Blender on a Mac: shortcuts, and the keys a MacBook does not have
Blender runs well on a Mac, but its shortcuts assume two things a MacBook does not have: a number pad for the views and a middle mouse button for orbiting. Turn on Emulate Numpad and Emulate 3 Button Mouse in Edit > Preferences > Input and both gaps close. Most shortcuts written with Ctrl also work with Command on a Mac, and the core keys are the same on every computer: G moves, R rotates, S scales and Tab switches to Edit Mode.
Below: the two settings, the trackpad and the on-screen gizmo, the Ctrl and Command question, the shortcuts to learn first, and how to keep them in view while they sink in.
Two settings that make a MacBook work
Open Edit > Preferences (Command-comma also opens it), choose Input in the sidebar, and look at two panels.
Keyboard: Emulate Numpad. With this on, the number row acts as the number pad. That matters because Blender keeps its views there: 1 is front, 3 is right, 7 is top, 0 looks through the camera and 5 switches between perspective and orthographic. Add Control to 1, 3 or 7 for back, left and bottom, and 2, 4, 6 and 8 turn the view in steps.
The cost is that the number row loses its own jobs. In Edit Mode, 1, 2 and 3 normally switch between vertex, edge and face selection. With the emulation on, those keys go to the views, so use the three select mode buttons in the Edit Mode header instead.
Mouse: Emulate 3 Button Mouse. Blender orbits with a middle-button drag, pans with Shift and the middle button, and zooms with Control and the middle button. With this setting on, holding Option while you drag with the left button counts as the middle button:
- Option-drag orbits.
- Shift-Option-drag pans.
- Control-Option-drag zooms.
On a Mac, a menu next to the checkbox lets you pick OS-Key (Command) instead of Alt (Option) as the key you hold.
One trade to know about: Option-click normally selects an edge loop in Edit Mode. With the emulation on, Blender moves loop select to a double-click, and Shift-double-click adds a loop to the selection.
The trackpad and the navigation gizmo
On a MacBook trackpad you may not need the mouse emulation at all. Blender reads trackpad gestures on a Mac (Multi-touch Gestures, in the Touchpad panel of the same Input section, is on by default):
- A two-finger swipe orbits.
- Shift with a two-finger swipe pans.
- A pinch zooms, and so does Control with a two-finger swipe.
The navigation gizmo in the top right of the 3D Viewport covers the rest with clicks. Drag the axis ball to orbit, or click an axis to look straight down it. Drag the hand to pan and the magnifying glass to zoom. The camera button looks through the camera, and the grid button switches between perspective and orthographic.
There is also the backquote key (`), left of 1 on a US keyboard. Press it in the 3D Viewport for a pie menu of all six views, the camera and View Selected.
Two number pad keys have no emulated twin. The period, which frames the selection, is not covered by Emulate Numpad, so use View > Frame Selected or View Selected in the backquote pie. Home, which frames everything, is View > Frame All. The keys a MacBook leaves out covers Home and End in other apps.
Ctrl or Command?
Blender’s manual and most tutorials write shortcuts with Ctrl, because the keymap is the same on every system. On a Mac, current versions of Blender add a Command version of almost every Ctrl shortcut and keep the Control version too. So Command-Z undoes, Command-Shift-Z redoes, Command-S saves and Command-R makes a loop cut, and Control-Z and the rest still work.
The exceptions are a handful of combinations macOS already uses with Command, which stay on Control only. The one you will meet first is Control-Space, which maximizes the area under the pointer; Command-Space opens Spotlight. Control-H, Control-M, Control-W, Control-Tab, Control-period and Control-backquote are in the same group.
If Control-Space changes your keyboard language instead, macOS is using it to switch input sources. Turn that off in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Input Sources, or use View > Area > Toggle Maximize Area.
Alt in a tutorial means Option on a Mac: Option-A deselects everything, for example.
The function keys need one more step on a MacBook. F2 renames the active item, F3 searches every menu and F9 reopens the settings of the last operation, but the top row of a MacBook controls brightness, Mission Control and volume first. Hold fn (or the Globe key) with them, or switch the row in System Settings, as Function keys on a MacBook explains.
The shortcuts to learn first
These are Blender’s defaults. Where a shortcut uses Ctrl, Command works too on a Mac.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| G | Move the selection |
| R | Rotate |
| S | Scale |
| Tab | Switch between Object Mode and Edit Mode |
| A | Select all |
| ⌥A | Deselect all |
| ⇧A | Add menu |
| ⇧D | Duplicate |
| X | Delete, from a pop-up menu |
| E | Extrude (Edit Mode) |
| I | Inset faces (Edit Mode) |
| ⌘R | Loop cut (Edit Mode) |
| N | Show or hide the sidebar |
| T | Show or hide the toolbar |
| F3 | Search menus |
| ` | View pie menu |
G, R and S get much more useful with two follow-ups. After pressing one, type X, Y or Z to lock the change to that axis, then type a number for an exact amount and press Return. R, Z, 90, Return turns the selection 90 degrees around the Z axis without touching the mouse.
Keeping the shortcuts in view while you learn
Blender has a lot of single-key shortcuts, and they change with the mode and the editor under the pointer. Two things help them stick.
First, go through the menus when you forget, and read as you go. Blender’s menus list each command’s shortcut beside it, and F3 finds any menu command by name. Next time, press the shortcut instead.
Second, keep a map on screen. Typebar puts a keyboard on your screen, shaped like a MacBook or Magic Keyboard, whichever you use, and it has a hand-made Blender pack. Hold fn and the keys show Blender’s single-key tools; hold Command, Option, Control or Shift for a moment and the keys relabel with what they do with that key held. The Cheatsheet List is searchable, so you can type a command, pick it, and watch its keys light up on the board.
If you record Blender tutorials, the same board lights each key as you press it, and the keystroke pill shows the keys as keycaps, so viewers can see that you pressed G and then Z rather than guess. How to learn Mac keyboard shortcuts and actually remember them has more on making the habit stick.
Typebar is $9 once for up to 5 Macs, with a 24-hour free trial.
Questions
Do I need a three-button mouse for Blender on a Mac?
No. Emulate 3 Button Mouse turns Option-drag into a middle-button drag, the trackpad orbits, pans and zooms with gestures, and the navigation gizmo does all three with clicks. A three-button mouse is still more comfortable for long sessions.
What do I lose with Emulate Numpad on?
The number row’s own shortcuts, mainly vertex, edge and face select modes in Edit Mode. The select mode buttons in the header do the same job.
Why does Command-Space open Spotlight instead of maximizing the area?
Blender keeps that shortcut on Control-Space on a Mac, because Command-Space belongs to Spotlight. View > Area > Toggle Maximize Area does the same thing from the menu.