Software I like: Blender

There is plenty of on-line documentation. What to me seems to be the best single item is somewhat buried on the Web site at Education & Help Docs and videos Manuals & Books Blender wiki website User's Manual.

Unfortunately, many of the tutorials give instructions in terms of keyboard shortcuts, which does not make it easy to learn the menus, which are probably the easiest way for a beginner to get going.

Many resources are available, such as material definitions.

See also:

• Blender wiki
• Blender 3D: Noob to Pro (wiki book)
• Artists’ forums
• Developers’ forums
• J. Chronister's Blender Basics, 2nd Edition

My notes for version 2.4

The superscript number in each subheading below represents the version of Blender for which I made (or confirmed) the note. The GUI changed a lot in Blender 2.5, then remained more or less the same for 2.6 (see Release Logs).

Opening a file^2.48

File Open

Quit^2.48

^2.66 File Quit does not offer to save the current file if there are unsaved changes! Using Ctrl-Q does ask for confirmation of the quit but doesn't warn if there are unsaved changes.

^2.66 If one realizes in time that one has quit without saving, one can use Recover Last Session in the start-up splash screen. This opens quit.blend in the Temp directory. Equivalently, use File Recover Last Session. This must be the first thing you do when you restart Blender. (Quitting by killing Blender with the close-window X doesn't produce a warning and doesn't generate the quit.blend file.)

If, for whatever reason, the Temp directory is not properly defined, there will be no warning and any unsaved changes will be lost. Since the temp directory is by default set to /tmp/ and MS Windows doesn't have such a directory defined by default, it is important to either create a \tmp\ directory or redefine Temp (User Preferences File Paths Temp).

It is highly recommended, for this and other reasons, to do File Save (Ctrl-W or ^2.66Ctrl-S) frequently.

(Cf. discussions 28 and 260.)

Snapping objects to objects^2.48

The general principle is to move the ‘centre’ of each object to a particular node, and then snap those nodes together.

• In Object mode, select object 1.
• In Edit mode, select a node.
• Still in Edit mode, Mesh Snap Cursor -> Selection.
• In Object mode, in the Editing panel select Center Cursor. In spite of its name, this action doesn't move the cursor to the centre but rather moves the object centre to the cursor.
• Still in Object mode, select object 2.
• In Edit mode, select a node.
• As above, move the cursor to the selection.
• In Object mode, select object 1.
• Still in Object mode, Mesh Snap Selection -> Cursor.

Export^2.48

Blender can export to VRML 97 for display by Thrup’ny and other viewers.

Blender can also export to the DEC/GeomView OFF format which can be imported by Fad, permitting conversion to finite-element-model formats.

Default settings^2.48

If File New (Ctrl-X) doesn't give a blank scene, as you might have expected, it may be because at some point you used File Save Default Settings (Ctrl-U). You may want to use File Load Factory Settings before you start a new model, but that will also mess up other settings. To be honest, I'm really confused about how it works. (Cf. discussion 523.)

Mouse buttons^2.48

By default, the very common action of selection is invoked using the right mouse button, while the left mouse button is used for positioning the 3-D cursor (clicking) and for gestures (dragging). This can be reversed (View & Controls Select with). (See discussions 263 and 139.)

By default the middle mouse button is used for rotation. It can be set to do panning (View & Controls Middle Mouse Button).

The mouse wheel is used for zooming. The direction of zooming can be reversed (View & Controls Mouse Wheel).

Material types^2.45

Objects can have multiple material types. In Editing mode (F9), in the Links and Materials panel there is a box that says, e.g., 2 Mat 1, which means that the active object has 2 materials and that the current material index is 1. Clicking on New just below will increment the number of materials for the object. The different materials can be selected and edited in Shading Material Buttons mode. In the Links and Pipeline panel, the box containing, e.g., 2 Mat 1 is displayed again but an additional material type can't be added here.

Recent files^2.45

The list of files for File Open Recent is stored in ~/.Blog

Navigation in 3-D window^2.41

If no number pad on keyboard: expand the User Preferences window (at the top), select System & OpenGL, select Emulate Numpad to cause the regular keyboard number keys (KEY1 to KEY0) to act as numpad keys (NUM1 to NUM0). Or, if available, use appropriate keyboard settings (e.g., Fn and NumLk) to emulate numpad keys.

If no middle mouse button: expand the User Preferences window (at the top), select View & Controls, select Emulate 3 Button Mouse to emulate Middle Mouse with Alt+LeftMouse.

	/	*	-: Out
7: Top	8: Rot Up	9	+: In
4: Rot Left	5: Persp↔Orth	6: Rot Right
1: Front	2: Rot Down	3: Right side
0		.: Set ctr

• Rotate: MMB or Alt+LMB and drag
• Pan: Shift+MMB or Shift+Alt+LMB and drag
• Zoom: Ctrl-MMB or Ctrl-Alt-MMB and drag
• Standard views: NUM7, NUM1 & NUM3 give top, front and right-side views.
• Opposite views: Ctrl+NUM7, Ctrl+NUM1 & Ctrl+NUM3 give bottom, back and left-side views.
• Mouse wheel:
  • Scroll = zoom in and out
  • Shift+Scroll = pan up and down
  • Ctrl+Scroll = pan left and right

Modes, etc.^2.41

• ^2.66 Tab enter/exit Edit mode
• FKEY Object mode → UV Face Select mode
• ^2.66 Ctrl-ZKEY = undo; Shift-Ctrl-ZKEY = redo
• ^2.66 ZKEY: wire-frame ↔ shaded
• two-sided mode for export to VRML: in UV Face Select mode, Face Active Draw Mode Two Sided (also Use Object Color if appropriate)

Selection^2.41

In Object mode or Edit mode.

In Edit mode, choose whether to select vertices, edges or faces.

• AKEY toggles between selecting all and selecting none
• Use RMB to select; for additional selections, use Shift-RMB
• BKEY activates border-select tool; click LMB and drag
• BKEY twice activates circle-border-select tool ...
• Ctrl-LMB gives lasso selection

Add and delete objects^2.41

In object mode: Space brings up toolbox

• Toolbox Add
• Toolbox Delete (XKEY or DELKEY)
• Toolbox Object Join objects

Editing objects^2.41

In edit mode: Space brings up toolbox

• GKEY: Translate selected part(s)
• RKEY: Rotate selected part(s)
• Alt-MKEY: Merge selected vertices (Space Edit Vertices Merge)

Materials^2.41

The VRML 97 and X3D exports seem to handle only a single material definition. The VRML 1 export outputs more than one material definition but neither one actually appeared in Cosmo Player.