Updated
MiddleClicker
Hold a modifier key and click: macOS receives a real middle click, so CAD and 3D software can orbit and pan from a trackpad.
Why it exists
Blender, Maya and most CAD software put viewport navigation on the middle mouse button: hold it and drag to orbit the model, and add a modifier to pan. That works with a three-button mouse, but a MacBook trackpad has no middle button, so on a laptop these apps either need a mouse plugged in or an emulation setting of their own, configured separately in each one.
MiddleClicker solves it once, for the whole system. Hold a modifier key (Fn by default) and press the trackpad: the click arrives as a middle click. Keep pressing and drag, and it stays a middle-button drag until you let go, so orbiting and panning work from the trackpad exactly as they would with the mouse's middle button. Without the modifier, clicks behave as usual.
Where it came from
MiddleClicker began as fordft/MiddleClicker, Thanakrit Wongkha's MIT-licensed utility that maps Fn + click to the middle button. This version is my fork, heavily reworked: the choice of modifier key, the on/off toggle and state icons, start on login, and the signed, notarized releases were all added here.
How it works
- A Core Graphics event tap watches left-button presses, drags and releases for the whole session.
- When the chosen modifier is held as the button goes down, the left click is swallowed and replaced with a centre-button press. The drags and the release that follow are rewritten the same way, so a long drag stays a middle drag from start to finish.
- If a new click arrives while a middle drag is still open, the missing middle-button release is sent first, so the button can never stay stuck down.
- The modifier is chosen from the menu bar: Fn, Control, Option, Command or Shift. The choice and an on/off toggle survive restarts, and the app can start on login.
- macOS switches event taps off under heavy load; MiddleClicker switches its tap back on by itself.
- The menu-bar icon shows the state at a glance: idle, middle click active, a three-finger left drag, or disabled.
- It needs the Accessibility permission. Releases are signed with a Developer ID and notarized, and install with
brew tap LeonFedotov/middleclickerandbrew install --cask middleclicker, or from the DMG on the releases page.
Not yet
The modifier has to be held when the press starts. Pressing it in the middle of an existing three-finger drag, to turn that drag into a middle drag on the fly, is still on the to-do list.
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