Here’s a list of shortcuts for use in our Blender adventures. These become second nature very quickly, but when you’ve been away from Blender for a while it’s really easy to forget them all. So while they’re in my mind, here’s what my brain currently knows and likes.
Transformations
- G – move (grab)
- S – scale
- R – rotate
- RR – rotate (trackball mode)
- CTRL + A – Apply Transformations
Constrain either of these actions around an axis by entering X, Y or Z respectively. Likewise, press SHIFT + X/Y/Z to exclude said axis. Enter a number following an axis for a precise value. For example, to rotate your object 90 degrees around the Z axis, type “R Z 90 Enter”.
Selections
- CTRL + Drag – Lasso Selection
- C – Circular Selection (left-click and drag to paint the selection)
- B – Border Selection (drag a rectangle)
- A – toggle select / deselect everything
- CTRL + I – invert selection
- ALT + right-click an edge to select the whole edge
- CTRL + right-click two items to select everything in between
- O – toggle Proportional Edition
- CTRL + plus/minus – grow/shrink selection
- CTRL + TAB – Vertex / Edge / Face Selection
- CTRL + SPACE – hide/show the manipulator gizmo
- H – hide selected
- SHIFT + H – hide everything but the current selection
- ALT + H – unhide everything
Tools (Edit Mode)
- CTRL + R – Loop Cut and Slide (Page Up to add more loops)
- E – Extrude (click without moving to add geometry)
- CTRL + F – Face Menu
- CTRL + E – Edge Menu
- CTRL + V – Vertex Menu
- SHIFT + S – Snap Menu
- SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + C – Set Origin Menu
- F – Fill an opening (select closed edges to succeed)
- W – Specials Menu
- P – Split selection into its own object (then selectable in Object Mode)
- L – select linked faces / edges / vertices
- GG – move an edge along
- D – Grease Pencil mode (hold down, then left-click and drag, CTRL to draw lines, right-click to erase)
- ALT + SPACE – select transformation orientation (global, local, etc)
With all transformations, hold down SHIFT for more precise control. Hold down CTRL for more coarse control.
Tools (Object Mode)
- CTRL + J – Join Objects (SHIFT select multiple)
- T – open / close Tools Palette (left of viewport)
- N – open / close Transform Palette (right of viewport)
- H – Hide Selected
- SHIFT + H – Hide Unselected
- ALT + H – Show Hidden
- M – Move to Layer
Viewport and Viewing
- NUMPAD + . – View Selected (doesn’t work on Mac, even with Enable Numpad active)
- CTRL + ALT + Q – toggle in and out of Quad View
- SHIFT + C – Center Cursor and View All
- CTRL + B – create a small window in rendered viewport (renders faster)
- CTRL + ALT + B – clear the border
This is by all means not a complete list, just the ones I found useful on my own Blender journey.
Thank you for your care and time spent preparing tutorials for computer graphics students.
I have followed Blender technology since 2013 after a brief time with Maya. I am retired and am trying to produce an animated simulation of the ear. I have depended on Blender Guru’s posts which have often coincided with my progress, slowly because the modelling is detailed.
On 9 January 2018 I found your post about Grouping and Parenting and systematically went through older posts from there. I am still confused about when to use parenting v grouping v linking v Boxing v Joining but the detail in your posts is valuable to me.
I look forward to your posts by subscription and I hope you are in remission with the chemotherapy.
I wish there was more concern for simulation of natural and physiological phenomena and less preoccupation with shooter-em-up.
Brian
Hi Brian,
great to hear my post was useful to you, and thank you for subscribing! I believe that parenting vs grouping is a purely personal choice, although of course it depends on your needs as much as your individual workflow. For me, I like working with the Outliner, so parenting works well for me – if I want to retain the objects. However, during the modelling stage, I find myself joining objects together so that various primitives are turned into object sub-parts before making it into a larger object. For example, a table leg may be constructed of several cylinders perhaps, or a cube and a cylinder. I’d join those together. But then, the resulting object may become a parented table leg of the table.
Thank you for your well wishes in regards to my health! I have great news indeed: immunotherapy has helped me become cancer free! We found this out in October 2017, and I’m overjoyed by the news! I’m officially a Super Survivor, because two chemotherapies have failed in my case and only immunotherapy (Keytruda) has provided the cure I needed. I’m currently writing a book about my story, of which I’ve not shared much while it was happening. I’m hoping it will help others in my situation not lose hope and keep going, even if the outlook is dire.
And I totally agree: I wish we had more tools and tutorials for real world simulations!
All the best,
JAY
Thank Jay for your considered reply. I am surprised and delighted by it so I have replied immediately.
I am considering asking you about a problem but will hesitate to make the question more precise.
Brian
Happy to help if I can. If it is specific to any of my articles, please consider asking the question as a comment there so that others can follow can follow our conversation on topic.
Using keyboard shortcuts can speed the workflow up a lot in Blender. Printed cheat sheets for this would be a good idea near the office desk for a quick reference.