Navigate the 3D View¶

Rotate/pan/zoom with mouse¶

Action	Description
`MMB`	Rotate the view
`Shift-MMB`	Pan the view
`Ctrl-MMB`/`Wheel`	Zoom the view

Exercise: getting used to the view controls

Manipulate the view so that only the cube fills the 3D View.

Aim for a view like this

Use NumPad to snap to views¶

Note

Laptop doesn’t have a NumPad? Go to File ‣ User Preferences ‣ Input tab and check the Emulate Numpad box. This will make the top number keys behave like the NumPad.

Action	Description
`Numpad7`	Snap to top view
`Numpad1`	Snap to view from the front
`Numpad3`	Snap to view from the right
`Numpad5`	Swap between orthographic and perspective views
`Numpad9`	Swap (switches between top/bottom or left/right)

Exercise: Snapping the view

Play around with the view – use MMB to randomly rotate the view, then use the NumPad keys to snap to views.
Note the top left corner (view label) and bottom left corner (axes) as you do so.

Front view (X and Z axes visible)

Right view (Y and Z axes visible)

Top view (X and Y axes visible)

Orthographic view (parallel lines on screen are also parallel on object; units have same number of pixels everywhere on screen). Better for precision modeling.

Perspective view (more realistic view in some cases). Better for rendering or getting a feel for the model.