PanelPilot

PanelPilot is a small, focused Blender extension that lets you jump between the tabs of the 3D Viewport sidebar (N-panel) with custom keyboard shortcuts.

Assign a keyboard shortcut to your favorite sidebar tabs and reach them in one keystroke.

It is built for users who spend a lot of time moving between Item, Tool, View, Edit, and addon-specific tabs and want a faster, mouse-free way to switch between them.

What PanelPilot does

• Binds keyboard shortcuts to specific N-panel tabs in the 3D Viewport.

• Opens the sidebar automatically if it is hidden when a shortcut fires.

• Lets you rebind every shortcut directly from the addon preferences using a click-and-press capture.

• Resets any row to its factory default with a single click.

• Saves and applies every change instantly.

Default shortcuts

Shortcut	Tab
Alt + NUMPAD_1	Tool
Alt + NUMPAD_2	View
Alt + NUMPAD_3	Edit
Alt + NUMPAD_4	Animation
Alt + NUMPAD_5	Mesh

Alt + Numpad 1-9 was chosen because it has zero conflicts with Blender’s default keymap across 3D View, Object Mode, Mesh, Curve, Armature, Sculpt and Pose.

Documentation

Contents

• Installation
  • Requirements
  • Install the extension
  • Confirm it is active
  • Update the addon
• Usage
  • Trigger a shortcut
  • What happens if the tab does not exist
  • Adding a new shortcut
  • Removing a shortcut
  • Resetting a row
  • Where it works
• Preferences
  • The default state
  • Shortcut list
  • Customized list and modified rows
  • Rebinding a shortcut
  • Adding and removing rows
  • Auto-apply
  • Tips shown inline
• FAQ
  • Why Alt + Numpad and not Alt + 1, 2, 3?
  • Can I rebind the shortcuts to non-numpad keys?
  • Can I reorder the tabs in the sidebar?
  • The shortcut fires but the tab does not change. Why?
  • Does PanelPilot work in the Image Editor or Node Editor?
  • Does it conflict with my other addons?
  • Are my custom shortcuts saved across Blender sessions?
  • Where is the source code?
• Changelog
  • 1.0.0