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BlenderKeys

Works Sculpture DigitalSculpture Blender

Basic editing

        Quit                    Q
        Abort command           ESC
        Erase                   CTRL-X  all
                                X       selected
        Editmode on/off         TAB, ALT-E
                In editmode the changes apply to vertices (cursor is a cross)
                in selection mode to the object as a whole (cursor is an arrow)
        Add                     SHFT-A, SPACE
                If you add in edit mode, you add into the same object.
                If in selection mode, you add a new object.
        Refresh                 NUMPAD 9
        Confirm a command       ENTER, SPACE
        Cursor                  Lclick
                Snap to grid (SHFT-S 3) or to selected object (SHFT-S 4)

Selection

        (De)Select All          A
        Select                  Rclick
        Extend selection        hold SHIFT while selecting
                Many objects can be selected, only one active (brighter)
        Border select           B
                drag a box with mouse, left button extends, 
                right deselects, also holding ALT deselects
        Circle select           BB
                drag with left mouse (ALT deselects)
                grow/reduce radius with NUMPAD +/-
        Linked vertex select    L
                deselect        SHFT-L
        Swap selection          button in F9, in edit mode special menu w 7
                selects unselected and vice versa

Windows & Files

        Resize window           Ldrag pane
        Split / join windows    Mclick pane, Rclick pane
                The side you approach pane determines which
                side is is split / remains after join.
        Fullscreen / smaller    CTRL-UP / CTRL-DOWN
        Prev / next Screen      CTRL-LEFT / CTRL-RIGHT
        Header (icons)
                hide,top,bottom         Rclick on header
                add back                on split/join menu
        Blender to fore / background    on header, lclick / lclick+CTRL
        View buttons            SHFT+F7 in a 3D view
                Allows setting a background image, grid size and extent,
                clipping and focal length for the 3D view (each view has own)
        Function keys
                F1 File open, F2 File save, F3 Image save, F4 Lamp, 
                F5 Material, F6 Texture, F7 Animation, F8 Realtime, 
                F9 Edit, F10 Display, F11 Hide/Show Render, F12 Render
            with SHIFT:
                F1 Load lib, F4 DataView, F5 3D, F6 Ipo, F7 View Buttons, 
                F8 Seq.Editor, F9 Oops, F10 Image, F11 Text, F12 Sound
            F3+CTRL             save active window as image (type in F10)
            F3+CTRL+SHFT        save whole screen as image
        Other exports
                SHFT-F2 DXF, CTRL-F2 VRML 1.0, ALT-w VideoScape
        Save                    CTRL-W
                +/- increases/decreases the version count
        Save over last saved    CTRL-S
        Open last saved         CTRL-O
        Info window     reveal by draggin top window down
                auto saves, 2-button mouse, tooltips, ...
        Make current state default      CTRL-U

Viewing

        Perspective mode
                Toggle persp/ortho      NUMPAD 5
                Camera view             NUMPAD 0
        Interactive
                Spinning        Mdrag, ALT-Ldrag
                        you can emulate middle mouse button with ALT-leftbutton
                Panning         SHFT-Mdrag
                Zooming         CTRL-Mdrag, NUMPAD +/-
        Fixed
                Top, Front, Right       NUMPAD 7,1,3
                Bottom, Back, Left      SHFT NUMPAD 7,1,3
                Center to cursor        C
                View all                HOME, SHFT-C
        Rotate around axis
                Z-axis                  NUMPAD 4,6
                Perp to Z and view      NUMPAD 2,8
        Concentrate on selected
                Zoom & hide others      NUMPAD /
                Zoom                    NUMPAD ,
                Orient                  NUMPAD *
        Draw mode               
                bbox, wire, solid, shaded       D 1-4, Z, SHFT-Z
                show axis, texspace, name       in F9
        Rendering
                Render          F12
                        Image size from Display buttons (F10)
                        SizeX, SizeY, 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, AspX, AspY, Presets
                        Display in view or window (DispView / DispWin)
                        Oversampling
                Render window   F11
                Image zoom      Z

Editing objects

        General modifiers for editing and sliders
                hold CTRL for discrete steps
                hold SHFT for slowing the edit
                hold CTRL-SHFT for smaller discrete steps
                clicking on left side of slider decreases, right side increases
        Grab (move)             G, Rdrag straight
                axis-aligned constraints with Mclick
                Grab, rotate, scale work on both objects and vertices.
        Snap                    SHFT-S
                selected to grid (1) or cursor (2)
        Rotate                  R, Rdrag curved
                normally perp to cam, with ALT the other rotations
                hitting x,y,z constrains rotation around those axes only
                around center (,) cursor (.) median or indiv. centers (icons)
                can be cleared with ALT-r
        Scale                   S, Rdrag wiggled
                axis-aligned with Mclick
                around center (,) cursor (.) median or indiv. centers (icons)
                can be cleared with ALT-S
                mirror with x,y (uses the axis closest to horiz[x] or vert[y])
        Apply size/rot          CTRL-A
                apply the scale & rotation of object to the vertices
        Shear                   CTRL-S
                works only on vertices, always on horizontal screen axis
        Numeric control         N
                SHFT-Lclick for numeric entry (then SHFT-BACKSPC to clear)
        Undo                    U
                works only in edit mode, reloads the data as it was
                when edit mode was entered (so TAB-TAB "refreshes undo buffer")
        Special menu            W
                replicates many edit buttons
        Changing center
                In F9, Centre, Centre New, Centre Cursor
        Duplicate (copy)        SHFT-D
        Duplicate (instancing)  ALT-D
        Spin                    F9 Spin-button
                surface of revolution
                select verts to spin and the degrees and steps from
                sliders in F9
                spin is perp to view direction, around 3d cursor
                only meshes (conv beziers to mesh in edit mode by ALT-C)
        Screw                   F9 Screw button
                similar to spin, but must have two open ends on the
                polyline
                after the spinning, the lower end of the next level
                coincides with the top end of the previous level
        Proportional editing    O
                when you have selected some vertices and modify them,
                the neighboring vertices are also modified
                SHFT-o toggles sharp/smooth fall off of influence
                NUM-MINUS and NUM-PLUS modify the radius of influence
        Join objects            CTRL-J
                works in select mode
        Separate objects        P
                in editmode, selection is removed and placed into new object
        Make/clear parent       CTRL-P / ALT-P
                The selected will move with the current (becomes parent)
        Make/clear track        CTRL-T / ALT-T
                The selected will orient themselves to current
        Hide / Reveal verts     H / ALT-H, buttons in F9, special menu W 5/6
        Recalculate normals     CTRL-N
        Clear origin            ALT-O
        DupliFrames             button in animation buttons
                animate an object by parenting it to a curve
                creates virtual instances of the object along the path
        DupliVerts              button in animation buttons
                parent an object to polygon or particle system
                creates virtual instances of the object at vertices
                with rot button aligns obj with parent's normals
        Make dupli's real       CTRL-SHFT-A
        Metaballs
                if different OB base name, don't affect each other
                if same OB base, but differs, can animate independently

Curves and Meshes

        Add curve/mesh          Add menu: SPACE -> Add -> Curve/Mesh
        Extrude                 E
        Add Face                F
                curve: create vertex and connect selected
                mesh:  connect 2 verts with edge, 3 or 4 with face
        Subdivide               W 1, also in F9
        Linked select/deselect  L / SHFT-L
        Erase selected          X
        Buttons
                Width           move the interpolated points wider or closer
                Ext1            depth of extrude
                Ext2            depth of standard bevel
                BevResol        resolution of bevel (converges to quarter circle)
                BevOb           use another curve as bevel
        Mesh only:
                Fill selected   SHFT-F
                        fill a closed polygon with triangles
                Beauty fill     ALT-F
                        swap edges so triangles become more uniform
                Make triangles  CTRL-T
                        convert selected faces to triangles
                Hiding          H       hide selected (W 5)
                                SHFT-H  hide not selected
                                ALT-H   reveal (W 6)
                Select linked selected  CTRL-L
                Calc normals    CTRL-N          try pointing them outside
                                SHFT-CTRL-N     try pointing them inside
                Split           Y
                        break selected apart, keep faces (duplicate some verts)
        Curve only:
                Add vertex              CTRL-Lclick
                Cyclic make/brake       C
                Handle type (4 types)
                        vertex (sharp)  V
                        free / aligned  H
                        auto (symmetric)SHFT-H
                        calc handles    CTRL-H
                Convert                 ALT-C
                        text to curve, curve & metaball to mesh, 
                        uses extrude values
                Conversions
                        Poly, Bezier, Nurbs     In F9
                Tilt set/clear          T / ALT-T

Layers

        Select layer            hit layer button
                layers 1-10:  keys 1,2,...,9,0
                layers 11-20: ALT-1, ... ALT-9, ALT-0
                you are working on the last selected layer
        Add/remove one layer    hold SHFT when selecting
        Move to layer(s)        M
                or select the layer from the edit buttons (F9)

Camera

        You can select, grab and rotate the camera like any other object.
        With camera and camera view (NUMPAD 0) selected, try
        Rotate VUP              R
        Rotate view direction   R + Mclick
        Move laterally          G
        Move back'n'forth       G + Mclick
        Properties              in F9
                Clipping start & end, persp / ortho, focal length, draw size
                Toggle showing limits for clip and mist (set in World buttons)
        Fix to a target
                Select camera, then the target (maybe an Empty from Add)
                Make camera track the target by CTRL-T
                Clear the rotation of the camera by ALT-R
                Now move the target, camera will follow
        In case you have many cameras
                Make selected active    CTRL-NUMPAD 0
                Go back to previous     ALT-NUMPAD 0
        Set border      SHFT-B

Lights F4

        Add light               SPACE -> Add -> Lamp
        Lamp types
                Lamp    Default type, the only directionless
                Spot    The only type with shadows, opening angle (SpotSi), 
                        angular attenuation (SpotBl)
                        Similar to camera, can aim it the same way (select
                        with CTRL-NUMPAD 0), clip start&end
                Sun     Softer than spot, directional
                Hemi    Like Sun but comes from a hemisphere
        Volumetric lights       Halo button activates
                Need to use a spot light
                Halo step gives quality (0=off, 1=high qual, 12=low qual)
                Haloint gives intensity of halo rays
        Distance falloff        For lamp & spot only
                With Quad activated     (Quad1=Quad2=0 => no dist falloff)
                        Intensity = Dist / (Dist + Quad1*d + Quad2*d^2)
                Without Quad a linear falloff
                        Intensity = Dist / (Dist + d)
        Lamps can have colors and even textures. You can change Energy.
        Layer
                Constrain to effect only objects in the same layer.
        Shadows
                Works only with spot lights. Need to hit the Shadows button
                both in F4 and F10.

Radiosity

        Collect meshes  use selected meshes for calculations
                Materials that have nonzero "Emit" work as light sources
                Hit Gour to see progress, ESC when good enough
        Add new meshes and m to move new meshes into some layer, 
                Free Radio Data, now the materials should have VCol Light to 
                denote the colors have precalculated illumination.

Materials F5

        Color spaces    RGB or HSV
        3D Coefficients Diffuse (Color), Specular (Spec), (Mir)?
        Specularity     Two components: Intensity (Spec) and Glossyness (Hard)
        Emit            Intensity of emissive term, the diffuse color
        Alpha           Attenuate or transparency (with ZTransp)
        Rendermode      Wireframe/solid (Wire),
                        shading off/on (Shadeless).
        Indices         Each mesh object can have up to 16 material indices.
                        In F9, select faces, create a New material index (or 
                        select an old one, e.g. "3 Mat: 2" means that 2nd out
                        of 3 indices was selected), Assign.
                        An unassigned face has index 1.
                        In F5 you can assign a material to each index.
        Buttons
                Traceable       Object can cast shadows
                Shadow          Can receive shadows
                Shadeless       Ignore light & shadow
                Wire            Only render edges (for meshes only)
                VCol Light      Use vertex cols as extra light (esp. radiosity)
                VCol Paint      Replace material with vertex colors
                Halo            Render verts as halos, not faces (with flares)
                ZTransp         Allow alpha to affect transparency
                ZInvert         Render only if behind occluders
                Env             Environment option
                OnlyShadow      Draw shadows but not object
                

Textures F5 & F6

        Multitexturing          SepT not pressed = on, pressed = off
                Textures are compounded in left-right order,
                SepT allows viewing the effect of single stage.
                Switch order by copying into/from stack (arrows next to SepT).
        Mapping
                Global mapping modes    Flat, Cube, Tube, Sphere
                        For mapping the whole object with a single texture
                Get txtr xform from object
                        Choose "Object" and type in object name, the transform
                        is copied from object. Empties are good for this.
                Texture space           T
                        Allows to size & move the texture coordinate space.
                Buttons                 _XYZ, ..., ofsX, ..., sizeX, ...
                        Switch mappings of coordinates, add offsets / scalings.

Animation

        Play animation          ALT-A           current window only
                                ALT-SHFT-A      all windows
        Insert key              I
        Move frame              cursor keys
                left & right move by one
                up & down move by ten
                SHFT left & right move to first and last frame

Text


        Add text                Add menu
        

Python scripting

        Text editor             SHFT-F11
        Execute script          ALT-P
        Open or New script      ALT-SHFT-F      (in text editor)
        Reload a script         CTRL-R          (in text editor)