Rotate, Pan, Zoom, Fit, Center

Adjust your view of the model in the modeling window.

Rotate the View

Rotate the view to inspect different areas of the model.

  • Rotate the view with keyboard shortcuts and mouse controls.
    To Do this
    Freely tumble Drag the model while middle mouse clicking.
    Incrementally rotate Press the arrow keys on your keyboard.
    Incrementally rotate clockwise and counterclockwise Hold Ctrl and press the left or right arrow keys.
    Flip the model Hold Ctrl and press the up or down arrow keys
  • Rotate the model with the View Cube.
    By default, the View Cube appears on the axis triad at the bottom-left corner of the modeling window.


    Figure 1.
    Clicking a major face (Top, Bottom, Right, Left, Rear, or Front) rotates the model to the nearest possible orientation of that face. If that orientation is not the standard, clicking the face again re-aligns the model back to the standard orientation. If the orientation is already standard, repeated clicks on a major face reverses the view.
    Note: The view is fit anytime a face is selected.

    Clicking the arrows incrementally rotates the view. Left- and right-clicking increments by + and - 15 degrees while middle-clicking increments by 90 degrees.

    Aligning the View Cube to a local coordinate system or your screen vector can be done by right-clicking on the cube.


    Figure 2.
    Align to system
    Allows you to choose a local coordinate system.
    Align Front to screen
    Immediately align the Front face of the view cube with the screen vector.
    Reset to global
    When the view cube is aligned locally, the global system is shifted to the bottom left of the view cube. This re-aligns them.


    Figure 3.
    Note: See Preferences > Appearance > View Cube for other arrangements and configurations.
  • Select a standard view by clicking on the View Controls toolbar.

Set the Center of Rotation

Center the view around a selected point.

By default, the center of rotation is determined by your cursor position when you middle mouse click.
  • If you click on the model, the center of rotation defaults to your cursor position.
  • If you click in empty space and the entire model is within the modeling window, the center of rotation defaults to the center of the model.
  • If you click in empty space and a part of your model is outside the view of the modeling window, the center of rotation defaults to your cursor position. However, if you move your cursor far enough away from the model, the center of rotation snaps to either the nearest point on the model or the center of the model.
  1. To manually set the center of rotation, hold Ctrl and middle mouse click on the model.
  2. To reset the center of rotation, hold Ctrl and middle mouse click in empty space.

Pan the View

Move the view horizontally and vertically in the modeling window.

Pan the view in the following ways:
  • Drag the model while right-clicking.
  • Drag the model while right and left clicking simultaneously.

Zoom the View

Zoom in to view specific areas of the model, and zoom out to see a more overall view of the model.

Zoom the view in the following ways:
  • Scroll the mouse wheel.

    The center of zoom is determined by your cursor position.

  • Hold down Alt and the right mouse button then drag your cursor up and down.

    This performs a smooth zoom about the screen center.

  • Draw a circle around the area of the model you want to zoom in on. You can do this in the following ways:
    • Hold Alt and the middle mouse button then draw.
    • Press Z then hold left-click and draw.

Fit the View

Adjust the view to fit the model or selected objects in the modeling window.

Fit the view in the following ways:
  • Click on the View Controls toolbar.
  • Press F on the keyboard .
The view is adjusted to fit tightly around any selected entities. If no entities are selected, the view is adjusted to fit around the model. Repeatedly clicking or pressing F toggles the fit between a selection and the entire model.