Blender Quick Dev Reference

A visual cheat-sheet for the 187 keyboard shortcuts found in Blender.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Universal

Esc — Cancels Blender functions without changes

Space — Open the toolbox

Tab — Start or quit edit mode

F1 — Loads a Blender file, changes the window to a file window

Shift F1 — Appends parts from other files, or loads as library data

F2 — Writes a Blender file, changes the window to a file window

Shift F2 — Exports the scene as a DXF file

Ctrl F2 — Exports the scene as a VRML1 file

F3 — Writes a picture, if a picture has been rendered, and the file format is as indicated in the display buttons

Ctrl F3 — Saves a screen dump of the active window

Ctrl Shift F3 — Saves a screen dump of the whole Blender screen

F4 — Displays the logic context

F5 — Displays the shading context, light, material, or world sub-contexts

F6 — Displays the shading context and texture sub-context

F7 — Displays the object context

F8 — Displays the shading context and world sub-context

F9 — Displays the editing context

F10 — Displays the scene context

F11 — Hides or shows the render window

F12 — Starts the rendering from the active camera

Left — Go to the previous frame

Shift Left — Go to the first frame

Right — Go to the next frame

Shift Right — Go to the last frame

Up — Go forward 10 frames

Down — Go back 10 frames

Alt A — Change the current Blender window to animation playback mode, the cursor changes to a counter

Alt Shift A — Change the current window and all 3D windows to animation playback mode

I — Insert key menu, this menu differs from window to window

J — Toggle the render buffers

Ctrl O — Opens the last saved file

Q — Quit Blender

Ctrl Alt T — Timer menu, this menu offers access to information about drawing speed

Ctrl U — Save user defaults, current project settings are written to the default file that will be loaded every time you start Blender

Ctrl W — Write file without opening a file window

Alt W — Write videoscape file

Ctrl X — Erase everything except the render buffer, the default scene is reloaded

Ctrl Y — Redo

Ctrl Z — Undo

Ctrl Shift Z — Redo

Object Mode

Home — All objects in the visible layer are displayed completely, centered in the window

PgUp — Select the next object key, if more than one is selected the selection is shifted up cyclically

Shift PgUp — Add to selection the next object key

PgDn — Select the previous object key, if more than one is selected the selection is shifted up cyclically

Shift PgDn — Adds to selection the previous object key

` — Select all layers

Shift ` — Revert to the previous layer setting

Tab — Start or stop edit mode

A — Selects or deselects all

Ctrl A — Apply size and rotation

Ctrl Shift A — If the active object is automatically duplicated, brings up a menu for actually creating the objects

Shift A — Brings up the add menu, the toolbox items that start with ADD

B — Border select, draws a rectangle with the left mouse to select objects

Shift B — Render border, this only works in camera view mode

C — Center view, the position of the 3D cursor becomes the new center of the 3D window

Alt C — Convert menu, depending on the active object a popup menu is displayed enabling you to convert certain types of ObData

Ctrl C — Copy menu, this menu copies information from the active object to selected objects

Shift C — Center zero view, the 3D cursor is set to zero and the view is changed so all objects can be displayed

D — Display draw mode menu

Shift D — Add duplicate, the selected objects are duplicated

Alt D — Add linked duplicate, linked duplicates of the selected objects are created

Ctrl D — Draw the texture image as wire

Alt E — Start or stop edit mode

F — If selected object is a mash, toggles face select mode on or off

Ctrl F — Sort faces, the faces of the active mesh object are sorted based on the current view in the 3D window

G — Grab mode, or translation mode

Alt G — Clears translations, given in grab mode

Shift G — Group selection

I — Insert object key, a keyposition is inserted in the current frame of all selected objects

Ctrl J — Join objects, all selected objects of the same type are added to the active object

K — Show keys, the draw key option is turned on for all selected objects

Shift K — Display popup menu for showing and selecting all keys

L — 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

Shift L — Select linked, selected all objects somehow linked to the active object

M — Move selected objects to another layer

Ctrl M — Mirror menu, it is possible to mirror an object along the X, Y, or Z axis

N — 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 them to move ot the exact location of the parent objects

Shift O — If the selected object is a mesh, toggles the subsurf on or off

Ctrl P — Make selected objects the children of the active object

Alt P — Clears parent relation, user is asked if they wish to keep or clear parent-induced transforms

R — Rotate mode, works on selected objects

Alt R — Clears rotation, the X, Y, and Z rotations of selected objects are set to zero

S — Size mode or scaling mode, works on selected objects

Alt S — Clears size, the X, Y, and Z dimensions of selected objects are set to 1

Shift S — Opens the snap menu

T — Texture space mode, the position of dimensions of the texture space for the selected objects can be changed in the same manner for grab and size mode

Ctrl T — Makes selected objects track the active object

Alt T — Clears old style track, constraint track is removed as all constrains are

U — Makes object single user, the inverse operation of link

V — Switches in and 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

W — Opens the object booleans menu

X — Deletes selected objects

Z — Toggles solid mode on or off

Shift Z — Toggles shaded mode on or off

Alt Z — Toggles textured mode on or off

Edit Mode - General

Tab — Start or stop edit mode

Alt E — Start or stop edit mode (alternative)

Ctrl Tab — Switches between vertex select, edge select, and face select modes

A — Select or unselect all

B B — Circle select

Ctrl H — With vertices selected, this creates a hook object

N — Number panel, simpler than the object mode one

O — Switch in and out of proportional editing

Shift O — Toggles between smooth and sharp proportional editing

P — Separate, you can choose to make a new object with all selected vertices, edges, faces, and curves

Ctrl P — Make vertex parent

Ctrl S — Shear, in edit mode this operation enables you to make selected forms slant

U — Undo

W — Displays specials popup menu

Shift W — Warp, selected vertices can be bent into curves with this option

Edit Mode - Mesh

Ctrl + — Adds to selection all vertices connected by an edge to an already selected vertex

Ctrl - — Removes from selection all vertices of the outer ring of selected vertices

C — If using curve deformation, toggles the curve cyclic mode on or off

E — Extrude selected

Shift E — Crease subsurf edge

Ctrl E — Mark LSCM seam

F — Make edge or face

Shift F — Fill selected, all selected vertices that are bound by edges and form a closed polygon are filled with triangular faces

Alt F — Beauty fill, edges of all selected triangular faces are switched so equally sized faces are formed

Ctrl F — Flip faces, selected triangular faces are paired and common edge of each pair swapped

H — Hide selected, all selected vertices and faces are hidden

Shift H — Hide not selected, all non-selected vertices and faces are hidden

Alt H — Reveal, all hidden vertices and faces are drawn again

Alt J — Join faces, selected triangular faces are joined in pairs and transformed to quads

K — Knife tool menu

L — Select linked

Shift L — Deselect linked

Ctrl L — Select linked selected

M — Mirror, opens a popup asking for the axis to mirror

Alt M — Merges selected vertices as barycentrum or at cursor depending on selection made on popup

Ctrl N — Calculate normals outside

Ctrl Shift N — Calculate normals inside

Alt S — Scales each vertex in the direction of its local normal

Ctrl T — Make triangles, all selected faces are converted to triangles

U — Undo

Shift U — Redo

Alt U — Undo menu

W — Special menu

X — Erase selected

Y — Split, this command splits the selected part of a mesh without deleting faces

Edit Mode - Curve

C — Set the selected curves to cyclic or turn cyclic off

E — Extrude curve

F — Add segment, a segment is added between two selected vertices at the end of two curves

H — Toggle handle align or free

Shift H — Set handle to auto

Ctrl H — Calculate handles

L — Select linked

Shift L — Deselect linked

M — Mirror selected control points exactly as for vertices in a mesh

T — Tilt mode, specify an extra axis rotation for each vertex in a 3D curve

Alt T — Clear tilt

V — Vector handle

W — The special menu for curves appears

X — Erase selected

Edit Mode - Surface

C — Toggle cyclic menu

E — Extrude selected

F — Add segment, a segment is added between two selected vertices at the end of two curves

L — Select linked

Shift L — Deselect linked

M — Mirror selected control points exactly as for vertices in a mesh

Shift R — Select row, starting with the last selected vertex

W — The special menu for surfaces appears

X — Erase selected

Edit Mode - Font

Right — Move text cursor one position forward

Shift Right — Move text cursor to the end of the line

Left — Move text cursor one position backwards

Shift Left — Move text cursor to the start of the line

Down — Move text cursor one line forward

Shift Down — Move text cursor to the end of the text

Up — Move text cursor one line back

Shift Up — Move text cursor to the beginning of the text

Alt U — Reload original data

Alt V — Paste text

VertexPaint

Shift K — All vertex colors are erased, they are changed to the current drawing color

U — Undo, press twice redos the undone

W — Shared vertexcol, the colors of all faces that share vertices are blended

UV Editor

E — LSCM unwrapping, launches on the faces visible in the UV editor

P — Pin selected vertices, they will stay in place on the UV editor when executing an LSCM unwrap

Alt P — Un-pin selected vertices

FaceSelect

Tab — Switches to edit mode

F — With multiple, co-planar faces selected, this will merge them into one FGon so long as they remain co-planar

L — Select linked UVs

R — Calls a menu allowing to rotate the UV coordinates or the vertex col

U — Calls the UV Calculation menu