Problems right from the beginning.

Support Basics & Interface
1

Hello Blender community,
I’m trying to get my way into Blender but so far Blender does it’s best to keep me at distance :wink:

I’m a Maya user and I’m following the progression of Blender a few years now. During these years I had some dozens attempts to get my hands onto Blender and so it is now.
The main reasons why I consider switching to Blender is Cycles (witch is a hell of a renderenginge), the dynamic simulations/particles and stuff and the nodebased material- and texture editor, all these things are great and seem to work properly. Whereas on the other side there are things in Blender that are close to a catastrophe naming a few things like the shortcut biased design, modeling in general, and the wierd circumstance that Blender in some places is awesomely straight forward and in others unbearable confusing.

But first things first.
I was going for a new attempt to get familiar with Blender and my first obstacle is navigation inside Blender and the intaraction with the software in general. Because I’m a Maya user, I was happy to see that there is a Maya preset for keyboard and mouse inputs. Unfortunatelly it doesn’t word respectivly is very buggy. After a few tries I figured out that everytime I use anything else than factory settings it starts to act wierd. I can’t navigate anymore in the 3D viewport, shortcuts don’t word anymore, stuff like that.
Is that a common problem in Blender?
I’m using Blender 2.72b by the way.

2

I suggest you just use the blender default keymap. The manual and any tutorials will refer to these. When you get familiar with how things work you can create your own custom shortcuts

You could also use this http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/product_info_n.php?products_id=151

3

Perhaps this is a good place to start - but this will again have the keymap deviate from the one used in manual and tutorials.

4

Well my problem is not setting up conflict free shortcuts, the problems is Blender acts wierd when I use anything different than the default. I already had a very nice navigation behavior set up but after a few seconds the 3D viewport starts to freeze randomly while I navigate. Also after a few seconds standard shortcuts like ctrl+z don’t work anymore.
I don’t know why this happens or if this maybe even is a common problem in Blender but this means that I can use Blender only with default settings, which is (sorry for being honest) utterly out of the question. That’s like reeducating a lefty…very painful :wink:

5

You’re going to be more specific when describing this behavior. Saying it “acts weird” really isn’t sufficient. Specifically, what is Blender doing (or not doing)?

Also, please let us know about your computer setup. What operating system are you using? What is your computer’s video card? Are you using the most recent version of Blender?

6

It should not break to the extent you describe.
Custom ‘Input’ does break from time to time, and you need to know how to maintain and reset it. But not on a monthly basis.

Have you looked at my custom setup? Try it out, see how stable it is. If it’s OK you can use it as a base to customize further.

http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?352666-Input-Custom-Blender-Setup-Silo-Maya-esque

7

No.

No sympathy there. When a Blender user asks how to get into Maya navigation when coming from Blender on Autodesk forums the answer is “learn Maya”, which is the correct answer.

So, learn Blender. Learn the shortcuts. It’s quite easy and starts making sense fast. Most used keyboard shortcuts are on the left hand side on a qwerty keyboard, most of which have the main shortcut the same as first letter of the function it’s assigned to, which it tells you in the menus. Common shortcuts work in all editors, otherwise they’re editor/mode specific.

If I recall correctly, Blender has around 1600 shortcuts already set. Really need to pay attention when setting them in user preferences -> input so that they go in the correct section and you’re not using an existing shortcut. Can also search keybinding by changing the search filter type to keybinding. Many hotkeys can be set/changed from the interface directly but it won’t warn about a shortcut that’s already in use.

Speaking of warning, Blender doesn’t nag you about everything. It usually tells you if it can’t do something because of dependency issue or because it’s impossible. Otherwise it will do it and you know if it’s the right thing to do or not. On Windows it might nowadays give a closing warning when you hit the X button (which you can turn off).

8

Wrong on all accounts.

especially: “It’s quite easy and starts making sense fast.”
So far as making sense, he already said:
“I’m trying to get my way into Blender but so far Blender does it’s best to keep me at distance.”
Just like so many who have tried it (numerous times) and gave up on it.
Wake up.

Makes me wonder if you have used anything other than Blender.
Blender is next to useless out of the box.
Everything is against the muscle memory, if you’re coming from any other package, and requires ridiculous amount of hotkeys to do basic things.

9

Apparently the supplied Maya keymap is no good as well according to the OP.
My view unless you’re some kind of imbecile the human brain is more than capable of accepting more than one way of doing something, including keymaps. If you start using a new piece of software start with the defaults. If you don’t use the default settings you really are your own worst enemy in learning it. Once you have the basic understandings of how things work in blender then you’re in an informed position to decide the best shortcuts for your own circumstances.

10

Except, when coming from other packages, only a very few driven people will get that far!

11

these links to tutorials here should help you - its Blender for Maya users:

http://annex2nothing.com/blender-overview/

http://annex2nothing.com/modelling-in-blender-and-maya/

http://annex2nothing.com/maya-to-blender-animation/

if you want to know a bit about Aidy Burrows and why he switched to Blender while working for the TtFusion Studio,
this talk he gave at the Blender converence 2014 will give you answers;

Please ignore those sad and bitter people - they are only a few which are hard to please and
please don´t think bad about the Blender users just because some like to spread their negativity to others.

if you have more questions, we like to encourage you to ask,
the majority of Blender users have build a strong culture of helping and sharing tips with each other(s).
you are more than welcome here. :slight_smile:

12

First of all welcome to our neighbourhood please come in for some milk and hot cookies :smiley:

Second the bugs you describe sound very nasty and I am surprised that I have not experience them.

As a developer myself (i mainly develop blender addons and some other stuff , I am not a blender developer) what I always ask my users is as much details as possible. So please share your setupd, the model of your computer and its specs, which OS you use , and the exact steps you follow.

Make make sure you do a clean install of blender , remove any third party addons, go to blender , repeat the process and if reproduces the error, report it here, If I can reproduce it as well or some other person then the error should be reported to the bug tracker which is where the blender developers will notice and fix it.

Blender is extremely powerful and well designed 3d application but it comes with its own flaws, just the last few days I had several Grey Screen of Death. To get a grey screen of death in macos is extremely rare ( I had a couple in 7 years with my previous iMac) which is equivelant to blue screen of death in windows, I have spoken to the developers at #blendercoders and they were not surprised and pointed the finger at CUDA which is what Cycles uses for GPU accleration. I had only to agree because both those grey screens happened when I was rendering with cycles.

So yes bugs is part of day to day lives, Ton made a joke in the conference that if there is day that blender does not crash its a miracle.

Saying that there also a lot more awesomeness in blender than just Cycles, that I can promise to you :slight_smile:

13

there are some nice basic intro videos to the standard blender (not maya ) set up at CG cookie
and other site like Blenderguru Diploma ect…
that should get you going quickly in blender UI ect…
I know it is basic but it will show basic things location ect…

learn blender as blender then when you get a good idea how to go around and get things working
you might want to slowly begin doing changes to suit your own taste
but this is like any other soft it takes time to learn

but you already know CG world then should be easy and fast
and you can always ask questions on forums here if in need for some clarifications!

so good luck and welcome

happy bl

14

I don’t know what to discribe more appart of what I’ve discribed already. The navigation suddenly freezes, I can’t navigate anymore. The only way around it is to reset the viewport (either with “A” or “CTRL+C”) but because some (random) shortcuts hang as well, sometimes even that is not possible.

My system:

  • Windows 7 64 bit
  • AMD FX 8320
  • 12 GB Ram
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 240

It is very nasty indeed, because it makes the software literally unusable.
So far I was thinking that the problem only occures when I change the keyboard mapping, however yesterday the same problems occured using the complete factory default settings.

Sorry Blender proponents, I have to side with OrAngE and say “Amen brother”.
Don’t forget: Blender is not the center of my (or anybodys) universe, it’s just a part. I have other work to do, I have a girlfriend and we have a dog. All that is time consuming and (at least to me) a bit more valuable than struggling with oddly designed software.

I also found this videoseries about improving Blender:
part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYiiD-p2q80
part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIedljapuz0
part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWacQrEcMHk

As he said, this is not about pointing the finger at anybody or talking Blender down, I indeed think that the developers are doing an awesome job but they are rather the ones programming it, not the ones using it. The amount of people giving up on Blender (me included) speaks for itself.
Although my proposal would have been a bit less “drastic” I really like that other (expirienced) users see the same issues, but also the same potential in Blender.
I think that a slight redesign and some cleaning up would make the userbase sky-rocketing (me included)

15

If people want to spend their time second-guessing the Blender interface then apparently they don’t actually have a 3D project that they need done. On the other hand, like many others here I actually had things I wanted to do with Blender and I found that the fastest way to that result was to learn the existing interface and save the second-guessing until later. Strangely enough, now that I am comfortable with the interface, I feel no need to re-design it, lol.

16

That was the point of the suggestion. Blender is different than 3DS Max and Maya. If you’re going to use many of its features, I believe you save time and grief in the long run if you treat it differently, the same as you understand to use Maya and maybe Photoshop differently.

Blender is keyboard-centric. Non-default input presets give users trouble and they don’t map 100% anyway. Many struggle to get them behave like they want and that is not likely to stop anytime soon. Tutorials and manuals (wiki and the new one) both tell the default hotkeys. Blender changes rapidly, new build every day and new release every 3 months. Latest one has pie menus feature, which is still a wip but speed improvement in a workflow comes from training muscle memory to use the different menus you’ve set.

That was my suggestion and there are the reasons for it. If you can’t go with default keymapping then you can’t and have to decide between other options. Saying what Blender could or should be, or what I would like or want won’t make Maya/3DS max presets better, or help anyone on a support forum. Seeing that hundreds of pages of forum battles, video proposals, developer interviews, expert interviews and a conference did squat, I’m not going to devote my time for that.

Don’t know what would cause “weird” keyboard behaviour. All I know is that Blender uses US english layout internally for the hotkeys and some keys might not work on non-US english keyboards. I have few keys that don’t work in Blender because of that.

17

Have You Encounter This Scenario
When You Go To Your Input then Go To Your Custom Hotkey after that Untick and Tick ( checkbox ) the Custom Hotkey you made magically disappear?

…
Anyway … anyone who got Free Time can Try This i’ve Test this like 5X it same result Bug will Occur

Fresh Install Of Blender > go to Input then Hit the + sign make a custom name

http://i.imgur.com/sfBAN9K.png?1
sfBAN9K.png?1808×507

> now Try Searching Duplicate > try to Disable ( Uncheck ) Or Add a Custom Shortcut to It and hit > Save User Setting > then restart Blender > now check again > It Reverted back to original or enabled or the original hotkey which is shift D is reverted

Solution or temporary fix to Problem :
When I Dont Create Custom Name or Import and Export the python … i created my hotkey from start at Blender Preset the Shortcut Key doesnt messed up or Forgets the Custom Hotkey you made

but ofcourse it is risky move because you cant make a backup of your own hotkey
or if you hit accidently the Restore to default setting … everything is lost again

i try to find Blender Hotkey at APPDATA there is none and ALSO program Files

http://i.imgur.com/kt1l4xM.png
kt1l4xM.png1164×885

18

I can confirm this as a bug. I get that on my system quite often, with the latest builds it’s all the time. It’s broken.

What I do is I copy the keyconfig I start from as the original backup. Then after I do changes and do ‘Save User Settings’ I copy the source as a version.

This is where you’ll find them:
C:\Users\ … yourusername … \AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.72\scripts\presets\keyconfig

Doing it like that I found I have more success applying changes. But you will still loose some commands, and generaly those same ones won’t carry over. Once you fix them, they’ll be good for a certain while (although they still won’t carry over, they seem to be embedded elsewhere). Eventually, it’s gonna break again.

If you really want to stick to using Blender, you get a knack for hunting them down and fixing them after a while.
Although from time to time you will need to do some more advanced rebuilds of your custom setup due to complete brekadowns. In my case it happens every ~6 months.

As evidenced from this and other threads with this topic very few Blender users actually get to customize the hotkeys heavily. And don’t have a good insight into the actual functionality of the ‘Input Editor’. This is one of the things I’ve been harping on the most - the state and actual design of te ‘Input Editor’. Not only is it not functional, it’s broken. To me even though it’s something made from the ground up for the 2.5x series, it’s got that same 2.4 paradigm.

But hey, I’m done, I know that my voice and like-minded users is not welcome, and we’re regarded as “sad and bitter people - only a few which are hard to please”.

I’m happy with the way I’ve got Blender setup, it’s a very good tool for me now.

Could it be better - infinitely. As I said it’s useless for me out of the box. But there’s some amazing smart people that have made some great Addons that make this already great app very functional, and actually better than many out there.

It’s just a shame that many other’s don’t get a chance to experience it because all they get in contact is the defaults, and many don’t see it worth to stick to.

19

thanks for confirming i thought it was just mine
for now im starting again From Scratch Remapping the keys

the last backup keys i made is totally broken the keys disappear when i tick/untick the boxes
( note about old keys i remap i use the + sign and export it and import it still no luck it is now broken )

About this :
C:\Users\ … yourusername … \AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.72\scripts\presets\keyconfig

yes i already know this … but im avoiding this method
since the + Sign ( create custom Name )
or Import / export of python of Input Editor causes bug like the TC expericen the sudden Navigation or Function of key is Disabled for some reason even it is Active on the lists

but i Find that modifying the Blender Preset From Start is less buggy and i dont encounter any reverts like the Duplicate function

as you can see in this picture i use the blender with modified keys

the only Cons using this method is everytime blender updates into new version or builbots you will lose the hotkey and need to remap again … but me idont really use build bots i use stable build so it will take months to remap keys

So its better to Avoid using + sign or Export and Import since it will cause malfunction of hotkeys
… the function useless because of Bug and i hope it will be fix soon

i will confirm this again try at 3 Machine if it will totally fix the problem if Using Blender Preset from start then start modifying they keys … without using + and Import/export function

20

Same here, not just 3D/2D. I use the tablet exclusively, even with just browsing or regular windows.
Maybe that’s why we both have this need to customize it.