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Note: Using Wacom ExpressKeys to Emulate Mouse Wheel and Numpad

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Original language: Chinese . AI translations: English , Japanese .

Disclaimer: a useless little trick.

Why

  • Blender uses the numpad to control the view. My keyboard isn’t full-size. Although Blender can emulate numpad with the number row, some functions are still missing.
  • Using a mouse for too long makes my hand and forearm tired, so I wanted to reduce mouse usage. I mostly use a pen tablet as a mouse now, but in Blender, when using Ctrl B (Bevel) you can scroll the mouse wheel to control segment counts; the Boxcutter add-on also uses the wheel to control array counts.

How

My tablet is a Wacom CTL-6100. It has four keys on the top, so I started looking for the most comfortable mapping.

  • Mouse wheel
    This is easy: set the left two keys to Scrow Up and Scrow Down.

    Update 10/08: this no longer works. Not sure whether it’s Windows or Wacom’s fault.

  • Numpad
    • Set a key to an on-screen control, and choose Keypad.
    • But in Blender it didn’t control the view. I guess this “keypad” is actually emulating the number row.
    • I tried changing the key mappings by manually inputting {Num 0}, but the input box only recognizes key presses, not text. That means to map Num 0, you basically need a full-size keyboard with a real numpad…
    • I tried the Windows 10 on-screen keyboard, but it also didn’t have a numpad.
    • Searched online.
    • Found a way: press Win R, type osk, open another on-screen keyboard, and enable the numpad in settings (this one seems more low-level).
    • Remap keys one by one.

Result

It works, kind of.
Press the key to bring up the on-screen keypad, and then you can control Blender’s view normally (this feels so dumb…).

  • Other tips
  • In the Chrome profile for the tablet, disabling Windows Ink can fix “can’t drag Chrome windows / can’t select text”, but it also makes it impossible to drag webpages with the pen tip. I set the lower side button on the pen to middle mouse button, and use that + drag to scroll webpages.
  • Enabling Smooth Scrolling in chrome://flags can make scrolling animations smoother. (But it didn’t feel different to me; still not as smooth as Firefox.)

2019/10/08 update
Enable Emulate 3 Button Mouse
If you enable Emulate 3 Button Mouse in Blender settings, you can emulate Middle Mouse with Alt + Click.
Then Alt + Click rotates, Ctrl Alt + Click zooms, Shift Alt + Click pans. Much better than my old setup.
This comes from Yansculpts - Sculpting In Blender For Beginners.