Linking whole blend-file

Support Basics & Interface
1

Hi everyone

I couldn’t find anything online, but I guess what i’m trying to do should be possible :slight_smile:
Is it possible to link an entire blend file into another?
In my understanding by linking the scene, all of the geometry in the scene-collection should get linked. But only annotations get linked. inking a normal collection does work, but I can’t select the individual objects.

Now I’m wondering if I even can link a whole blend file into another… Well just the geometry, no materials, lights etc.

I know that I can link all the objects at once, but I would have to re-link them all the time, when adding new ones and this is an issue, because parts could get forgotten.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Cheers!

2

I don’t understand your question very well.
Do you want everything in one scene? :thinking:

This depends on the size of the scene.
Small scenes are possible, but big ones won’t be affordable by the hardware.

If you created multiple small scenes, you can import the entire scene using Link & Append.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/files/linked_libraries/link_append.html

In the case of a large scene, this method seems impossible, and in this case, I think we need to think about how to manage the project.

4

The contents of a blend-file are arranged into a hierarchy and you can “link to it” at any point. But, you cannot link to “the entire file” – only to specific things in it.

If you need to change specific properties, that is what “library overrides” are for – which superseded “proxies” some time ago.

Study this page on overrides. To start with. There is a lot of detail in this doc-page which will need to be “read and re-read” several times. (Trust me on this …) :wink: Also, be very sure that you understand the idea of “collections.” (This, to anyone other than a computer programmer [like me …] is very powerful, but not-at-all obvious.)

Also: When you are “Googling things” now, it is very beneficial to restrict your search to “the past year.” No further back . . .

5

@oo_1942 Alright, thanks for your answer. Yes, i want to link the whole file, but still want to be able to select the individual objects.

@sundialsvc4
Thank you for your answer. Well I’will look into it. This looks promising.

Maybe i have to give a little context. I started working with BlenderBIM… I’m a landscape architect. We usually work with quite complex files and i’m figuring out a workflow, which is also teachable to others (most landscape architects can not 3D model, this is already quite challenging. An additional complex workflow, which requires extensive software knowledge could be too much for some.)

So the Idea was, to create a technical / BIM-Model in one file, and then link that file into another, to texture it and replace abstracted Trees/Shrubs/ etc. with high-poly models to visualise and so on.

6

It is entirely possible that there is something that I am simply not aware of, as to what you can link to and how, so let’s just wait for subsequent responses. “What I know is what I need to know,” and I haven’t experienced a requirement quite like this.