Gottfried Hofmann writes:
I used Blender 2.8 on a laptop without 3-button-mouse and with no numpad and still was able to navigate the viewport just fine thanks to the new navigator widget:
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About the Author
Gottfried Hofmann
Founder of BlenderDiplom.com, co-author of the Cycles Encyclopedia. Blender enthusiast since 2.50 alpha 0. Got a knack for simulations and teaching.
13 Comments
Personally, I will turn it off. I use a laptop with a numpad and external 5 button mouse. I was hoping for a more Max-style layout. The new layout, icons, and menu are, to me, uninspiring. I really hope the overall layout is cleaned up. In my opinion, the 2.5 and later layout is fine.
I do use a notebook with Blender, but (I confess) I also use two external monitors plus an external keyboard and mouse. I do like the new nav-widget, though. I can see myself someday traveling around with my Blender notebook and using it. But I don't get away from my desk much ATM.
I like just about everything about 2.8 so far. The icons are an especially nice addition.
I do hope they give some of the more mundane things a bit of love, too, like adding a 'Save & Quit' button to the "I accidentally hit the Close button" dialog. Little things like that.
There is a "save and quit" dialogue now...
I think I can relate to Ron's issue. I do use the Prompt Quit function, and, sometimes, it's still a problem.
Speaking for myself, I'd hope for a "Save and quit" dialogue that's more "un-accidentably" clickable. (If I may invent that word, momentarily.)
Something where, after hitting Ctrl+Q or "Close" in the File menu, the whole screen dims and blurs the background, and the whole screen shifts focus to the "Are you sure you want to exit?" prompt located right at the center of the screen, completely independent of your mouse cursor.
On rare occasion, in the middle of a hitting a series of hotkeys, I accidentally press Ctrl+Q, and before I recognize the "Quit Blender?" prompt underneath the mouse cursor, I've quickly hit Enter or RMB by mistake, closing Blender unintendedly.
Not a big deal, but if any developers happen to catch this suggestion, it's just a thought.
Much appreciated! Its all good. I use Bender on a 15" thinkpad (with no numpad) for when I'm on the move. The new gimbal is an excellent improvement and I will definately use these features! Blender 2.8 is a work of art. Thanks to all you guys!
I work more on a laptop than on a workstation. Although my laptop has a numpad, my Surface doesn't. Perhaps I can use Blender on my Surface now. Touch sensitivity might result in a few surprises.
The 2.8 builds crash on my surface 2017 every time I edit or create a material with nodes in EEVEE. Do you have the same issue?
I like it. Most of time, I work on my laptop without mouse and only touchpad, so it's definitely the feature that I am going to use a lot.
mice were for some reason starting to give me carpal tunnel, so for the last 4-5 years I've been MacBook Pro trackpad/keyboard only, and now whenever I use a mouse I actually feel comparatively slow. multitouch is actually really fast for navigating blender's viewport!
I use emulate mode all the time because the 3-button navigation gave me tendinitis.
I like the space bar option allowing you to make use of the icons from the side bar. However, maybe a feature could be added that allowed blender users to select the specific tools they wanted and create their own unique pop-up window customized with their own short-cuts.... That would be nice and handy
Like it, Like it a lot! It would help to put the navigation widget at the left bottom for touch enabled tablet users. This will make all the difference for touch screen users. Tx.
Unfortunately, we're still limiting ourselves to the 6 cube face views. We're still omitting the 8 cube vertex views, which are often equally important.