Vertical Brush Bar — Documentation

Installation

1. Download vertical_brush_bar-1.0.0.zip from your Superhive account.
2. In Blender: Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions, click the drop-down arrow (top right) → Install from Disk… and pick the zip. Shortcut: you can also drag-and-drop the zip straight into the Blender window and confirm.
3. Enable Vertical Brush Bar if it is not enabled automatically.
4. Enter Sculpt mode on any object: the bar appears in the left toolbar, in the Brushes panel.

No restart needed. Requires Blender 4.3 or newer (tested up to 5.2).

Using the bar

• Click a brush thumbnail → the brush becomes active.
• Right-click a thumbnail → Pin as favorite / Unpin. Favorites live in the ★ section at the top of the bar.
• Right-click a favorite → Move up / Move down to reorder.
• ★ button (top of the bar) → favorites-only mode: the bar shows only your pinned brushes.
• The bar follows your current mode: Sculpt, Vertex Paint, Weight Paint and Texture Paint each list their own brushes.
• Drag the toolbar edge to resize: thumbnails grow and the layout switches from a single column to a grid automatically.

Keyboard shortcuts

Your first ten favorites are bound to number keys:

The modifier is Ctrl+Alt by default because plain Alt+numbers and Ctrl+numbers are already used by Blender's Subdivision Set in Sculpt mode. You can switch the modifier to Alt or Ctrl in the add-on preferences (a warning is shown for combinations that collide with Blender's defaults).

Preferences

Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Vertical Brush Bar:

• Position — left toolbar (default) or right N-panel.
• N-panel tab name — when using the N-panel, choose the tab title (default: "Brushes").
• Shortcut modifier — Ctrl+Alt (default), Alt, or Ctrl.
• Favorites, their order and all settings are stored in your Blender preferences: they survive restarts, add-on updates and reinstalls. When upgrading to a new major Blender version, import your previous preferences on first launch to keep them.

Brush libraries

The bar shows all brush asset libraries known to Blender:

• Essentials (built-in brushes) — always present.
• Your custom libraries — anything registered under Preferences → File Paths → Asset Libraries (purchased brush packs, your own saved brushes…).

Libraries are scanned in the background. New or changed .blend files are picked up automatically (the bar rescans when files change on disk, at most every 30 seconds). Thumbnails load lazily to keep the viewport responsive.

Troubleshooting

The bar is empty right after installation.

The first scan of your libraries runs in the background and typically takes a few seconds. Thumbnails appear progressively.

Thumbnails show a clock icon for a moment.

That is Blender rasterizing previews on first draw (the asset browser does the same). They sharpen after a second.

A shortcut does nothing.

Check that the brush is among your first ten favorites, and that the modifier in the add-on preferences matches what you press.

A library does not show up.

Make sure it is registered in Preferences → File Paths → Asset Libraries and contains brush assets saved as such (Blender 4.3+ brush assets).

Uninstall

Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions → Installed, find Vertical Brush Bar → Uninstall. Your favorites are kept if you reinstall later.

Support

Questions or issues: message me through the Superhive inbox on this product page — please include your Blender version and OS.