Inconsistent use of "Cursor" and "Mouse Pointer"

Something needs to be done regarding “3D Cursor” and “Mouse Cursor” overlap. The interface has many instances in which the word “Cursor” is being used for both things. I suggest, either A. Renaming the 3D Cursor to something else entirely to avoid confusion. or B. When referencing the mouse pointer, use “Mouse Pointer”.

This will help users avoid confusion.

Requests:

  • Rename “Extrude to Cursor” to “Extrude to Mouse Pointer Location”

In the Blender Preferences > Interface > Display:

  • Rename “Large Cursors” to “Large Mouse Pointers”
4 Likes

3D Cursor vs Cursor doesn’t seem that confusing to me… :thinking:

And by the way, “Large Cursors” was removed in 2.83…

If one is using a track-ball or a drawing tablet, it is not really a “Mouse Pointer”, is it?, he asked, pouring gasoline on the discussion.

There is also “2D Cursor” (UV Editor), and the text cursor (“Jump cursor to line”, “Insert text at cursor position”, …).

A “cursor” is just something that indicates or marks a position. Therefore we have a “mouse cursor” to show where the the mouse is. We also have a “3D cursor” indicating a 3D position in the scene. And we also sometimes see a “text cursor”, also known as caret", that indicates where text will be inserted.

But yes, best that we don’t refer to any as simply “cursor”.