Blender Desktop
In an attempt to make a Blender Desktop Environment I created Blender Desktop. It is a simple desktop enhancement tool that creates a small icon in the system tray of your computer (with the Blender Logo). Then by clicking on it in various ways it will launch menus which give full access to a pre-configured structure of Blender Resources. This structure is for the most part either urls or relative file locations. It requires that
the downloaded files be extracted into the root directory of the Blender Software (ie: …/Blender Foundation/Blender/) however if you have installed Blender into another location then it extract it to that location. Upon extraction the following folders and files are created:
blenderdesktop.exe - Main application (create shortcut to it in Startup)
blenderdesktop.ini - Configuration script (application variables)
icon.ico - Blender icon for system tray
bar1.bmp - Gui icons in a 16px row
bar2.bmp - Blender Desktop menu graphic
mywebsite.url - Change the url target to your website. Default is www.blender3d.org
blends/ - File in which you should save all of you .blends to. Use sub folders for .blend resources
blends/textures/ - File used for sharing textures. Redefine your User Preferences.
blends/samples/ - File used for sharing audio. Redefine your User Preferences
games/ - Save your Blender Games (.exe) here. Same goes with downloaded Blender Games.
movies/ - Save your Blender Movies here. Same goes with downloaded Blender Movies.
images/ - Save your Blender Images here. Same goes with downloaded Blender Images.
This is just the beta version of this software so obviously expect some serious improvements on look, feel, and structure of the files. For the most part it is designed to make all of yours and others Blender resources available through one simple menu. It also allows for some fast and simple links to Blender resources on line. Not to mention, it also gives access to some of the major websites. The actual release of the software will include both a zip version and an installer version and both will have much more populated lists.
Let me just explain some of the features of the menus:
RMB Menu
Blender Website - Opens Internet Explorer to the www.blender3d.org website.
Blender Desktop - Opens the About Info box.
Check Updates - Opens Internet Explorer to the www.weekendblend.hostmatrix.org/download/bd/index.html page which is not available. Fixed in future download.
Reload Menu - Reloads the configuration settings. Usefull for development or modifying sytem variables.
Exit - Closes all files running in association with Blender Desktop application.
LMB Menu
Blender Software - Contains options for opening Blender (“Launch”), rendering (“Render” - feature currently launches Blender - it will allow for command line rendering), Help (www.blender3d.org/Support), Getting Started (help manual), Uninstall (uninstalls Blender).
Blender Websites - Contains a list of Blender Websites. If you have websites that you would like added please email me for placement.
Blender Forums - Contains a list of Blender Communities with forums. If you have forums that you would like added please email me for placement.
Blender Resources - Contains a list of sub menus for Blender Resources. Everything from Audio to Tutorials and Textures. Gives the option to point directly to the resource site or to go to a search page of all available websites. A Google Option may be available soon with a prompt used to create a search even before going to www.google.com. If you have websites with resources that you would like added please email me for placement.
Blender Games - this will contains a list of very popular Blender Game demos and it
currently contains an option to search the web for games or look in your /games/ folder for Blender Games.
Blender Movies - this will contains a list of very popular Blender movies and it currently contains an option to search the web for movies or look in your /movies/ folder for Blender Movies.
Blender Images - this will contains an automatically updated list of the Blender Gallery images and it currently contains an option to search the web for images or look in your /images/ folder for Blender Images.
My Website - this contains a submenu with “Home Page” (opens IE to home page - future will have firefox!), “My Website” (opens IE to url in mywebsite.url shortcut), and “Address Prompt” (opens IE to address given in a prompt box).
Double Click Menu
Opens the About Box.
Obviously there is a lot of potential with this little icon but it’ll just take time to populate it and get it working without a glitch. It’ll eventually have loads of features and maybe even be able to control other Windows functions automatically. I hope to get a list of wallpapers made with Blender to use as background images for the desktop and allow the user to specify which background to use. They’de have such features as dynamic calendars and random images for those who have dsl/cable/T1 lines and it only requires a simple Refresh to change it! I had experimented with this a while back but failed to completely finish it.
I hope that this will soon become an optional install feature of the Blender Software and it will really make it nice for Windows users to share files and have a structured architecture. It is a big set back for Linux and Mac users but I’m sure that there are similiar functions available for you all. I was suprised at how quickly I became accustomed to using it and when I booted into Linux I found that I was constantly looking for the icon and wanting to go to my images and blends folders but i had to go through the browser!
For all of those who want a test run get the Beta sources here:
http://www.weekendblend.hostmatrix.org/blenderdesktop/download.zip
For some screens:
For contact information:
prince7 at gmail.com
I’d like all of your suggestions and if you would like any further information please let me know - looking for good graphics and icons so if you have some good blender graphics email me them and i’ll try to figure out a way to add them in!
Enjoy!
Daniel (prince)