I was discussing 2.49 v 2.5 in the LuxRender IRC channel the other day, and I mentioned how I had monkey’d with Blender 2.5 configurable input settings to make it follow traditional 3D app input methods. I’m a student who uses a variety of apps (trying to find my footing and all) so one program being drastically different than the others is something I’d rather not deal with.
Some folks suggested I write a tutorial explaining what I did. So here goes.
The first two are pretty simple, change select mode to left click and use turntable rotation instead of trackball. You will find both of these in User Prefs in both 2.49 and 2.5. In 2.5, it is under Input. In 2.49, “view and controls”. I realize these are personal preference, but you will find turntable/left click select are the behavior of most of other 3D apps. Right-click select will become especially insidious if you get used to it then try and learn another 3D app like Maya or Cinema 4D. Left-click selection is pretty standard in all apps, and many people find turntable rotation more intuitive when using a mouse or tablet pen to drive.
But now the kicker. The tricky, 2.5 only part. Fixing the transform hotkeys. In Blender, they are G /R/S. In Maya they are W/E/R (yes, R is a transform hotkey, but not for rotation, which is a bit odd. This may be why C4D slides over one uses E/R/T) Regardless, you will find in most packages, the transform hotkeys don’t pick up the object like in Blender (as if you grabbed the center of the manipulator) but rather change the manipulator handle mode. Blender has no hotkey for this by default, at least not in the normal keymap. However, if you switch the included Maya keymap, you will find that it maps W/E/R to change the handle mode. So it definitely is possible, the only thing to do is look through the keymap and figure out how they did it.
First, you need to delete or change the included hotkey assignments under 3D View > 3D View (Global). Hit edit and scroll down until you find them. I recommend just trashing them, as you can get the same functionality with the manipulator, but change them to something else if you like. Now that you’ve done that, add 3 new shortcuts, exactly like this:
Save your config, and give it a shot. Cool, huh? OK, but about those moments when the Blender way is handy, like when you want to rotate say…exactly 90 degrees along the X axis? Time for a quick rundown of transform-manipulator-fu
-Grabbing any handle than typing a number is the same as performing the transform pick up action, locking to that axis, and typing the number. So grabbing the X-rotate-handle and typing 90 will rotate 90 degrees around the X-axis.
-Holding shift as you click a handle will lock that axis, performing the transform on the other two. (If you use C4D, it has the exact same behavior, Maya does this too, but you use control there instead of shift.) For example, to scale along the X and Y axes together, you would set the handle mode to scale (S-key now), hold shift, and grab the Z axis handle In Blender, this was traditionally done by picking up the object and hitting <shift>+$axis-letter
-Grabbing a handle THEN holding shift will allow you to fine-control the transform.
-Holding control will temporarily enable snapping until you let go of control. Remember that in Blender snapping is done based on the position of your mouse cursor! (This is the same as when “picking up” an object.) SIDE NOTE: You can bring up the “snap element type” menu at your cursor with ctrl+shift+tab. Not really related to the manipulator, but it took me ages to figure out. I thought I’d share.
-Grabbing the white ring around the center of the manipulator has the same effect as the “pick-up” action.
One final note: For whatever reason, the “loop cut and slide” tool, better known as the “add edge loop button” doesn’t allow you to slide the edge loop you are about to make if you do this. Instead, use the dedicated edge-slide tool located nearby in your tool shelf (left side, hit T key to show it) after making the loop cut.
Happy Blending!