by Sergey Tyapkin·Workflow
Images © Sergey Tyapkin. Used for product review; image policy.
Earns its place in the superhive library for packing a broad set of UV tasks — unwrapping, stacking, trimsheets and texel density — into a single Blender add-on.
Zen UV is an add-on for creating and editing UVs in Blender, bringing unwrapping, transforming and display tools together in one add-on. Zen Unwrap handles context-sensitive unwrapping with control over seams and sharp edges, while Zen Relax offers an unwrapping algorithm for organic models. The Zen Gizmo lets you move, rotate, scale, fit, align and flip UV islands in both the 3D View and the UV Editor.
Beyond unwrapping, the toolset includes a Stack System for stacking and unstacking similar and non-similar islands, a Trimsheet System with Hotspot Mapping that matches islands by area, aspect, world size and tags, and Quadrify for straightening quad-based islands and faces. World Orient rotates islands by the model's position in world space, and tools for Randomize, Symmetrize, texel density, checker textures and UDIM tiles fill out the workflow.
Zen UV ranks among the more popular add-ons in the superhive library. Its Stack algorithm relies on the free Core Library, and installation and update instructions for both are provided on the developer's page.
Zen Uv is best for blender artists handling UV unwrapping, layout, stacking and texel density work across models.
Zen Uv is completely free to download and use.
Zen UV uses a separate Core Library, listed as free, which is responsible for the fast work of its Stack algorithm. Installation and update instructions for both the add-on and the Core Library are available on the developer's page. If you rely on stacking similar or non-similar UV islands, the Core Library is the component that handles that part of the workflow, so it is worth setting up alongside the main add-on.
Zen UV is listed as free here in the catalog, and its Stack algorithm depends on a Core Library that is also provided free. Licensing and availability can change, so the developer's page is the best place to confirm current terms before you download. That page also carries documentation, a support forum and installation instructions for both the add-on and the Core Library.
Zen UV includes the Zen Gizmo, a control for moving, rotating, scaling, fitting, aligning and flipping UV islands. It works in both the 3D View and the UV Editor. Alongside it, the Transform System covers move, rotate, scale, flip, fit, orient, sort and align operations on UV islands and vertices, giving you more than one way to reposition and adjust your layout.
Zen UV provides UDIM tools for creating and managing UDIM tiles. It also handles texel density in scene and world sizes, applies checker textures of different types, sizes and formats, and can display overlapped, stacked, flipped and stretched islands in the 3D View and UV Editor. These features cover layout checking and multi-tile texture work alongside the core unwrapping tools in the same add-on.
Also in Workflow for Blender.
by Mesh Online
Better Fbx Importer & Exporter adds FBX handling to Blender using the official FBX SDK. It imports FBX, DAE, OBJ, DXF and 3DS files, exports FBX, DAE, OBJ and DXF files, and is compatible with all FBX versions.
by NRGSille
Import Autodesk MAX (.max) is a Blender add-on for bringing meshes, materials and texture coordinates from Autodesk 3DSMax (.max) files into Blender. It sits under File → Import and covers a broad list of material types.
by antoniov
MeasureIt is a Blender add-on by antoniov that provides tools for measuring objects. It lives in the 3D View sidebar under the View tab and works with Blender 5.0 and newer.
by Community
Copy Attributes Menu adds attribute-copying operators to Blender, accessible in the 3D viewport via Ctrl-C. Originally a bundled add-on in Blender 4.1, it now covers Blender 4.2 LTS and newer.
by Leonardo-Pike-Excell
Node Arrange is a Blender add-on that automatically lays out node trees with one click. Regardless of node tree complexity, nodes are arranged, organised, and aligned, with adjustable settings.
by Salt Media
BlenderAe2 by Salt Media transfers 3D data and objects between Blender and After Effects in both directions, covering vertices, 3D layer transforms, camera data and layer synchronization.
by MACHIN3
Machin3Tools is a continuously evolving collection of tools and pie menus for Blender, gathered in a single customizable package. It ships in two base variants, Prime and DeusEx, with the DeusEx variant adding more advanced tools.
by MikhailRachinskiy
3D Print Toolbox is a Blender add-on with utilities for 3D printing. It analyzes mesh volume and surface area, checks and fixes geometry, hollows shapes, aligns models to the print bed, and exports to STL, PLY, and OBJ.
by glukoz
UVPackmaster 4 is a UV packing engine for Blender that packs UV maps on the CPU and GPU, using the Cuda and Vulkan APIs, and can run on the CPU and all system GPUs at once.
by MMD
MMD Tools is a Blender add-on for editing MikuMikuDance (MMD) models. It handles importing and exporting model, motion and pose data, along with chopping and joining parts, plus rigid body, material and motion editing.
by HaughtyGrayAlien
SimpleBake brings PBR and traditional texture baking to Blender from a single panel. Select objects, choose maps, and bake — no special node groups or new workflow, working with whatever materials you've already built.
