Camera

With this tool you work with the camera that is being used in the active viewport. All subsequent actions affect the camera in this viewport. In the planar viewports (XY, ZY, XZ) you can move and magnify the displayed area; in the 3D viewport you can change the Editor camera or the Object camera.

You can move in the following ways.

Moving the camera

To move the camera, select the Move tool and drag from an empty space within the viewport. To move the camera backwards or forwards, right-drag (Windows) or Command+drag (Mac OS) left and right.

When moving objects you can choose which axis system you wish to use. Normally, this will have no effect, since the X, Y and Z symbols are all selected. However, if you switch certain axes on or off, you will observe that certain actions will show different results. If for example you have activated the X symbol only and you are working with the world coordinate system, the camera will move parallel to the X axis of the world system. If on the other hand the object system is selected, the camera will move left and right within its own camera coordinate system.

No grid is applied for the camera or the visible section of the document so that you can reach any position, even if a motion grid is active. Movements, scaling and rotation processes may be cancelled at any time by pressing the Esc key.

Zooming the camera

You can zoom the viewport in one of two ways: By changing the camera’s focal length (just like a real camera’s zoom — note that the perspective will change); or by moving the camera forwards or backwards (just like you might move closer to or further away from the subject that you are photographing or filming).

To zoom by moving the camera forwards or backwards:

1. Select the Scale tool and drag left or right.
   
   To zoom by changing the focal length:
   
2. Select the Scale tool and right-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS).

Rotating the camera

To rotate the camera about the origin of the selected object (or the world coordinates if no object is selected), select the Rotate tool and drag. If no objects are selected, rotation is about the world origin.

To reverse the direction in which the camera rotates when you drag the mouse, in the preferences, on the Common page, enable the Reverse Orbit option.

Keyboard short-cuts

• 1 + drag Move camera left/right/up/down.
• 2 + drag Move camera forwards/backwards.
• 2 + drag Zoom by moving camera.
• 2 + right-drag (Windows) 2 + command-drag (macOS) Zoom by changing focal length.
• 3 + drag Rotate camera (X and Y-axes)
• 3 + right-drag (Windows) 3 + command-drag (macOS) Rotate camera (Z axis)