“Using custom event maps.” However, the left-side column has quite a few useful settings as well:
✔ Presets: Blender ships with a small assortment of application interaction presets – a fancy way of saying hotkey and mouse configurations. In addition to the default preset, Blender also ships with a few presets that match the interaction styles of other popular 3D programs. You can use this datablock-like menu to choose an existing preset, create a new one, or delete a preset you never want to use.
✔ Emulate 3 Button Mouse: Blender was designed to be used with a three-button mouse. However, not all computers have three-button mice, and some artists prefer to work with drawing tablets that don't have an easily accessible middle mouse button. Enabling this option helps these users compensate by using Alt+left-click to do what is normally done with the middle-click.
✔ Continuous Grab: Continuous Grab is a cool feature that allows you to continue moving an object even after your mouse cursor has reached the edge of the editor. Continuous Grab is very useful and enabled by default, but it doesn't work as nicely for users working with a tablet interface, so you can disable it here if you need to.
✔ Select With: Blender's default behavior is to select objects with the right mouse button. However people migrating to Blender from other programs may be more comfortable selecting with the left mouse button. This control lets you switch between the two. I cover this setting later in this chapter in the section “Selecting objects.” A word of warning: Setting this value to Left disables the Emulate 3 Button Mouse feature.
✔ Emulate Numpad: This setting is a very handy option for laptop users. As you see in the next section, Blender makes use of the numeric keypad for quick access to top, front, side, and camera views in the 3D View. Unfortunately, most laptop users don’t have an easily accessible numeric keypad on their keyboards. As a workaround, the Emulate Numpad option uses the number keys at the top of the keyboard to have the functionality that the corresponding numpad numbers have. This control in User Preferences disables the normal layer-switching functionality that the number keys at the top of the keyboard normally perform, but the ability to quickly change views tends to be more valuable to users than the ability to quickly change layers.
✔ Orbit Style: By default, Blender uses the Turntable setting. However, some users have difficulty navigating to a particular part of their scenes or models when using Turntable setting. For them, the Trackball setting may be more comfortable.
The difference between the two settings may seem subtle to a new user, but if you're used to one orbit style, it can be very disorienting to try working in the other.
✔ Invert Zoom Direction: Similar to the Orbit Style option, some people are more comfortable scrolling forward to zoom out and back to zoom in. This setting gives users that option.
Add-ons
Blender ships with an assortment of extensions, called add-ons, which provide users with additional capabilities within Blender. For example, if you're a veteran Blenderhead and you're used to the old Spacebar menu from much earlier versions of Blender, there's an add-on that puts that feature back. Other add-ons modify Blender's interface, add new primitive objects, or provide additional tools that can help speed up your work. Another key feature of add-ons is that they are tightly integrated into Blender's interface. Once an add-on is enabled, its functionality looks and works just like native features in Blender, like it was there all along!
You can manage all add-ons from the Add-ons section of User Preferences, as shown in Figure 2-6.
Figure 2-6: The Add-ons options in User Preferences.
There are three types, or support levels, for add-ons:
✔ Official: These add-ons officially ship with Blender on release. Core development team supports them and ensures that they continue to work with each Blender release.
Although these add-ons come with Blender, they aren't all enabled by default, because some of them favor very specific workflows.
✔ Community: These add-ons also officially ship with Blender on release. However, rather than being supported by the core developers, the add-ons at this support level are maintained by community developers (usually the people who first wrote them). None of these add-ons are enabled by default, but many of them are very useful.
I'm not just saying that because I wrote one of them. I promise!
✔ Testing: There are two kinds of add-ons at this support level:
● Very new add-ons that haven't been thoroughly tested by users.
● Veteran add-ons that aren't actively maintained and supported by any developer.
The Testing add-ons don't ship with Blender's official release, but you can download them individually from the Blender Add-ons Catalog (http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts).
You can use the buttons on the left side of the Add-ons section in User Preferences to filter the add-ons you see according to support level. By default, all community supported add-ons that ship with Blender are disabled. Most of the officially supported add-ons are for importing and exporting file types to and from other programs. The bulk of these are enabled by default. To enable or disable a specific add-on, use the following steps:
1. Find the add-on that you're interested in enabling.
2. Left-click the check box on the right side of the add-on's box.
Left-clicking the triangle on the left of the box expands it so that you can get more details about a specific add-on.
That's it! The add-on is enabled. Depending on what the add-on does, you should be able to find it in the interface and use it immediately.
All of Blender's add-ons are broken down into specific categories, and you can use the buttons on the left to see just the add-ons that are specific to a single category. Alternatively, you can use the search field above the category buttons.
Themes
Blender has quite a bit of flexibility in adjusting how it looks, thanks to the Themes options, shown in Figure 2-7. I took almost all the screenshots for this book using a variation of the Default theme that I created, lightened for readability in black-and-white print. However, when I work in Blender, I use my own theme that's a bit darker and easier on the eyes. Darker themes are particularly helpful if, like me, you're known for sitting behind the computer and working in Blender for 10- to 15-hour stretches (or more). In those situations, the less stress you can put on your eyes, the better.
