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Preview .blend and .dae files by setting up Blender

The app previews most 3D formats on its own: glTF (.gltf, .glb), FBX, OBJ, STL and PLY. Blender’s own .blend files and COLLADA .dae files are different: to show them, the app has Blender convert each one to glTF in the background. In this tutorial you check that the app finds Blender, tell it where Blender is if it doesn’t, and look at a .blend model in the inspector.

You need:

  • Blender, installed from blender.org/download (free). Any recent version opens .blend files. For .dae files you need Blender 4.5 or earlier: Blender 5 can no longer import COLLADA (see Troubleshooting).
  • A .blend or .dae file in your library. The screenshots use lantern.blend, a small model in the “Low Poly Props” folder.

Time: about five minutes, plus the Blender download.

1. Check what the app found

Section titled “1. Check what the app found”

Open Settings (the gear at the top right) and click External tools. With Blender path left empty (“Auto-detect (leave blank)”), the app looks in two places:

  • /Applications/Blender.app on macOS,
  • a blender command on your PATH, on every system.

The line under the field says what it found. A green “Found Blender 5.1.2 at /Applications/Blender.app.” means you’re done; go to step 3. It runs blender --version to check, so it can take a moment (“Checking for Blender…”).

Settings on the External tools tab: Blender path empty, and the green status line “Found Blender 5.1.2 at /Applications/Blender.app.”

If it says “Blender wasn’t found. It’s only needed to preview .blend and .dae models.”, continue with step 2. That’s normal on Windows, where the Blender installer doesn’t add Blender to the PATH, and on Linux when you unpacked Blender’s download instead of installing a package.

2. Tell the app where Blender is

Section titled “2. Tell the app where Blender is”

Type the path to the Blender program in Blender path and press Enter (or click elsewhere), or click Browse… and pick it in the Locate the Blender executable window. Point it at the program itself, not at its folder:

System Typical path
macOS /Applications/Blender.app/Contents/MacOS/Blender
Windows C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 4.5\blender.exe (the version number is part of the folder name)
Linux The blender file in the folder you unpacked, for example ~/blender-4.5.3-linux-x64/blender

The status line checks the path straight away. “Using Blender 5.1.2 at /Applications/Blender.app.” means it works.

Settings on the External tools tab with the Blender path set to /Applications/Blender.app/Contents/MacOS/Blender and the green status line “Using Blender 5.1.2 at /Applications/Blender.app.”

If the path doesn’t work, the line turns red: “No working Blender at that path. Check it points at the Blender executable.” When another Blender was auto-detected, it says so and uses that one instead (“… Using the auto-detected Blender … instead.”). Clear the field to go back to auto-detect. Your choice is saved with the app’s settings.

3. Preview a .blend model

Section titled “3. Preview a .blend model”

Close Settings and click a .blend or .dae model in the grid (filter by Model 3D under Types to find them). The first time, the inspector’s preview says Converting BLEND… (or Converting DAE…) while Blender works in the background, without opening a window. This takes a few seconds, mostly Blender starting up. Then the model appears:

The inspector showing lantern.blend in 3D, with the Fly, Wire and Reset controls under the preview, a MODEL 3D badge and the .blend extension.

It works like any other model: drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, Fly for free-look, Wire for wireframe and Reset to put the camera back. Quick Look (Space) shows it too, and the grid thumbnail fills in once the file is converted. The Vertices and Triangles tiles that other models get under the name don’t appear for .blend and .dae files.

What gets converted, and where it’s kept

Section titled “What gets converted, and where it’s kept”
  • Only .blend and .dae files need Blender. FBX files are read by the app itself; Blender is only tried for an FBX the app can’t read.
  • Each file is converted once. The result, a .glb file, goes in cache/converted/ in the app’s data folder, so the preview is instant next time, even after a restart.
  • A file is converted again when it changes on disk or moves to another path.
  • Blender runs at most two conversions at a time. Thumbnails wait their turn; the model you’re looking at in the inspector or Quick Look goes first.
  • If a model’s textures aren’t where the file says they are (common in packs made on someone else’s computer), the conversion looks for images with similar names next to the model and in nearby folders called textures, texture, maps or tex.
  • You can delete cache/converted/ to free space. Files are converted again when you next look at them.

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”
What you see What to do
“No preview for .blend — set a Blender path in Settings” The app has no working Blender. Do steps 1 and 2.
“Can’t preview this DAE.” followed by “Calling operator “bpy.ops.wm.collada_import” error, could not be found.” Your Blender is version 5 or later, which can’t import .dae files. Install Blender 4.5 LTS from blender.org/download/lts (it can sit next to your current Blender) and set Blender path to it.
“Can’t preview this BLEND.” (or DAE) followed by another reason, or “Blender couldn’t convert it.” Blender couldn’t open or export the file. Open it in Blender to see what’s wrong. The app doesn’t retry a failed file until it changes on disk, you change Blender path, or you restart the app.
“Can’t preview this FBX. It’s an ASCII FBX file, which Blender can’t import. Re-export it as binary FBX.” Re-export the model as binary FBX (or glTF) in the tool that made it.
“Converted this BLEND, but the result couldn’t be loaded.” Blender produced a file the app can’t read. Delete cache/converted/ and look at the model again; if it keeps happening, export it to glTF from Blender yourself.
The model shows, but without its textures The textures it refers to aren’t on disk under a similar name near the model. Put them in a textures folder next to it, then touch or re-save the model so it’s converted again.
It stays on “Converting…” for a long time Large files take a while, and thumbnails for many .blend files queue up. Give it a minute; the model you’re looking at is converted first.

More fixes are on the Troubleshooting page.

What you did

Section titled “What you did”

You checked that the app finds Blender, set its path where needed, and previewed a .blend model. You know where converted models are cached and what to do when a conversion fails.

For more detail: