Quick Start

A quick guide to getting started with RocketBlend.

Install RocketBlend

Before getting started with RocketBlend, ensure it's installed on your system. You can use tools like go install, package managers like Homebrew and Scoop or grab a pre-compiled binary at the official releases page.

For more details, or for other options, see the installation guide.

Create a new project

Once you have everything ready, you can create your first project! Open a terminal in your desired location and run the command rocketblend new hello-world .

$ rocketblend new hello-world
⣻ Creating project...

To see a more detailed output of what's happening, add the -v flag.

Once complete you'll have a new .blend project and a .rocketblend folder used to store all dependency data for your project.

$ ls
hello-world.blend  .rocketblend

Install a package

To install a package, you can run the rocketblend install command. RocketBlend uses references to install packages from remote sources such as Github. You can create your own packages or use ones already defined online, but the easiest way to get started is to use the official library.

$ rocketblend install blender/4.1.1
⣯ Installing package...

In this example, we're changing the project to use a Blender 4.1.1 build.

If you have purchased a build or add-on, you can create a custom package definition locally. Then use the rocketblend insert command to insert it into your library.

Running this command without specifying a package will install all dependencies for a project. This is particularly helpful when sharing projects across multiple machines.

Open a project

With the project successfully configured, you can initiate it by executing the rocketblend run command. Blender will then launch with all the necessary dependencies defined for the project.

By default, RocketBlend preserves your current add-ons and simply adds the new ones you specify, ensuring that projects not using the tool remain unaffected.

If you prefer a more controlled setup, you can enable strict mode by setting it to true in the .rocketblend/profile.json file. With strict mode enabled, only the add-ons listed in that file will be active, and all others—including default add-ons like Cycles—will be disabled.

Any changes to add-ons are temporary and only for that Blender session. They won't be saved to your user preferences, therefore the add-on menu in Blender might show incorrectly. This is done to retain any previously defined add-on preferences.