Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Non-standard equipment

This module is applicable only to users with non-standard input devices. If you have both a three-button mouse and a keyboard with a numpad, you can skip this module.

Keyboards lacking a numpad
Most modern laptops have a, a set of keys in the main keypad which double as a numpad. The keys typically used for this purpose are:

When used as a pseudo-numpad, these keys typically act as the following keys from a true numpad:

The numpad functions of these keys can often be toggled with or  on PCs or with  on Macs. Alternatively, you can often temporarily activate the numpad behavior by holding down.

If your keyboard has the alternate labellings but you don't know how they work, consult your laptop owner's manual.

As a last resort, you can use the "Emulate Numpad" feature of Blender. This will allow you to use the normal numeric keys as if they were numpad numerics. Instructions for enabling this feature may be found in.

Blender uses the numeric keypad quite a bit. If you envision using your laptop for this kind of work, it may be worth investing in a USB Numeric Keypad. On eBay, prices for simple external numpads start around $10 USD.

Non three-button mouse
For single-button mouse users, make sure that Input for Blender 2.79 (under "User Preferences" on the left-most drop-down menu) &rarr; Emulate 3 Button Mouse is enabled.

On many computers with two-button mice, can be emulated by simultaneously clicking  and. On Windows machines you'll need to enable this in the mouse settings in the Control Panel. On a Mac, open the Keyboard and Mouse preference pane and enable Use two fingers to scroll. Alternatively, by selecting Emulate 3 Button Mouse under User Preferences, can be emulated by simultaneously clicking  and.

Recent IBM Thinkpad laptops allow you to disable the 'UltraNav' features of the middle mouse button in order to use it as a 'normal' third button. Alternatively, some laptops allow areas (called gestures) on the movement pad to act as or, and these can be set up in the Control Panel in the Mouse Pointer options, selecting gestures and editing features there.

Apple single-button mouse
While Mac OS X natively uses both the and  to emulate, recent Blender releases for Mac OS X use only  for this purpose. This behavior is documented in the OSX Tips file that comes with the Mac version. You can also set the mouse to sense a right-click in System Preferences.

Note also that in the new, "unibody" design, the mouse button is under the trackpad, and the shortcut for is clicking with two fingers simultaneously, which can be enabled in the System Preferences.

Laptops lacking a middle button but with a touchpad
Many laptops have touchpads. Touchpads, also known as trackpads or in some cases as smart-pads, can use gestures to give the effect of. The default for an Elan® Smart-Pad is two-finger tapping equivalent to clicking a. Dragging two fingers is the same as turning a mouse wheel.

Tablet PCs
To get the effect of in a viewport, drag your pen around while holding down the  key.

Additional Resources

 * version 2.4: keyboard and mouse (old documentation) — Blender 2.4 Manual


 * Input devices (version 2.7x)