BlockyRenderer:Blocky Renderer Tab

The extension adds its own Blocky Renderer tab to the Activity Bar on the left, with a cube icon. It holds two views: Models, the model browser, and Nodes, the node tree of the current model.

Models

Models lists all .blockymodel files of the workspace, grouped by folder. The header shows the number of models, for example 12 models.

• Folders and files are sorted by name. Numbers in names are sorted by value, so Chair_2 comes before Chair_10.
• A click on a model shows it in the Preview without opening the file. The focus stays in the list, so you can step through all models with the arrow keys.
• While you browse, clicks in the 3D view do not open a text editor. Use Show Source to open the text.
• Clicking or typing in the text of a model makes the preview follow that model again.
• Blocky: Open Model Browser searches the workspace again and moves the focus to the list.

Keeping the list up to date

The workspace is searched once at startup. files.exclude applies. After that, the file watcher adds new models and notices deleted or renamed files and folders. The ↻ button (Refresh Model List) searches again.

Buttons and menus

Where	Entries
Title bar	New Blocky Model… (+), Refresh Model List (↻), Collapse All
… menu of the title bar	Open Blocky Files In…
Model entry, inline	Show Source
Right-click a model	Open Preview to the Side, Edit in 3D Editor, Open in Renderer Only, Show Source
Right-click a folder	New Blocky Model… in that folder

Without an open folder, the view offers Open Folder. Without models in the workspace, it shows a New Blocky Model… button.

Nodes

Nodes shows the node tree of the model in the active tab. That can be a text editor, a Blocky Editor or a Blocky Preview of a .blockymodel file. The header shows the file name.

• Each entry shows the node name and its type: Box, Quad or Group. Hidden shapes are marked hidden and get a closed-eye icon.
• The selection is shared. A click in the list, a click in the 3D view and the cursor in the text all show the same node. A click in the list also selects the node name in the text, if the text is visible.
• While the JSON is broken, the list keeps the last valid state and shows the error with showing the last valid state. An empty file shows The file is still empty.

Editing nodes

All changes are text edits in the model file, the same as in the Blocky Editor. One command is one undo step.

Command	Key (list focused)	What it does
Add Box		Adds an 8 × 8 × 8 box as the last child of the node
Add Quad		Adds an 8 × 8 quad facing +Z as the last child
Add Group		Adds a group (a node without shape) as the last child
Rename	F2	Asks for a new name. The name must not be empty.
Duplicate	Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on macOS)	Copies the node with its children right after itself
Toggle Visibility (eye)		Shows or hides the shape of the node
Delete	Delete (Cmd+Backspace on macOS)	Deletes the node with its children

• Right-click a node for all commands. The eye button sits directly on the entry.
• The title bar has Add Box (+), Add Group and Edit in 3D Editor. The … menu has Add Quad, Open Preview to the Side and Show Source. Collapse All is also in the title bar.
• From the title bar, a new node goes under the selected node, or to the top level if nothing is selected.
• After a change, the new or changed node is selected.

New boxes and quads stand on the level of their parent. Their texture layout starts at the top left corner of the atlas, so they are visible at once. The extension does not search for free space in the atlas. New groups get isPiece: false and an empty texture layout, as in vanilla files.

If the list does not match the text at that moment, for example right after typing, the command is not applied. The list is read again instead.