabs). That is to say, fixed the issue that some panels go outside the category you set when switch modes.
version 1.0.1 (11/26/2023):
- Cleaned some unnecessary test codes.
- Fixed a bug in importing settings.
version 1.0.0 (11/20/2023):
- First release.
Contact:
If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to contact us via the BlenderMarket's Ask a Question button. Thanks, Enjoy it!
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