Keyboard Shortcuts

Bricksmith provides many "secret" keyboard shortcuts to help building go faster.

Note: Many of Bricksmith's menu items also have shortcuts printed next to them. (For instance, Grid Spacing > Small is "⌘1".) This document only covers keys that you can't find elsewhere.

Part Movement
Key Function

Click-drag

Arrow keys

Move parts
Click-drag-shift Move parts, but constrain movement along straight lines
Option-click-drag Move a copy of the selected parts
Option-Arrow keys Move parts on third axis
x/y/z Rotate +X/Y/Z
Shift-x/y/z Rotate -X/Y/Z
Selection
Key Function

Shift-click

Select multiple parts
Viewing
Key Function

Command-drag

Middle-click

Spin model to change viewing angle
Space Grabber (pan) tool
Command-option-click Center view on clicked point

Command-option-drag

Option-scroll

Smooth zoom in/out
Command-space * Zoom in

Option-space

Command-option-space *

Zoom out
0 Viewing angle: 3-D Perspective
2 Viewing angle: Bottom
4 Viewing angle: Left
5 Viewing angle: Front
6 Viewing angle: Right

7 or 9

Viewing angle: Back
8 Viewing angle: Top

* These are known to conflict with Mac OS X's default keys for displaying the Spotlight window. They were chosen to maintain compatibility with Adobe's application suite, which has been using these keys for zoom in/out for well over a decade.

To compensate, I (and Adobe) recommend one of the following:

  • Press the spacebar first, then press the command key.
  • Turn off or change the keys associated with Spotlight.
    You can do this by opening the System Preferences and going to the Keyboard & Mouse panel. Click on the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab, and scroll down to the Spotlight category. Then either uncheck or change them.
For the Power User
Operation Steps

Set colors entirely with the keyboard

  1. Press Command-Shift-C
  2. Type the color code or name
  3. Press Esc twice