Object Mode HotKeys

Relevant to Blender 2.33

These hotkeys are mainly bound to the 3D Viewport Window, but many work on Objects in most other windows, like IPOs and so on, hence they are summarized here.

HOME. All Objects in the visible layer are displayed completely, centered in the window.

PAGEUP. Select the next Object Key. If more than one Object Key is selected, the selection is shifted up cyclically. Only works if the AnimButtons->DrawKey is ON for the Object.

SHIFT-PAGEUP. Adds to selection the next Object Key.

PAGEDOWN. Select the previous Object Key. If more than one Object Key is selected, the selection is shifted up cyclically. Only works if the AnimButtons->DrawKey is ON for the Object.

SHIFT-PAGEDOWN. Adds to selection the previous Object Key.

ACCENT. (To the left of the 1KEY in US keyboard) Select all layers.

SHIFT-ACCENT. Revert to the previous layer setting.

TAB. Start/stop EditMode. Alternative hotkey: ALT-E.

AKEY. Selects/deselects all.

CTRL-A. Apply size and rotation. The rotation and dimensions of the Object are assigned to the ObData (Mesh, Curve, etc.). At first glance, it appears as if nothing has changed, but this can have considerable consequences for animations or texture mapping. This is best illustrated by also having the axis of a Mesh Object be drawn (EditButtons->Axis). Rotate the Object and activate Apply. The rotation and dimensions of the Object are 'erased'.

SHIFT-CTRL-A. If the active Object is automatically duplicated (see AnimButtons->DupliFrames or AnimButtons->Dupliverts), a menu asks Make dupli's real?. This option actually creates the Objects. If the active Mesh Object is deformed by a Lattice, a menu asks Apply Lattice deform?. Now the deformation of the Lattice is assigned to the vertices of the Mesh.

SHIFT-A. This is the AddMenu. In fact, it is the ToolBox that starts with the 'ADD' option. When Objects are added, Blender starts EditMode immediately if possible.

BKEY. Border Select. Draw a rectangle with the LeftMouse; all Objects within this area are selected, but not made active. Draw a rectangle with the RightMouse to deselect Objects. In orthonormal ViewMode, the dimensions of the rectangle are displayed, expressed as global coordinates, as an extra feature in the lower left corner. In Camera ViewMode, the dimensions that are to be rendered according to the DisplayButtons are displayed in pixel units.

SHIFT-B. Render Border. This only works in Camera ViewMode. Draw a rectangle to render a smaller cut-out of the standard window frame. If the option DisplayButtons->Border is ON, a box is drawn with red and black lines.

CKEY. Centre View. The position of the 3DCursor becomes the new centre of the 3DWindow.

ALT-C. Convert Menu. Depending on the active Object, a PopupMenu is displayed. This enables you to convert certain types of ObData. It only converts in one direction, everything ultimately degrades to a Mesh! The options are:

CTRL-C. Copy Menu. This menu copies information from the active Object to (other) selected Objects.

SHIFT-C. CentreZero View. The 3DCursor is set to zero (0,0,0) and the view is changed so that all Objects, including the 3Dcursor, can be displayed. This is an alternative for HOME.

DKEY. Draw mode menu. Allows to select draw modes exactly as the corresponding menu in the 3D viewport header does.

SHIFT-D. Add Duplicate. The selected Objects are duplicated. Grab mode starts immediately thereafter.

ALT-D. Add Linked Duplicate. Of the selected Objects linked duplicates are created. Grab mode starts immediately thereafter.

CTRL-D. Draw the (texture) Image as wire. This option has a limited function. It can only be used for 2D compositing.

ALT-E. Start/stop EditMode. Alternative hotkey: TAB.

FKEY. If selected Object is a mesh Toggles Face selectMode on and off.

CTRL-F. Sort Faces. The faces of the active Mesh Object are sorted, based on the current view in the 3DWindow. The leftmost face first, the rightmost last. The sequence of faces is important for the Build Effect (AnimButtons).

GKEY. Grab Mode. Or: the translation mode. This works on selected Objects and vertices. Blender calculates the quantity and direction of the translation, so that they correspond exactly with the mouse movements, regardless of the ViewMode or view direction of the 3DWindow. Alternatives for starting this mode:

The following options are available in translation mode:

ALT-G. Clears translations, given in Grab mode. The X,Y,Z locations of selected Objects are set to zero.

SHIFT-G. Group Selection

IKEY. Insert Object Key. A keyposition is inserted in the current frame of all selected Objects. A PopupMenu asks what key position(s) must be added to the IpoCurves.

CTRL-J. Join Objects. All selected Objects of the same type are added to the active Object. What actually happens here is that the ObData blocks are combined and all the selected Objects (except for the active one) are deleted. This is a rather complex operation, which can lead to confusing results, particularly when working with a lot of linked data, animation curves and hierarchies.

KKEY. Show Keys. The DrawKey option is turned ON for all selected Objects. If all of them were already ON, they are all turned OFF.

SHIFT-K. A PopupMenu asks: OK? Show and select all keys. The DrawKey option is turned ON for all selected Objects, and all Object-keys are selected. This function is used to enable transformation of the entire animation system.

LKEY. Makes selected Object local. Makes library linked objects local for the current scene.

CTRL-L. Link selected. Links some of the Active Object data to all selected Objects, the following menu entry appears only if applicable.

SHIFT-L. Select Linked. Selects all Objects somehow linked to active Object.

MKEY.

Moves selected Object(s) to another layer, a pop-up appers. Use LMB to move, use SHIFT-LMB to make the object belong to multiple layers. If the selected Objects have different layers, this is 'OR'ed in the menu display. Use ESC to exit the menu. Press the "OK" button or ENTER to change the layer seting. The hotkeys (ALT-)(1KEY, 2KEY, ... - 0KEY) work here as well (see 3DHeader).

CTRL-M. Mirror Menu. It is possible to mirror an Object along the X, Y or Z axis.

NKEY.

Number Panel. The location, rotation and scaling of the active Object are displayed and can be modified.

ALT-O. Clear Origin. The 'Origin' is erased for all Child Objects, which causes the Child Objects to move to the exact location of the Parent Objects.

SHIFT-O. If the selected Object is a Mesh toggles SubSurf onn/off. CTRL-1 to CTRL-4 switches to the relative SubSurf level for display purpouses. Rendering SUbSurf level has no HotKey.

CTRL-P. Make selected Object(s) the child(ren) of the active Object. If the Parent is a Curve then a popup offers two coiches:

If the Parent is an Armature, a popup offers three options:

In the second case further options asks if Vertex groups should not be created, should be created empty or created and populated.

ALT-P. Clears Parent relation, user is asked if he wishes to keep or clear parent-induced transforms.

RKEY. Rotate mode. Works on selected Object(s). In Blender, a rotation is by default a rotation perpendicular to the screen, regardless of the view direction or ViewMode. The degree of rotation is exactly linked to the mouse movement. Try moving around the rotation midpoint with the mouse. The rotation pivot point is determined by the state of the 3DWiewport Header buttons. Alternatives for starting this mode:

The following options are available in rotation mode:

ALT-R. Clears Rotation. The X,Y,Z rotations of selected Objects are set to zero.

SKEY. Size mode or scaling mode. Works on selected Object(s). The degree of scaling is exactly linked to the mouse movement. Try to move from the (rotation) midpoint with the mouse. The pivot point is determined by the settings of the 3D Viewport header pivot Menu. Alternatives for starting scaling mode:

The following options are available in scaling mode:

ALT-S. Clears Size. The X,Y,Z dimensions of selected Objects are set to 1.0.

SHIFT-S. SnapMenu:

TKEY. Texture space mode. The position and dimensions of the texture space for the selected Objects can be changed in the same manner as described above for Grab and Size mode. To make this visible, the drawingflag EditButtons->TexSpace is set ON. A PopupMenu asks you to select: "Grabber" or "Size".

CTRL-T. Makes selected Object(s) track the Active Object. Old track method was Blender default tracking before version 2.30. The new method is the Constrain Track, this creates a fully editable constraint on the selected object targeting the active Object.

ALT-T. Clears old style Track. Constraint track is removed as all constrains are.

UKEY. Makes Object Single User, the inverse operation of Link (CTRL-L) a pop-up appears with choices.

VKEY. Switches in/out of Vertex Paint Mode.

ALT-V. Object-Image Aspect. This hotkey sets the X and Y dimensions of the selected Objects in relation to the dimensions of the Image Texture they have. Use this hotkey when making 2D Image compositions and multi-plane designs to quickly place the Objects in the appropriate relationship with one another.

WKEY. Opens Object Booleans Menu.

XKEY. Erase Selected? Deletes selected objects.

ZKEY. Toggles Solid Mode on/off.

SHIFT-Z. Toggles Shaded Mode on/off.

ALT-Z. Toggles Textured Mode on/off.