The add-on panel

Every section of the sidebar panel, top to bottom, and what each control does.

3D viewport, press N, tab blender.farm. The panel changes shape depending on what is going on, this is the full set.

Account

Your email and current credit balance. The balance refreshes when you connect and after a job. To disconnect, go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > blender.farm Render, the same place you connected from.

The four steps

Setup is split into the same four numbered steps as the browser, in the same order: 1 Scene, 2 Files, 3 Add-ons, 4 Render. Click a number to jump, or use the arrows at the bottom. Nothing is locked behind a wizard, and the launch button on step 4 does its own checking.

The line under the tabs names the step you are on and links to the page explaining it. Anything needing attention on another step, such as a file that could not be found, shows as a red row you can click to jump straight there.

Step 1: Scene

The saved .blend's name and size, then one block per scene in the file. A single-scene file just shows its settings. See Rendering several scenes for what a multi-scene job does.

The tickboxmulti-scene only

Whether this scene is part of the job. Only the scene the file opens on is ticked to start with, so uploading a multi-scene file never quietly costs several renders. All / None / Just the first are above the list.

Engine

Read from the scene. Cycles and EEVEE are supported.

Frames (Start / End)editable

Seeded from that scene's own frame range and re-synced every time you open a file. Type your own values to render a subset. The frame count is shown underneath, and the file's own range appears below it once you change anything.

Resolutioneditable

A percentage of the scene's resolution, so you can render a half-size test without editing the file. The resulting pixel size is shown underneath.

Samples

Cycles samples, or EEVEE render samples. Informational; change it in Blender's render properties.

Outputeditable

What this scene comes back as. Defaults to Same as the .blend, which follows the file's own output settings however you change them later. Pick a format to override it for this job only. See Output format.

Reset to the file

Appears only once something differs from the file, and puts that scene's range, resolution and format back.

Step 2: Files

Scan asks Blender for every external file the render needs. Found files are ticked with their size; sequences collapse to one line with a pattern and file count.

On a file with several scenes the list is grouped by which scene needs what, and a file used by more than one gets its own group. Files only a scene you did not tick uses are counted separately as skipped, and are never uploaded. Tick that scene in step 1 to bring them back.

Anything missing is shown in red with a Locate button. Point it at the real file (or, for volume and cache entries, the folder), and the relocation is remembered across re-scans so the upload uses your corrected path.

Step 3: Add-ons and colour

Every non-built-in add-on you have enabled, each with a checkbox and all of them ticked by default, plus All / None. Ticked add-ons are zipped and installed on the render machine so the scene renders the way it does locally. Untick the ones the render does not need to keep uploads small.

Underneath, which OCIO config the scene is using. On Blender's bundled config there is nothing to do. On a custom config, the file name is shown along with a default-on Upload OCIO config checkbox, so matching colours needs no action, only an opt-out.

Step 4: Render

Files

How many files and how many bytes the job will send, updated after a scan, with any skipped by your scene selection counted separately.

Scenes and Frames

How many scenes are ticked and the total frame count across all of them. With more than one scene ticked, each is listed with its range and format.

Skip re-uploading unchanged fileson by default

Fingerprints each file and reuses anything you have uploaded before, from either the add-on or the browser. See Step 4: Upload and launch.

The launch button stays disabled until the file is saved, at least one scene is ticked, and the total frame count is inside the per-job limit. The reason is printed just above it.

Preferences

Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > blender.farm Render holds the connection state and the API URL. The API URL only needs changing if you are pointed at a non-production dashboard.