Quick Pin — Documentation

Requires Blender 5.2 or later.

1. In Blender, open Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions.

2. Click the dropdown arrow at the top right of the window and choose Install from Disk…

3. Select QuickPin-1.0.0.zip. Blender lists one permission, Files: the add-on writes a single file in its own user folder to remember the pins of each blend-file (see section 8). It never accesses the network.

4. The extension installs and enables itself. A pin button appears at the right end of the 3D Viewport header, and the P shortcut is already active.

To update later, install the newer zip the same way; it replaces the previous version. Disabling or uninstalling the add-on removes the panel, the header button, the shortcut and the right-click entries immediately. Your pins stay stored in your .blend files and come back as soon as the add-on is enabled again.

Pinning works from Blender's own right-click menu, wherever the property is: the Properties editor, the sidebar, a header popover, the Outliner.

1. Right-click the property you want to keep at hand, for example Max Samples in the Render properties.

2. Choose Pin to Quick Pin at the bottom of the menu. The status bar confirms it, for example Pinned “Samples”.

3. Open the floating panel with the pin button of the viewport header or with P: the property is there, ready to be changed.

Right-click a property that is already pinned and the menu shows Unpin from Quick Pin instead. When the entry does not appear at all, the property cannot be pinned (see section 3). Pinning and unpinning can be undone with Ctrl+Z.

Quick Pin follows each property back to the data that holds it, so a pin keeps pointing to the same setting wherever you open the panel.

Pins point to the data itself, not to its name: renaming an object, a material or a light keeps its pins working. Lists (such as the material slots) and buttons that run a command cannot be pinned.

The panel is drawn inside the 3D Viewport and stays open while you work: clicking, selecting, orbiting or modeling in the viewport does not close it.

Each 3D Viewport has its own panel, opened and placed independently. Hover a button for half a second to see its tooltip. The panel receives clicks through Blender's gizmo system, so it is shown only while Gizmos are enabled in the viewport header. Opening another file closes the panel; your pins stay in the file.

Every value behaves like the same field in Blender's own panels, and reads exactly the same: numbers follow the units of the scene (Scene > Units), so a location shows 0.5 m, 50 cm or 1.6404' just as the Transform panel does. Vectors show one component per line.

Every change made in the panel is a regular undo step, named Quick Pin followed by the pin's name: Ctrl+Z reverts it. Hover a value to see the description of the property. Values Blender does not let you edit, such as those of a linked file, are shown dimmed.

Pins are grouped under what they belong to — the scene, an object, a light, a material, the World, the 3D Viewport, the Preferences — and named automatically: Samples, Subdivision: Levels, Principled BSDF: Roughness. A new pin joins the end of its group.

Click the pencil in the title bar to switch to edit mode. The values make way for the editing tools:

Click the pencil again to go back to the values. Edit mode ends by itself when the last pin is removed. Every change made in edit mode can be undone with Ctrl+Z. Each scene has its own pins: switching to another scene shows its own list.

When a pinned property cannot be reached anymore, its pin stays in the panel, dimmed, with the reason and a small × to unpin it. Nothing breaks, and the pin works again as soon as the property is back.

Pins marked Deleted or Unused are removed when the file is saved, so a pin never keeps deleted data alive in your .blend. The others stay until you remove them.

Pins are part of the scene, so they are saved with your .blend. With Remember Pins, they also survive a file closed without saving.

The record is a single file, remembered_pins.json, in the add-on's user folder. It keeps the 300 most recent files and forgets the files that no longer exist. Turning off Remember Pins deletes it, and files then open without pins. Turning it back on starts recording again from your next change.

Open Edit > Preferences > Add-ons and expand Quick Pin, or click the gear in the panel. Every change applies immediately — no restart, no need to reopen the file.

The shortcut is a regular Blender keymap entry: it is saved with your preferences and also listed in Edit > Preferences > Keymap, under Window, as Open Quick Pin. Where an editor or a mode already uses the same key, Blender's own shortcut comes first.