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[chuft-captain]

It appears that the function performed by the ALT key has been reassigned in this build.
Previously (0.98) it was used in combination with the Right-Mouse button to allow de-selection of faces, lines, vertex's in Object/Point editing mode.
Now it appears to bring up the rotate tool instead. (Not sure if this is an intended change or simply a bug.)

This is a problem because I can see no way now to deselect faces, etc. when accidentally selected.
For example, after selecting 50 faces, if the 51'st face is incorrectly selected, there is no way to undo that last selection, and you have to start from scratch every time you make an accidental selection.

This post referenced in: Version 1.0 Bugs and Suggestions

[nemyax]

Alt+RMB is a substitute for MMB. But now that arc-rotate is Alt+buttons, it takes precedence over the MMB emulation. I suppose we could ask Steve to make some other combination act as MMB instead. For example, Ctrl+RMB doesn't seem to be in use anywhere (I may be wrong though).

[Steve]

I have a goal of eliminating all current uses MMB because there isn't really a good button on most computer's mouse, just a scroll wheel that clicks. Eliminating them isn't easy to do.

First some background:

The original Alt+RMB was added because in those days many computers had a 2-button mouse without a wheel. Then it was impossible to do things like deselect a single object. But now all computers have a wheel so the Alt solution isn't 100% necessary.

I realize that this is a break with user-interface compatibility but feel that it has tremendous advantages. It's much easier to pan, zoom, rotate your view when modeling without interrupting your work flow.

Why eliminate (re-purpose) the MMB?

For experienced modelers, being able to fluidly view your model from different angles is very important. What I'd like to do is add panning to the wheel as well as zooming. You could click-drag with the MMB to pan around your model and scroll the wheel at the same time to enlarge of reduce the view. 3DS Max does this and it's very, very useful.

What about tablets?

This is a huge problem of design. I do want to make all the functionality available to touch-screen interfaces but it will necessarily be a different UI. Anim8or runs fine on my Surface 3 but, obviously, a lot of things aren't accessible. Something left to do after v1.0 is out.

[chuft-captain]

Thanks for the replies guys,

Although I had become accustomed to the alt-RMB combination, as long as there's some way to do it I'm happy, so clicking on the MMB will suffice for now, until a better solution can be found for the future... Perhaps nemyax's suggestion of ctrl-RMB might be a good long term solution.
From a UI perspective it would seem like some combination involving SHIFT, CTRL, or ALT keys is a more natural and intuitive approach than MMB.

Thanks again
CC

[nemyax]

Perhaps nemyax's suggestion of ctrl-RMB might be a good long term solution

On second thought, it isn't. There'd be a conflict with the Ctrl+Shift-enabled select mode. But I'm sure Steve will come up with a consistent convention after 1.0.
Maybe he will adopt the traditional "Shift to add to selection, Ctrl to deselect" model.

[Steve]

Maybe he will adopt the traditional "Shift to add to selection, Ctrl to deselect" model.

Unfortunately that would impact a lot of commands that use Shift and Ctrl for various things.

[nemyax]

Steve
Houdini uses the space bar as the navigation modifier, and it's working fine for them. (Admittedly, they also use Alt nowadays, but that only happened because of pressure from Maya users.) How about switching from Alt to the space bar for arc rotate and making Esc deselect all instead?
This would free up Alt again and bring back MMB emulation.

[captaindrewi]

Steve
Houdini uses the space bar as the navigation modifier, and it's working fine for them. (Admittedly, they also use Alt nowadays, but that only happened because of pressure from Maya users.) How about switching from Alt to the space bar for arc rotate and making Esc deselect all instead?
This would free up Alt again and bring back MMB emulation.

+1