Cycle Data

The Cycle Data tool is a powerful feature for rapid iteration and asset swapping. It allows you to replace an object’s underlying Object Data (like its mesh or curve geometry) with another data-block of the same type available in your Blender file.

Think of it as quickly trying on different versions of an asset without ever moving the object itself. The object’s location, rotation, scale, and even its modifiers are all preserved; only its core data is swapped.

How It Works

When you click Next, Prev, or Random, the tool collects all data-blocks of the same type as the selected object(s) from your .blend file, sorts them alphabetically, applies any active Filter, and swaps each object’s data to the chosen entry. Each selected object cycles independently within its own type.

The Next/Prev cycle behavior depends on the filter mode (see Filter Modes below).

Animation: Cycle Data

Cycling through object data on one or more objects.

How to Use

The basic workflow:

1. Select one or more objects you wish to change (the tool also works on children if enabled).

2. Optionally enable Filter and enter a filter pattern to narrow your choices.

3. Click Next, Prev, or Random to change the data.

You can select multiple objects at once, even of different types. Each object will cycle independently within its own category and respects the Include Children setting.

Settings and Controls

Include Children

When enabled (default: on), the cycle operation also applies to all children of selected objects, recursively walking the entire hierarchy. When disabled, only the directly selected objects are affected.

Example: Select a rig root and click Next — the tool cycles data for the root and every bone/child object in the hierarchy.

Filter Toggle

Enables or disables the filter field. When off, the tool cycles through every data-block of the same type. When on, the filter narrows the candidates.

Filter Field

A text pattern that narrows which data-blocks are available to cycle through. Supports plain substring matching or group-based cycling using %. See Filter Modes below for details.

Filter Modes

The filter works in two distinct modes depending on whether you use the special % character.

Plain Text Mode (No %)

Type any text to filter by substring matching. The filter is case-insensitive and matches any data-block whose name contains your text.

• Candidate pool: all blocks matching the substring

• Cycle behavior: Wraps around — clicking Next on the last block cycles back to the first

Examples:

• Filter: LOD matches all blocks named Cube_LOD0, Cylinder_LOD2, Tree_LOD1, etc. All three objects cycle through the entire shared pool.

• Filter: Rock matches Rock_001, Rock_002, My_Rock, etc.

• Filter: v2 matches Char_v2, Prop_v2, Asset_v2 — all data containing the substring.

Group Mode (With %)

Use % as a placeholder to define separate cycling groups per object. Each object cycles within its own group based on the part of the name that varies.

• % marks the variable part of the naming pattern

• Each object groups candidates based on its current data name

• Cycle behavior: Clamps at both ends — clicking Prev at the first option stays there (doesn’t wrap)

This is ideal for Levels of Detail (LODs) or versioned assets where each base object should have its own set of variants.

Examples:

Pattern: ``_LOD%``

Suppose you have:

• Cube using CubeMesh_LOD0

• Cylinder using CylinderMesh_LOD0

• Available blocks: CubeMesh_LOD0, CubeMesh_LOD1, CubeMesh_LOD2, CylinderMesh_LOD0, CylinderMesh_LOD1, CylinderMesh_LOD2

When you click Next on Cube:

• It cycles through only CubeMesh_LOD0 → LOD1 → LOD2

• It does NOT cycle to CylinderMesh_* (separate group)

• Clicking Prev on LOD0 stays at LOD0 (clamping, no wrap)

Pattern: ``_v%``

Blocks named Prop_v1, Prop_v2, Prop_v3, Asset_v1, Asset_v2:

• Prop objects cycle through v1 → v2 → v3

• Asset objects cycle through v1 → v2

• Each object stays within its own version group

Filter Examples

Auditioning a single variant type:

Filter: _LOD0 → cycle through only LOD0 meshes across your scene. Useful for checking low-poly coverage.

Browsing versions of one asset:

Filter: Prop_ → cycle through all versions of Prop_* blocks. Other assets are excluded.

Random button with filtering:

Select ten objects, set filter to Rock_, and click Random → each object gets a random rock variant. The Random button respects both plain text and group mode filters, and avoids assigning an object its current data-block.

Animation: Filter

Using a filter to limit the range of cycled objects.

Example Workflows

Auditioning Assets

This tool is invaluable for tasks like set dressing. If you have a Tree_Placeholder object, you can select it and click Next repeatedly to cycle through all available tree models (Tree_Oak, Tree_Pine, etc.) to see which one fits best in your scene.

Animation: Auditioning assets

Auditioning trees and rocks and using the randomize and filter functionality.

Swapping Levels of Detail (LODs)

This tool is also ideal for managing LODs. If your assets are named alphabetically (e.g., MyAsset_LOD0, MyAsset_LOD1), you can select all _LOD0 instances and click Next to switch them all to _LOD1 instantly. You can also use the Filter field: typing LOD2 and clicking Next will jump all selected objects directly to their _LOD2 version.