These are the features of Blender's transform manipulators:
- ?Tweak? (drag) style transform
This is the standard LMB ?drag and drop? procedure used by many applications.
- ?Immediate? transform
Using a LMB click rather than drag, Immediate transform has the same effect as using the original transform hotkeys?i.e. LMB clicking on the red Translate arrow would have the same effect as pressing GKEY, XKEY.
- Center Circle
Translate and scale manipulators contain a circle at the center. These can be used for unconstrained transforms (not on a single axis).
- Planar Constraints
Translations and scaling can be used with a planar constraint. Shift-LMB click on any of the manipulator handles to ?lock? that axis?i.e. Shift-LMB clicking on the blue Z-axis would allow you to transform the object on the XY plane.
- Pivot Point
The transform manipulators use the currently selected Pivot Point type. For example, choosing 3D Cursor as the pivot point will show the 3D transform manipulator wherever the cursor is placed.
- Pivot point menu with new option "Active Object"
Menu Hotkeys
- CTRL+SPACE: opens menu with manipulator type choices. (Press 2, 3, 4, or 5 to change the widget type)
- ALT+SPACE: opens menu with manipulator orientation choices
Direct Access Hotkeys
- CTRL+ALT+G: Translation Manipulator
- CTRL+ALT+R: Rotation Manipulator
- CTRL+ALT+S: Scale Manipulator
- Widget Type Menu (Ctrl-Space)
- Widget Orientation Menu (Alt-Space)
3D Manipulator options can also be changed using the appropriate buttons in the 3D View header:
- Hand icon
Enables/disables manipulators
- Triangle icon
Enables translation manipulator
- Circle icon
Enables rotation manipulator
- Square icon
Enables scale manipultor
- Menu
Changes manipulator orientation (Global/Local/Normal)
Using these icons, you can combine multiple manipulator types by Shift-clicking on an icon.
Several aspects of 3D transform manipulators can be changed by the user. These include manipulator size, manipulator handle size, and handle "hotspot" size (the size of the area that will start transform when clicked).
You can find these options in the User Preferences window in the View & Controls tab:
Code by Ton Roosendaal. Release log: Jason Saunders
