Blender shortcuts

Introduction

This page lists some useful Blender shortcuts and tools. The bare minimum tools that are required to prepare a model for PES are highlighted in green. If a tool or shortcut is only available in Blender versions newer than 2.79, it will be noted.

Some tools have options with additional shortcuts; these are displayed at the bottom of the viewport while the tool is active.

Viewport

Tool	Shortcut	Version	Notes
Rotate	MMB
Zoom	Ctrl+MMB or scroll wheel
Pan	Shift+MMB
Re-center	Num.		Centers the camera on the selected objects and zooms to fit them in view.
Toggle orthogonal	Num5		Switches between perspective and orthogonal view.
Front view	Num1		Hold Ctrl for the opposite side. Hold Shift to align the camera with a face in edit mode.
Left view	Num3		"
Top view	Num7		"
Toggle wireframe	Z		Blender 2.8+ also has the material preview and rendered shading modes available this way.

Basic

Tool	Shortcut	Version	Notes
Search	Space		Opens a searchable context-sensitive list that contains every tool in Blender and lists their shortcuts.
Toggle sidebar	N		The sidebar contains a lot of useful information, most importantly transforms in object mode and selection coordinates and vertex weights in edit mode.
Select/deselect	LMB		Hold Shift to select/deselect multiple objects; the last selected object is the active object (indicated by a light orange outline).
Select/deselect all	A
Box select	B		LMB to select; MMB to deselect.
Circle select	C		LMB to select; MMB to deselect. Mouse wheel or +/- to increase or decrease size.
Loop select	Alt+LMB		Attemps to select a continuous loop of vertices/edges/faces. Useful for selecting things like edges of holes.
Invert selection	Ctrl+I
Switch mode	Tab		Toggles between object and edit mode. In Blender 2.8+, you get a pie menu with all modes.
Move	G		Press X, Y, or Z to only transform on that axis. Hold Shift to exlude that axis. Press the key twice to use the object's local axis.
Scale	S		"
Rotate	R		Ditto. You can also press R twice to rotate freely.
Reset transforms	Alt+G/S/R
Undo	Ctrl+Z		You can increase the number of undo steps in the settings.
Redo	Ctrl+Shift+Z
Delete	X or Delete
Add	Shift+A		Add new objects (or mesh primitives to an existing object in edit mode).
Duplicate	Shift+D
Set 3D cursor location	Shift+S		You can also right click (Shift+RMB in 2.8+) to place the 3D cursor at your cursor.
Select orientation	,	2.8+	Useful when things aren't aligned to the global axes. The view orientation can be used in conjuncture with aligning the camera to a face.
Select pivot point	.	2.8+	Allows you to change the pivot point of transformations.
Hide	H		Hides the selection. Shift hides everything but the selection.
Unhide all	Alt+H

Object mode

Tool	Shortcut	Version	Notes
Join	J		Joins the selected objects with the active object. The merged object has the properties of what was the active object.
Apply transforms	Ctrl+A		Opens a dialog to apply the location, rotation, and/or scale of the object. This sets the current location/rotation to (0,0,0) and scale to 1. All changed transforms need to be applied before export, as these values are not respected by other programs.
Parent	Ctrl+P		Opens the dialog to parent the selected objects to the active object.
Clear parent	Alt+P
Move to	M		Moves an object to another layer (or folder in Blender 2.8+).
Convert	Alt+C		Converts an object to another type (ex. curve to mesh).

Edit mode

Tool	Shortcut	Version	Notes
Separate	P		Separates the selected parts of the object into a new object. The new object retains the properties of the object it was separated from.
Vertex selection	1	2.8+
Edge selection	2	2.8+
Face selection	3	2.8+
Select linked	L		Selects all vertices/edges/faces connected to what is under the cursor. Hold Shift to deselect.
Extrude	E		Extrude the selection to create additional geometry.
Merge	Alt+M (M in 2.8+)		Allows you to merge vertices.
Edge split	V		Splits the mesh along the selected vertices or edges. The cursor position determines the direction to split in.
Edge slide	Shift+V		Slides vertices along edges.
Knife tool	K		Makes cuts in the mesh to create additional edges. Has an option to cut all the way through the mesh.
Loop cut	Ctrl+R		Subdivides a continuous row of quads (ideally forming a loop) along the length of the row.
Bevel	Ctrl+B		Bevels edges.
Inset	I		Insets faces with options for thickness and depth.
Triangulate	Ctrl+T		Allows you to manually triangulate selected faces. Useful when working with low-poly models where automatic triangulation might produce results that break the silhouette or deform in unintended ways. Can also be used to tweak shading.
Fill	F		Creates faces between selected vertices or edges. Can also be used to merge faces.
Connect vertices	J		Creates an edge between the selected vertices. If the vertices share a face, the face will be broken up. Useful in conjuncture with the fill tool.
Tris to quads	Alt+F		Automatically converts selected tris to quads. Useful for ripped models to make them easier to work with.
Edge tools	Ctrl+E		Opens the edge tool menu. Most importantly, this lets you mark UV seams and sharp edges.
Unwrap	U		Opens the dialog to unwrap the UVs for the selected parts of the object.

UV editor

Tool	Shortcut	Version	Notes
Toggle snapping	Shift+Tab		Click the button next to the magnet icon to switch to vertex snapping; this makes it easy to stack UV islands.