MFlow — Documentation

Requires Blender 5.2 or later.

1. In Blender, open Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions.

2. Click the dropdown arrow at the top right of the window and choose Install from Disk…

3. Select MFlow-1.0.0.zip. MFlow asks for no permission: it never accesses the network and writes no file of its own.

4. The extension installs and enables itself. The MFlow keymap is already active, a row of navigation buttons appears at the bottom of every 3D Viewport, and a camera preview sits in its bottom right corner.

To update later, install the newer zip the same way; it replaces the previous version. Disabling or uninstalling the add-on immediately removes its shortcuts, the navigation buttons, the camera preview and its menu entries, and Blender's own navigation takes over again. The camera chosen for the preview is stored in the scene and comes back when the add-on is enabled again.

The heart of MFlow is the pivot point: the spot the view turns around and zooms toward. You place it with a simple click, exactly where you want it.

1. In Object Mode, hover an object. A glowing blue point and a ray of light show the spot a click would pick.

2. Click. Blender selects the object as usual and the pivot point lands on that spot. The view does not move.

3. Drag with the right button to orbit around it, scroll to zoom toward it, and scroll during the right drag to roll the view.

4. Click with the middle button to open the MFlow menu: axis views, focus, view history and display options.

These are the shortcuts of the default MFlow keymap. Prefer to orbit with the middle button, or work with a pen or a trackpad? Pick another keymap in the preferences (see section 8). Each 3D Viewport has its own pivot point.

MFlow acts after Blender has handled the click, so selecting works exactly as before. What happens next depends on the Click Action, set in the Keymaps tab of the preferences.

MFlow reacts to a click with the selection button while a selection tool, or the Move, Rotate, Scale or Transform tool, is active; other tools keep their clicks. A press that moves past Blender's Drag Threshold is a drag, not a click, and a double-click follows Blender's Double Click Speed (both in Edit > Preferences > Input). Double-click centering is not offered with Fly to Object, where a single click already flies.

Up close, the pivot point is a small dot that hides nothing. As you move away, it turns into a ring with ticks and sends out a soft pulse, so it stays easy to find. Without a pivot point, the center of each orbit is shown while you orbit.

Before you click, the pivot preview shows the spot under the cursor, and the mouse cursor hides so it does not cover it. Choose its Style in the Display tab:

The preview appears in Object Mode when the Click Action is Place Pivot. It hides over the navigation buttons and the camera preview, and during drags. The mouse cursor comes back as soon as it leaves the objects.

The pivot point is removed by a click on empty space, by Clear Pivot in the MFlow menu, by a flight that frames something new (Focus Selected, Frame All, a double-click, Previous and Next View, Camera View) and by opening another file. Axis views and Level Horizon keep it. It is not saved in the .blend.

Every move is smoothed. When you let go, an orbit or a pan keeps a little inertia, and a zoom or a roll glides and slows down before it stops. The keys depend on your keymap (see section 8).

The orbit speed builds on Blender's own Orbit Sensitivity. When the view is locked to an object or to the 3D cursor, or follows a camera with Lock Camera to View, MFlow leaves navigation to Blender. While you look through a camera, zooming and panning are left to Blender too, and an orbit leaves the camera view.

When the pivot point sits on an object, MFlow takes the surrounding geometry into account so the spot you clicked stays in sight while you orbit. Both options are on by default, in the Navigation tab.

Level Horizon removes the lean as well as any roll. Without a pivot point, the orbit is a plain turntable.

MFlow never teleports the view: it flies. Short moves are quick, between distant objects the view pulls back on the way, and it arrives facing the target from its most readable angle. When another object would hide the target, MFlow picks an angle where it is visible, or stops in front of the obstacle.

Focus Selected, Frame All and Previous and Next View are on the navigation buttons, in the MFlow menu and in Blender's View > Navigation menu. Speed, easing, framing and viewing angles are set in the Flights tab (see section 12). The view history is forgotten when another file is opened.

Choose a keymap in the Keymaps tab of the preferences. Each one is built so that no key does two things: a drag navigates, and the clicks you rely on keep working. The Actions list below the keymap shows its keys, and each action can be turned off with its checkbox.

Sculpt and paint modes. In Sculpt, Texture, Vertex and Weight Paint, Particle Edit, Curves Sculpt and the Grease Pencil draw, sculpt, weight and vertex modes, a right drag orbits (or pans with the Pen Tablet keymap) and a simple right click still opens the brush menu. While a stencil or the Clone tool needs the right button, it is left to Blender.

When Blender selects with the right button, plain left and right drags stay Blender's, and the preferences show which shortcuts are affected; the Blender and Laptop and Trackpad keymaps fit right-click select. MFlow manages its own shortcuts: changes made to them in Edit > Preferences > Keymap are reset the next time Blender starts or the keymap changes.

A row of round buttons sits in every 3D Viewport, so you can navigate without a middle button or a keyboard. From left to right:

Hover a button to see its tooltip. In the Display tab, place the row along the bottom or the top, or as a column on the left, the right or in a bottom corner, and set its size, margin and opacity. It stays clear of the headers and the asset shelf, and shrinks in small viewports until it no longer fits. The buttons are viewport gizmos: they are shown only while Gizmos are enabled in the viewport header.

A live view of a camera sits in a corner of the viewport, drawn with your viewport shading and without overlays. Its title shows the camera's name.

The preview belongs to the navigation buttons: it is shown only while they are. In a scene without a camera it reads No camera in this scene.

A compact grid of buttons that opens centered under the cursor, with the middle click (Alt + click with the Laptop keymap) or the last navigation button.

Previous View, Next View and Clear Pivot are dimmed when there is nothing to do. The menu closes after a choice, when the mouse moves away, or with Esc. Blender's View > Navigation menu also lists MFlow Focus Selected, MFlow Frame All, MFlow Previous View and MFlow Next View, plus MFlow Fly to Element in mesh Edit Mode.

Open Edit > Preferences > Add-ons and expand MFlow. The settings are split into four tabs, and every change applies immediately — no restart needed.

Options that do not apply to your current choices are dimmed, for example Approach Step when the Click Action is not Fly to Object. Hover any setting for its description.