Every key you press, shown in the bottom-left of Blender's 3D viewport, for recording tutorials, shorts and livestreams. One button in the toolbar turns it on. Combinations read as one press, repeats count up, and the mouse sits beside the keys and lights up as you click, roll and drag.
Requirements
- Blender 3.3 – 5.2, one zip for all of them: an extension on 4.2 and later, a classic add-on on 3.3 to 4.1.
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Free, GPL-3.0-or-later, from Tachyon Studio. No account, no licence key, no network use of any kind.
Installation
Blender 4.2+ (Extension): drag tachyon_screencast_keys-1.0.0-blender3.3-5.2.zip onto Blender's window, or Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Get Extensions ▸ drop-down ▸ Install from Disk… and pick it.
Blender 3.3 – 4.1 (Add-on): Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Add-ons ▸ Install… and pick the same zip.
Make sure Tachyon Screencast Keys is enabled.
Getting started
- In the 3D viewport, find the Screencast Keys button at the very bottom of the toolbar on the left, under the tools (and under Hard Ops' when it is installed). Press T if the toolbar is hidden.
- Click it. It lights up, and the mouse appears in the viewport's bottom-left corner.
- Work as usual: every key you press shows in that corner. Click the button again to stop.
It stays on when you open another file.
What it shows
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The newest press at the bottom, with a soft glow, just above the TachyonSync light and clear of the toolbar. Older presses stack upwards, each a little fainter.
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Combinations as one press: Ctrl + Shift + D is three keys joined by "+". A modifier pressed on its own shows at once and becomes the combination when a key follows it.
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Repeats count up: A pressed twice is one row with ×2; Ctrl + Z three times is one row with ×3.
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A pause fades everything out, after the time set in Show For (3 seconds by default).
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One place per window: the keys show in the biggest 3D viewport of each window, so a video has them once, somewhere that does not move.
The mouse
Pick how it shows in the preferences, under Mouse ▸ Show As:
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Beside the Keys (the default): a bigger mouse, always on screen while the overlay is on, just right of the newest rows. It lights the button you press, lights the wheel with an arrow for the way it rolled, and shows speed lines while you orbit, pan or drag. It slides out past a wider row (Ctrl + B) and back to the toolbar when the keys fade. Clicks do not add rows to the list. Mouse Size sets how big it is.
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In the List: each click, drag and roll is a row of its own, drawn as a small mouse with the button lit.
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As Text: each click is a row, written out: LMB, MMB drag, Wheel ↑.
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Off: keys only.
Preferences
Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Add-ons ▸ Tachyon Screencast Keys:
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Key Size — how big the keys are, on top of Blender's Resolution Scale (0.5 – 3).
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Rows — how many presses are on screen at most (1 – 12, 5 by default). Older ones drop off the top.
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Show For — seconds the keys stay after the last press, before they fade.
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Lift — moves the keys up from their place, if something else sits in that corner.
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Show As and Mouse Size — see The mouse above.
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Text, Accent and Keys — the three colours. Everything else (edges, glow, counts, the lit mouse) is derived from them.
Show a Sample puts a few presses on screen so you can see a change at once; Tachyon Colours puts the colours back.
Troubleshooting
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A key did not show → a running tool used it first. Keys typed while a tool is running, such as X, Y, Z or a number after G, and the click or Esc that ends it, go to that tool before the add-on hears them. The key that started the tool always shows.
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The keys are under something in that corner → raise them with Lift in the preferences.
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Nothing shows → check the button at the bottom of the toolbar is lit, and that you are looking at the biggest 3D viewport of the window.
Support
Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/sksWuJRsqS. Include your Blender version and what you pressed.
A free tool from Tachyon Studio.
Tachyon Studio
