How to switch among mesh select modes only by one key?

Support Basics & Interface
1

I was recently asked by some friends who are going to turn to Blender from Lightwave. He asked me if there is any way to switch among the three mesh select modes (ie. Vertex, Edge, Face) just by one key, just like what Lightwave does (by pressing spacebar in turn). It would be like this: Supposed we are in Vertex select mode, now press Spacebar once, the Select mode is changed to Edge; then pressing spacebar one more time, it will immediately switch to Face select mode; one more press will bring it to Vertex mode again, which just switch in cycle.

Ps: Of course they’ve already knew the Ctrl+Tab way to do this, and spacebar is already used for searching. However, I’m also quite interested in this feature.

So far, I can only manage to set three different keys for each mode via Key map configuration panel, but still wanna finding a way to meet their needs. So anyone got any solution? Quite appreciate. :slight_smile:

2

Never mind, I did not read your question fully. Sorry.

3

I’d better explain in a much shorter way:

Is there any way to switch among all three selection modes (for vertex, edge and face) just by a single key, instead of Ctrl + Tab? In Lightwave, The selection mode is changed in turn after each press, say, the spacebar.

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words :stuck_out_tongue:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q5md79cHLj0/T4QfXvf4P8I/AAAAAAAAC-Q/aMADEVpcK4I/s361/switch_by_spacebar_illustration.gif

4

Control-Tab, or you can re-bind the key to whatever you want in the user-preferences panel.

You might have to re-assign space first, before you can assign it elsewhere. It is in the preference settings under input

5

you can use all them at same time. Shift-select them all and try it

6

After all these replies I’ll just be blunt and say no, that’s not possible (yet). However, it should be rather easy to write a python script that does it and then assign that script to the space bar.
But personally, I’d advise you to just learn how to use the default blender. Coming from maya, I had to go through similar times and I asure you blender’s hotkeys really are ingenious, once you get to know them (which takes 2 or 3 years :D)

7

Thanks guys for the kind suggestion. :evilgrin: Probably it’s my turn to share my opinions on this issue:

@Jojoe: Yeah, we can do this, as I said, I’ve mananged to make similar way working. Basically, It should be very easy:

Step1 - Press Ctrl Tab in Edit mode, then right click on any one of the three items popping up, let’s just set for the first one, i.e. Vertex;

Step2 - Move the mouse cursor on the “Press a key” field, and keep it hovering there until you finish specifying a key to it (better not conflict with existing ones);

Step3 - go to User Preference > Input, unfold “Window”, you’ll see what you’ve add down the bottom. like below:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-rQ15OPdJmDY/T4UJUFvOMoI/AAAAAAAAC-s/2TEIt4BJyKU/s659/1.jpg
PS: for me, I would suggest using “Q” and its combination keys, since it appears available for current use. (despite of the possible confliction with some addons)

Step4 - Click Add new, copy everything above, or type “wm.context_set_value”, then hit Enter, which will bring new fields, type or copy “tool_settings.mesh_select_mode” for Context Attributes. As for the Value, we change it to (False, True, False), in order to set for Edge. And I would use Shift Q for it.

Step5 - Add a context for Face, following Step4, but change the value to (False, False, True), and assign Alt Q for it.

Now it’s done:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-bLChH73wP18/T4UJUfPHRXI/AAAAAAAAC-w/C4r_otzMuzw/s546/2.jpg
AS I tested, it is confortable for use. :slight_smile:

@ Marksto, Yes, certainly we will need that sometimes. And if needed, keys can also be specified in the same way, Considering that there would be totally 4 more different selection conbinations, so I think the key settings below would be reasonable:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-nXlIRj6UwNc/T4UJUshxj5I/AAAAAAAAC-0/hkjnuf4bAb0/I/3.jpg
3.jpg545×939

Select modes:
Q (Vertex)
Shift Q (Edge)
Alt Q (Face)
Ctrl Shift Q (Vertex + Edge)
Ctrl Alt Q (Vertex + Face)
Shift Alt Q (Edge + Face)
Ctrl Shift Alt Q (Vertex + Edge + Face)

(Ctrl Q is already avoided :evilgrin:, since it’s the existing key for Quit Blender)

However, I just found something confusing, probably a bug, or two bugs when setting this:

Bug1. All three items, shown in Ctrl Tab menu, cannot be set separately by the way of “right click > Add Shortcut”. Currently, if you set any one first, the other two will be set or displayed with the same key, and, of course, these two are disfunctional. That’s why I have to go to the User Preference window to set them manually. :frowning:
It may look like this:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FBm98h7CIYM/T4UYHI_okWI/AAAAAAAAC_Q/M3mq2uunW9E/s142/4b.jpg

Bug2. Even they can be manually set through above steps, however, the shortcut keys for Vertex and Face keep displaying the same, no matter what you set for each, and it may look like this:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Idkbc_5wLZ4/T4UYHeYuzoI/AAAAAAAAC_U/w20RgFup37I/s145/5b.jpg

I’ll report them later after further test and confirmation.

@ kiriri, Yeah, I also think that it’s not likely happening without further scripting solution. Unfortunately I’m not a code guy so far :no:, And I believe someone could improve this, although it’s already quite flexible and powerful for the default solution.

And I’ll bring your advice to my friends, who are the real guys calling for such feature, (not me) :stuck_out_tongue:

Personally, I’ve used blender for years, it’ is the powerful and convenient app for most guys, absolutely, and I can’t love it even more! :evilgrin:

Attached is the KeyConfig preset I export for this, enjoy it if you wanna try.
[ATTACH]178220[/ATTACH]

Attachments

keyconfig_for_select_modes.zip (1.06 KB)