Hi, I found the mac blender hotkey default configuration unsuitable for its users; the default keyboard for mac has only 1 ctrl key(in the very corner), while there are 2 command keys at the middle(blender do not recognize cmd as right or left i think, even for mac they are a single key), giving a better ergonomic if they where used instead of the single cornered ctrl in mac keyboard. About the mac numpad issue many say “buy a keyboard with numpad”, but I will not do it, as it is completely unnecessary, it is just a matter of assigning a key to act as modifier to switch from using the numpad simulation to the default layer selection method, but as I understand it, currently the numbers or act as numpad or as layer switch tool.
Anyway, I have gone ahead and changed ALL the hotkeys in user preferences(planning to share the setup too) which had ctrl as modifier, taking care to not assign a hotkey to a system(OSX) hotkey. I clicked “export key configuration” and then came another problem, it does not assign automatically .py extension to the resulting filename, I had to assign it manually; I launched blender the next day, pressed “import key configuration” and watched as all my work have become dust, as it imported only the hotkeys from the subcategory(3d view>Metaballs) which I was working upon at export time, all the others where simply forgot, this is the last problem. I exported and imported again and again but my configs always store only a small piece of what I have done. I think the only way I can set my custom hotkeys is to again reconfigure them all and press “Save as default”, but then how would I share my setup with other mac users?
I’m using mac OSX Lion(2011 iMac), but this already happened at snow leopard if I remember right.
So, any advise on how to fix any of all of the problems mentioned above? Or maybe some of the problems where caused by my lack of knowledge? What do you think about this?
Thanks in advance for any help!
EDIT1:
It seems the export/import works with few hotkeys changes, but I suppose when you change a lot of them it has some problem. Even being terrible I will try once more to change almost all hotkeys, export the changes, reset blender and try to import them. (false, read EDIT3)
EDIT2:
I noticed blender do save some of my hotkey changes, but others are reseted probably at export time, as the .py file show several ctrl modifier occurrences, while if I recall correctly, I had removed ctrl entirely as modifier from each hotkeys category. (false, read EDIT3)
EDIT3:
I noticed even setting a .blend file with my custom hotkeys as default, they do not work at first, I have to first select other hotkeys layout and then select again my custom hotkey layout for it to work. Then I noticed after testing again and again which what I exported sometimes was the blend default keymap or an altered version of the blender default hotkeys under the name of another keymap(which wrongly shows as active), that is why it seems my exported files where lost sometimes or partially saved.
After I understand the above I could easily reproduce the problem always:
1- Set blender to factory settings
2 - create your keymap with any changes you need
3 - export it(the file will be sized in bytes only instead of kilobytes)
4 - you cannot use your custom keymap at first on blender(another sign of wrong keymap), you will have to go to user settings first and select another keycap and select yours again for it to work in blender and truly be your keymap when exported.
5 - Export your reselected keycap, the file will be correct, sized in kilobytes
A good way to see which keycap is showing is seeing if the hotkeys are set to blender default(even showing your custom hotkeys name as active) or really your custom hotkeys
The blend also do not save the current active keymap, always reverting at blender default keymap at launch(the name is there, but is switched to blender default at reload time). Also sometimes it is necessary to deselect and select more than once a keymap name for it to work.
So basically I can reproduce 2 problems(blender is having a problem with active keymap name and isn’t saving the exports as .py), and I am making 2 improvement requests(default cmd instead of ctrl on hotkeys and a hotkey to switch between numpad emulation and layer navigator mode) to the developers.
