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Tumble, Pan and Zoom the view

There are three ways to tumble, pan and zoom the view:

  • Holding the Shift + Alt keys while using the mouse buttons
  • Click-drag on the ViewCube (tumble only, in the perspective view)
  • Navigation bar icons

The mouse scroll wheel can also be used for zoom.

Note: The View Palette also has many view tools, including Tumble, Track (pan) and Dolly (zoom). These are generally older tools that have been superceded by the methods listed above. They may however be useful for specific viewing tasks such as Reset View, Look Around, Adjust Clipping Plane.

Shift and Alt clutch keys

Hold the Shift + Alt keys down while click-dragging in the scene with one of the three mouse buttons to manipulate the view:

  • Click-drag the LMB to tumble the view.
  • Click-drag the MMB to pan the view (move in the view plane).
  • Click-drag the RMB to zoom the view.

In an orthographic window, only the Pan and Zoom functions are available.

When Shift + Alt are engaged, a hint will appear at the top of the view window explaining each mouse button drag function:

Note: When using the RMB to zoom, use a motion in the diagonal direction shown below for the most effective zooming.

Point of Interest

When zooming and tumbling, the action is centred around the Point-of-Interest(POI). To relocate the POI, hold Shift + Alt and momentarily click-release on a geometry item in the scene.

See Point of Interest for more information on working with the POI.

Changing the Clutch Keys for viewing

The default viewing keys can be changed from Shift + Alt using the Preferences > Clutch Keys Editor

Click-drag on the ViewCube

The ViewCube is typically shown on the top right corner of a persepctive view and can be used to manipulate the view.

Move the cursor over the ViewCube, and click-drag the mouse to tumble the view.

Note: a single-click on a highlighted area of the ViewCube will change the view to that orientation, so be sure to click-drag when you want to tumble the view.

See ViewCube tools for more information on working with the ViewCube.

Navigation icons

For a perspective window, move the cursor towards the ViewCube or navigation icons to make them accessible.

In orthographic windows, the navigation icons are made accessible when that window is active (shown by a lighter border).

Click and drag with the left mouse button on an icon to adjust the tumble, pan or zoom.

Adjust pan and zoom speed

Two tools for fitting the model to the view window also adjust the pan and zoom 'speed' - the relationship between how far the mouse moves to how far the view moves:

  • ViewCube Navbar - Look At, also via the hotkey F
  • View Palette > Look-At tool, most often used via the hotkey Alt + L

First, select the objects that you want the zooming to be adjusted for (or Pick > Nothing to adjust to the whole model). Then use one of the Look At tools above.

The speed of zooming and panning relative to your mouse movements will adjusted. So for a small component, a larger mouse movement will result in a smaller movement in the screen view, giving more control. But if you zoom out to the full scene, you may find that the mouse movements seem too small and ineffective. Do a Pick > Nothing and then use one of the fit tools again to re-adjust the pan and zoom speed for the whole model.

Camera-based and Object-based tumble modes

The mouse-button behaviour when using Shift + Alt for viewing is determined by the navigation mode: Camera-based or Object-based.

Camera-based tumble is the default. This keeps the Z axis of the camera vertical, like a movie camera. This is the default setting and is most similar to general CAD and modelling applications.

Object-Based Tumble mode

Object-based tumble works as if you have the model in your hand and you are manipulating it, to look under or around the object.

As an example if you are working on a headliner, in a workshop you might flip it over and put it on a table to work on it. You are unlikely to work on it from underneath looking up at it as if it was installed in the car.

Also, our eyes are aligned horizontally and we are much better at perceiving horizontal alignment versus vertical alignment, diagonal is really hard to judge, so if you are trying to make two things parallel or aligning CVs it is easier to place them in the modeling view horizontally vs vertically.

Object-Based Tumble mouse button assignments

In Object Based Tumble mode, press Shift + Alt and drag the mouse button as follows:

  • Azimuth/Elevation: dragging the mouse across the whole window (either horizontally or vertically) rotates the view 180 degrees.
  • pan the view (move in the view plane).
  • vertical drag: zoom the view.
  • horizontal drag: twist the view.

Selecting tumble mode

The tumble modes can be selected in the following tools:

  • Preferences > General Preferences - in the Navigation section, Navigate : Azimuth/Twist (Object-based tumble)
  • ViewCube - More Settings Menu > Object-based tumble
  • Hotkey Editor - go to the section: Special > Generally Useful Functions > Toggle Viewing Control Action

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