Hotkeys and Mouse Controls

Open and change shortcuts

Select Hotkeys in the Editor header. Find the command group, click its current key, then press the replacement key. Press Escape to cancel capture, and use Reset to restore the built-in defaults.

The dialog is the authority for your current bindings. Shortcuts do not run while you are typing in a text field, and a conflicting custom binding can make one key perform a different action than the defaults below.

Default tool keys

The active tool is highlighted in Toolbox. Hover a tool to see its current shortcut before switching.

• 1 — Navigate.
• 2 — Sculpt.
• 3 — Select.
• 4 — Draw.
• 5 — Cut.
• 6 — Paint.
• 7 — Road.
• 8 — Railways.
• 9 — Transform.

Default camera keys

Camera keys work with every tool and move at the Basic speed set in Navigate settings. In First person, W, A, S, and D walk along the ground, and Left Shift walks a little faster. Top-Down only turns the camera to look down; the camera keys keep working as usual.

• W and S — move forward and backward.
• A and D — move left and right.
• Q — move up; E — move down. Either key also leaves First person.
• = and - — Zoom in and Zoom out: move toward or away from where the camera is looking.
• Left Shift — Fast modifier: move faster while held.
• Right mouse button drag — turn the camera where it stands to look around. In Sculpt, the right button lowers terrain by default instead.
• Left mouse button drag in Navigate — slide the view.
• Mouse wheel in Navigate — move forward or backward. In Sculpt, Paint, and Cut in Brush mode, the wheel changes the brush size; hold the Primary modifier to change Strength, Value, or Complexity instead.

Default view keys

A view key does the same as clicking its View Options button: I starts or stops a Preview orbit, F turns the camera to look straight down, and the other keys turn their option on or off. What every View Options button does explains each option.

To use a wheel, hold its key, move the mouse toward a segment, and release the key. The View wheel offers Top, Left, and Right views and First Person. The Visibility wheel turns Vectors, Textures, Bounds, or Meshes on or off.

• G Grid; T Snap; R Preserve Connections.
• V Vectors; C Textures; H Meshes; N Dense Meshes.
• O Connections; B Bounds; J Highlight.
• I Preview orbit; L Viewport focus; P First person; F Top-Down.
• The ` key (shown as ~ in Hotkeys) opens the View wheel; Z opens the Visibility wheel.

Default edit keys

Copy and paste target the active compatible vector context. Paste geometry only is useful when the shape should be reused without carrying source-specific attributes or assignments.

A modifier works from either side of the keyboard: with Left Shift set, the right Shift key works too. When you change the Primary or Secondary modifier in Hotkeys, Select, Transform, the brush wheel, and the hints in tool settings all follow the new key.

• Delete — delete the selected supported object or feature.
• M — merge compatible selected features.
• Ctrl+C — copy selected features.
• Ctrl+V — paste copied features with their supported data.
• Ctrl+Shift+V — paste geometry only.
• Space — finish the current drawing.
• Y — choose Sculpt Circle or Transform Move / Rotate.
• U — choose Sculpt Rectangle or Transform Resize.
• Shift+C — reshape the selected polygon or closed polyline to a circle in Transform.
• Shift+R — reshape the selected polygon or closed polyline to a rectangle in Transform.
• Shift+A — reshape the selected open polyline using the current Arc style and enter Arc mode. Smooth connection is the default.
• Left Shift — Primary modifier; Left Ctrl — Secondary modifier.

Default Sculpt mouse bindings

The Hotkeys dialog lets you change which mouse button and modifier perform each sculpt action. While Sculpt is active, a button assigned to a sculpt action sculpts the terrain under the pointer instead of moving the camera. Test a custom setup on an unimportant area and use Undo immediately if the result is not what you intended.

• Left mouse button — Raise.
• Right mouse button — Lower.
• Middle mouse button — Smooth.
• Primary modifier + middle mouse button — Flatten.