Maybe a subforum for basic beginner questions would be suitable?

In Silo, there is a modify option called Slide. It allows you to move a selected loop along the created mesh without distorting the shape. Is there a similar thing in Blender?

No subforum needed. Just ask away with your questions, and someone knowledgeable should respond (usually many someones). We were all newbies with our own questions at some point, so don't be shy, we don't bite (much).

Yes, this function exists in Blender (edit mode), and can activated by shortcut key "g + g" (double letter g tap). There are other ways to activate as well, but it's been so long since I have used anything other than double "g" that I have forgotten. Others might chime in with what those are.

Also, this works for vertex slide as well. Hope this helps...

You select the edge loop with Ctrl-Click and then bring up the edge menu with Ctrl+E: towards the bottom there is Edge Slide.

Another possibility is Spacebar which which open a seach box and begin typing slide. After 3 characters the list already trimmed down enough to have Vertex Slide at the top. This is a general technique when you need something of which you vaguely remember the name.

chaecuna posted at 8:24AM Wed, 02 December 2015 - #4241978

You select the edge loop with Ctrl-Click and then bring up the edge menu with Ctrl+E: towards the bottom there is Edge Slide.

Another possibility is Spacebar which which open a seach box and begin typing slide. After 3 characters the list already trimmed down enough to have Vertex Slide at the top. This is a general technique when you need something of which you vaguely remember the name.

Good advice here, but in the default config of Blender, it would be Alt, or Shift+Alt on an edge, to select an entire edge loop. Alt+click edge to select first loop, then Shift+Alt to select or remove others from selection.

Thank you all! I'll give it a shot.

Sorry, I misstyped; the selection clicks are as LuxXeon wrote. Interestingly, after a while they become so automatic that you do not really remember them consciously.

It's a good rule of thumb to remember that Blender has a vast array of modeling tools which don't appear as icons in the UI, and must be called up from hotkeys. The key commands for bringing up a very powerful list of modeling functions in edit mode are your "W" key, for the Specials menu, CTRL+V for your vertex menu, CTRL+E for your edge menu, and CTRL+F for the faces menu. Sometimes the functions in these menus can be used across the sub-element levels. For example, you can use the "Grid Fill" tool, which appears in the Face menu, while in edge mode, to quad cap open-ended objects, like cylinders.

chaecuna posted at 7:43PM Wed, 02 December 2015 - #4242087

Sorry, I misstyped; the selection clicks are as LuxXeon wrote. Interestingly, after a while they become so automatic that you do not really remember them consciously.

No worries, I've actually done the same thing in one or more of my Blender tutorials! I've used particular hotkey combinations to perform certain tasks, but at the same time, verbally dictated the wrong ones in the video, and had to add annotations later on to correct myself. haha. It happens.

Understand the "automatic" thing. It's what makes switching from Silo so hard.

Thanks, LuxXeon, for the Grid Fill tip. That will work better for me than Merge on my current project. I printed out a 3+ page list of Blender hotkeys, but it doesn't have the hidden stuff. I went through the edge stuff in the manual, but if it was there, I missed it.

Thanks again.