Configuration reference
Blender Development separates settings that belong to one project from settings shared by the PyCharm application.
Project settings
Section titled “Project settings”Open Project Blender Manager to edit these values.
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Blender installation | Detected executable or application bundle used for launches. |
| Custom installation path | Executable or application bundle outside the detected list. |
| Add-on symlink name | Runtime identity; spaces and hyphens are normalized to underscores. |
| Project source folder | Source root loaded by Blender. |
| Run arguments | Additional Blender command-line arguments. |
| Log level | Value passed to Blender’s --log-level option. |
| Reload on save | Reloads the add-on after file saves during Debug sessions. |
| Just my code | Limits debugger stepping to project code. |
| Environment variables | Project launch variables; these override global duplicates. |
| Script directories | Additional add-on roots or directories containing add-on roots. |
The manager groups installation selection under Executable Settings, launch behavior under Run and Debug, and project-scoped paths and variables under Environment. Changes are saved to the project configuration as you edit them; there is no separate Apply action.
Detected installations are cached at the application level and populate the selector when the project opens. Use the refresh action beside the selector to scan again. Enable Use a custom installation path when the Blender executable or macOS application bundle is not in the detected list.
The project records the API-stub requirement installed during project creation. Choose the target Blender version and whether to install matching stubs in the New Project wizard.
Application settings
Section titled “Application settings”Open Settings > Tools > Blender Development to edit settings shared across projects.
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Blender installation root | Destination for managed Blender applications and an extra discovery root. |
| Download path | Directory used to cache downloaded Blender archives. |
| Minimum Blender version | Oldest minor release checked when discovering versions online. |
| Log path | Destination for plugin logs. |
| Global environment variables | Base variables applied to every Blender launch. |
The minimum Blender version defaults to 4.2 and uses major.minor format. Online version discovery checks every release at or above that value and retains the newest available patch for each minor release in the offline cache.
Detected Blender installations are cached after a scan. The download path stores Blender archives used by managed installations, while the Blender installation root stores extracted managed applications.
Blender version management
Section titled “Blender version management”The Blender Version Management table starts with the offline cache and shows every minor release returned by online discovery. It shows a mapped Python version when the release has a declared compatibility mapping and a matching installation is detected.
- Refresh Versions checks Blender’s release index and updates the cached patch versions.
- Clear Version Cache removes online-discovered releases and restores the built-in compatibility table.
- Scan Installations searches the supported installation locations again and refreshes the open version table and status column as soon as the scan completes.
- Install Selected downloads the official host-compatible Blender archive, extracts it in the background, and moves the managed application into the configured Blender installation root.
- Delete Selected removes the selected managed Blender installation. Installations discovered outside the managed installation root are not removed.
The last successful online refresh appears below the table. Manual refresh, installation, deletion, and cache-clear results are reported through Blender Development notifications, while diagnostic details and failures are written to the plugin log. When Blender Development starts without a valid version cache, it schedules an immediate background refresh.
Environment precedence
Section titled “Environment precedence”For each launch, the plugin applies global environment variables first and project variables second. A project value therefore wins when both scopes define the same key.