Blender 2.80 with left or right-click?

The release of Blender 2.8 beta brought a lot of welcome changes and updates to the software we use for work and fun. For instance, you will find an incredible real-time render engine with Eevee and a refreshed user interface. But, some of those updates might “shock” old users like the game engine removal.

A subtle change in the way we interact with 3D objects in Blender might give you a little time to adapt if you are an experienced user. Now, you have to left-click at any object or entity for selection.

Why is that a big deal?

For people migration for other softwares using the left mouse click will be a natural move. Because everybody else uses the left-click as the default for selection. Not only 3D graphics software, even text processing software uses the left-click.

I still remember the first time trying to use Blender migrating from 3dsmax about 13 years ago. I opened Blender 2.35 and started working to select something in the 3D View with a left-click. The only thing I got was moving the 3D Cursor to a new location. After a few moments trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, I finally found that I had to use a right-click.

This is frustrating for new users, which will try to apply the same behavior all other 3D softwares use.

In Blender 2.80 you will have the flexibility to choose the way you want to select objects. Do you still prefer to use the right-click? No problem, go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences.

Go to the Input tab, and you will find the “Select With” options. Pick the one you prefer to use and save the preferences. You can keep using the old right-click for selection or go with the new default left-click.

If you are new to Blender 2.80, you should take a look at my new book that is a quick reference guide for Blender 2.80.