The new Left-Click vs Right-Click: Which is Better?
pavla writes:
Blender Right Click is dead, long live the Left Click? (article by Wayne Dixon)
Now that Blender 2.80 has arrived, the default selection mode for Blender has changed from right click to *drumroll*…left click. (Though there are more new features: read about the top 5 game changers that Blender 2.8 brings).
Having been a savvy right clicker for more than 15 years, I’ll admit that this decision brought a little sadness to my heart. Now, being a right-clicker feels like I’m in on a secret that only a few people know about.
Why has the Default Setting Changed?
It’s simple: to make things easier for new users.When you are new to software, any hurdle that can be lowered to make the learning easier makes sense.
You can now select things by default, which is the intuitive way for a new user and solves one of the biggest newbie hurdles.
However, there is an invisible downside to this ‘industry standard’ way of doing things.
Unfortunately they forced me to start using left mouse button to select, because right mouse button in 2.8 isn’t functioning as it did in 2.79. For an example, now I can by accident move something that I’ve selected because there isn’t a possibility of releasing with that same right mouse button. In 2.79 the moved part remains in a new location only after it’s confirmed with either enter or left mouse button. I’d like it to be the same as 2.79 which I’m used to.
Just disable “confirm on release”
Thank you. That fixed the problem :)
I’ve been right clicking for 10 years.
Likely to continue doing so, unless I find some compelling reason to change.
I use quite a few applications on both Windows & Mac, the odd one or two on Ubuntu, so I have to be aware of my environment.
Blender acts the same on all of them.
I won’t ‘fix’ it until it’s broken.
I switched to left click just to test it out around six months ago. I haven’t switched back.
I think the argument that right clicking is difficult for new users is a bit disingenuous. Because literally every other software used left click select that means literally everybody was a new user who left click selected. New to right click select. Not even new to blender.
I don’t agree with right click being any faster either. Blender was for a very long time developed with right click select in mind so naturally this lead to decisions along the way that sometimes heavily favoured right click select and hurt left click select. And let to some weird quirks. Selecting issues through other objects is just one of them. Which is a selecting issue. Not user input issue.
I find it also disingenuous why none of the many right click select issues never seem to be mentioned when the merits of right click select are touted. The article does not mention any downsides at all except that it takes some time to learn. Is right click select perfect and flawless? The inconsistencies in different menus as to what button does what, the total impossibility to add content sensitive menus without weird keyboard shortcuts, the total unsuitability to normal computer usage like text editing or other many editors inside blender…
Not to mention speed is just one factor. Not the only one. Ease of use and ability to learn and use the software quickly and intuitively are also valuable. I can imagine lots of things to spend a week learning that are much more useful, interesting and fun than learning to select with your right mouse button. Take that week and spend it for example learning rigging, the new grease pencil or the compositor instead. Your anecdotal evidence after that week should help you come to the conclusion that you actually learned something new instead of doing something you already know how to do. But differently for the sake of being different.
The whole discussion is silly.
One should look at what all the OTHER software does, or said differently, what is the set standard?
This is left click select, as it all started with a one button mouse! But no, Blender decided to be different and use the right mouse button when these 2 button mouses came out.
Fast forward, and we’re back to the default left click.
The only thing it ever did was to dealy the acceptace of Blender in larger parts of the 3D community. In addition to the terrible UI and shortcut usage.
2.8 is the future for Blender, and keeping up with ‘standards’ is the way to go.
To be fair, Blender is so old that there were no established UI/UX standards when right click select was made the default.
That being said, the software has been, and still is, way too slow to adjust to what’s in use in essentially 100% of the computer realm, and its reputation for being quirky was well deserved.
FWIW, I cannot fathom why Ctrl-A was’t made the default for “select all” during the last keymap revision. It just doesn’t make sense, what with all the other major UI changes.