Industry Compatible Keymap Development

Kenzi · December 10, 2021, 2:04pm

Summary
This proposal is to optimize the Industry Compatible Keymap and minimize the learning curve for the professionals who are coming from other 3D packages, allowing them to quickly manipulate between different software. The keymap provides most of the essential inputs while users will still have freedom to customize their desired keysets.

Target Audiences

The professionals who are already familiar with other 3D packages but desire to switch to use Blender as their main 3D tool.
For studios to quickly deploy and adopt Blender into their pipeline.

Principle
This keymap is based on the preset Industry Compatible Keymap to make the optimization. The design of the Industry Compatible Keymap will follow the criteria below with the reference code (ref.),

including but not limited to,

Window hotkey shortcut (win.)
Commonly used commands across different 3D packages (3dc.)
Current Industry Compatible Keymap (ick.)
Designed Keyset (dsg.)
Default Blender shortcut (bln.)

By following the hierarchy of:

Operating System (OS)
Application (Blender Window)
Viewport (Screen)
Workspace (Layout, Modeling, Sculpting)

The whole purpose is to turn the sophistication into a logical and organized keymap. Therefore, not every single command will get assigned a hotkey. The main focus of Industry Compatible Keymap is to utilize all pop-up menus to increase the efficiency, such as right click menu, pie menu, toolbar menu, etc. in order to use the least inputs to get the best result.

This keymap is not a copycat of a certain 3D package. This is unrealistic to expect Blender can manipulate 100% the same as what you think.

Explanation
In general, all the keys can be freely assigned. However, some of the hotkeys by default can not be changed because those were dominated by the Operating System for the unique commands.

For example,

Alt F4 for quitting can not be assigned within Blender no matter what, this is because the Window hotkey shortcut will always override the commands.
Alt Tab to switch around the programs is also dominated by Window hotkey shortcut.
etc.

There are some exceptional keys will not be assigned such as,

Window Key
Function Key (Fn)
Customizable Gaming Keys from both mouse and keyboard

There are some Blender commands have unique behavior such as,

Click means Tap the key
Click Drag means Hold down the key then Move the mouse, release the holding key to confirm selection

Format
This Industry Compatible Keymap will coordinate with external documents in order to keep the keymap out of confusion. Ideally every keyset will come with a ref. code at the end in order to understand where the logics come from.

Roadmap
This keymap is still under development, which means it will break down into different sections and update bit by bit until the final version. Revisit this post periodically can keep track on the updates.
The priority is to complete the optimization for the general 3D workflow usage.

Reference
Table of keyboard shortcuts
Other 3D Software Documentation

Tips
For multi-languages input users, please look for “How to Change Keyboard Input Language and Layout Shortcut ” for a better user experience.

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Reminder

This keymap will map based on Microsoft OS (Window) in order to eliminate the confusion and enhance the remapping speed. For Mac OS or Linux OS users, please wait for the future development.
This keymap will based on the TKL Keyboard and 3 button scroll wheel mouse.
During the mapping process, the keys that got assigned can be changed, which means the progress completion doesn’t mean final version, not until it marked as final version.
Since this keymap is making changes based on the current IC Keymap, the ref. code will follow the conditions of below,