Blender – Interface II – The 3D- Window (Viewport)

Author: Karl Kühberger

The actual working process (Modelling, Animating etc.) takes place in the 3D- Window (= Viewport).

In the base setting there is already a cube, a camera and a lamp in the scene. You can also see the axes of the global coordinate plane, the grid, and a 3D- Cursor with the shape of a crossline. In the left upper corner you can see the current orientation of the axes and the name of the chosen object. The number in paranthesis indicates the actual frame and is only important with animated objects. The menu bar belonging to the 3D- window is located at the lower edge.


Blender 3D- Window (Factory Settings)

Views

You can move, turn and zoom the viewpoint.

This is a list of the most important View- functions and their shortcuts:
  • Move: middle mouse button
  • Zoom: Scroll
  • Turn: Shift+ middle mouse button
  • View from above: 7 (numeric keypad)
  • View from front: 1 (numeric keypad)
  • View from side: 3 (numeric keypad)
  • Camera perspective: 0 (numeric keypad)
You can also get to the views through the View- Menu. Pushing the Shift- button, the views are switched to the opposite (e.g. Shift 7 = viev
from below).
Notebooks (no numeric keypad): you can use the normal keyboard:
CHOOSE:
Pre- Adjustment Menu (at the very top) – System & Open GL – Emulate Numpad

Choosing objects

Chosen objects in the object modus are pink. You can choose several objects at the same time, the last chosen objects is always the active objects. This means that orders that can be only applied to one object, are applied to the last chosen object.
  • This is list of the most important orders to choose objects:
  • Choose a single object: right mouse button
  • add to choice: Shift+ right mouse button
  • remove from choice: Shift+ right mouse button
  • Choose an area: B (push and release!) + left mouse button → make a frame
  • Remove an area from choice: B+ middle mouse button → make a frame
  • Choose all/ nothing: A
You can find all orders in the Select-Menu.

The Menu Bar