Need two copies of Blender on one machine, each with a different theme.

I need to be able to have two copies of Blender on one machine, but each with it’s own different theme.

Changing a theme is no problem, but so far I haven’t figured out how to have two different copies of 2.57 on one machine each with its own theme. I tried unzipping it twice, into two different directories, hoping that Blender would store the setup info in two different directories in documents and settings. But that didn’t work.

Any hints on how I can do this?

Thanks.

you can have one copie installed and any number of local blender which are not installed on your system
at least on vista!

but when you click on a blend file it will open with the default installed blender not the SVN version in a local folder!

happy 2.5

I don’t suppose there is a way to save the themes so they can be transferred from one computer to another is there.

Thanks RickyBlender.

In other words, I’m out of luck. I don’t suppose there is a way to delete the default one and leave the locals. ;o)

right now i still have 2.49 installed but most of the time i use my 2.5 in a local folder with icon ond esktop

i mean if you don’t installe it then you can use as many SVN version you want
just add a desktop icon for it and you can start any version you want!

happy 2.5

I’m not familiar with SVN versions. I’ve just been unzipping the standard 2.57 version.

In my experience, you could load Blender on a stick and then run it off computers that didn’t have Blender. I can remember doing this and going to the library and Blending at the library. But I just tried loading Blender 2.57 on two different data sticks and running them on a virgin computer, but it wouldn’t run.

You wouldn’t happen to know what the name of the file where the theme information is kept is would you. Then I could make an alternate copy and have both themes available.

well you can find the SVN at

but don’t remember if there is a stick USB version for 2.5
with latest version

but may be someone else can answer this question

but you could go at tgraphical org and ask the question there i guess!

happy 2.5

Hi… I have 2 versions… All I did was download zip file from graphicall to a folder I created for it on desktop… Unzipped it to that same file… And then download again to a different file I created on desktop…and unzipped to that file… Then you have 2 different icons in 2 different files… Not sure if this helps.

The problem is not two different versions, like 2.49 and 2.57. The problem is using 2 different themes. As RickeyBlender said, it appears that there is a file that controls the theme, that all copies of Blender on a certain computer use. There is no way to save that theme so that it can be transported or swapped in and out as far as I can find.

there is a theme script which allows to select between different themes in 2.5 now!

may be you can use this

happy 2.5

You CAN do it! In fact due to espresso overload the other night I did just that. What you need to do is to get the config folder from

[Root]\Documents and Settings[user name]\Application Data\Blender Foundation\Blender[Version Number]\config

And move it to here:

blender-2.57b-windows32\2.57\config (or whatever version # you are using).

You will probably just wish to create a new folder in that blender directory, name it config and copy the startup.blend into that. Delete (or rename to be safe) the [Root]\Documents and Settings[user name]\Application Data\Blender Foundation\Blender[Version Number]\config file. Blender may complain the first time you save defaults, but after that it’s cool. Then blender goes out and looks into its own directory rather than elsewhere. Try to have blender running before making modifications to the file structure. At least it works for me… :slight_smile:

one trick here

you must save your default theme with Ctrl-u one time so it creates the default config folder in roaming folder part of user area

then this will create the startup file for 2.57 and you can replace it with whatever you want as default!

like copy statup file from another version with the theme you want/ like

but i think it would be easier to use the theme script to select which one you want to use!

happy 2.5

have fun

Thanks. I’m trying to use Bart’s theme script, but so far it will load but not enable. I’ll keep you posted. This could be very good.

The final answer was Blender 2.58 and Barts script. That works. :slight_smile: