Download – Page 3 – blender base camp

We have all been to that place of frustration, staring at our screen and in the middle of it an error message telling us that our favorite software has once again failed to load. But why is this happening when we have not even started using it yet? The primary reason why Blender may fail to open is due to corruption occurring during the installation process when you acquire Blender. This is most common when you download a nonstable version of the software, or you have acquired it from a third-party source. The solution to this is fairly straightforward but there are a couple of over reasons as to why your version of Blender may continually fail to open. Reasons As To Why Blender Does Not Load We will now break down the main culprits for our software not being able to successfully load. If the build of Blender was not downloaded from the Blender website then there is a chance that the specific build that you download may not be legitimate. When using graphics cards with Blender the graphics card driver can be a potential barrier to opening Blender if it is not up to date. Your computer may have firewalls set up so that it considers Blender to be a form of malware and does not allow you to open it without administrative permission. The hardware does not fall within the excepted minimum requirements to run 3D applications and creates an error message in the command prompt window instead. These are the main reasons why your version may not be able to load on your computer and they are all fairly technical, but the solutions are straightforward. Making Sure That You Download A Safe Version Of Blender It is perhaps most important that you can always trust where you download any software from. For Blender, this is even more important of a consideration. Blender is what is known as open-source software, which means that it is free to download and use for any legal purpose, from animation to game design, whether that be as a hobby or for commercial use. You also have access to the code that is used to compile Blender and make changes as you see fit to your downloaded version. You can even go one step further and create your own version of the software and are allowed to redistribute the software under the terms of the General Public License. The one thing that you cannot do though is reselling the software itself for any financial gain, it must be accessible for free to all users, forever. Even the original version of Blender cannot be sold by law. What this freedom does allow is for anyone to create a version of Blender in their own image, and this can potentially mean the addition of malware to the software. There are three locations that are generally considered safe for downloading Blender. The Microsoft Store is one place where you can download the software but be warned that I have still experienced issues with Blender closing for no reason when using a version downloaded from the Microsoft store. The second location is the Steam library. If you do not know what steam is it is like a virtual console store/library for video games, but you can also find some creative applications like Blender on there as well. Downloading from here is more reliable but sometimes it takes a while for them to switch to the most recent version. So you may be downloading an older version instead. The third location is the Blender website itself, blender.org, and is by far the best place to download Blender. You can download the latest version in just a couple of clicks and you can even go into the builds sections of the website and either access experimental versions or even previous versions from the Blender index. Blender Main Download Page In short, we recommend always downloading the most up-to-date version directly from the Blender website to ensure that the software is always safe to use. The Recommended Minimum Specs For Running Blender Another consideration for why you may be unable to open up Blender is the hardware that you are using. In most cases, this is normally a nonissue as the minimum requirements are very low to use Blender at a basic level, provided that you are not looking to do high poly sculpting or use ultra-high-resolution textures. Examples, where devices may not be able to run Blender, include smaller laptops like Chromebooks or very old computers. Steam is a great place to check out the system requirements for Blender as like the many games in the steam library it will show you what the minimum specs are for the software and what the required specs are. You can also check out the requirements for the latest version of Blender by going to blender.org/download/requirements/ Blender Requirements Page It could be that the problem does not even lie with the power of the hardware, but with the software. Blender needs to be optimized to work on different operating systems and can be used with Linux, Mac, or Windows, but not with every version of each. For example, Blender will likely not work on your device if you are using windows vista as your operating system. There is a workaround, if you are using an older operating system then an older version of Blender will be compatible. For example, while Blender version 3.0 cannot be used with windows vista, Blender version 2.76 can be used. It should be noted that Blender does not require a GPU to run even though it says so under the minimum specs. Some tasks though require the power of a dedicated unit and so a GPU is highly recommended for optimal use of the software. Updating Your Driver For The GPU While it is not a requirement for users to even have a GPU to use Blender, you will need to ensure that the driver of the graphics card is up to date. A driver is a software patch that optimizes a graphics card for certain tasks, like specific video games or compatibility with applications. You can download the latest driver for your GPU from the website of the GPU manufacturer. This will be either Nvidia or AMD depending on your configuration. Nvidia Website Download Driver An incompatible driver is more likely to cause an error when trying to open Blender than not having powerful enough hardware, but at the same time is much easier to correct, as your driver can be updated from the manufacturer's website much like your favorite games can be updated on your console. Windows Blocking Use Of Blender Using Firewalls Your PC will do everything that it can to protect you and your data, and if it comes across an application that it does not trust it will block the application from starting up. You will get a pop-up window with Windows telling you that it blocked opening Blender but in this window, it gives you the option to run anyway with the button at the bottom. In the case that Blender is still blocked by Windows, then you can bypass windows and open the application by first locating the blender.exe file, right-click the file, and select Properties; in the blender.exe Properties dialogue that appears, go to the General tab and under Attributes an unblock checkbox should be available, check this and click Apply; close Properties and run Blender. Unblock Software In Properties What To Do If Blender Continues To Crash When Opening So you have tried everything and run through all of the troubleshooting steps for why your version of Blender is still crashing. When all else fails you have two options available to you. The first option is to perform a full systems check on your device, making sure that there is no malware or anything that may prevent you from opening applications. On windows, you can perform a full security check which can take up to 30 minutes to complete. The second method is to delete Blender from your device and either redownload the same version or try out a different version. We recommend downloading directly from the Blender website the most recent stable version of the software as there is no real reason to go anywhere else. Fortunately, there are no restrictions at all when it comes to using Blender and you can download as many versions of the software as you want from the website. No subscriptions or product keys to get in your way either. Thanks For Reading The Article We appreciate you taking the time to read through the article, and we hope that you found the content useful. Take a look at a few other articles that you can check out... Downloading The Latest Version Of Blender How To Access The Experimental Versions Of Blender? Is Blender Safe To Download? Will Blender Always Be Free Software? Improve Your Workflow In Blender By Learning Blender Shortcuts