Step 1 - Creating and preparing a new Blender file

Start blender and create a new file (file->new).

Click "Erase All" when prompted.

Save the new file as "Tutorial1.blend" (File->Save As...):

(make note of where you save the file, I'm saving mine in "C:\BlenderModels\")

At this point, it's a good idea to go ahead and run the exporter, just to make sure that everything is installed correctly and working as expected.  The exporter can be launched via the "File->Export->Torque Shape (.dts)..." menu, or via the "Scripts->Export->Torque Shape (.dts)..." menu in a Blender scripts window.  If the exporter scripts cannot be found in the menu, the exporter is most likely not installed properly.  See Installing the Exporter for installation instructions.

When the exporter user interface opens, click the "Export" button on the upper right:

A new dts file should be created in the same folder as the Tutorial1.blend file, with a file name of "Tutorial1.dts".  The exported file contains the default (untextured) blender cube mesh and a couple of dts nodes generated from the Lamp and Camera objects.  If you load the exported dts file up in Torque ShowTool Pro, or in the Torque Game Engine, you should see an untextured cube.

Next up, we're going to clear the scene by deleting the Cube, Camera, and Lamp objects.  To select all objects in blender, press the 'a' key on your keyboard.  The 'a' key toggles between "select all" and "select none", so you may have to press it a couple of times (selected objects are outlined in pink).  Once all objects are selected, press the "Delete" key on your keyboard and choose "Erase Selected Objects" when prompted.  We should now have a completely empty scene.  Now we are ready to add something a little bit more interesting to the scene.