Teaching Blender to someone on a mac?

Support Basics & Interface
1

Hi,

I recently showed my friend blender, and she was very interested and asked me to teach her. I’m pretty comfortable with blender by now, so I decided to do it. I didn’t know she was using a mac though, and I have absolutely no clue how to teach her the interface yet. We’re gonna meet up monday or tuesday, and by then I hope to have found a way to use the scroll click, and right clicking on a mac. I tried blender on a mac once, and I remember having to rely solely on the numpad for navigation.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

2

Do you have a three button mouse (or a graphics tablet with a 3-button pen) for the mac?

If so, pretty much nothing is different from the PC version.

If the mac only has a one or two button mouse, then I’d recommend:

  • Select With: Left
  • Emulate 3 Button Mouse: Checked
  • Emulate Numpad: Checked

You’ll probably need to change a fair number of keybinds to make a 1button mouse work (I used to have a setup for my mac laptop with trackpad and 1 button, so I know it can be done, but that was long ago, i’ve been using a graphics tablet for a while now)

If I remember some important keybinds to change would be:

  • View rotation and movement (“Rotate view”, “Zoom view” and “Move view” under 3D View > 3D View (Global)
  • “Lasso Select”
  • “Set 3D Cursor”

…There’s more that I’m forgetting, but I think those are the most important ones.

3

I’ve personally only used blender on a mac once. I don’t think she has a three button mouse.

What does 'emulate three button mouse" do?

And thanks for the help.

4

Modern Macs do not come with 1 button mice. emulate 3 button mouse allows you to press lmb+rmb to be used as mmb.

5

I’ve taught plenty of Mac users Blender - and if the Mac comes with a one-button mouse, get a three-button mouse. Simple as that. If a particular Mac comes with that awful mini keyboard that lacks a numeric keypad: get one with a keypad, or purchase an usb keypad.

Honestly, running Blender without either is merely inefficient in my opinion. A three-button mouse is less than a tenner nowadays.

6

Oh wait, I forgot, If you have “Select With: Left” then you can’t do emulate three button mouse.

“Emulate 3 button mouse” is suppose to emulate the middle mouse button via “Alt+Left mouse button”.

That’s not really a problem since it can all be fixed via keybinds. So just leave “emulate 3 button mouse” unchecked.

(I think the only really big thing handled by the middle mouse button is the view moving/zooming/panning which I already mentioned in my first reply)

7

Be a hero and buy her a 3 button mouse for the mac. Any USB one will work. $15.00 and your her prince… Other than that it is exactly the same. Even the standard PC to MAC swapping command button for control button doesn’t exist.

8

Thanks for all the help :slight_smile:

I’ll get her a three button mouse, as you suggested. Since that’s the main problem (the numpad can be emulated, that’s what I do when I use my laptop), I think I can edit this as solved.

You guys are awesome.

Ssslouter