Talk:Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/3D View Windows

First topic
With all respect to the contributors to this book, the manual mainained at blender.org was a real relief after reading the confusing stuff and blog-like notes in this chapter.

on Placing the 3d cursor: The exercise at the end:  after putting the cursor inside the camera, I can't get it back in the cube. Every time I click within the cube, it de/selects it. How to manipulate only the cursor and not select the cube?

Once a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, mouse pointers has three buttons. What do you do if you have no MMB?


 * Your input is valid and adding more information for users of two button mice is definately in the works. However, instead of providing feedback like this, please just add whatever you think needs to be added.  That's the whole point of a wikibook!  --Spiderworm 22:08, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Some people have "scroll" wheels rather than than MMBs. Maybe some instructions for us as well? I've added the stuff for pan-up/pan-down- user:Borisblue

Rotating
It would have saved me a bit of googling if it was pointed out the SHIFT-F to enter "Camera Fly Mode" only works in "Object Mode"... in "Edit Mode" it appears to do nothing... Thanks!

Placing 3D cursor

 * With all due respect to all contributors to this great work. Is it possible to remove all the 'Another reader' and 'Yet another reader' notes? The original author was only trying to illustrate a point (although it was more about different respective editing plan than 3d cursor). All these readers' notes are only making it more confusing and out of focus (and making me tired from reading them...) -- Webber 15:48, 08 Mar 2007 (EST)


 * I've put the added notes in a nice little box off to the right, so they are clearly not part of the body text --68.6.52.59 04:28, 9 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I think this is the right move, until the exercise has been reworded or clarified. For me the challenge was remembering to deselct the cube first before trying to place the 3D cursor back into the cube. The most effective method IMO was to use AKEY to deselect everything. However this presupposes knowledge of selecting and deselecting, which has not yet been covered if you read the tutorial in sequence (I believe). I would recommend partially re-sequencing to have a short tutorial on selecting and deselecting. Does it make sense to talk about selecting first? Garmon Sutrix 15:27, 15 May 2007 (UTC)


 * About having people press the "a" key to solve their dilemma, we haven't gotten to selecting and deselecting yet. I agree with the above person, and I believe we need to try to keep everything as organized as possible (especially near the beginning), and that includes separating the tutorial of selecting with the tutorial of using the cursor. The same goes for telling people to turn off the 3D transform manipulator. It should not only be saved for another time, but will only cause more confusion later on when they don't turn it back on. Instead of reorganizing the whole thing and muddling things up, I'm going to change the instructions to, on the 3D view header, go to Object > Snap > Cursor to selection. We've covered the header and navigating menus, and it fits neatly in the section. We don't need that junk that gets in the way of instructing them to do it and explaining its difficulty.

Buy one
They are pretty cheap. There are modifier keys, such as shift, alt, and ctrl, also try reading the blender help for information on which do what.

shift+scroll on ibook with scroll wheel mouse.
the whole SHIFT+Scroll to pan up and down does not seem to work on my ibook with a logitec mouse with a scroll button that seems to work dandy. any ideas? thanks. CTRL-scroll to pan left and right works great though.

3D cursor
Anyone know how to set 3D cursor in XYZ (0, 0, 0)? I mean not with mouse clicking, but by numerical way or some shortcut. --Popski 11:25, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * I found it. SHIFT-CKEY
 * YAY!!

Rotation MMB / Rotation around what point?
It's not clear how to get some control over what point you are orbiting when you use the MMB. When I'm building, I would like to have the mmb function orbit the object but i have no idea how.
 * Agree to this 85.177.158.59 (talk) 14:04, 14 January 2009 (UTC)


 * This is done with the use of NUM. which will adjust the view rotation centre to the selected object, while remaining in global view (ie. all other objects remain visible.) 16:02, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

"The object the viewport orbits around (the object you see) can be changed to a new object by first selecting it with the RMB and then pressing NUM/" This is too advanced for the tutorial. I have just one object a box and i have no motivation to move the camera yet.
 * Yes, this is a cool hint, the mode is called LOCAL VIEW. But then, all other objects are hidden. Thats not what i need, but it's a step towards it. I might be simple minded, but when i model, i need to orbit (pan&zoom without roll) around selected parts AND see all neighbourhood.85.177.149.254 (talk) 13:57, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
 * OK, found it. For this, in the Buttons Window "View Rotation" the modes "Turntable" and "Around Selection" have to be switched on, e.g. "be darkened". I prefer this very easy mode for simple and fast checks on correct modeling. 85.177.149.254 (talk) 14:25, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

"In Blender there is a big difference between the number keys on your numberpad (numpad) and the number keys along the top of the keyboard. For example, NUM7 refers to the number 7 on the numberpad, while 7KEY refers to the number 7 that's above the YKEY and UKEY on the standard US keyboard." This has already been explained and it's not Rotation specific.

IMHO, this point should be flattened, too. There are many things that don't have to do with rotation at all, eg. Numpad 1,3,7 where this should be explained separatedly and earlier.85.177.158.59 (talk) 14:04, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

num-period
It's not really completely clear which key is meant with NUM-period. Firstly, the use of the hyphen is inconsistent (NUM1 to NUM9 don't have a hyphen) and secondly, other keyboards don't have a period there but a comma or perhaps something else.

Indeed, I was on my way in to mention that NUM and NUM were mentioned twice, thinking the period and comma were simple punctuation. DavidJaquay 23:21, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Camera navigation.
Hope I'm not missing something obvious, but it seems to be a mystery how one can navigate in the camera view; i.e. pan, dolly, etc by moving the camera itself. Using controls described in the article of course just take one to a new viewpoint (user) without altering the postion or orientation of the camera.

I'm having the same problem --Wladston 13:41, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

to pan the camera you can just select it (by rightclicking the black border) while your in camera view (numpad 0) and push g to move it. you can also tilt it with r but I don't know about rotating it up and down or side to side.


 * Camera Navigation is outside of the scope of this section. I'm glad you got assistance, but the order in which you learn these things is intended to assist you in learning new items. A strong point needs to be made that this section is focusing on the user view, and not the camera's view.  I'm a noob here, but I trust that's being left to a later section. --Deadguy (talk) 20:29, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Selecting all layers
My backtick key doesn't seem to do anything - selecting all layers **appears** to be my single-quote key, 'KEY. I'm hesitant to edit the page because it explicitly says that it's /not/ the single-quote key.. but that's what's working for me. I'm using a UK keyboard; the single-quote button shares the key with @, and is to the left of # (and ~) which is to the right of Return. Should the page be fixed, or is my install behaving weirdly?

On German Keyboard the "toogle all visible" key is ö (o with umlaut) on version 2.49b-win64 of blender.

Re: Selecting all layers
My backtick key does select all layers (US keyboard). Perhaps it is just the mapping on your UK keyboard.

Panning the View
"To pan is to move the camera" To my understanding, panning does not move *the* camera. It just changes your view in the 3D View.

The segment that states: "You also have choice of keyboard alternatives:

CTRL+NUM8                      Up CTRL+NUM4           CTRL+NUM6       Left      Right CTRL+NUM2                     Down

Panning is an important skill to master; try it now."

The Up Left Right Down part is not clear if i should be in the Numpad or in the arrows left of it.

Readers' Comments
The insertion of readers' comments in line with the main text makes things confusing. Comments need to be made slightly separate from the main text. One possible way might be to indent all comments.

Reply: There's no need for comments in the text. Comments are to be in the discussion page, I think. Sevcsik 18:11, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Removed discussions
I removed a discussion from the "Adding and Deleting Objects" part:

(Huh? I needed Edit Mode for this - You must not have selected it at first, you really do need object mode.) (They both work...ObjectMode for the object...EditMode for various parts, including All...Ver. 2.42a. And BTW the version reference should, IMHO, be at the top of ALL tutorials, at the top of each Section, and referenced by responders to avoid miss communicatin(s)...)

I think they belong here. Sevcsik 17:31, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Adding or Deleting Objects

 * In light of the discussion around the 3D Cursor Tutorial, perhaps this section can be moved just above that tutorial, and expanded a little to include a discussion about AKEY to deselect all / select all.
 * In this section it tells the reader to "make sure the 3D cursor is inside the cube" before pressing Del. Why is this? Should this be explained? I tried without the 3D cursor inside the cube and it still deleted just fine.
 * Also, it appears that this is the first time the contextual SPACE menu is mentioned, rather cavalierly. Shall we make it simpler by just having the user choose from the Add menu for now? And introduce the SPACE menu and the gestural interface a little later on? Garmon Sutrix 15:40, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Placing the 3D cursor section could use more snapshots
Just finished this chapter and even though this is a great book so far I'd recommend having a few more photos in this section to give an example of what the user is supposed to do. 71.228.155.181 23:33, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Reformated the page
I've edited this page and restructured some content. This should allow for a better adhesion to the 80/20 rule. Please redirect the following protip elsewhere:

Pro Tip
EvanCarroll 01:21, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
 * If you can, find a mouse with side buttons. Anything like Microsoft's Intellimouse, or Logitech's Mediaplay, that have back/forth buttons, will do. Map those buttons to the MMB. This makes camera control feel a LOT more intuitive (plus it frees up a finger).

All [NOTE: ... ] need to be worked into prose, or removed. Or, made into Footnotes They are an eyesore and prevent fast-scanning of the material. I would take a gander this material could be presented in a fashion which would cut learning time down by 70% by reworking the assumed policies of this book. EvanCarroll 01:36, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Object vs. Edit View
One of the hints that was provided is that the status bar in the top right corner has text that says Ob:... or Ed:... depending on the mode. While this is correct, it may be worth pointing out that Ed stands for Edges, not edit. 124.171.128.48 (talk) 10:18, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

"A status bar at the top-right of the user preferences window will indicate the current mode by displaying 'Ob' or 'Ed' depending on the currently toggled mode." This should rather be mentioned as an optional way of checking it - the Object Mode/Edit Mode can be plainly read from the 3d window border, which is now given as a "secondary" way of checking your mode. It took me several minutes to just find the Ob/Ed in the top right corner status bar (Yes, the STATUS BAR is in the top-right corner, no, Ob/Ed-text is not.)

Object Orientation
''Why not add a monkey? Choose Add > Mesh > Monkey. [If you prefer the monkey to be facing frontwards, make sure to be in FRONT view (NUM1) before adding the mesh - note: in Blender 2.48a, it's complicated. If Blender is in Object Mode, the monkey is always facing up. If it's in edit mode then the direction the monkey faces depends on the view (top, side or front)]''

I don't know if it's appropriate to mention changing preferences this early in the book (I doubt it)... but you can change that behaviour in 2.48a with Preferences / Edit Methods / Aligned to View. 210.56.81.102 (talk) 13:31, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Uncertainty about state of the "3D Transform Manipulator"
Thanks very much for this documentation! The line "2. Disable the "Use 3D transform manipulator" option by using the icon located on the 3D viewport's window header (shaped like a pointing hand). Or, hit CTRL+SPACE to toggle." doesn't help me understand which state is enabled or disabled. In both states, the mouseover text for the hand is the same: "Use 3d transform manipulator (Ctrl Space)". I guess the enabled mode is when the red triangle, green circle and blue square appears. Newbies have never heard of this thang, so it might be helpful to tell them how to tell whether it is enabled or not. Robin Whittle

I think it's pretty obvious when the manipulator is on. It's kinda hard to miss large, colored arrows. --JamesNZ (discuss • contribs) 05:55, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

laptop function (virtual) numpad
As I read in the tutorial that the viewport movement would only be done through numpad (numeric pad), I started to shop for a wireless numpad for my laptop but I found out that there was already a virtual one on it and it works in blender where it says only a numpad would do : using the function key, there a slanted rectangles of the keyboard starting on the number row on its right-side, all the numbers are placed the same (slanted) so it's pretty intuitive.

I'm thinking of getting something that could make a border on those keys that's not distractive when I'm typing text and is temporary, perhaps vinyl ...

Minor point about creating new objects
I'm a Noob ... and am wondering if I'm missing something. I'm using Blender 2.49b and when I create a new object the display remains in Object Mode. The tutorial (and another book I'm reading) say "A new object will be added, and you will be in what's known as Edit Mode". Has there been a change in this version? Also my book says there should be a "Pose Mode" available but I only see "Sculpt Mode". Was there a change in this description? Great Tutorial by the way!

Information overload
Despite this section being basics, the exact use of it is questionable. Since the user (most likely newb/noob) hasn't done any actual editing of objects (that's what it seems like this guide assumes.), they won't know the real use for the hotkeys, perspectives etc. Its pretty hard to memorize everything here. Doing actual modeling like in 'quickie model' makes remembering this stuff wayyyyyy easier. It might be worth moving this section so it's after the quickie model.

The stuff here are basics, I think it'd be best to keep it here. --JamesNZ (discuss • contribs) 05:55, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Orthographic vs. Perspective
This section claims that Blender gives an orthographic view by default, but my 3D View window (like the images in this book) is in perspective view by default. Am I crazy here, or is this text a relic from an earlier version of Blender? - Asterai

Rotation hotkeys
My factory-settings Blender uses Num1, Num7 and Num9 (NOT Num3) for perfect views. Update page? - Asterai Never mind. I was wrong about how my pseudo-numpad was set up. *Facepalm* - Asterai

Modes Deprecated?
My recently downloaded version of blender only has 2 modes available, Object mode and Edit mode...the other modes do not show up in the mode menu.