Blender 2.8 - Shortcuts feedback

Archive User Feedback
1

I’ve seen a lot of discussions here and there about the new shortcuts (mainly panic attacks) so I think it’s good to have a dedicated thread about it.

I really like the new mode selection hotkeys, it’s a consistent way to allow access to all the different modes, and to switch between them really fast.

I have just a consideration about it: after trying a bit the new system I realized that I can’t live without the Tab key as a switch for edit mode; and it’s not only because I’m used to it, but because Tab is the easier key for me to reach from my rest position (aka fingers on shift, ctrl and z), and also because I like to have it as toggle, in order to switch back to whatever mode I was working on.

I know tab is a really good option for the search function, but maybe we could use a more standard combination like Ctrl-F?

Another smaller thing about the mode selection: it would be really nice to cycle through the sub-modes when pressing the related key (like this: “press 2” → edit mode with previously selected sub-mode, “press 2 again” → next sub-mode on the list).

1 Like
2

I absolutely LOVE the 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. numbers used for different modes!! I’ve personally set my preferences to that and have been using them for a few months now and they are absolutely a 100% more efficient way of working in my opinion.

Also! I know this isn’t exactly a hotkey but I think we should be using left mouse for select and right click to allow for right click menus which would enable an entirely new way of working. Ctrl+Left Mouse button can be cursor placement. Lastly, I think border select should be automatically activated if a user drags with their left mouse button.

3

Quick question: what are the plans for wireframes?

Now Z is mapped for X-Ray and I’m very happy with it, but we definitely also need a shortcut for the new wireframe overlay, and I haven’t seen a discussion about it for now.

In my opinion it has to be around the main keys used in Blender (the magic rectangle from Tab to Alt) in order to be fast to access and also close to the x-ray one, that would allow to easily recreate a 2.7x wireframe look for those who prefer it.
I was thinking about Alt-X, that is now only used in the node editor, or maybe Alt-Z (I don’t do a lot of texture painting though, so I don’t know how much that would be missed).

4

At the moment 1-9 hotkeys (in 2.8) are used to switch editor modes (Object Mode / Edit Mode etc).
I think the more frequently used operation is switching between selection modes.
It would be much more convenient to assign hotkeys 1-9 to the operation of changing the selection mode:

Mesh Edit: 1 - Vertex, 2 - Edge, 3 - Face, 4 - Select Linked, 5 - Select Material
UV Edit: 1 - Vertex, 2 - Edge, 3 - Face, 4 - Island
Particle Edit: 1 - Path, 2 - Point, 3 - Tip

keys

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5

A quick question. Between a pie menu implementation and current 2.8 implementation of the mode select.

Why is 1 to 9 key better than a pie menu implementation? To my experience, pie menu is equally fast if not more intuitive and new user friendly(labels to different modes are shown).

To me, it is a waste of keys, and bears no improvement over a pie menu implementation.

The only situation you can argue about the speed of number keys, is that you can get into a specific mode directtly. With pie menu, you may need to get out of a specific mode and then the mode you wanted. However, due to the frequency we use mode select, this advantage is completely negligible.

2 Likes
6

What about keeping the number for modes as it is now and assigning Shift+1,2,3 to vertex,edge,face?
I’d find that very easy and logical to use.

7

Good news https://developer.blender.org/D3465.

Seems like they reverted tab for edit more. sadly the number keys are still being used for other modes but I think thats good because some people loved this idea.

Anyway, we can enter edit mode though 2 or Tab now.

Uff, finally!!!

1 Like
8

Well, a good mid-term could also be that holding tab pops up a pie menu with the modes, and tapping would remain the classic object/edit mode.

I personally switched to 1,2,3 to vertex, edge and faces, for a merely intuitive reason (later to find out it is actually used in other programs as well). Since they were close to the currently used left hemisphere of the keyboard, it made sense to me to have quick access to these repetitive functions. This of course depends on how each person experiences blender and their way of working, but if you ask me, I’d weigh the ‘privilege’ of these easy access shortcuts to some other actions that are more frequently used. I wouldn’t mind going F1/F2/F3-etc for modes, though I have no idea what are they currently used for, it would remain fairly accesible and free up space for other, perhaps more repetitive actions.

Yeah, just my two cents. I hope it helps, even if only as perspective.

9

Hi,

here’s a few issues I currently see with the latest iteration of Blender’s updated keymap:

1, Search and Viewport switching assigned to same key:
This doesn’t make much sense. Global Search and Viewport Switching are two very different types of operations mapped on the exact same key. It’s apples and bananas in one. Very confusing, even more so for newbies who will want to pick up Blender.

2, View switching pie layout is poor:
A: Most frequently used views are Top, Left, Right and Front. These should occupy main NWSE directions. S direction is currently occupied by Bottom view, which is probably the least used view direction, along with back.

B: View selected action is something that’s somewhat different to viewport switching. It doesn’t really switch the view type, but rather just transform view position. It belongs on its own, separate hotkey. At the same time, one very important operation, frequently used on View numpad layout is missing: Perspective/Ortho toggle.

With these two factors taken into consideration, this is how usable viewport switching pie menu should look like:
ViewPie
Currently, in this variant, Persp/Ortho is not dynamic, but it would be great to make it dynamic, so it would simply read perspective if the view is currently orthographic, and orthographic if the view is currently perspective.

Other than that, as you can see, primary NSWE directions are occupied by the most frequently used view directions.

3, Another issue stemming from the new implementation of combined hotkey is that it appears that the search is currently mapped on Tilde key release action. I am not sure this is a good way about it, because mapping a function on key release makes it feel like it lags. It’s the feeling that the search pops up a moment after you press a key. I love Blender for how responsive it is. Mapping lots of keys on release action could make it feel kind of laggy, slow and unresponsive.

1 Like
10

There is one CRUCIAL shortcut missing in Blender 2.8 - it’s switching snapping mode menu! In Blender 2.7 I used CTRL - SHIFT - TAB for quickly jump between snapping to Vertex, Edge, Face or Incremental. In Blender 2.8 it is gone :confused:

1 Like
11

Yes we need that shortcut.

12

And just to mention: snapping to vertex in Blender 2.8 is broken all the way. In Blender 2.7 aligning objects together works perfectly this way, in Blender 2.8 it does not align objects boundaries the same way, basically it does something strange aligning, snapping object center to vertex, instead of closest vertices. so I guess that just changing snapping target in snapping menu does not work.

13

Hi,

just chiming back in here. It’s been 2 weeks and they keymap still has not changed. Since default keymap is one of the most controversial aspects of Blenders, efforts to update it have established high expectations and therefore this should be approached responsibly. There is really no space vague decisions.

So I would like to remind you about my post above:

There is really no easy to understand logic for having two as extremely unrelated features as text search and viewport switching mapped on a same hotkey.

View switching pie menu layout is really poor, as described above, contains one option that does not belong in there, and misses one important option that belongs in there (remove “view selected” and replace it with perspective/ortho toggle. View selected deserves a dedicated hotkey).

Mapping features on “Release” action of a key introduces a feeling of lag, as triggering something on keypress happens a bit faster than on release. It’s a bit hard to spot, but it’s quite easy to “feel”. This solution should not be used much.

So, as I said, 2.8 is a great opportunity to get some things right. I therefore hope these small details that can add up to either a great experience or great frustration depending on the execution won’t be omitted :slight_smile:

1 Like
14

For now, except for the searchbar all the main hotkeys have returned to their original place, which was the majority request of the people. And it is not clear that the searchbar does not return to the space bar because it can actually be placed together with the activetools menu without any problems (space searchbar, space+drag, tools).

15

What is the alternative to ALT+C now?

16

I want to ask about future of Blender usability for new users and senior users. There are many other softwares out there with minimalistic keybord map. In order to support this idea, softwares use combination of shortcuts and UI.
For example
Mya - pie menu + shelfs + shortcuts
3Ds Max - Shelfs + shortcuts

What about Blender? Blender was shortcut heavy and now it tries to go with “minimalistic shortcut map” but there are no signs of alternative for old behavior (you can’t use some features because there is no shortcut or UI alternative) yet.
QUESTION:
What will Blender use as alternative for old fast workflow in order to be fast(er) and easy to learn?

Thank you

17

Bring back Shift+C, please
Also node wrangler conflicts with Ctrl+Spacebar

3 Likes
18

Warning! Inconsistency!

Blender crew have allready implemented:

  • 1, 2, 3 hotkeys for Mesh: Select Mode (Vertex, Edge, Face)

But for other similar commands they have not set this hotkeys:

  • 1, 2, 3 hotkeys for UV Edit: Select Mode (Vertex, Edge, Face)
  • 1, 2, 3 hotkyes for Particle Edit : Select Mode (Path, Point, Tip)

Please assign 1, 2, 3 hotkeys for select-commands in all modes!

3 Likes
19

I love that you guys are rethinking keyboard mapping to something hopefully better, I’ve got a few comments.
Love the new Z, and the new Shift -S how those pie menus work are great, also the “.” and the “,” ones are fantastic too,

I dont agree with 123 for modes inside, i think its a waste of keys and you cant really know if a mode is available in for the current object if you dont go and click the dropbdown, but with the pie menu, you’ll always see what’s available and is till really quick to switch.

ctrl tab in 2.79 was great, was quick, easily remember-able because it was one key for 3 component types, it could have been better? yes, you could have the functionality to add the others components with shift and such, but that’s not what im here to talk about.
One of the big things is that this kills completely the emulate numpad possibility for laptop users, which use much more 1 and 3 for switching views, and if you think putting it in the key next to number one works, that’s my other complain… and camera switch wins over switching component because camera switch you do every day in every mode in every single project, and if youre only animating, or lighting, you’ll never need to change from vertex to face to …
also:
Please make sure that the default maps are in keys from a to z, 1 to 0, f1 to f12, with modifiers like control alt or shift, and extra keys like home / end, page up / down. only for the default keymaps, why? because these keys are in EVERY KEYBOARD, and dont tend to be moved around much when you use a spanish, french or german language, as if you focus on the english keyboard for the default basic strokes a lot of people will start missing basic key functionality.

hope i dont come out too much as an ass, im talking about serious stuff ive been trying to find a way around but so far… cant.

1 Like
20

Brought from another topic:
As far as I know, these are the paradigms behind the shortcuts, which governs most of the behaviors:

  • Toggle button = to change modes back and forth (ex: change editing modes, snap mode, proportional mode)
  • Object mode Alt+buttons = To invert whatever the regular button action does. (ex: “H” and “Alt+H”, or “I” and “Alt+I” or “P” and “Alt+P”)
  • Edit mode Alt+buttons = Extra actions NOT necessarity related to the regular button action (“Alt+S” is Shrink/Fatten, “Alt+P” is “Poke Faces”, “Alt+D” is rip component)
  • Ctrl+button = Special action that is better on a modifier shortcut instead of the regular button. (ex: “G” is “Grab”, therefore “Ctrl+G” was used to “Group”… also “Ctrl+S” is save in any mode, and “CTRL+SHIFT+S” is “open” in any mode)
  • Shift+button = Sometimes it performs a new action, sometimes perform secondary action related to the single button main action. (ex: “Shift+D” is a new action (duplicate) while “Shift+G” (select grouped) is related to “Ctrl+G” (which is add to group)).

So It’s understandable making deselecting “Alt+A” instead of “A” being a toggle button, after all you are NOT “changing modes” as is the standard on toggles, you are undoing whatever the single button does, which is selecting and deselecting all… makes perfect sense.

But I see that maybe, in edit mode, “Connected Proportional Editing” could be on “Shift+O” (it’s not even being used)… instead of Alt+O. And using Alt+O for a more obscure option, the “Projected (2D) Proportional”, which I don’t even know if has a shortcut. As you can see there’s no problem on using Alt+O per se because we are talking edit mode operations here (There’s no connected proportional on Object mode, that’s why there’s no Alt+O on Object mode).
Or for the "Duplicate " not being on the “D” key in every mode, since the D key is also NOT being used, and “Shift+D” being the Duplicate Special (share same Mesh Data) on Object mode.

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