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Navigating the Viewport

The viewport is the main Composer pane. It displays the 3D scene, which is the stage for all Composer actors (geometry, collaboration, camera, lighting, and so on). The viewport lets you visualize one or more models in the same window or in separate windows using the multi-document interface with document tabs.

Note: Viewport navigation affects all 3D actors but not 2D actors such as the four 2D panels in toolbox.smg.

See Also
Managing Properties
  1. Drag the initial view to the viewport.
    Note: If a message appears that the view has changed, click Don't Save. In this tutorial, always click Don't Save unless instructed otherwise.
  2. Zoom in and out to change the scale of viewport actors.
    To zoom...Do this...
    a portion of the viewport Move the pointer to the area of interest and roll the mouse wheel.
    by moving the camera instead of moving the focal point Press both left and right mouse buttons and drag the mouse up or down in the viewport.
    to an actor Double-click the actor.
    to fit the entire model Double-click the viewport background.
  3. Rotate actors in the viewport.
    To rotate...Do this...
    the model Right-click the viewport background and drag. By default, rotation is relative to the vertical axis.
    about a point on the model Right-click an actor and drag. The rotation is around the red dot .
    freely, without respect to the orientation of the vertical axis Press Ctrl, hold down the right mouse button, and drag.
    the viewpoint from which you observe the model Press Shift, hold down the right mouse button, and drag.
    the model about the clicked point or center of the viewport Press Alt, hold down the right mouse button, and drag.
  4. To pan the viewport, click the mouse wheel button in the viewport and drag.
  5. Click the compass in the upper-right corner of the viewport.

    The compass provides a quick way to view your model's x, y, and z planes. Click other axes and faces of the compass to change the orientation.

  6. On the ribbon, click Home > Navigate > Align Camera > 3/4 X+ Y+ Z+ .

    The viewport rotates and zooms to a standard orthographic camera view.

    Tip: You can create custom camera views from the Viewport default document properties. See Viewport

  7. In the status bar (lower-right corner of the Composer window), click Camera Perspective Mode .

    This command toggles the viewport between perspective and orthogonal projection modes. In perspective mode, actor sizes depend on their distance from the camera viewpoint. Orthogonal mode eliminates the effect of distance from the viewpoint (actor sizes remain constant).

  8. Click Camera Perspective Mode again to turn off perspective mode.
  9. In the status bar, click Show Paper .

    Blue borders appear in the viewport to show paper margins. Defining paper size ensures that all users have the same Composer experience independent of device and resolution differences. See Paper Space.

  10. In the status bar, drag the Zoom Paper slider.

    Zooming the paper space resizes all actors, including 2D panels. For example, you can zoom in to read text. You can also zoom the paper space by pressing Ctrl while rolling the mouse wheel, and you can pan the paper space by pressing Ctrl while panning the viewport.

  11. In the status bar, click Fit Paper to Viewport to reset the paper.


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