Interface

Header

Display Mode

The editors header has a select menu that let you filter what the Outliner should show. It helps to narrow the list of objects so that you can find things quickly and easily.

Scenes:

Shows everything the Outliner can display (in all scenes, all view layers, etc.).

View Layer:

Shows all the collections and objects in the current view layer.

Video Sequencer:

Lists data, images and videos, that are used by the Video Sequencer.

Blender File:

Lists all data in the current blend-file. On the right side of the list, an icon shows the number of users and clicking the icon (shield icon) adds or removes a fake user.

Data API:

Lists every data-block along with any properties that they might have.

Library Overrides:

Display library override data in the current blend-file. Separated further into two view modes:

• Library Overrides Display Mode

  • Properties:

    Display data-blocks with overridden properties. The overridden properties are listed together with widgets to modify the value of the properties.

    Hierarchies:

    Visualize the hierarchical dependencies between data-blocks with library overrides. For example, to create a library override of a mesh used by an object inside of a linked collection, Blender automatically creates (disabled) library overrides for the object and the collection, resulting in a collection > object > mesh library override hierarchy.

This library override view mode has a column on the right side of the editor to toggle if the library is editable or not.

Unused Data:

Lists data-blocks and other data that are unused and/or will be lost when the file is reloaded. It includes data-blocks which have only a fake user. You can add/remove the Fake User by clicking on cross/tick icon on the right side of the Outliner.

Display Filter

You can search the view for data-blocks, by using Search field in the header of the Outliner, You can start a search using Ctrl-F or clear a search with Alt-F.

Filter

Restriction Toggles

Set which Restriction Columns should be visible.

Sort Alphabetically

Sort the entries alphabetically.

Sync Selection

Sync Outliner selection to and from the 3D Viewport and Video Sequencer editors. Disable to manage collections, object relations, and scene data without changing the selection state. Selection syncing is only available in Scenes, View Layer, and Video Sequencer display modes.

Show Mode Column

Show the object mode toggling column in View Layer and Scenes display modes.

Search

Exact Match

The results of Display Filter must match the full text and not just a part of it.

Case Sensitive

The results of Display Filter are case sensitive.

Filter

Some options will only show if compatible with the active Display Mode.

All View Layers

Toggle between only the active or all the view layers of the scene. Combined with disabling the Objects filter it gives a compact overview of all the collections in relation to the view layers.

Collections

List the objects and collections under the collection hierarchy of the scene. Objects may appear in more than one collection.

Objects

List of all the objects, respecting the other filter options. Disabled only if you need an overview of the collections without the objects.

Object State

List the objects based on their state or restrictions. The results can be inverted using the Invert button.

• All:

  The default option, no restrictions.

  Visible:

  List only the objects visible in the viewports. The global and temporary visibility settings are taken into consideration.

  Invisible:

  List only the objects not visible in the viewports.

  Selected:

  Lists the object(s) that are currently selected in the 3D Viewport. See selecting in the 3D Viewport for more information.

  Active:

  Lists only the active (often last selected) object.

  Selectable:

  List all objects whose Selectability option is enabled.

Object Contents

List materials, modifiers, mesh data, …

Object Children

List the object children. If the Collections option is enabled, you will see the object children even if the children are not in the collection. Yet the Outliner shows them as a dashed line.

Data-Block

Allows you to filter out certain data-blocks currently present in the scene.

System Overrides

Shows the data-block properties that are defined/controlled automatically (e.g. to make users of an overridden data-block point to the override data, not the original linked data). Only available in the Library Overrides Display Mode.

Miscellaneous

Some options in the header will only show if compatible with the active Display Mode.

New Collection (View Layer)

Add a new collection inside selected collection.

Filter by Type (Orphan Data, Blender File)

Restrict the type of the data-blocks shown in the Outliner.

Keying Sets (Data API)

Add/Remove selected data to the active Keying Set.

Drivers

Add/Remove Drivers to the selected item.

Purge (Orphan Data)

Opens a dialog to remove unused data-blocks from both the current blend-file or any Linked Data (cannot be undone).

• Local Data-Blocks

  Removes unused data-blocks from the current blend-file.

  Linked Data-Blocks

  Removes unused data-blocks from Linked Data.

  Recursive Delete

  Removes data-blocks only used by unused data-blocks, ensuring that no orphaned data-blocks remain after execution.

Main Region

Object Mode

The far left of the Outliner contains a region to toggle the current Object Mode. When an object is in a mode other than Object Mode, the mode icon will be displayed in this region. Any other objects that are valid to be added or swapped into the current mode display a dot. Clicking the dot icon will swap that object with the current active object. For modes that support Multi-Object Editing, Ctrl-LMB on the dot icon will add that object to the current mode. Clicking the mode icon next to the active object removes it or all other objects from the current mode depending if multiple object are in the same mode.

Restriction Columns

The following toggles, in the right side of the Outliner editor, are available for collections, objects, bones, modifiers and constraints.

By default only the temporary viewport visibility is enabled. The other options can be enabled in the Restriction Toggles option in the Outliner filter.

• Holding Shift sets or unsets the value to all its child collections or objects.

• Holding Ctrl isolates the object or collection, so they are the only ones with its value set.

Enable Collection (checkbox, collection only)

Exclude the collection from the view layer.

Visibility (eye icon)

Toggles the visibility of the object or collection in the 3D Viewport. This is a file-local setting, and does not get imported when this data-block is linked into another blend-file. Objects hidden this way are still part of the View Layer and evaluated, so they still affect playback performance.

Note

The following options are hidden by default and need to be enabled in the Outliner Filter before they can be used.

Selectability (mouse cursor icon)

Toggles the ability to select the objects from the 3D Viewport. This is useful for if you have placed something in the scene and do not want to accidentally select it when working on something else.

Global Viewport Visibility (screen icon)

This will still render the object/collection, but it will be ignored by all the viewports. Often used for collections with high-poly objects that need to be instanced in other files. Objects hidden this way are no longer part of the View Layer, are not evaluated, and such do not negatively affect playback performance.

Rendering (camera icon)

This will still keep the object visible in the scene, but it will be ignored by the renderer. Usually used by support objects that help modeling and animation yet do not belong in the final images.

Holdout (collection only)

Mask out objects in collection from view layer.

Indirect Only (collection only)

Objects in these collections only contribute to indirect light – Cycles only.