📘 Blend Vault — Documentation

Overview

Blend Vault is a local version‑history system for Blender that automatically creates snapshots of your .blend file. Each snapshot stores a full copy of your project, optional thumbnails, and detailed object metadata. You can browse a visual timeline, compare changes, restore objects, or fully roll back your file — all without relying on cloud services.

Blend Vault is designed for artists who want reliability, safety, and full control over their project history.

Key Features

🔴 Automatic Snapshots

Blend Vault can automatically create a snapshot every time you save your file. You can configure a minimum time between snapshots to avoid unnecessary clutter.

⏱️ Periodic Auto‑Save

Optionally, Blend Vault can save your file and create snapshots on a timer (e.g., every 15 minutes). This is ideal for long sessions, simulations, or complex scenes.

🖼️ Thumbnail Capture

Each snapshot can include a small viewport thumbnail, giving you a visual timeline of your project’s evolution. Thumbnails are captured using Blender’s OpenGL viewport render.

📂 Local Storage

Snapshots are stored inside your project folder:

/your_project/.blend_vault/<filename>/

Each snapshot includes:

• Full .blend file

• Optional thumbnail

• Timestamp & label

• Milestone flag

• Object metadata (location, rotation, scale, modifiers, mesh stats)

🔍 Diff Viewer

Blend Vault can compare any snapshot with your current scene and show:

• Added objects

• Removed objects

• Modified objects

This makes it easy to understand exactly what changed between versions.

🔁 Restore Tools

Blend Vault offers two restore modes:

Full File Restore

Replaces your current .blend file with the selected snapshot. A safety snapshot of your current file is automatically created before restoring.

Restore Changed Objects Only

Appends only the objects that differ between the snapshot and your current scene. Perfect for recovering lost geometry or restoring specific edits without replacing the entire file.

🧭 Timeline UI

Blend Vault adds a dedicated panel to:

3D Viewport > Sidebar (N) > Vault

The interface includes:

• Snapshot timeline

• Thumbnails

• Milestone toggle

• Delete snapshot

• Diff viewer

• Restore tools

• Open vault folder

• Thumbnail size slider

Everything is designed to be fast, intuitive, and Blender‑native.

Preferences

Blend Vault includes a full preferences section where you can configure:

• Maximum number of snapshots

• Snapshot on save

• Minimum seconds between auto‑snapshots

• Periodic auto‑save interval

• Thumbnail capture toggle

These settings give you complete control over how Blend Vault manages your project history.

Use Cases

Blend Vault is ideal for:

• Modeling workflows

• Hard‑surface design

• Animation passes

• Environment building

• Technical art

• Any project where version safety matters

If you’ve ever overwritten a file, lost progress, or wished you could “go back in time,” Blend Vault is the solution.

Privacy & Storage

Blend Vault is fully local. No cloud. No accounts. No external dependencies. Your snapshots stay on your machine, inside your project folder.

Summary

Blend Vault gives Blender artists a reliable, powerful, and intuitive way to manage project versions. With automatic snapshots, visual timelines, diff tools, and restore options, it becomes an essential part of any professional workflow.