Emulate middle mouse button with Left+Right Click.
The current way "Emulate 3 Button Mouse" option is flawed. It uses alt-left-click which interferes with all tools or functions that are or can be potentially mapped to "Alt LeftClick".
It's an option rarely anybody uses or even pays attention to, alright.
But, I believe there are many people who would agree that most of the scroll wheels on all mouses are either hard to press or it is not very responsive.
I hereby suggest we make the "Emulate Middle Mouse Button" option use "Left + Right Click" instead of "Alt + Left Click"
But wait, there is more.
Using "Left + Right Click" could get in the way of all actions that involves quickly clicking left or right buttons.
That is a problem, isn't it? We absolutely use left or right click for anything and everything. And only when we get into modal tools, it becomes a no matter.
Here is a solution to this problem.
Instead of mapping every left click/right click functions to "Pressed", we map them to be executed when "Released".
This way, the middle mouse emulation begins before other functions are actually executed.
An additional benefit of this change is, we can now use "Spacebar" as a modifier in combination with mouse buttons without needing to change any other mouse click hotkeys from "Pressed" to "Released".
With the addition of spacebar as a modifier key, workflow just becomes more fluid as ever. Saving most of the hotkeys like box select, circle select, etc to be used for all other intricacies within blender's complex and diverse tools.
3 Comments
I remember a Modo developer podcast where Brad talked about why they didn't integrate this into Modo even though it feels kind of good at first: "Button chording" (from playing accords on a keyboard) is linked to increased risk for carpal tunnel syndrome. If those studies haven't been proven wrong, yet then this is a really good argument for trying to come up with a better method.
@motionblur.of.doom: That's really deep. I haven't thought about the carpal tunnel syndrome, and I have no idea whether Left+Right click will make the syndrome worse.
OH MY GODS!!! I have used "Emulate 3 Button Mouse" since the very beginning! It is so ingrained in my muscle memory that I accidentally use the Ctrl Shift Alt keys for pan, rotate, and zoom. This would throw me in the deep end of water at 50 degrees (Celsius) at the opposite end of the scale.
Oh well, 2.8 is already messing up my muscle memory, and you may have a good idea here.
... However, I also can't use blender with a mouse well at all. I have used a pen tablet since the beginning too, and I can envision (good word, eh?) timing problems. How long should beloved blender wait before reacting to one click before giving up on the dual-click and executing the left or right click function/operation? there may be a longer delay between right click on the pen/stylus and left click (pen on tablet).
Everyone knows that how I use blender is more important than anything else, so if this becomes a thing, I hope it is soon. I'm already retraining myself with 2.8, trying to break over 10 years of muscle memory. This could solve the problem of me using blender navigation shortcuts in other software.