Tutorials ModelCraft help Walkthroughs
Orbit, pan and zoom
Move around the model with a mouse, a trackpad, a touch screen or the keyboard, and jump to standard views.
Written for ModelCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
You can move the camera at any time, even in the middle of drawing a line or pushing a face: the tool waits where it was.
With a three-button mouse
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Orbit | Drag with the middle button (press the wheel) |
| Pan | Drag with the right button, or hold ⇧Shift and drag with the middle button |
| Zoom | Turn the wheel. It zooms toward the face under the pointer, or toward the point under it at the depth of the view's center |
| See the whole model | ⇧ZShift+Z or Extents |
Orbit turns the view around the point at the center of the view, not around the pointer. To orbit around a particular part, zoom toward it with the wheel first: zooming moves the center with it.
A right-click without dragging does nothing; ModelCraft has no right-click menu.
Without a middle button
Use the camera tools in the toolbar, or the keyboard:
- Press OO (or click Orbit) and drag with the left button to orbit.
- Press HH (or click Pan) and drag to pan.
- Press ZZ (or click Zoom) and drag up to zoom in, down to zoom out.
- Press SpaceSpace to go back to Select, or press the key of the tool you want next.
The camera tools replace the tool you were using. To look around in the middle of an operation without losing it, use the keyboard instead:
- The arrow keys orbit.
- ⇧Shift with the arrow keys pans.
While a drawing tool is in the middle of an operation (after its first click), the arrow keys lock directions instead of orbiting. See Inference and snapping.
On a trackpad
The easiest way: open Settings (⌘,Ctrl+,), ModelCraft tab, and set Scrolling to Trackpad (or leave it on "Work it out"). Then swipe with two fingers to orbit, hold ⇧Shift and swipe to pan, and pinch to zoom — no camera buttons. See ModelCraft settings.
With Scrolling set to Mouse wheel:
Mac
- Zoom: scroll with two fingers, or pinch. Both zoom toward the pointer.
- Pan: press with two fingers (a secondary click) and keep the fingers down while you drag. Turn on "Secondary click" in System Settings, then Trackpad, if two-finger click does nothing.
- Orbit: press OO and drag with one finger, or use the arrow keys.
- Holding ⌃Ctrl while you click may not count as a right-click in ModelCraft, depending on the browser: it can act as a click with ⌃Ctrl held instead. Use the two-finger press to pan.
Windows or Linux
- Zoom: scroll with two fingers. Pinch zooms too where the touchpad driver sends it as a scroll with ⌃Ctrl.
- Pan: drag with the right button (on many touchpads, press the lower-right corner and drag), or press HH and drag.
- Orbit: press OO and drag, or use the arrow keys.
With Mouse wheel, two-finger scrolling zooms; it does not pan. That is the opposite of many web pages, and it is how the mouse wheel behaves in most 3D modelers.
On a touch screen
Touch
- One finger uses the current tool, as the left mouse button does: tap to click, press and drag to draw.
- Two fingers pinch to zoom and move together to pan, both at once.
- Orbit: tap Orbit in the toolbar and drag with one finger. Tap Select or another tool when you are done.
- Putting a second finger down cancels what the first finger started (a rectangle half drawn, a push/pull in progress). Lift both fingers and start again.
Mouse
On a touch screen, one finger uses the current tool, two fingers pinch to zoom and pan, and a second finger cancels what the first began. Orbit with the Orbit tool and one finger.
Standard views
- Click Views at the right end of the toolbar.
- Choose Iso, Top, Front, Right, Back, Left or Bottom.
The view turns to that direction and fits the whole model. Front looks north, along the green axis; Top looks straight down with north up.
The view cube at the top right of the view does the same in one click, plus edges and corners, a compass ring to turn the model and a home button. See The view cube.
Perspective and parallel projection
Choose Views, then Perspective. A check mark means perspective is on. With it off, the view is a parallel (orthographic) projection: lines that are parallel in the model stay parallel on screen, which is what you want for elevations from Front or Right. The status bar says "Perspective." or "Parallel projection."
Each scene remembers whether it was in perspective. See Save views as scenes.