Blender for OpenFOAM Users

This page lists Blender related links that are useful for OpenFOAM users. Blender is a free and open source 3D modelling and rendering tool, useful for pretty much anything related to polygon surface meshes. As a visual tool with a Python programming interface, it can be used to complement and wrap the text input based OpenFOAM tools. Have a look at Blender for OpenFOAM Users presentation slides for an overview.

Blender Tutorial Videos

Docs

OpenFOAM Wiki Blender page
SnappyHexMesh GUI (Blender add-on) docs
SwiftBlock (Blender add-on) docs
Unstructured Grids (Blender add-on) docs
BVTKNodes (Blender add-on) docs
Mesh Heal (Blender add-on) docs

Most Important Blender Shortcut Keys

General

Esc (or right-click) = Cancel
Enter (or left-click) = Confirm / Apply
Ctrl + S = Save
Ctrl + Z = Undo
Shift + Ctrl + Z = Redo
Ctrl + C = Copy
Ctrl + V = Paste
Tab = Toggle between Edit Mode and Object Mode
Alt + Z = Toggle X-Ray Mode
A = Select All
Alt + A = Deselect All
Shift + A = Add
Shift + D = Duplicate
Ctrl + J = Join
X or Del = Delete
N = Show/Hide Sidebar
Numpad 1/3/7 = Views: front/right/top
Numpad 5 = Toggle orthographic view
H = Hide Selected
Alt + H = Unhide All
Alt + B = Toggle View Clipping
Shift + R = Repeat Last Command
F3 = Operator (Tool) Search

Tools in Edit Mode

B = Box Select
C = Circle Select
G = Move / Grab
S = Scale
R = Rotate
E = Extrude
M = Merge
P = Separate Selected

After activating a tool, see info row at screen bottom for constraint keys.

This page was last updated on 2024-04-05
<Tuomo.Keskitalo@iki.fi>