Note

2.x from 1.x has a big change. Settings exporting from 1.x not working in 2.x. If you want to update to 2.x, you need to rebuild your settings. Sorry about that. If you have a lot of settings in 1.x and are familiar with JSON. You can export a settings file with a few categories and tabs from 2.x, and compare the format with 1.x. Then, move the categories and tabs part to the 2.x settings and import it again. 

What is N Panel Sub Tabs

N Panel Sub Tabs is a Blender add-on to manage the Blender sidebar(also known as N Panel). It introduces the concept of Sub Tabs. It can make your N Panel clean and organized, even if you have hundreds of add-ons. As we know, the Blender sidebar becomes more and more crowded as the number of add-ons increases, making it difficult to access the corresponding add-ons. I thought about categorizing and adding Sub Tabs on the top of each category. I searched for such add-ons on the market. Unfortunately not found, but found Simple Tabs. It doesn't have Sub Tabs on each category but it does have categorizing. So I introduced the Sub Tabs, and implemented an easy and organized management setting UI, and referenced to the categorizing of Simple Tabs, and finally implemented this add-on. Thanks for the Simple Tabs.

Quickly switch sub tabs

In the Sub Tabs Panel(also called Title Panel), you can switch your tabs quickly. You can put similar tabs into a category. For example, put rig-related tabs into a category, and put material-related tabs into another category. You can also put some workflow-related tabs into a category. It's up to you. A tab can be placed in multiple categories, but it will only be shown in the last category that enabled it. From version 1.1.0, you can enable multiple tabs in one category by holding the Shift key. See the Doc for details.

Enable Multiple Tabs

You can enable multiple tabs by holding the Shift key. It's helpful when you need to show panels from different add-ons at the same time and don't want to switch frequently.

Multiple Settings

In version 2.0 and later, you can create different settings for different workflows or workspaces. It's helpful when you only want the related tabs in your workflow or workspace. You can switch them manually or let the add-on auto-pick up a matching one according to the matching expression you set when switching workspaces.

Quickly Get Your Settings Up

In version 2.0 and later, you can hide the left tabs that are not in any category. You can create multiple categories at once by separating their names with commas, and you can also add multiple tabs to a category at one time. These features let you quickly get your settings up.

Easy and organized setting UI

After installing and enabling this add-on, the categories settings can be found here. 

In settings Panel, you can manage categories and tabs, and apply settings etc. For example, categories management: add/remove/rename category, reorder categories, fold/unfold all categories, fold/unfold a single category. Tabs management: add/remove tab, reorder tabs. After you change the categories settings, remember to click the Apply button to update the sidebar (or check the auto apply option).

Add-on preferences

You can change some add-on preferences in here. For example, Max Tabs Each Row can decide the max number of the tabs each row showing in the Sub Tabs Panel(you can also call it Title Panel). You can decide auto/manually apply categories settings on Blender startup by checking/unchecking the Auto Apply On Startup option. If you choose auto-apply, there are some things to note. For details, see the FAQ. 

About the Blender N Panel

Blender N Panel is also called Blender sidebar. It only means the right sidebar, not including the left sidebar (Toolbar) and the Header bar.

In Blender, add-on not equal to the N Panel tab, and the tab name is often different from the add-on name. Although most of the add-ons have an N Panel tab, there are still a lot of add-ons that do not have an N Panel tab. Some add-ons may have more than one N Panel tab. And one N Panel tab can contain panels from different add-ons. The relationship between the add-on and the N Panel tab is not 1 to 1, but n to n. That means one add-on can have multiple N Panel tabs, and one N Panel tab can contain multiple add-ons' panels.

This add-on only manages the N Panel tabs where most creators like to put their panels. It is only about N Panel tabs.

Limitations

• You can‘t use this add-on alongside another N Panel management add-on. This may lead to chaos. Generally, you can only use one of this kind of add-ons to manage your N panel.
• This add-on only works on the N panels of 3 Editor Types: VIEW_3D, IMAGE_EDITOR, NODE_EDITOR. Each type include one or multiple editor. VIEW_3D: only includes 3D Viewport; IMAGE_EDITOR: includes Image Editor and UV Editor;  NODE_EDITOR: includes Composister, Texture Node Editor, Geometry Node Editor, and Shader Editor.
• A few add-ons may have their own styled way to manage their N panels. This may cause them to be incompatible with this add-on. In order to use this add-on and them at the same time, you need to put their related tabs in Exclude Tabs to exclude management on them. Also, you can contact us or the authors of those add-ons to see if they can be adjusted to be compatible.

Demo Video

Contact

If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to contact us via the BlenderMarket's 'Ask a Question' button. Thanks, Enjoy it!

The homepage was provided by a customer of this add-on, Jeroen. Thanks for his design.  https://www.yaroonscartoons.com/