Useful little-known (or used) hotkeys

But first, a good hotkey list I noticed linked to elsewhere on this forum
http://www.blender.org/pipermail/bf-docboard/2003-April/000637.html

(added some more, 9-29-03, 12:30 pm local time)

CTRL-D Display alpha of image texture as wire
result (as image, the texture is uv mapped but it doesn’t have to be)
http://home.earthlink.net/~nwinters99/seldomkeys/wirefromalpha.png

It uses the alpha of the image texture, not the image applied to the face. Also, it starts at a pixel at the edge, and the wire is generated of that area, if there is a hole in the image it will not be noticed.

ALT-F Beautify fill
http://home.earthlink.net/~nwinters99/seldomkeys/beautyfill.png
normal filll on the left, fill after beauty fill (you do a fill with shift+f, then alt+f) on right. It tries to fill better, by making the faces more “even” which results in fewer of the faces sharing one vertex. This isn’t the best example though.

Numeric input, N key
In case you want to clear the size or rotation in one direction this is your key. Also useful for placing objects at particular locations.

Proportional vertex editing O key
Also a button on the 3d window header.
Proportional vertex editing allows you to move (scale or rotate) verticies in a gradual manner based on the selection. Umm, if you select one verticie you can move the ones around it based on the proportional editing size (changed with pad+ and - as well as the scroll wheel while in an editing function). Proportional vertex editing can be a fast way to make changes to a mesh seamless without adding the gradual part yourself. Procedural vertex editing can be toggled with Shift+O

ALT-S Edit mode: Shrink/fatten (Scale along vertex normals)
This will scale the selected verticies based off of the direction they are facing. Try it, interesting results.

CTRL-S Edit mode: Shear
Useful if you need to shear something, it allows someone to for example turn a plane into a parallellogram, or a cube into a parallelopiped without using the grab tool. (I don’t make this stuff up). I can’t explain well what it does (even with an image) but it is necescary to know that it shears across the view’s horizontal in direction and your chosen editing center (cursor, boundbox center…).

CTRL-T Make selected object track active object
You don’t need a constraint for it unless you want to track with a bone, or control the amount of tracking with an ipo curve.

CTRL-ALT-T Blenchmark
Blenchmark? (should be benchmark)
will draw (or draw and swap, depends what you specify) the scene a number of times (10). Reports the number of milliseconds it took. Useful for checking if OpenGL in blender is faster in linux or windows or on osx on another machine.

CTRL-U Save current state as user default
say you have materials, or diplay settings you want in your default blend file (the one you get when you start or hit control+x), this is the way to get it.

SHIFT-W Warp/bend selected vertices around cursor
can let one wrap something around something else
best explination (and tutorial) avaliable on
http://download.blender.org/documentation/NaN_docs/Manual2.0/Warp.html

L and scene-releated keys
scenes are useful things, the L key will allow you to link an object to/from a particular scene.

check in the display buttons (on left, under paths for rendering save and stuff) for the option to “Set link to scene as Set”
this will allow you to have one constant scene as a background in as many other scenes as you like, that is still visible while editing that scene, but can’t be messed up from one seperate from another. (it can’t be changed from any scene)

__ new __:
Control+F Fly Mode
press control+f while in a camera view to enter fly mode. This will allow you to aim and move the camera in a flight like manner. the left mouse button increases speed (tap it multiple times to go faster), and the middle mouse button decreases speed (again, tap it to go slower). You can also go backwards. the right mouse button and escape will cancel. press the space bar to stop the camera, and keep it where you put it. You can aim by moving the mouse. The control key will move down, the alt key will move up. The speed of all of this depends on your grid settings. With a larger grid setting (in view buttons, press shift+f7 for buttons window, view buttons has eye icon [leftmost one]) you will go faster [relative to the same absolute sized geometry].

Control+F3 and Control+Shift+F3 Save a Screenshot
respectively save a screenshot of the current window, and of the entire blender screen. The file type is the same as specified in the display buttons.

Any more?

hey, and can someone explain “CTRL-K Make skeleton from armature”


(bah)(erm, was this a waste of my time?)

5 Likes

KOOL!!!

Beauty is new to me, thanks, I can really use that!!

I’ve always wanted something like beauty fill, and it’s been there the whole time %| . Thank you so much for that helpful tip.

One thing I find useful is CTRL+arrow keys. CTRL+Left/Right changes the screen types, and CTRL+Up/Down makes the screen big/normal.

Goo

Wow, Ctrl+D is really useful, that’s great.

Not in that list:
Ctrl-F in object mode = sort in Z.

%<

Somehow I didn’t see that as something that would be useful
maybe for changing build animation, or alpha faces in the game egine, but not much else. I consider these true rare tasks.

R in IPO window = Record mouse movements.
T in IPO window = change animation mode of selected keys.
Shif CTRL A = solidify duplis (note: solidify duplis + ctrl J to join, + lattice = weird)
Additional note: I had put ‘shift alt a’ instead of ‘shift ctrl a’ for about 5 minutes before i realized my folly, and so sorry to anyone who did shift alt a. (which is play animation in all windows)
Here’s a quick example: ( I’ll make a better one when I am less weary )
Better example:
http://home.att.net/~zolgnar/index.html/multilatticedef.jpg

Shift+K back with Alt+K = show and select all keys

Useful for key frame animations.

Wha??? Im in awe!!
So many cool features!

I’m looking forward to the new UI so I can see all the features in the program!

oki,… go to camera view and press shift+f now you can look with your mouse, left mouse button to go forward, and right to go backward.

Usefull,… sometimes yes,… used,… hardly ever I think.

1 Like

actually the middle button will slow or go backwards
right-click (or esc) will cancel
space will stop, and put the camera at that location

I forgot to mention that one, though I use it a lot.

These are great!

If you have a roller mouse, try different combinations of Ctrl, Shift, and Alt as you scroll, rollers are very useful in moving the view around quickly.

And, as I remember from the good old days of IKAs (I still haven’t come close to figuring out Armatures), CTRL+K changes the IKA to skeleton. Skeletons can warp objects, IKAs can’t.

I’ve been meaning to post this…not really hot key, if you move an object (x,y or z) and click the middle mouse button it locks that object to the axis…you probably knew this…

:o :o :o :o :o :o

I couldn’t even shut blender down and the camera went totally bezerk with your suggestion.
Once you’ve done shift-f and palyed around, how do you get out of that mode?

:o :o :o :o :o :o

I couldn’t even shut blender down and the camera went totally bezerk with your suggestion.
Once you’ve done shift-f and palyed around, how do you get out of that mode?[/quote]
right click, space, or esc stops the flymode command.
Timothy’s post is incorrect. Here is how it works:

  • aim mouse to aim camera (have to move the mouse to camera center to stop it rotating)
  • left mouse button: faster foreward (tap more times, go faster)
  • middle mouse buttons: faster backward (tap more times, go faster)
  • right mouse button: cancel
  • esc: cancel
  • spacebar: apply (exits fly mode, and keeps the camera at that position)
  • alt: up
  • control: down

(note that those using 2 button mice, alt will still move you up, so it is difficult to stop without moving upwards some)
(note2 that you move at speeds that are multiples of your grid setting. If you are moving too slow, instead of clicking more you can increase your grid size)

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
You would not believe what my camera view was doing before I read your post z3r0d. It looked like the blasted screen was going to explode and collapse into a black hole! I couldn’t believe how incredibly fast blender objects can spin in blender. Almost a blur! Space bar is great.

:slight_smile:

If I interpret it right, the bezerk aspect of the question may have happened if you reached the zenith (in line with the world’s zaxis if you will) and pointed the camera straight down : there is no way to compute an up side for the camera in that position.

Also the camera must not be constrained to track something.

Jean

Shift+V in edit mode = align view.

Little known and almost undocumented but very useful.

Jean.

I also like Shift+B in camera view. One must set the Border button in F10 first. Then Shift+B allow to select only part of the frame to be rendered. The rendered part will be reinserted in the buffer unless “Crop” is set too.

Jean