Blender has a reputation for being difficult and unintuitive to use. This is true for the default settings. However, Blender is also very easily adjustable with a few settings and can be made much easier to use. How you set up your instance of Blender will depend on what your setup is like.
To access the settings, in the top menu select File | User Preferences. In the Blender User Preferences panel that comes up, select the Input tab button:
The recommended setup for Blender is to use your keyboard and a mouse with a scroll wheel. In this case, there is only one setting that is recommended to be changed from the default:
- Click on the button that says Left under the words Select With.
- Click on the button that says Save User Settings:
Changing this one setting will make Blender much more intuitive to use.
Because the default is for the right mouse button to be the select button, and some may prefer to keep this default, this book will refer to whatever option is chosen as the select mouse button, and the other button as the not-select mouse button. While still a bit confusing, it will help users who miss this section.
With a scroll-wheel mouse, the scroll wheel can be depressed for a middle mouse button click. Blender uses this middle mouse button to manipulate the view.
If you have a Numpad but no scroll-wheel mouse, it is still recommended to use these settings because the interface will be much more intuitive, although you will be sacrificing some functionality that the middle mouse click offers. The choice is yours whether it's worth having a more intuitive interface.
On a laptop with a touchpad (with no middle click) and no number pad, both very important for navigating the view, select the following settings:
- Emulate 3 Button Mouse
- Emulate Numpad
- Click on the button that says Save User Settings
With this setup, most of Blender's functionality is available to laptop users, although these settings are less intuitive. With these settings, you will need to use the right mouse button to select objects, Ctrl + right mouse button as a middle mouse button to change the view, and the number keys across the top will perform the function of the number pad on a regular keyboard.
With Blender set up, it's time to start learning to use it. Close the User Preferences window.
Note
Blender users tend to use keyboard shortcuts for almost everything. It's recommended that you use Blender with one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard. Learning and using keyboard shortcuts will speed up your process and, with just a little practice, will become second nature. Going forward, all methods of accessing commands will be taught. Try to practice using the keyboard shortcuts.