How to Use Blender for the Mac
Blender, a free and open-source 3-D modeling program, is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. The Mac version of Blender works somewhat differently from the others, using different mouse actions for common actions such as moving the 3-D viewport, selecting objects in a scene and zooming the viewport. These actions are designed to work even with a single-button mouse. Blender also uses a different keyboard shortcut for rendering the scene on a Mac.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Open the Get Blender page (blender.org/download/get-blender/) and download the package for your version of Mac OS X. Double-click the downloaded ZIP file to extract it, then drag and drop the “Blender.app” file into your Applications folder.
-
2
Open Blender by double-clicking the “Blender” application. Blender opens with the default scene. You can open an existing file by clicking the “File” menu, selecting “Open” and browsing to it on your Mac.
-
-
3
Move objects in the Blender scene by clicking and dragging them. Release the mouse button to place the object.
-
4
Move the 3-D viewport by pressing and holding the “Ctrl” and “Shift” keys, clicking on the viewport and moving the mouse. If you have a mouse with a middle mouse button, you can press the middle mouse button instead.
-
5
Use the “+” and “-” keys on your keyboard to zoom in and out in the 3-D scene. If your mouse has a mouse wheel, you can also scroll the wheel to zoom in or out.
-
6
Select objects in the scene by holding the “Command” or “Apple” key and clicking the object. If you have a mouse with a right mouse button, you can click it instead to select objects. You can also select an object by clicking its name in the upper right panel.
-
7
Modify the selected object using the buttons on the left panel. For example, resize the selected object by clicking “Scale” and moving the mouse over the viewport, then clicking to set the new size. Rotate the selected object by clicking “Rotate” instead.
-
8
Customize your scene or selected object using the properties panel at the right side of the Blender window. You can switch between properties panes by clicking the icons at the top of the properties panel; some panels control the entire scene and some control the selected object.
-
9
Render the current scene by pressing and holding the “Ctrl” or “Alt” key and pressing the “F12” key. Blender uses the F12 key alone on other platforms, but Macs use the F12 key to eject discs.
-
1
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Burke/Triolo Productions/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
