Blender Keyboard Shortcuts
Blender's shortcut system stands apart from nearly every other tool on this site in one specific way — its core Grab, Rotate, and Scale transforms aren't just single-key tool switches but genuinely typeable commands, where pressing G then typing a number and an axis letter (like G, X, 5) moves a selected object exactly 5 units along the X axis, blending keyboard shortcuts with something closer to a command-line interface layered directly onto 3D viewport interaction. This hybrid approach is initially disorienting for users coming from more conventional click-and-drag 3D tools, but becomes extremely fast once internalized, since it allows exact numeric precision without ever opening a properties panel. Windows and Linux share nearly identical bindings; Mac requires additional configuration in some versions due to conflicts with system-reserved function keys, though the core G/R/S transform system works identically across all three. Because the G/R/S transform system functions almost like a small command language rather than a fixed set of button presses, Blender rewards a different kind of learning than most other tools on this site — instead of memorizing a flat list of keys, users build up compositional fluency, chaining a tool key, an axis constraint, and a numeric value into a single fluid keystroke sequence that becomes faster the more of the underlying logic you understand rather than merely memorized. Selection and viewport navigation shortcuts are worth learning before diving deep into the transform system, since precisely transforming the wrong object or from the wrong viewing angle wastes far more time than a slightly slower but correctly-targeted transform, and mesh-editing shortcuts build naturally on top of both once object-level manipulation feels comfortable.
Transform Tools
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grab (move) selected object | G | G | Activates Grab mode, letting you move the selected object freely with mouse movement, or type a number immediately after pressing G to move an exact numeric distance, optionally followed by an axis letter (X, Y, or Z) to constrain the movement to that single axis. |
| Rotate selected object | R | R | Activates Rotate mode, following the same typeable-precision pattern as Grab — press R, optionally type an exact angle in degrees, optionally constrain to an axis by typing X, Y, or Z afterward. |
| Scale selected object | S | S | Activates Scale mode, resizing the selection with mouse movement or an exact typed multiplier, again constrainable to a single axis by typing X, Y, or Z after pressing S. |
| Confirm current transform | Left Click or Enter | Left Click or Enter | Commits whatever Grab, Rotate, or Scale transform is currently in progress, applying it permanently to the selected object. |
| Cancel current transform | Right Click or Esc | Right Click or Esc | Cancels a Grab, Rotate, or Scale transform currently in progress, returning the object to its exact pre-transform position, rotation, or scale. |
| Duplicate selection | Shift+D | Shift+D | Makes a copy of the selected object or geometry and drops it straight into Grab mode so you can place it right away, with the same axis-and-number typing tricks available as a standalone Grab. |
| Toggle snapping | Shift+Tab | Shift+Tab | Toggles snapping on or off for subsequent transforms, letting Grab, Rotate, and Scale snap to increments, vertices, edges, or faces depending on the snap target configured in the header, useful for precisely aligning objects to existing geometry without manually eyeballing the alignment. |
Selection Modes
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switch to Object Mode | Tab (toggles with Edit Mode) or Ctrl+Tab menu | Tab | Switches to Object Mode for manipulating whole objects (moving, rotating, duplicating entire meshes), as opposed to editing an individual object's internal vertex/edge/face geometry. |
| Switch to Edit Mode | Tab (from Object Mode) | Tab | Switches into Edit Mode for the selected object, exposing its individual vertices, edges, and faces for direct mesh-level editing rather than whole-object manipulation. |
| Vertex select mode (in Edit Mode) | 1 | 1 | Switches Edit Mode's selection granularity to individual vertices, the finest level of mesh editing control. |
| Edge select mode (in Edit Mode) | 2 | 2 | Switches selection granularity to edges (the lines connecting vertices), useful for operations like edge loop selection or beveling. |
| Face select mode (in Edit Mode) | 3 | 3 | Switches selection granularity to whole faces, useful for extruding or selecting larger contiguous surface areas at once. |
| Select all / deselect all | A / Alt+A | A / Option+A | Selects every vertex, edge, or face (depending on current selection mode) with A, or deselects everything currently selected with Alt+A, the fastest way to establish a clean baseline selection state before making a more specific targeted selection. |
| Select linked geometry | L (hover over connected geometry) | L | Selects every vertex, edge, and face connected to whatever geometry the mouse is currently hovering over, useful for quickly selecting an entire separate connected mesh island within a single object without manually box-selecting or clicking each piece individually. |
| Invert current selection | Ctrl+I | Cmd+I | Flips the current selection so everything previously selected becomes deselected and everything previously deselected becomes selected, useful for selecting everything except a small excluded region by first selecting that small region and then inverting. |
Viewport Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orbit viewport | Middle Mouse Button drag | Middle Mouse Button drag | Rotates the 3D viewport's camera view around the current focal point by dragging with the middle mouse button held, the primary way of navigating around a 3D scene visually. |
| Snap to Front view | Numpad 1 | Numpad 1 | Locks the viewport camera into an exact orthographic front-on view, one entry in Blender's numpad-driven set of standard-angle jumps that beats manually orbiting to eyeball the same alignment. |
| Snap to Top view | Numpad 7 | Numpad 7 | Snaps the viewport to a precise orthographic top-down view, essential for accurate top-down modeling and layout work. |
| Zoom viewport | Scroll wheel, or Numpad +/- | Scroll wheel, or Numpad +/- | Zooms the viewport camera in or out toward the current focal point, with scroll wheel offering smooth continuous zoom and Numpad +/- providing fixed incremental steps for more predictable, repeatable zoom adjustments. |
| Pan viewport | Shift+Middle Mouse Button drag | Shift+Middle Mouse Button drag | Slides the viewport view sideways without rotating, using the same middle-mouse-based interaction as orbit but with Shift held to switch from rotation to lateral panning. |
| Frame selected object in view | Numpad . (period) | Numpad . | Zooms and centers the viewport on whatever is currently selected, the fastest way to relocate a specific object after losing track of it while navigating a large or complex scene. |
Editing Mesh
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extrude selected geometry | E | E | Pulls new connected geometry out from the selected vertices, edges, or faces — a core building block of nearly all 3D modeling work, and one that follows the same typeable-precision pattern as Grab for exact numeric control. |
| Loop Cut | Ctrl+R | Cmd+R | Inserts a new edge loop around a mesh at the position hovered, adding additional geometry density useful for finer control over deformation or additional detail in a specific area. |
| Bevel selected geometry | Ctrl+B | Cmd+B | Rounds or chamfers a selected edge or vertex into multiple new connected faces, softening what would otherwise be a hard sharp corner, with the number of resulting segments adjustable by scrolling the mouse wheel during the interactive preview. |
| Merge selected vertices | M | M | Opens a menu of merge options for combining selected vertices into a single point, commonly used to close a gap in a mesh or clean up duplicate overlapping vertices left over from other operations. |
| Delete selected geometry | X or Delete | X or Delete | Opens a context menu of deletion options (vertices, edges, faces, or a few more specific variants like Dissolve) rather than immediately deleting, since removing geometry can leave a mesh non-manifold or full of holes depending on which specific deletion type is chosen. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does typing a number after pressing G, R, or S do something different than just moving the mouse?
Blender's transform tools are deliberately built as a hybrid between a mouse-driven gesture and a typeable command — pressing G alone lets you move an object freehand by mouse movement, but typing a number immediately afterward instead applies that exact numeric value as the movement distance, letting you achieve precise, exact transforms (move exactly 2.5 units, rotate exactly 45 degrees) without ever opening a properties panel or typing into a dedicated numeric field.
What's the actual difference between Object Mode and Edit Mode?
Object Mode treats a mesh as a single indivisible unit for whole-object operations like moving, duplicating, or applying modifiers, while Edit Mode exposes that same mesh's underlying vertices, edges, and faces individually for direct geometric editing — extruding new geometry, adjusting individual vertex positions, or applying operations like Loop Cut. Tab toggles between the two modes for whichever object is currently selected, and understanding which mode you're in at any given moment is fundamental to Blender working the way you expect, since many shortcuts behave completely differently (or not at all) depending on which mode is active.
Why does my Mac keyboard's function keys not work as expected for Blender's number-key viewport shortcuts?
Most MacBook keyboards give that top number row to media and brightness controls by default rather than treating them as a numeric keypad, which trips up Blender's view-snap bindings like Front and Top on any Mac without an external numpad attached. Blender's own 'Emulate Numpad' preference solves it by remapping the plain top-row digits to act as numpad equivalents, sidestepping the missing hardware entirely.
Why does typing a number after pressing G sometimes not move the object at all?
Numeric input during a Grab (or Rotate/Scale) operation only registers once you begin typing digits directly after invoking the tool, and if focus has shifted to a different panel or a numeric field elsewhere in the interface, those keystrokes go there instead of into the transform operation. Clicking into the 3D viewport to ensure it has focus before starting the G/number sequence avoids this, and pressing Escape cancels an in-progress transform cleanly if it's captured input incorrectly.
Why do some of Blender's shortcuts behave differently depending on which editor panel my mouse is over?
Blender's keymap is context-sensitive by design — the same key can trigger a completely different action depending on which editor area (3D Viewport, Timeline, Node Editor, UV Editor) the mouse cursor is currently hovering over when the key is pressed, since each editor type maintains its own separate keymap. This is a deliberate space-saving design allowing a limited set of keys to cover many more total actions than a single global keymap could, but it means the exact same keypress can do something entirely unrelated depending on which panel currently has the pointer.