Blender 2.9 is due to release around the 26th of this month. I've been testing the alpha release of 2.9 for some time now, so here is my rundown of the hottest new features.

1. Blender 2.90, this version update brings a lot of new features. In the new version we find the key features introduced in Blender 2.8, introducing a true advanced 3d sculpting workflow and smarter hard surface modeling, improving the simulation of fluids and fabrics, VR, UV editing and more ( Check out Blender 2.90 release notes for more.
2. New Modeling Features in Blender 2.9 Extrude Manifold is a new tool for extruding faces inwards while deleting overlapping faces and dissolving overlapping vertices. You can’t use it to punch holes straight through objects yet, but its initial implementation is already very useful. Vertex Slide now supports snapping!!!

With the recent release of Blender 2.90 there are now two active versions of the application available for use; the current Blender 2.9+ release and Blender 2.83 LTS (‘LTS’ = Long Term Support). Why is explained in this developer post, but for all intents and purposes the two versions, Blender 2.9+ and Blender 2.83 LTS, are essentially the same with one main exception; Blender 2.83 LTS is ‘feature locked’, it won’t be updated or changed with new tools, features or functionality but will instead receive extended support (two years) to cover core performance, i.e. bug, security and usability fixes, whereas Blender 2.9+, the Foundations active release (at time of writing), essentially continues to follow the normal release schedule (subject to the name change) with the latest features, bells and whistles, being supported only so long as the version is ‘live’.

This change obviously begs the question “which version of Blender should I use?“.

Blender 2.9 New Features

The answer, “use whichever version seems appropriate to the job at hand“.

In other words if stability and support is necessary, to ensure projects don’t break when opened into newer versions resulting in lost time fixing issues that arise, then Blender 2.83 LTS should be used. Whereas if the only interest is in using the latest features and effects to create content, use Blender 2.9+.

Be aware however, that as a direct consequence of the change discussed above instructional materials and information may out of date, incorrect to varying degrees or be completely obsolete more rapidly than with previous versions, or it may be more difficult to determine what sources to use numerically (searching for material that matches the version number).

With that said, to answer the follow-up question “should I/can I learn Blender 2.9+ using tutorials for Blender 2.8+“, then generally speaking “yes”, because the two versions (currently) have little of functional difference between them.

Important: functionally the two versions of Blender that are to be published from this point on will be similar in appearance differing only largely in detail, below for example the Bevel Modifier is shown assigned to a simple object (default Cube) to highlight the differences between the older (top) and newer (bottom) versions, basically organisation rather than feature availability.

Spot the difference between the Bevel Modifier in Blender 2.83 LTS (top) and Blender 2.90 (bottom)…

Blender is very dynamically developed, so new versions of the program appear regularly. However, having downloaded the next release from the Blender website, we always need to configure it in a convenient way.

In order not to manually reset all personal user settings and reinstall all add-ons, we can quickly transfer settings and add-ons from the previous version to the new version of Blender.

1. When we start Blender for the first time, in the splash screen we can press the “Load 2.xx Settings” button.

After that, settings and add-ons from the version indicated on the button will be transferred to the current version of Blender.

2. Or, if we want to control the process of transferring settings ourselves, we can manually copy files with settings and add-ons.

Blender 2.9 New Features 2020

Open the following directory on your computer:

c:Users_user_name_AppDataRoamingBlender FoundationBlender

It will contain a list of directories with the names of the different Blender versions previously installed on your computer.

Make a copy of the folder with the version from which you want to take settings and add-ons and then rename it to the number of the new version of Blender.

When starting, Blender will pick up the settings from the new directory you created.