## Bforartists 5 version 5.1.2 - The Nodes Minimap and Quick Favorites Upgrade Version 🔎

This minor point release has major features! With a new node editor minimap with customizatble size, coloring, ratio and position. This also comes with new materials ouf-of-the box, and a highly requested Quick Favorites menu with icons and order customizability.

This is part of the latest from Blender 5.1.2 and 5.2.0 to the date - with **46** new features, fixes and polish with another 15+ stability fixes from Blender.

### ✨What's new in this release:
- Customizable Node Minimap
- Customizable and Icononized Quick Favorites menu
- Compact toolshelf tabs with better column snapping
- Stacks button to open relevant Node Editors
- More out-of-the-box materials, including wood
- Power User Tools Select Grease Pencil Layer under Mouse operators
- Sequencer Compositor Assets button (like in Geometry Nodes)
- Fixed Smart Asset sidebar modifier options


### 🧡 Additional Features from this Blender 5.1.2 and 5.2.0 series:
- Geometry Nodes Sample Sound Frequencies Node
- Geometry Nodes Merge Points and Cluster by Selected and Distance
- Geometry Nodes List Nodes and socket type
- Compositor Rotation nodes
- Mesh Edit Mode Flatten and Space Edge Loops Evenly Operators
- Dopesheet Select All (keyframes) by Trait
- Blender Online Assets available in Asset Browser and Shelves when online


And many more bug fixes and more!

Downloads available from both Github, the official Website, Windows store and Blender Launcher v2

**📥 Downloads:**
https://www.bforartists.de/download/

**🪟 Windows App**
[Windows App Store](https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P3PLMNRD4SC?hl=en-us&gl=CO&ocid=pdpshare)

**🧡 Blender Launcher**
[Github Release](https://github.com/Victor-IX/Blender-Launcher-V2/releases)
[For Arch](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/blender-launcher-v2-bin)

**📝 Release Notes:**
https://www.bforartists.de/release-notes/

🗒️ Blender Release notes now merged and updated into Bforartists:
https://www.blender.org/download/releases/


Splashscreen is kindly provided by **Krysidian and the @Umbraven_cu (Instagram) Team**, the latest winner of the Splashscreen submissions competition hosted in the Discord server! Thank you!

Thank you again for using Bforartists, by making art with this - and sharing this to the art community. This wouldn't be possible without you.

_Draise, Reiner, Blenux (Juso), Znight (Trung Pham), Quackers, Eyad, Shaley, Sean and all you arty people_


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💜 Join the official [Discord server](https://discord.gg/yKuR77v) for weekly art challenges and live artist QnA interviews every now and then! And share your art.

--------------------
# Bforartists 5.1.2

## 46 Tasks

Sequencer - Hotkeys - Make gizmos work on press instead of drag, they currently don't work #6557
Sequencer - Hotkeys - Expose Transform Select on Side to GUI #6558
Properties Editor - Strip Modifiers - Add a "quick open compositor window" to button/operator AND/OR make a Sequencer compoitor workspace already setup #6579
UI - Add Open Editors Temp Window Operators #6596
Properties Editor - Strip Modifiers tab - Split Modifier Assets like in Geometry Nodes Assets modifier stack #6573
Tools Region - Sub Menu Icons Small #6599
Sequencer - Text Strip - Style - New Line property #6572
Geometry Nodes - Instances - New Input Instance Bounds node #6519
3D View - Edit Mode - Grease Pencil - Toolsystem > Toggle Caps panel - Fix mismatch with "Set Caps" header menu #6544
3D View - Edit Mode - Toolsystem > Curve Panel > Remove double entries #6541
3D View - Mesh - Edit Mode - Transform - New Space Edge Loops Evently #6575
3D View - Edit Mode - Mesh - Transform - New Flatten operator #6515
UV Editor - Select all by Trait needs icons #6513
Dopesheet - Select Linked needs icon #6511
Compositor - Utilities - New Rotation group of nodes #6534
Sidebars - Compact Tabs option makes columns too thin, offsetting icons #6518
Geometry Nodes - Geometry- Operations- New Get Geometry Component node #6578
Geometry Nodes - Utilities - Lists - New Filter List node #6577
Assets - multiple definitions of catalog warning #6571
Timeline - Remove double playback menu (one on left) #6512
Power User Tools - Select Grease Pencil Layer under Cursor #6569
Default Asset Library - Missing sidebar modifier properties #6556
Quick Favorites menu - Add Editor with Icons #6529
Render Menu - Improve operator labels #6549
Paint Mode - Advanced - Remove "Modes" panel #6536
Graph Editor & Dopesheet - Key - Mirror - Reorder and add separator #6535
Properties - Strip > Time panel - Remove duplicated "Show Retiming Keys" property #6565
Shader Editor - Node Minimap - General Fixes #6559
3D View - Armature Edit Mode - Toolsystem > Armature tab > Recalculate Bone Roll panel - Use subpanels for grouping #6551
VSE - Strip tab > Transform Panel - Improve layout of XY properties #6289
VSE - Strip tab - Movie Clip & Mask panel - Fix `rpt_` not defined error #6293
Geometry Nodes - Utilities - Field - New Cluster by Distance node #6533
Geometry Nodes - Mesh - Read - New Cluster by Connected #6531
Geometry Nodes - Geometry - Operations - New Merge Points node #6532
Geometry Nodes - New Lists nodes (x5) #6538
Geometry Nodes - Utilities - Sound - New Sample Sound Frequencies node #6520
3D View - View Pie Menu - Swap Front and Back locations? #6547
Bug: Node Editors - Missing data management in Node groups #6528
Default Asset Library - Add stronger Blender versioning to back-port the default asset library modules #6524
Default Asset Library - Mesh Blend by Proximity collection socket wizard fails #6523
Default Asset library - Make updating assets more robust #6510
Default Asset Library - update thumbnails and add Curtis Holt's Community CC0 materials #6508
Bug: Properties Editor - Rotation socket animation property broken #6509
Consider having a position on LLMs, ideally a different one than blender #6506
Node Editors - Context Menu - Frame icons needs to be updated #6502
Compositor - Add Blank Image to sidebar #6500


--------------------
# Bforartists 5.1.1

## 49 Tasks

### ✨What's new in this release:
- Shader Raycast Edges asset
- Curve to Tube now supports Grease pencil colors
- Last Operator HUD panel now triggers from the Topbar
- New horizontal/Vertical View Nagigation gizmo toggle with background
- Asset refinement to thumbnails and default categories
- Connecting/Dsconnecting strips in the Sequencer is now contextual
- Mesh Blend by Proximity now has normal blur controls at intersections
- Fixed the brush sliders for some brushes like Weight Paint Gradient brush
- And much refinement to icons, interface stability and polish

### 🧡 Additional Features from this Blender 5.1.1 and 5.2.0 series:
- Compositor String to Image Node
- Compositor String nodes
- Geometry Nodes Rename Attribute node
- Grease Pencil Dot texture randomization
- New Input Properties for Compositor Modifiers in the Sequencer modifier stack
- Better HDR color scope support

UV Editor - Context Menu - Stitch missing icon #6486
3D View - Weight Paint - Missing gradient weight and strength sliders in header #6494
Compositor - New String to Image node #6483
Properties Editor - Particles tab - specials menu - add icon to convert to curves #6177
properties editor - object data properties with a point cloud - attributes panel, add icon #6202
Area Edge Options - Merge Edges needs an icon #6485
Compositor - Add the Utilities - Text into the sidebar #6489
Properties editor - Collection tab - Instancing panel - Instance offset menu - missing icons #5227
Geometry Nodes - New Rename Attribute node #6482
Properties Editor - Strip Modifiers - Non-Linear property is removed #6487
Shader Nodes - Glossy missing #6480
Default Asset Library - Add Raycast Shader Edges #6474
Properties editor - Collections tab - Instancing panel - instance offset menu - add icons #6154
Icon - Filter needs to be "inverted" when filter is a drop down #6473
3D View - Object Mode - Mesh - Context Menu - Join has no icon #6056
Graph Editor - new Smooth (Gaussian) modifier #6410
Cleanup: Sculpt - Header - Automasking property panel needs love #6469
Compositor - Sidebar > Options - Performance panel - Remove broken property "use_view_border" #6468
Defautl Asset Library - Normals asset needs thumbnail cleanup #6472
Warning: Console shows missing brushes (regression) #6450
Cleanup: Interface - Remove unused functions #6461
Properties editor - object properties with cycles - motion blur panel - missing decorator #6251
Default Asset Library - Child Addon doesn't have any version, won't update #6459
Default Asset Library - Refine Smart mesh blend to fix bug, thumbnail and intersection #6457
Grease Pencil - Draw mode - Expose "Add" line operators to top level with new icons #6403
Toolbar/Topbar - Manager Panel - Improve collapsible sections #6381
Properties Editor - Modifiers - Layout is broken #6454
Properties - Sequencer Strip - Transform - Mirror needs indent to new line #6437
Properties - Modifiers - Mirror - Improve layout #6451
UI - Core - Split boolean properties not expanding full space when in toggle mode #6447
Topbar/Toolbar - Add Region Hud support #6445
BLI_Vector.hh - Set back to use default_inline_buffer_capacity #6443
Sequencer - Make Connect/Disconnect Strips contextual as a single operator and expose to Toolshelf #6303
Top Bar - Remove "Show/Hide" topbar button (redundant) #6438
Space Toolbar - Wrong align icon names #6441
uvedit_select.cc - move #include out of namespace #6432
3D View - New Navigation Gizmo Toolbar background #6422
Icons - Update new `FILTER_FILLED` icon to match Bforartists UI #6421
Linux - Wayland Icon : Replace blender's for Bforartists icon #6435
Essentials Assets - Improve Curve to Tube to work better with Grease Pencil #6429
Non Linear Animation - Make channels top padding rows better #6425
Toolbar - Align X and Y icons missing #6427
Toolbar - Manager Panel - Pressing ENTER disables toolbar sections #6383
Tools - Sidebar - Weird spacing in three-column layout #6418
Toolbar/Topbar - Python API - Toolbar-specific functions exposed for non-toolbar menus #6415
3DView - Viewport Shading - Improve Scene World disclosure icon position #6411
Preferences - When switching to OpenGL or Vulkan, it says to restart "Blender" #6406
Default Asset Library - Expose normal blur controlsa and fix the material override #6408
Presentation Slides - Remove the playback hook and let it use built in playback method #6407

--------------------
# Bforartists 5.1.0

## 134 Tasks

###✨What's new :
- New procedural UV Nodes assets for Geometry Nodes
- Grease Pencil pressure sensistive distance to radius when drawing on surfaces
- New Primitive Add gizmos mode operators exposed to a top level in the toolshelf in object and sculpt mode
- Updates to Grease Pencil asset thumbnails for consistency
- Major performance update and new features of the Smart Mesh Blend asset
- Major refactor for the Add Node sidebar to improve consistency and order
- Refactored Topbar customization and consistency settings panel pass for the Topbar editor, making this more accessible and usable and consistent
- Active Tool dropdown gets icons
- More tabbed toolshelf icons get an update, notably the Annoation icons
- Most Booleans checkboxes now dynamically float left, making these more consistent everywhere
- Sidebars have improved alignment of labels and properties accross the board
- Tabbed toolshelf has improved padding when in 3 columns mode
- Improved selected channel legibility in Animation editors
- Fixed Multi-GPU rendering hard crash
- More Shelf Regions pie menu refinement

### 🧡 Additional Features from this Blender 5.1.x and 5.2.x series:
- Animation: New Subframes visibility
- Animation: New Looping and playback modes
- Graph: New Smooth (Gaussian) modifier
- Shader: New raycast node
- Shader: Support for DirectX and OpenGL toggles in the Normal node
- Preferences: New Search
- Preferences: New abiliity to toggle Asset library visibilities
- Greasepencil: New Fills and Stroke mode with booleans
- Greasepencil: New primitive gizmos
- Grease Pencil: You can search in layers now
- Geometry Nodes: New Grid Nodes like Gird Mean, Grid Median, Grid Dilate & Erode, Trim String node, Set NURBS Weight and Order, new Matrix SVD
- Geometry Nodes: New Bundle orgnaization nodes in Geometry Nodes
- Geometry Nodes: UV Pack node and Strings to Curves node is better
- All Node editors: New Implicit conversion, and new consistent Input constant nodes, new Menu node
- All Node editors: New Cut Nodes to paste between sessions opertoar
- Weight Paint: New loop selections
- Edit Mode: New delimiters on loop selections
- Edit Mode: New "To Circle" operator
- Text Object: Better drawing
- Compositor: New Camera Info nodes and Integer Vectors, new Mask to SDF node
- Compositor/Sequencer: Now compositor
- Sculpting: New Scene Project brush, and Vertex Color operator
- Data: Better Remap User experience
- Outline: Scroll on rename has improved
- Core: Undo is 30% faster
- Core: Vulkan and Cycles Denoising is marginally much faster and stable, by leagues
- Core: Stability is highest it has ever been with over 350+ fixes

Toolsystem - Sidebar - Fix non-square buttons when in three-column layout #6401
3D View - Sculpt Mode - Sculpt - New Set Vertex Color operator #6397
Node Editors - Improve tooltip to show you can copy and paste nodes between Bforartists instances #6241
Topbar - Workspaces - Double "Duplicate Workspaces" entry #6093
Compositor - new Mask to SDF Node #6151
3D View - Sculpt/Object Mode - Make Add Modal Primitive top level panel with updated icons #6321
UV Align Vertically/Horizontally icons are inverted #6314
Icon - Info Large icon needs better drawing #6365
Geometry Nodes - Utilities - Text - New Trim String node #6366
Geometry Nodes - New Bundle Nodes #6237
Toolbar/Topbar - Manager Panel - Make different functions more distinguishable #6380
Add Icon for SDF Grid filtering #6249
Node Editors - New "Cut" node operator to paste later #6240
Add icons for new added Grid operation nodes #6253
Add Icon for Cube Grid Topology node #6250
Add Icon for Matrix SVD node #6248
Geometry Nodes - New Set NURBS Weight node #6363
Geometry Nodes - Add - Curve - Write - Set NURBS Order #6322
Node Editors - Add - Utilities - New Implicit Conversion Node #6318
Node Editor - Input - Constant - New "Menu" node needs icon and some tooltip love #6323
Node Editors - New Implicit Conversion Node #6307
Shader Nodes - Toolshelf - Fix incorrect toolshelf buttons for Closures #6368
Geometry Nodes - Add - Input - Constant - Font #6324
3D View - Mesh object - Edit Mode - Mesh - Transform - New To Circle #6325
Essentials Assets - Add "Blur" brush from Blender essentials #6152
Default Asset Library - Make Grease Pencil nodegroup color coding consistent #6332
Default Asset Library - Compositor - Make pixel based systems work in vertical resolutions. #6327
Default Asset Library - Improve compositor icons with better iconography #6331
Default Asset Library - Improve the Mesh Blend by Proximity performance and features for v2.0.2 #6330
Default Asset Library - Add UV Nodes #6334
Essentials Assets - Sync Geometry Nodes #6263
Hotkeys - Curves object - Sculpt Mode - X to radial control needs Confirm on Release #6329
Select menus, separator at the end of the menus #5126
3D View - Region Overlap on with Asset Browser off causes overlap glitch #5013
Plane Trim option not available warning in sculpt mode with fill/deepen brush #4955
Grease Pencil - Draw Mode - Add "sync" surface distance with brush radius #6336
File Browser to Sequencer Context menu - Add icons #5347
Default Theme - Make Channels differentiate between selected channels and others #6286
NLA - Sidebar - Active Strip Panel - Indent and large space issue #6287
3D View - Object - Animation - Add icon to Replace Action Animation operator #6259
3D View - GP - Vertex Paint Mode - Toolshelf - Missing Replace icon #6280
Update orient_type check from boolean to enum in transform operations #6353
Keymap - remove old tool region toggle and update macos keymap #6351
File Browser Keymap - Replace TOOL PROPS keymap with ~ (tilde key) #6345
Outliner - View - Pie Penu - Add icon #6317
3D View - Grease Pencil - Draw Mode - Erase brush - Add icons to erase mode in header #6319
Import - Drag and Drop menu for SVG needs icons #6328
File Browser - Make the T key use the consistent pie menu #6339
3D View - Grease Pencil - Vertex Paint brush - Make sidebar mode collapse #6335
Node Editor - Sidebar - Node - Node Color - Special menu is empty #6340
OptiX not detecting GPUs in Linux #6341
3D View - Tool Settings - Add icons to "Active Tool" dropdown #6333
Properties editor - object properties with Eevee - Visibility panel - missing decorators #6252
VSE - blade tool - sidebar, tool, active tool settings - align props left #6090
VSE - Preview mode - Sidebar - View Tab - View Settings panel -  align prop left #6092
Properties editor - Physics tab - Dynamic paint, Brush type, source panel with paint method particle system - align prop left #6182
Properties editor - Object Data Properties with armature - Inverse Kinematics panel, align prop left #6210
Compositor - File Output node - Sidebar - Node tab - Properties Panel - Images subpanel - align prop left #6295
3D View - GP - Paint Mode - Tint and Eraser mode could have icons (for consistency) #6281
Fix: Race Condition on close #6272
Tools update the brush icon #6306
User Preferences - Add icon to new Asset Libraries panel #6304
Preferences - Asset Libraries - Move Library buttons now broken when trying to move an Online Repository (Experimental) #6312
Fix: Addon missing manifest #6291
Default Asset Library - Registers wrong type of library now, needs to be robust #6310
3D View - Overlays - Indent new "Text" group, remove old Statistics #5994
Files imported from Blender don't work correctly #6193
NLA - Strip menu - Remove delete tracks #6285
NLA - Action header - New Replace Action operator needs icon #6296
Animation layout, toolbar - all toolbar types on #6274
VSE - Strip tab with text object - Style panel - Double content Shadow, Outline, Box #6089
3d view, object menu, Animation submenu - Replace action needs icon #6297
Properties Editor - Camera - Background Images panel > Movie Clip - Use split layout for non-boolean properties #6216
Add icons to new Grease pencil fill workflow operators #6258
NLA Editor - Sidebar - Strip Tab -  Put checkbox in front of Strip name and icon #6262
Video Sequencer & Properties - Strip Tab -  Put checkbox in front of Strip name and icon #6276
NLA Editor - Header - Fix display of Isolate property when Tweak is enabled #6273
NLA Editor - Header - Put separator between Tweak and Isolate #6261
Compositor - Asset Shelf - Reassign default asset librarie categories in versioning #6212
Startup - Animation tab saved has default. #6269
Animation workspace - remove unused toolbar #6233
Sequencer - When Active scene is not the Pinned Sequencer scene, the Retiming panel fails #6222
Toolbar - Toolbar manager in old version - Animation, Edit and Misc not chooseable #6138
3D View - Sidebar - Item Tab - Put axis labels in front of Dimensions property #6247
3D View - Edit mode - Select Edge Loop is broken #6265
Sequencer - Crash with navigation in VSE with Thumbnails turned on #6082
Default Asset Library - Blend Normals by Proximity - Default to a Default Target Collection #6244
Default Asset Library - Smart Mesh Blend - Improve some UX issues #6255
Toolbar Editor - Make preferences the same as the fixed Topbar Toolbar #4142
Asset warnings in console at startup #6245
Fix: Hotkeys - Brush Paint - Warnings on startup due to no erase and smooth set correctly #6205
Default Library - Toolshelf - Update the Wizard Handlers #6242
GitHub actions failing after recent Blender precompiled libraries update #6207
Crash when rendering with Cycles using Optix with both CPU and GPU #6007
Properties Editor - Bone Properties tab - Viewport Display panel - Custom shape subpanel - indent and hide properties #6227
Properties Editor - Bone Properties tab - Viewport Display panel  - Custom shape subpanel - Error in console #6226
Properties Editor - Image tab - Image or Movie - Image panel - Sampling subpanel - put label in front of slider #6225
Preferences - Interface tab - order of checkboxes #6224
Spreadsheet editor - double entry Show Internal Attributes #6235
File browser -  Display settings - double label Sort By #6234
User Preferences - move show hidden #6218
Error in space_statusbar.py #6204
Movie Clip Editor -  no adjust last operator #6108
Properties editor - Physics modifier Explode - remove double content #6170
Fix: Error in bfa_default_library addon #6198
Properties editor, Constraints tab - Limit rotation constraint - Could not find button with matching property to decorate #6190
Fix: Critical warning during build #6184
Properties editor - Constraints tab - Geometry Attribute constraint , align property left #6191
Default Asset Library - Improve unregistry and manifest #6181
Console messages at startup #6186
3D View - Header - Selectatbility and visibility icon broken #6183
Preferences , Extensions - online versus built-in addons #5061
Default Asset Library - Cleanup code and functionality #6153
Properties editor - Modifiers - Grease Pencil - Lineart modifier - Occlusion subpanel - align prop left #6175
3D View, Item tab, Transform panel - refactor Mode property #6158
Solidify modifier - indent Only Rim, hide Factor #6164
Outliner -  Scene tab - Keying sets - align props left #6148
Getting a frequent crash when editing a mesh in edit mode #6140
Default Hotkeys - Make snap to cursor also use rotation #5016
Sequencer - Effect Strips context and operators needs updating #5001
Default Addons - include as system scripts #4386
Properties editor - object properties -  line art panel - remove double, hide greyed out prop, put checkbox in front #6157
Properties editor - object properties with cycles - motion blur panel, align prop left #6155
Properties editor - Object properties with Eevee - Visibility panel - indent props #6156
Freestyle Modifiers - align props left #6147
NLA Editor - Sidebar > Strip > Active Strip - Make properties follow BFA conventions #6133
fix: Blender -  Unsupported Graphics Card Configuration #6142
Graph Editor - View menu - remove double menu entry Channels #6123
NLA Editor - Sidebar > Strip > Active Clip - Add missing label and align Sync Action Length property #6134
Driver editor -  no Key menu content #6129
UV Editor - Select - Make "double" menu entry shortest path more explicit #5941
Dope sheet editor - quick navigation elements vanishes in submodes #6113
Graph Editor - View menu - View in Graph Editor #6124
Fix: Graph Editor - Key menu content does not show #6125