The Asset Shelf Usability Upgrade Hotfix Release

This is a stability update to the release that has brought us much much love to the Asset Shelves usability with many new accumulated details and features from Bforartists and Blender.

This is part of all the latest from Blender 4.5.1 and 5.0.0 to the date - with 34 new pieces of love from us and another 89 and some fixes from Blender

⚠️ Warning: *.BlendFile formats from this version onwards will not be backwards compatible with earlier versions of Blender 4.5.x or Bforartists 4.4.x. It's a one way trip!

What's new

• Fixed the library override also linking when using the Libary Override mode from the Assetshelf/Browser
• Fixed many small details like checkboxes floating left
• Updated the Blend Normals by Proximity asset to be more robust, predictable and also set ground work to material blending also
• Documentation is has started to be refactored and updated
• Blender themes fixed

And much much more

And also, thanks again for all artwork, love, feedback and help for making the Bforartists community what it is today!

What's new in this series

• New Asset Shelf mode import properties
• new add asset with overrides automatically from shelf/browser

• New Default Assets:
  • Blend Normals by Proximity
  • Inherit Smoothness
  • Inherit Material
  • Mesh Lines and Silhouette
  • Object/World Normal
• Group operators in the node editors are now in the toolshelf
• Cleanup and Refactor for the Node Editors sidebar add panels

• New Granular display of nodegroups in the sidebar
• Presentation Addon New Slides operator

• Node Group socket interface and operators got UX love

• Interface Updates
  • More robust columns for the tabbed toolshelf
  • Theme panel visual updates
• Updated default Hotkeys

Additional Features from this Blender 4.4.x and 5.0.x series

• New Playhead Header submenu

• Sculpt Modes - New Mask to Geometry operators
• New Color Jitter in Brushes now exposed to side bar also

• Built In attributes now show in header of Spreadsheet
• Point Cloud Edit mode is getting love
• Light properties have new settings and consistenty layout
  • Exposure and Temperature
  • Consistency with Cycles
• Collada removed (but we may have another in development)
• New Compositor nodes
  • Image Coordinates
  • Relative to Pixel
  • Texture Nodes
  • Input sockets
  • Changes to color correction nodes
• Shader
  • New Volume Coefficient Shader
• Grease Pencil Antialiasing made more explicit
• New Animation Timeline Footers
• Scenes can be saved as assets now
• Compositor Node Trees are a thing now
• New Grease Pencil operators
  • Split
  • Remove Fill Guides
  • Outline
  • Convert to Curve type
  • Mask above and below
• New relocate linked asset operator
• Per Bone type visibility
• Shape Key copying
• Camera OSL scripts included
• Performance in tesselation, subdivision, and more
• Grease Pencil Fill Guide indicators
• Vulkan Backend
• Sequencer HDR support
• Sequencer slip improved
• Drag and drop collections to surfaces
• Cursor rotation for snapping
• Asset Screenshots
• Gizmos in the Compositor

• Bforartists-4.5.1-Linux.tar.xz
• Bforartists-4.5.1-Mac-Intel.dmg
• Bforartists-4.5.1-Mac-Silicon.dmg
• Bforartists-4.5.1-Mac-Universal.dmg
• Bforartists-4.5.1-Windows.zip
• Bforartists-4.5.1-x86_64.AppImage
• bforartists_4.5.1.deb
• releasenote_bforartists4_451.txt

Edit Mode

• Mesh Edit - Mesh Tools Addon - Draw "Set Dimensions" operator as icon depending on panel width #5373
• Grease Pencil - Tool Panels - Rename "Gpencil" category to "Grease Pencil" #5375
• Grease Pencil - Tool Panels - Clean Up - Add missing "Remove Fill Guides" Operator #5374

3D View

• Tool Shelf Tabs has scroll bar on tabs #4987
• Parent Floating menu missing icons #5367

Bug

• Explorer Thumbnails no-longer draw #5334
• Missing column operators for grease pencil layer panels #5339

Theme

• Blender Dark Theme - Blank entries #5349
• Blender light theme is completely broken #5343

Other

• Mesh in edit mode. Mirror, adjust last operator, align props left #5391
• Mesh in edit mode. Bevel, adjust last operator, align props left #5390
• Crash on Swap Areas in Texture Paint mode #5370
• Bforartists 4.5.0 Official Release #5304
• Sponsorlink at Github page leads to Blender fund #5351
• Default Workspaces - Missing timelines controls #5392
• Compositor - View tab has missing property #5361
• Asset Library/Shelf - Library Override also double and links collection after doing the override #5345
• Toolshelf - Node Editors - Add comments to the code file for better maintainability #5322
• Object Mode - Object - Apply - Add Missing operator text for "Visual Geometry to Object" in tool tabs #5378
• Header, right click menu at tabs - remove menu item Reset Panel zoom #5365
• MacOS - 4.5.0 builds - config location set wrong #5364
• Sequencer - Hard crash on draging retiming hotkeys #5344
• 3D Sequencer - Master scene no-longer pins #5362
• Smart Delete - Make deleting loops more robust #5363
• Asset - Blend Mesh Proximity finetine #5358
• Assets - Update the Mesh Silhouette to be tidier as a UX #5357
• Panel Context Menu - Expose "Flip to other side" operator #5331
• Asset Shelf - Thumbnail sizes need consistency with defaults #5335
• Asset Browser - Column Mode - Add quick size buttons #5336
• Presentations Slides - Make slide camera and frame range more robust #5337
• Node Editor - Group Sockets - Add Specials menu and arrange operators for panel toggles #5184
• Addon - Presentations Slides - Improve the new scene framerange system to bump from end of last scene #5333
• Area Context Menu - Inconsistent Join Right and Left icons, regression #5199
• UV Editor - Edit Mode - Dynamic Select Similar menu needs to be in Header #3204

Splashscreen is kindly provided by Prashan Subsinghe, the latest winner of the Splash Screen competition hosted in the Discord server! Thank you!

Draise, Reiner, Blenux (Juso), Znight (Trung Pham), Quackers, Eyad, Sean and all you arty supporters