2.4. Edit Mode HotKeys - General

Relevant to Blender 2.33

Again, Most of these hotkeys are usefull in the 3D Viewport when in Edit Mode, but many works on other Blender Object, so they are summarized here.

Many Object Mode keys works in Edit mode too, but on the selected vertices or control points; among these Grab, Rotate, Scale and so on. These hotkeys are not repeated here.

TAB or ALT-E. This button starts and stops Edit Mode.

AKEY. Select/Unselect all.

BKEY-BKEY. Circle Select. If you press BKEY a second time after starting Border Select, Circle Select is invoked. It works as described above. Use NUM+ or NUM- or MW to adjust the circle size. Leave Circle Select with RMB or ESC.

NKEY. Number Panel. Simpler than the Object Mode one, in Edit Mode works for Mesh, Curve, Surface: The location of the active vertex is displayed.

OKEY. Switch in/out of Proportional Editing.

SHIFT-O. Toggles between Smooth and Sharp Proportional Editing.

PKEY. SeParate. You can choose to make a new object with all selected vertices, edges, faces and curves or create a new object from each separate group of interconnected vertices from a popup. Note that for curves you cannot separate connected control vertices. This operation is the opposite of Join (CTRL-J).

CTRL-P. Make Vertex Parent. If one object (or more than one) is/are selected and the active Object is in Edit Mode with 1 or 3 vertices selected then the Object in Edit Mode becomes the Vertex Parent of the selected Object(s). If only 1 vertex is selected, only the location of this vertex determines the Parent transformation; the rotation and dimensions of the Parent do not play a role here. If three vertices are selected, it is a 'normal' Parent relationship in which the 3 vertices determine the rotation and location of the Child together. This method produces interesting effects with Vertex Keys. In EditMode, other Objects can be selected with CTRL-RMB.

CTRL-S. Shear. In EditMode this operation enables you to make selected forms 'slant'. This always works via the horizontal screen axis.

UKEY. Undo. When starting Edit Mode, the original ObData block is saved and can be returned to via UKEY. Mesh Objects have better Undo, see next section.

WKEY. Specials PopupMenu. A number of tools are included in this PopupMenu as an alternative to the Edit Buttons. This makes the buttons accessible as shortcuts, e.g. EditButtons->Subdivide is also 'WKEY, 1KEY'.

SHIFT-W. Warp. Selected vertices can be bent into curves with this option. It can be used to convert a plane into a tube or even a sphere. The centre of the circle is the 3DCursor. The mid-line of the circle is determined by the horizontal dimensions of the selected vertices. When you start, everything is already bent 90 degrees. Moving the mouse up or down increases or decreases the extent to which warping is done. By zooming in/out of the 3Dwindow, you can specify the maximum degree of warping. The CTRL limiter increments warping in steps of 5 degrees.