Table of Contents
Blender uses a lot of hotkeys ( aka shortcuts ) and in general, you can just press spacebar in the 3D View and search will show the hotkeys after the search result on the right side. Hovering over buttons in the user interface will also show some of them.
Alternatively, you can have a look at Edit -> Preferences... -> Keymap tab and search for special commands by name and / or change the hotkeys.
You can open a context menu with right-click.
Below I have listed the most common hotkeys and controls I use as a reference, that are compatible with the changes made in the Preparation chapter.
General
Commands are confirmed with a left-click or the Enter key. You can cancel them with the right mouse button or with the ESC key.
Changes
Change the Undo and Redo in the Keymap settings if you have a German ( QWERTZ ) keyboard:
- Ctrl + Y: Undo the last change
- Shift + Ctrl + Y: Redo the last undo
Selection
in, for example, Modeling workspace
- Left-click: Select an object, vertex, edge, face, etc.
- Shift + left-clicks: Select more than one object etc.
- B + left mouse button & drag: Select multiple object/s, faces
- C then left click to select vertices, faces, etc. -- hold Shift to deselect -- mouse wheel changes the radius -- then right-click to deactivate selection mode.
- Shift + D: Duplicate selected object/s, faces, etc.
- 1, 2, 3: Switch between Vertex, Edge & Face mode
- A: To select all objects, vertices, edges, faces.
- Alt + A: To deselect all objects, vertices, edges, faces.
View / Camera
- Numpad Comma / Dot: Center view at and zoom to a selected object in 3D View
- Alt + middle mouse button Center view at mouse cursor in 3D View
- Mouse wheel: Zoom in/out
- Middle mouse button + move: Orbit around the selected object / pivot point
- Shift + Middle Mouse button + move: Move / pan view along the view plane
- Alt + B: Select a rectangle you want to see and the rest of the scene will be hidden. Display all by pressing Alt + B again.
- H and Alt + H: Hide and show the selected objects, vertices, edges, faces.
Menus
- Right-click: Open Context Menu
- TAB: Switch between Edit Mode & Object Mode
- Z: Shading menu
- Q: Quick Favorites -> You can add favorite buttons by right-clicking the button and choose Add to Quick Favorites.
- T: Tool Shelf toggle
- N: Properties panel toggle
- Spacebar: Powerful dynamic, searchable menu
- F9: Operator panel, after for example creating objects
3D Cursor
- Shift + C: Center the 3D Cursor at the origin of the world space and show all objects
- Shift + S: Show the 3D Cursor menu
Transform
Hold Shift while in a transform mode to be more precise.
- G: Move an object along the view plane.
- Then press X, Y or Z to move along only this axis.
- Or press Shift + X, Y or Z to exclude this axis.
- G * 2: slide the vertices, edge
- Alt + G: Move the object to the center.
- S: Scale an object in all axis. ( Hold Shift while in scale mode to scale more precise. )
- Then press X, Y or Z to scale only this axis.
- Or press Shift + X, Y or Z to exclude this axis.
- R: Rotate an object around the view axis.
- Then press R again to rotate freely around all axis.
- Or press X, Y or Z to rotate only around this axis.
Collections
- M: Move to Collection ( former Layers )
Edit Mode
Selection
- Left Click the first vertex, edge, face then
- Shift + right-clicks: Select multiple
- CTRL + right-click the last one: selects all in between automatically
- ALT + right-click: loop select vertex, edge, face
- L: select mesh island while hovering
Menus
- P: Separation
- U: Unwrap
Manipulate
- E: Extrude selection
- Ctrl + right-click: Extrude to the mouse pointer
- F: Select four vertices, then press F to fill the hole with a face.
- F: Select an edge, then press F to automatically create a bridging face.
- ALT + F: Select several edges ( loop ) to fill a simple hole.
- ALT + M: Merge menu
- CTRL + R then moves and left clicks: Select and apply a loop cut.
- CTRL + T: Triangulate selection
Metaballs
- ALT + C then Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text: convert to mesh
Sculpting
- Left mouse button: Add brush shape
- Ctrl + left mouse button: Subtract brush shape
- Shift + left mouse button: Smooth brush
- F: Set sculpting radius
- Shift + F: Set sculpting strength
- Ctrl + F: Interactively rotate brush image
Dynamic Topology
- Ctrl + D: toggle DynTopo
- Shift + D then left-click: Set detail size
Grease Pencil
- Hold D + left-click: Draw
- Hold D + right-click: Delete the drawn
UV / Image Editor
- G: Select and press G key and move the mouse to move vertices / edges
- L: Select UV island while hovering