Patch Builds: Saving Temporary Window Sizes & Positions

Feature & Design Feedback
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A long-standing common complaint is that Blender does not remember the size and placement of temporary windows, like File Browser, Preferences, Render, Drivers, Info. I am testing a patch that does just that. Open up Preferences, resize it, move it anywhere - even to a different monitor - and it will open the same way the next time you open it.

You can download builds from the following links:

This makes File Manager, Preferences, Drivers, and Info Log Windows always just remember and restore their last locations and and size.

For the Render window there is a choice. By default it will behave as it does now: auto-sizing to the render output dimensions. But go to Preferences / Interface / Editors / Temporary Editors and you can change “Render In” to “New Window - Saved” and it will load at the last size and position, regardless of render size.

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And what about doing only the position for the render window, but not the size? I guess the autosizing is too nice a feature to lose, but remembering the position (i.e. always on my second monitor) feels very useful to me.

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Anything’s possible of course. But I hate the idea of having different behavior for different windows as that is hard (and a bit embarrassing) to explain in bug reports. Yes, it is by design that Properties remembers everything, while File Browser remembers size only, but Render window is position only… yikes. Its already bad enough that the Render window is not a child like the others, which throws a wrench into some things like this: ⚙ D13951 Win32: Auto-Raise and -Focus Windows on Hover

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Another wild idea. Probably nothing, but I just want to throw it out there:

Make remembering the size/position a user settable preference for every window. That way they’re all the same. Then you can have the default prefs so that it remembers the position, but not the size, for the render window, both for the prefs windows etc.

TBH I don’t really care about the positions and sizes of all windows except the render window which I’d like to put on the scond monitor by default.

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Gave it a quick spin (Linux build, Gnome 43) and the Preferences window is a welcome change for sure.

Observations/tests:

  • Seems to follow the ‘auto-save preferences’? If you un-tick that, it won’t remember the window size across sessions? Not sure where I land on that. I’d expect other software to remember the window position always, but appreciate how Blender’s preference-saving generally behaves
  • Doesn’t remember positions per-blend-file. Not sure if there’s even a use-case for that…
  • Window maximized state is retained - great!
  • Windows (maximized or not) appear over the top of main window when it’s in ‘Window Fullscreen’ - good

Do you mean Preferences here? That alone would be very welcome. Not sure how I feel about the render size. It’s a bit cumbersome having to zoom out every time. I could see having it maximized on a second screen being really useful though. Conversely the Preferences being able to be a ‘Maximized Area’ would be useful too.

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Yes, that is also true of the current saving of File Manager window size. This just builds on that.

Yes, that was a mistake I just corrected in the original post. Thanks!

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What about being able to save this for standard project files/simply save files?

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Regular windows do save their sizes and positions with simple save, at least on Windows. This patch is just so temporary windows open at their last sizes. So not certain what you are asking for exactly, so you might have to spell it out a bit more.

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Yes, sorry for not reading the discussion above.
I was close to what I was saying @WoollyBear:

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I love this patch. It bugs me SO much that Preferences window doesn’t stay at the same position. It’s great now!

I don’t know about whether it should be isolated to Preferences window or not because it’s the only separate window I use regularly, so it’s the only one that bugs me. This patch solves this nuisance!

Tested on Window 10.

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I am becoming increasingly convinced that this doesn’t work for Render window. It is convenient having that sized to the render output and I haven’t found a way to just save position alone in a way that looks and feels right. So I’ll probably take that one out of here.

But I am testing a version that saves File Browser position (it only saves size now) and that is really nice, so will probably add that in. Will make a testable build soon.

1 Like
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If Window position and size could be saved in .blend file then startup file could have setting that makes Render view the size of the render, but once the project .blend file is saved this is overridden by a user defined Window size and placement?

I’d really like to have some default options for all windows and the ability to change and save them in .blend files later on.

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This is really curious to me as I’ve always been deeply annoyed by the way render window keeps changing size, especially when you work with renders larger than your screen, which means it just goes full screen covering everything, then you need to resize it down to a reasonable proportion every time. Obviously it’s a personal preferences thing since both you and Baardap mentioned it approvingly, but I can’t emphasize enough how much I prefer the stable version available in this patch. I really would like to hear from more people about this point, pro or con.

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Ha! Someday I see it landing on ‘make it a user preference for every window’ after all :smiley:

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If it were entirely up to me the Render window would always just be at the position and size that you last left it, regardless of the size of the render output. And it would be a child window of the main window, in the exact same way as Preferences.

But I think we have too many users that are used to the current behavior. And I am always loathe to add new preference options for this type of thing.

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Yes I think adding an option just for this would be overkill, I don’t subscribe to the “just add preferences for everything and let people decide” way of thought. I would just like to know if most users are simply used to it, or if they actively prefer it. If I’m in the minority I’m fine remembering not to close the window so it doesn’t change size with new renders

Not many comments on this thread yet however, so I understand if you feel that’s an argument for another day and it’s best not to disrupt established ways too much for now. File Browser and Preferences should be good to go though, can’t imagine any disputes for those.

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There might be a compromise that would work for everyone that adds minimal configuration…

I could just change the behavior of Preferences so that it always restores to prior size and location. And then also make it so that File Browser (when opened in New Window) will also behave this way - so add the ability to remember and restore the position, not just the size as it does now.

But for Render window I could add another option to Preferences / Interface / Temporary Editors / Render In. The “New Window” option would turn into two, one created at a size and position you want and the other that autosizes to the render output. Not sure what this text would be though. Comments welcome.

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I’d like the functionality obviously, but having two new enums, like “New Window—Resize” and “New Window—Static” (or whatever) doesn’t feel quite right to me. Could keeping it as just “New Window” and dynamically showing a “Remember last size and position” switch under it (like how relevant options appear for Viewport > 3D Viewport Axis dropdown) be a better option?

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“New Window (automatic size)”
“New Window (previous size)”

Combining the option here would reduce the user preference UI from itself becoming more bloated :slight_smile: e.g. in case this same option is added to the File Browser portion of the same user preferences section.

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That works. I’ll try to get a new build by the end of the weekend maybe?

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