About Walking and Flying Through a Drawing

You can simulate walking and flying through a 3D drawing.

When you walk through a model, you travel along the XY plane. When you fly through a model, you are not constrained by the XY plane, so you appear to “fly” over an area in a model.

Use the Keyboard and Mouse Interactions to Walk and Fly

You can use a standard set of keys and mouse interactions to walk and fly through a drawing. Use the four arrow keys or the W, A, S, and D keys to move up, down, left, or right. To toggle between walk and fly mode, press the F key. To specify the direction of the view, drag the mouse in the direction you want to look. To exit, press ESC or ENTER, or right-click to display the shortcut-menu.

Note: The Walk and Fly Navigation Mappings balloon provides information about the keyboard and mouse actions that control walk and fly modes. The appearance of the balloon depends on the display option selected in the Walk and Fly settings dialog box.

Display a Top View of a Model as You Walk or Fly

You can keep track of your position in a 3D model as you walk or fly through it. When you start 3DWALK or 3DFLY, the Position Locator window displays a top view of the model. A position indicator shows your location in relationship to the model, and a target indicator shows the model you are walking or flying through. You can edit the position settings in the Position Locator window before you start walk or fly mode, or while you are moving in the model.

Note: If performance slows when the Position Locator window is displayed, you can close the window.

Specify Walk and Fly Settings

Specify walk and fly settings in the 3D Navigate panel on the ribbon or in the Walk and Fly Settings dialog box. You can set the default step size, the number of steps per second, and other display settings.

Animate Walk and Fly Navigation

You can create a preview animation of any navigation, including walking and flying through a drawing. Create the preview to fine-tune your animation before you create a motion path animation. You can create, record, play back, and save the animation. For more information about previewing an animation, see About Creating Preview Animations. For more information about creating motion path animations, see About Creating Motion Path Animations.