Using Blender 3D - uesful shortcut keys

Resources

The following is a list of useful keyboard shortcut keys, commands and features that you'll find handy when using Blender 3D to model content for use in either Blenders own 'Blender Game Engine' or external third party game engines; it's worth getting to know as they'll allow you to get the most out of Blender 3D when game modelling.

Keyboard shortcuts to know and use ^

Blender 3D does have a complex interface because it can do quite a lot of other things besides modelling. Most of 'actions' needed for polygon modelling can be accessed via the press of a button or 'shortcut' - during the videos you'll see a number of things happen without accessing 'menu's', these will be functions activated by using shortcut keys; 'A' for example selects/deselects items on screen. The list below are the common Blender 3D shortcuts used when modelling;

  • G = MOVE
    G then 'X', 'Y' or 'Z' = MOVE along specific axis only.

  • S = RESIZE
    S then 'X', 'Y' or 'Z' = RESIZE along specific axis only.

  • R = ROTATE
    R then 'X', 'Y' or 'Z' = ROTATE along specific axis only.

  • B = BORDER/Loop SELECT
    Pressing 'B' once activates the 'grid' border select tool. Pressing again activates the selector 'brush' that allows 'paintselecting' objects. Useful for selecting multiple faces or vertices in edit mode.

    Alt+B = Loop Select 'Cut/Show'
    Using Alt+B toggles on/off the loop 'cut' feature whereby Blender will show only the areas of a scene or object inside the selection loop drawn on screen. Alt+B toggles this feature on/off so the rest of the scene is unhidden when the shortcut is used again.

  • X = DELETE
    Displays the delete 'options' pop up.

  • M = LAYERS
    Displays the 'move to layer' pop up - selected object will be moved to the selected layer. Displays current layer as selected on opening.

  • NumPad 1, 3, 7 and 5
    Viewport control; 'front', 'side', 'top' and 'perspective' respectively. Pressing any of these will put the viewport the mouse has control over (the mouse is placed over) into 'orthogonal' or 'perspective' mode.

  • F = UVW mode

  • TAB = EDIT mode

  • V = VERTEX PAINT mode

  • A = SELECT/DESELECT
    Mode sensitive - will select/deselect items based on which mode you're in.

  • E = EXTRUDE
    Mode sensitive - will extrude polygons, vertices or edges either individually (so the create their own 'children', or as a group.

  • U = UVWunwrap
    UVWmode only.

  • Ctrl+R = LOOPCUT
    Cuts a 'loop' - a line that follows the contours of a model.

  • Ctrl+TAB = FACE SELECT TYPE - Edit mode
    In edit mode allows the selecting of faces by polygon, edge or vertex 'groups'. Allows working on a mesh in different modes, facilitating slightly different working methods.

  • Middle Mouse Button (MMB)

    MMB Click Hold
    By default moves the viewport the mouse has control over based on mouse position. Can be altered to use different rotation focus points.

    MMB Scroll Up/Down
    Zooms the viewport forwards/backwards.

    MMB+Shift
    'Translates' the viewport, moves view left/right and up/down.

    MMB+Ctrl
    Zooms viewport. Uses a finer distance control than scrolling MMB.

  • Left Mouse Button (LMB)

    LMB Click
    'Sets' an action. After moving or doing something LMB Click is used to 'set' the action in place. For example, a moved object stays placed relative to it's position when you click the left mouse button during a 'move' action.

  • Right Mouse Button (RMB)

    RMB Click
    Selects object or item.

    RMB+Shift
    Selects multiple objects or items.

Where is Blenders 'scripts' folder in Vista? ^

It depends how you installed Blender. There's a screen during Blenders set-up that asks where you want to save 'user' data, in newer version of Blender a folder is actually created in the computer users 'user profile', which used to be part of "Documents and Settings" in Windows XP, instead of Program Files". Its now been shifted to a folder called "Users" in Windows Vista.

IMPORTANT NOTE : you will likely need to enable 'Hidden Files and Folders' in order to do the following as these locations are regarded by Windows Vista as being 'protected' so are hidden and protected for being tampered with.

To do this open up Windows Explorer and from the "Organize" menu select "Folder and Search Options". In the pop-up that opens, click the "View" tab, find and then uncheck "Show Hidden files and folders" as well as "Hide protected operating system files".

If you're using a shared computer remember to re-enable those options to prevent errant fiddling.

So, Blender will create and put the illusive "scripts" folder in the following location when being installed using the default settings;

C:\Users\[profile name]\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts

If it's not there, try looking for the following;

C:\ProgramData\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts

If the scripts folder still can't be found use Windows Vista search [Window key + F] to look for any "Blender Foundation" folders as "scripts" is usually a sub-folder within there.