Manual/Manipulators
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Manipulators
Mode: Object mode, Edit Mode
Hotkey: Ctrl Space
When using the normal Transform commands (G=Grab, R=Rotation, S=Scale)
they will work only parallel to the current view. (The transform
commands can be augmented with addiontional modifer keys. E.g. pressing
X, Y or Z immediately after G, R, or S will contrain the transform to that global axis (using MMB 
will do the same but along the nearest axis from the mouse pointer). Pressing R, a second time before pressing LMB 
(i.e. while the rotation command is in progress, releases the default
"parallel" rotation constraint, allowing free rotation in any axis.
(This is only noticeable in a non "user" view (Front, Right, Top ..etc)
Read more about Axis Locking
Manipulators provide a visual representation of the transform
commands and allow movement, rotation and scaling along any axis in any
mode of the 3d window.
The manipulator can also be accessed in the header of the 3D View window (Shift LMB can select more than one manipulator at the same time)
- Hand
- Enable/disable the manipulators
- Triangle
- Translation/location
- Circle
- Rotation
- Box
- Scale
- Tranform Orientation
- Control the orientation of the axis for transformations
Manipulator types
Mode: Object mode, Edit Mode
Hotkey:
Ctrl Alt G Translate / Move
Ctrl Alt R Rotate
Ctrl Alt S Scale
There is a seperate manipulator for each Transform Command. Each can be viewed separately or in a combination.
 Translate |  Rotate |
 Scale | Combination |
Other Manipulator controls
Holding down Ctrl constrains the action in certain increments (Loc/scale = 1 Grid unit, Rot= 5 degrees)
Holding down Shift when you LMB on one of the handles the Manipulator action will be performed on the other axis to the one you Clicked on, you can left go of Shift once you have LMB
LMB on the white circle (largest circle around rotation Manipulator) do the same as pressing R
LMB on the grey circle (inner circle around rotation Manipulator) do the same as pressing R twice (tracking rotation)
Manipulator Preferences
The settings of the Manipulator eg. size can be found in the 'View & Controls' section of the user preferences window
- Size
- Diameter of Widget, in 10 pixel units
- Handle
- Size of widget Handles, as a percentage of widget radius (size/2)
- Hot spot
- Hotspot size for clicking Widget Handles
Transform Orientation
Mode: Object Mode, Edit Mode
Hotkey: Alt Space
The default (global) transform manipulator is very useful but in some situations it's not. e.g.: scale a rotated object along the rotated axis. Luckily Blender3D can change the orientation of the Transform Manipulator.
Below is a list of different manipulator types. On every image, compare the position of the manipulator axes (color axes over the object) with the global (lower left corner of the 3D blender window) and local (the object is a empty, so just the local axes of the object are shown) ones.
Global
Global - The manipulator matches the global axis.
Local
Local - The manipulator matches the object axis.
Normal
Normal - The Z axis of the manipulator will match the normal vector the selected object.
Not very useful for the empty. See the example below.
A better example using a object with face normals, selecting faces on edit mode:
View
View - The manipulator will match the 3D window, Y→UP/DOWN, X→Left/Right, Z→towards/away from you.
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