Interface and General Tasks View models at a 1:1 scale > Switch to the 1:1 view

Move around the scene

How to move and rotate the camera to change your view on the scene.

Tumble, track, dolly, and tilt the view

Hold Shift + Alt and drag one of the three mouse buttons to tumble, track, or dolly the camera.

Tumble, track or dolly the view

Hold + .
Do any of the following:
Drag theto tumble around the point of interest.





Drag theto track up, down, left or right.





Drag theto dolly in and out.

Tilt the view

Choose View > Local Move camera > Twist .

Twist can only be used in the Perspective window.

Drag with the mouse, or type the twist angle and press .

Reset a view to the default

Choose View > Reset view .
Click the view window you want to reset.

What if...?

] I can't use the middle mouse button on Windows?

Your middle mouse button may be assigned to "autoscroll" by Windows.

In the Start menu, choose Settings > Control Panel. Open the Mouse control panel. Go to the Buttons tab and turn off Autoscroll.

Center the view on specific objects

Use the Look at command (in the View palette) to center the view on the picked object or group of objects, or on the entire model.

Center the view window on an object or group of objects

Pick the object(s).
Choose View > Look at , or press + L.

When a construction plane is selected in the Perspective window, the Look at tool orients the view flush to the plane (i.e. the view vector becomes perpendicular to the plane).

Center the view window on the entire scene

Choose Pick > Nothing .
Choose View > Look at , or press + L.

If the Include Symmetric Objects option is ON, symmetric instances of objects (on layers with symmetry planes) are included in the centered view.

Change the point of interest

The point of interest manipulator lets you center the camera movements on an arbitrary point on the model. When you place the Point of Interest manipulator, subsequent camera moves are centered around that point.

Use the Point of Interest manipulator

Hold + to show the point of interest manipulator and do any of the following:

To...	Do This
Place the Point of Interest on a curve or surface.	Click and release on the wireframe.
Move the Point of Interest across the object.	Drag the circle at the center of the manipulator.
Look down the normal at the Point of Interest location.	Click the light blue arrow on the manipulator.
Look down the U or V tangent at the Point of Interest.	Click the red (U) or green (V) arrows on the manipulator.

Hide the Point of Interest manipulator

Hold + in the Perspective window.
Open the Pnt of Interest section of the view panel.
Turn off the Visible option.

The point of interest is now invisible, but still in effect.

Lock the Point of Interest

Hold + in the Perspective window.
Open the Pnt of Interest section of the view panel.
Turn on the Locked option.

The current point of interest is now locked. You cannot change the point of interest by dragging the manipulator or clicking geometry until you turn off the Locked option.

What if...?

] I can't see or change the point of interest?

The point of interest feature may be turned off. To enable the point of interest:

1. Choose Preferences > General Preferences .

2. Choose Input on the left side of the option window.

3. Turn on the Use point of interest option.

4. Click Go.

Use the view panel

The view panel appears when you enter camera move mode (by holding Shift + Alt) in the Perspective window. This window lets you quickly switch the Perspective window to common default or user-defined views of the model.

Show the view panel

Hold + to show the view panel, then click any of the controls in the view panel:

Of special interest are the following tools:

Look at

Clicking on the Look at icon centers the view and zooms in on the selected objects (or all objects if nothing is picked). See also Center the view on specific objects.

Plane view

Checking Plane view lets you tumble about the currently active construction plane (i.e. the construction plane will be used as the ground plane).

Bookmarks

As you work on the model, you will probably find yourself changing the camera view back and forth between two or more areas of interest. The view panel lets you "bookmark" views of the model and return to those views by clicking the name of the bookmark.

Additionally, shading attributes (from the Diagnostic Shading panel or WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade ), and annotations (created using tools in the Paint tab) are stored in bookmarks.

When switching from one bookmark (or view) to the next, the camera is animated to take you smoothly from one view to another without getting disoriented.

The time (in seconds) taken to transition from one view to the next is controlled by the View transition time option in Preferences > General Preferences (Model Windows section).

The default is 0.5 seconds. When this value is set to 0.0, the smooth animation is turned off.

See Bookmark an annotated model for more details on annotating bookmarks.

Add bookmark for the current view

Tumble, track, and dolly the camera to the view you want to save.
Press + .
Click New in the Bookmarks section of the viewing panel to add a bookmark for the current view.

Alternatively, you can create a new bookmark by clicking the New button in the Bookmark Lister (see below).

Edit a bookmarked view

Press + .
Click Edit in the Bookmarks section of the viewing panel.

This opens the Bookmark Lister.

The Bookmark Lister can also be opened by choosing Windows > Bookmark Lister .



Release + and do any of the following in the Bookmark Lister:
To change a bookmark's name, hold down and double-click the bookmark icon. Type a new name in the dialog box, then click OK.
To remove a bookmark from the list, click the bookmark icon, then click the Delete button.

View your bookmarks

To display a bookmarked view in the perspective window, click the appropriate bookmark icon in the Bookmark Lister, or the bookmark's name in the viewing panel.
Click the Previous or Next button in the Bookmark Lister to view the bookmarks in sequence, starting at the current bookmark (indicated by a green outline around the bookmark icon).

You can also use the Page Up and Page Down keys as a quick way to show the previous or next bookmark without the need to open the Bookmark Lister.

Click the Cycle button to see the bookmarks in a slide show fashion. The slide show starts at the currently selected bookmark (green outline) and displays the following bookmarks in order, all the way to the end of the shelf. It then loops around to the first bookmark and continues cycling indefinitely.
To stop the slide show, click anywhere in the window.
In the option box, an option called Bookmark cycle time specifies how long each bookmark is displayed. Check the Repeat cycles option to make the slide show repeat indefinitely.
To track or dolly an annotated bookmark view, you must first set the view to isometric mode by clicking the Perspective checkbox in the Viewing Panel so that a checkmark does not appear.

Changing the view in Perspective mode by tumbling, tracking or dollying will remove all annotations.

Save one or all bookmarks as image files

To save only one bookmark, click on it in the Bookmark Lister.

A green border appears around the selected (current) bookmark.

Double-click the Publish Bookmark button to open the option box.
In the option box, choose Current or All, and select an Image File Type (default is jpeg).
Click Go.

A file browser window is displayed.

Choose a folder and type in an object name for your image or group of images.



Press .

The saved images are called <object name>_<bookmark name>.<file type>.

If bookmark names are not unique, "_<#>" is added to the image names to make them unique, for example: issue_BM_1.jpg, issue_BM_2.jpg, etc.

What if...?

] The view panel does not appear when I hold Shift + Alt?

Choose Preferences > General Preferences .
Click on Model Windows on the left side of the option window.
Turn on Active View Panel, then click Go.

Magnify part of a view

You can create a new "inset" window showing a magnified version of a certain part of an existing view window.

Create a magnified view from the view in a window

Click the magnify icon in the window's title bar.



A box in the original window shows what part of the view is being magnified. Drag the handle at the center of the box to move it.
Click the magnify icon again to close the magnified window.

The magnified window has a lower window depth so it always stays on top of normal view windows.

See Make certain windows stay in front or behind others

Change the yaw and pitch of the camera

Rotate the camera horizontally (yaw) or vertically (pitch), as opposed to tumbling around the point of interest.

Change the yaw/pitch of the camera

Choose View > Local Move camera > Yaw/pitch .
You can now do any of the following:
Drag the to rotate the view horizontally and vertically.
Drag the to rotate the view horizontally.
Drag the to rotate the view vertically.
Type the yaw and pitch angles at the system prompt, then press .

Work with camera objects

How to create and edit camera objects.

Perspective windows show the view from a camera object. Camera objects exist in the scene just like curves, surfaces, or lights, although they are usually not visible.

You can create new cameras, and change which camera's view a particular perspective window displays.

Multiple cameras are most useful when rendering, to have various cameras set up at fixed positions to render with, while maintaining a perspective window camera to use while working on the model.

Create a new camera

Choose View > New Camera .
In the Perspective window, choose the new camera from the list of cameras

.

Show/hide camera objects in the scene

Choose WindowDisplay > Toggles > Cameras .

Pick a camera

To pick the camera associated with a perspective window, click the camera icon in the window's title bar.



To pick a camera object, make cameras visible with WindowDisplay > Toggles > Cameras and then use Pick > Nothing .

Name a camera

Pick the camera and change its object name in the Information window.

See View or change the properties of objects and locators

Choose which camera to use in a perspective window

In the perspective window's title bar, press the camera menu icon and choose a camera from the pop-up menu.

View models at a 1:1 scale

How to view your models at true scale (1:1) in orthographic windows.

True scale (or 1:1 scale) means that a 10 centimeter long object will appear as 10 centimeters long when measured on the screen with a measuring tape.

Calibrate the view to be 1:1

Choose View > View 1:1 > Calibrate 1:1 -

The option box opens, and a distance measurement (red line) appears in the current orthographic window.

This will also work in the Perspective window if Perspective is turned off in the Viewing Panel, and one of the preset orthographic views (horizontal or vertical arrows) is clicked in the Viewing Panel. (See Use the view panel).



Dolly in/out if necessary to have the distance measurement fill up most of your window.
Use a real ruler or measuring tape to measure the true length of the distance measurement on the screen.
Enter this value as the Displayed Length in the option box.
Press the Calibrate button in the option box.

Switch to the 1:1 view

Choose View > View 1:1 > Toggle 1:1 to set and lock your view to true scale.

A 1:1 label appears in the window title bar to indicate that you are in true scale mode.

Dollying in or out of the view is not be possible while in a true scale view.

Choose View > View 1:1 > Toggle 1:1 again to toggle back to regular viewing mode.