Blender

These are notes I've taken while learning Blender from a series of videos on YouTube.

Moving

Modifier keys help make movement and panning possible. With a touch scroll mouse, the touch scroll by itself moves the camera. The scroll + Control or Command will zoom. The scroll + shift will pan.

The widget on the top right will snap the view to top/bottom/left/right of object. There are key options for this too (if you have a num pad).

If you get lost somewhere in 3D space, press Shift + C to move back to center of the scene.

Setup improvements for the interface

Do this the first time on a fresh install.

Add-ons for more features

Internal add-ons are under Preferences > Add-Ons (click checkboxes to install).

External ones can be found and imported.

Recommended internal add-ons:

Recommended external add-ons:

General resource/forum: blenderartists.org

Setup for Millimeter scale

Now preserve these settings for all new files with: File > Defaults > Save Startup File

Right click version number in bottom right corner and select "Scene statistics" for handy info

Selections

When a mesh object is selected, [tab] will toggle between object mode and edit mode.

Select vertices, edges and faces with 1, 2, 3 keys.

Select a "loop" of faces around an object, alt/option + click on edge. Works for vertices and edges too.

Control + i to invert a selection

Control + click faces to create a pathway from previously selected face to newly selected face

Circle select is a way to "paint" a selection, press "c" to enter that mode. Hold shift to deselect

Create, delete, & duplicate

3D cursor is the object left in the middle when everything else is deleted.

X brings up delete in menu

Shift S brings up in-context menu, including way to get 3D cursor back to "world center" (or shift + c)

Shift and right click to snap 3D cursor to your mouse

Shift and A brings up add menu for adding objects

Origin of an object = little orange dot

Origin of creation = 3D cursor

Shift + right click on an object to snap the 3D cursor to the surface of that object

Top has menu for snapping, you can choose vertex

Shift + right click and hold to drag 3D cursor around, add Ctrl to snap near a vertex

Shift + d to duplicate a selected object. It follows the mouse, right click to drop at origin of duplication

While constrained to cursor, limit to X, Y, Z axis movement with those keys.

While constrained, Shift + Z to limit to only X/Y movement

While constrained and fixed to an axis, type 5 to move it 5 mm out on that axis.

Press - to toggle between -5 and 5 mm from original position.

Press [enter/return] to confirm the placement

Duplicate in edit mode keeps the duplication in the same object

Control + L selects everything linked to the vertex you've picked

Control + J to join two objects together. The active one (parent) will retain the origin point

Movement and transforms

If you change an objects dimensions, you have to Control + A and pick Scale to adjust the scale back to 1.

G to grab an object (lock to cursor for moving)

Constraints are global at first, but click again to constrain to local (object's axis). Example: rotated cube, click Y to constrain to global Y axis, click Y again to constrain to Y axis of cube as it's rotated

When multiple things are picked you can use the pivot point menu to pick various ways to define pivoting (based on the active, each according to their individual object origin, or even using the 3d cursor)