Overwhelmed by Shortcuts

by | Apr 8, 2024 | 3D Modelling, Mental Health

alexa
Alexa's Bio
I'm a queer multi passionate introvert living full time on the Australian roads with my girlfriend. I make music, record sounds, explore, write and much more while dealing with many challenges along the way.

Ok, so I’m going to finally admit defeat! I just can’t remember ALL the blender shortcuts + the add-on shortcuts plus all the other programs I have shortcuts. Blender’s shortcuts list is just WAY to long for me to even manage a quota of the ones I need, and my needs are tiny compared to most.

So I have all these add-ons I’ve just gotten, but I only use a part of their full functions. For example in HardOps I’m currently only using ‘Clean Mesh’ because all the other features are impossible for me to remember.

Seriously, just thinking about trying to use Blender at the moment is hugely overwhelming. All the shortcuts I did remember before adding the new add-ons, have also gone out the window. If I only used Blender and not all the other software I use for my many other passions, then perhaps it would be easier, or maybe I’m just getting old? Although I’d have thought 40 wouldn’t equal brain deterioration.

Anyway, because of this, I’ve spent countless hours looking for MORE add-ons that might help me manage BUT all the add-ons that supposedly answer this end up giving me MORE shortcuts. Suffice to say I got to a screaming point in my search until one little search query got me to thinking, “What if I could create my own menus?”

Basically the thought is, how hard would it be to build my own pie menus and n-panel menus? If we look at the scripting side, I’d say for a basic pie menu I’d be able to manage, but if I want a more complex pie menu then I’d say no!

So then I looked at an add-on to do this for me, yes I said it, another add-on! I’m starting to wonder if you start buying add-ons if they inevitable lead to more.

Point is, I think it would be more intuitive if I can create my own menus with something a little more user friendly because I honestly don’t feel like diving into Python scripting when I’m often stuck in trying to figure out LSL scripting. I’ve no doubt I could probably figure something crude out, but I don’t really want to invest a week into something that will probably be very primitive.

I managed to narrow down my choices to 3 add-ons, Pie Menu Editor, Foam and Menu Generator. I have no idea if I’ll end up getting all eventually, trying to find the one that will work best for me but at this point I decided to start with Menu Generator.

I chose Menu Generator because it can create menus, pie menus and n-panel menus, which means I can put my most used items in a pie and least used in the n-panel. Or that is the hope anyway. I also want to be able to adapt these menus as I grow without too many headaches.

The theory is that I can make a couple of pie menus that I hope to join a bunch of shortcuts into easy mouse shortcuts, such as Option + Right mouse or something alike. The less shortcuts mean the more likely it is to be able to remember others that I can’t put into menus.

For now I’m going to go away and trial Mesh Generator before getting back to you on the life changing results!

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