Blender 2.63a and MacBookPro 8,1 i5 / missing buttons and menus

Hello ppl,

I am a beginner and working hard to try practice tutorials the last 3 days. reading the blender wiki. Googling on all problems i encounter. installing multitouchpad, enabling emulating keypad and I really want to learn Blender.
I am not sure if its just me, beginner. The macbookpro, or the combination of both. But i am really trying hard and spent a lot of time (as in days) effort finding solutions and reading and viewing for days!
I found some ways to work around not having a mouse. but it dont seem to help.

Some of the problems:

  1. can’t select a top mesh in the center of a wineglass (wineglass tutorioal) and delete it to make it hollow. it just wont let me select the center of the top mesh. it first didnt show it at all, so i thought ok, its not there but later on it suddenly was there.
  2. don’t seem to have the the buttons window (while i seem to have all other editor types), and therefor
  3. don’t have access to multires to sculpt in sculpt editor.
  4. can not find the glass material option under the wrench icon/material/surface/new it just doesnt show the option new under surface.

Is there anyone that know how to solve these questions and mostly some good advice in how to work around stuff having a macbookpro. I can work around some stuff, i found out how to work with alt/swipe in order to be able to turn the object all ways. but this right and left mouse button seem to be an unsolvable problem.

I really hope someone can help me or point me to information i need to work through. Googling hasn’t gotten me too the right info so far.

I thought it should be possible to work the basic tutorials but they are a nightmare (although well made) with not having the right menu and clicking possibilities.

All help much appreciated, i hope to find that its still possible to use Blender, i really would love to do be able to work with it and make videoclips in the future.

thanking you all in advance :slight_smile:

I

Configuration: Blender 2.63a + MacBookPro 8,1 i5 - OS X - 10.6.8 - Snowleopard

Don’t know what tutorial you are using but it’s most helpful if you attach screenshots and also link to your blend file (you can upload to http://www.pasteall.org/blend/) so other users can see what you are doing.

Some of your wording make me suspect you may be using an old tutorial that uses an old version of blender. (blender 2.63 doesn’t have a window called a Buttons Window, the old blender 2.49 does) If that’s the case throw it away and use tutorials that are made for the blender you are using.

Only thing with a macbook and most laptops is the lack of numpad. Other than that there should be no specific issue with using a macbook. Always use a mouse not any trackpad.

As Richard said… get a mouse with a scroll wheel, you need it to work efficient.
Are you using Blender Internal render or Cycles?

Personally i had no prior 3D experience and spent many weeks learning the basics in the beginning but suddenly you’re past that hard point and things just start feeling much better and natural.

Hang in there :=)

Thanx guys, for the quick reply.
Meanwhile i bought a mouse. I redid the basic tutorials on settings and interface and hope now it will all work as meant to. so now i make sure i dont have an outdated tutorial and try again to make something.
I bookmarked pasteall for future questions. I am sure I ll be back with some questions :slight_smile:
Thanx again :slight_smile: