Hide that Annoying Blender 3D Cursor

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Hide that Annoying Blender 3D Cursor Blender does not have a built-in means of hiding the 3D cursor, which has been a point of contention among users for some time. The Manipulator Widget, which is much less likely to get in the way, can be hidden by clicking on its icon in the 3D Editor header or by using the keyboard combination CTRL + SPACEBAR. No such luck with the 3D Cursor.

ViewN271 How often have you gone to select a vertex, or zero in on a part of your model, only to end up putting the 3D cursor in the way? Blender uses the Right Mouse Button (RBM) for selecting while the Left Mouse Button (LBM) is used to position the 3D cursor. We are used to selecting with the LMB because most computer programs use the LBM for selecting and it can be hard habit to break. Fortunately, there is a fix, an extension (add-on) that allows one to show and hide the 3D cursor at will. Once installed one simply clicks on “Eyeball Icon” under 3D Cursor Tools in the Numeric Properties panel of the 3D Editor.

Hide that Annoying Blender 3D Cursor

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Instructions for downloading and installing on a PC can be found here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5SqZz9PTlQ However, the video only describes how to install the extension on a PC. I discovered that installing on a Mac presented a challenge (I had never installed an extension before). So I will describe the procedures for downloading and installing to both computers systems. The instructions are given in written form, which you may find facilitates the download and installation process as following video instructions can be somewhat cumbersome. Downloading the Extension (Add-on) Go to Google and do a search for “Enhanced 3D Cursor”. The first entry should be: Enhanced 3D Cursor - Blender Wiki wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/.../3D.../Enhanced_3D_Curso...

Hide that Annoying Blender 3D Cursor

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Click on this entry to go to the webpage for “Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/3D interaction/Enhanced 3D Cursor”.

Click on one of the “Current Version Download” links and download the extension. Your web browser will show the code for the extension.

Hide that Annoying Blender 3D Cursor

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On a PC copy this code into a Notepad file. From the previous web window copy the file name then save as a .txt file. Afterwards remove the “.txt” extension so that the file name is “space_view3d_enhanced_3d_cursor.py”. Note: I found that I did not need to use the quotation marks as suggested in the video

just remove the .txt extension. Note: I tried copying the to TextEdit and then to Word code on my Mac and

subsequently was not able to get the file to load into Blender. When I used the file saved in NotePad on my Bootcamp partition all worked well.

Hide that Annoying Blender 3D Cursor

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Installation on a PC running Windows Open Blender, go to User Preferences and then to Addons and click on “Install from file…”.

Locate where you saved your file then click on “Install the file”.

Click the checkbox on the right of the Enhanced 3D Cursor extension to activate it and click “Save User Preferences “ to keep it active when booting Blender in the future.

Hide that Annoying Blender 3D Cursor

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Installation on a Mac OS X In your applications folder find the Blender app (blender.app) and RMB on it.

ViewN279 Navigate to the “addons” folder and drag the “space_view3d_enhanced_3d_cursor.py” into it.

Hide that Annoying Blender 3D Cursor

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ViewN280 Close the folders and open Blender >User Preferences > Addons. Find the Enhaced 3D Cursor extension and click the checkbox on the right of the Enhanced 3D Cursor extension to activate it. Click “Save User Preferences “ to keep it active when booting Blender in the future. Open the Numeric Properties panel in the 3D editor (N-KEY). Click on the “Eyeball Incon” to hide the 3D Cursor and again to show it.

Hide that Annoying Blender 3D Cursor

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Note: The 3D Cursor Tools are inserted at the bottom of the Numeric Properties Panel. You can move them up to have them always visible by clicking on the

cross-hatched area in the upper right hand corner (see figure above) and dragging to a new location.