I found the three manipulators Blender provides are convenient and efficient. But switching between the three of them (Translate, Rotate and Scale) requires clicking the buttons. Is there any keyboard shortcut for that?
Keyboard switching between the three modes is: G for translate, R for rotate and S for scale.
I don’t think there’s a shortcut to change manipulator controls (I could be wrong).
Shift click those buttons to turn on any 2 or all 3 manipulator controls at the same time.
Set default on or off, manipulator size, handle size, and hotspot size settings in User Prefs > Interface.
Welcome to BA Forums.
Like MikeJ says. Just press those keys. You can follow them up with an axis and a number. So if the translate manipulator is active and you want to roate the object along the Z axis just type RZ90[ENTER]. You have to hit the ENTER key to lock in the request or ESC to abort after you start typing. You can also negative a number pre or post the number. So typing RZ90- is the same as RZ-90.
You can add your own shortcuts to toggle on/off each manipulator
In the File / User Preferences / Input panel under 3D View / 3D View (Global) you can add the new shortcuts
http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_61_0/bpy.types.SpaceView3D.html?highlight=manipulator#bpy.types.SpaceView3D.use_manipulator_rotate
In this case:
Shift+Ctrl+1 = Translate Manipulator
Shift+Ctrl+2 = Rotate Manipulator
Shift+Ctrl+3 = Scale Manipulator
Ctrl+Spacebar is the standard shortcut to turn on/off the manipulator widget
There is also a manipulator menu addon, see second image
Link: https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-extensions/contrib/py/scripts/addons/space_view3d_manipulator_Menu.py
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In EDIT mode_ctl+Tab[on a mac machine but i think its the same on windows]
ooops,wrong thread,wrong answer,soory
In 249 it’s Alt+Crl+ the operation you want
ALT+CTR+G Move manipulator
ALT+CTR+R Rotate manipulator
ALT+CTR+S Scale manipulator