Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/3D View Windows

3D View windows in Blender are used to visualize 3D scenes. You'll do a lot of work in these windows, so you'd better learn your way around.

In this module, you'll learn:

• to recognize 8 things commonly seen in viewports
• to tell which mode Blender is in
• how to change viewport options and viewpoints
• how to undo changes
• how to position the 3D cursor

You'll also learn the fundamentals of:

• visibility layers
• adding objects
• deleting objects

The Viewport and its Contents

Aside from its header, the remainder of a 3D View window is its viewport. In Blender, you use viewports any time you need an up-to-date view of the scene you're working on.

Viewports are busy places. Go on a scavenger hunt and see what you can find in a simple viewport.

1. Launch Blender.
2. Just so we're all looking at the same scene, load the factory settings using File → Load Factory Settings.
3. Confirm Erase All with  LMB  (or  Enter ).
4. If the NumLock indicator on your keyboard is unlit, press  NumLock  so that numpad hotkeys will work properly.

(If you're unsure what  LMB  means, please review the Keystroke, Button, and Menu Notation module.)

You should see something like this:

Here the viewport has been outlined in red to focus your attention on it.

A Virtual Scavenger Hunt

Peer into the viewport at the default scene provided by the creators of Blender and find the following eight items:

In the Center

1. a solid gray cube with orange edges.

• This is the top face of the default cube, your first Blender object!

2. Three big arrows, one red, one green and one blue, their tails joined to a white circle

• This is not an object. It is the manipulator for the 3D transform widget.
• The arrows represent the directions of the X, Z and Y axes of the global coordinate system.
• The circle represents the center of the selected object (namely, the cube).
• If you don't know what a "global coordinate system" is, please review the module on Coordinate Spaces in Blender.

If you don't see the manipulator...

• It's possible that a tool is active. Press  Esc  to cancel any tool action.
• Another possibility is that the manipulator has been disabled:
  • Toggle it on or off with  Ctrl + Space .

3. A red-and-white striped circle with black cross-hairs

• This is not an object. It is the 3D Cursor, which indicates where newly-created objects will appear in the scene.
• The cursor is similar to the insertion point in a text editor, which indicates where newly-typed text will appear in a document.

In the Lower Left Corner

4. A red-and-green "L", with its arms labeled "x" and a "y"

• This is not an object. It is the mini axis.
• The arms of the "L" indicate the +X and +Y directions in the global coordinate system.

5. The notation "(1) Cube"

This is not an object. It is object info, indicating that:

• You're viewing the first frame of an animation.

and

• The current or most recently selected object is named "Cube".

To the Right of Center

6. A black round thing that resembles a sun-symbol

This represents a lamp, a light source for the scene. (It is an object.)

7. A black triangular thing

This represents a camera, a viewpoint that can be used for rendering. (It, too, is an object.)

On a small display, the camera might initially lie outside of the viewport and thus be invisible. In that case, zoom out by scrolling with  MMB  until it becomes visible.

Throughout

8. A dark gray background, divided into grid squares by lighter lines.

Each grid square is one blender unit (or BU) on a side. A BU can be whatever you wish: an inch, a centimeter, a mile, or a cubit. Blender lets you decide what the scale should be for your scene in the Scene tab of the Properties Panel.

Modes

Blender has lots of modes, that is, settings that affect its behavior, and this is especially true of 3D View windows.

Sometimes it's not obvious what modes are active. This leads to mode errors where Blender will do something you didn't expect because you thought it was in one mode and it was actually in another.

In Blender, the function performed by a hotkey or mouse button can depend on:

• what mode the user interface is in,
• whether the keyboard is in NumLock mode,
• which window is active,
• the mode the active window is in,
• which item or items are selected,
• whether you've initiated a hotkey sequence.

It helps to recognize the common modes and get out of them.

Object Mode vs. Edit Mode

The 3D View windows are normally in Object Mode. In this mode:

• • The mouse pointer is a white arrow.
  •  RMB  is used to select objects in the scene

If there are objects in the scene, you can get into five other modes:

• Edit Mode: used to edit the shapes of objects
  • The mouse pointer is a thin inverse-video cross.
  •  RMB  is used to select vertices, faces or edges of the current object.
  • Press  Tab  to enter/exit this mode.
• Sculpt Mode
  • The mouse pointer is now a thin, orange circle.
• Vertex Paint
  • The mouse pointer is the same as in sculpt mode, a thin, orange circle.
• Texture Paint
  • The mouse pointer is a thin white circle.
• Weight Paint
  • The mouse pointer is again, a thin orange circle

These modes are also indicated by a menu in the 3D View header. You can use this menu to change modes.

These modes are a setting shared by all 3D View windows. In other words, when you change the mode in one window, any other 3D View windows change mode also.

Viewport Options

The options in this section only affect 3D View viewports. They do not affect renders.

Solid vs. Wireframe

By default, the 3D View window draws objects using the Solid drawtype, in which surfaces are opaque. To toggle between Solid and Wireframe drawtype (edges only, no faces) for a particular viewport:

1. Activate the 3D View window.
2. Press  Z .

Alternatively, you can choose these and other drawtypes from the "Draw type" menu in the 3D View window header.

Orthographic vs. Perspective

By default, viewports draw orthographic views. To toggle a viewport between orthographic and perspective views:

1. Activate the 3D View window.
2. Press  Num5 .

(If you're unsure what the difference is, please review the "Orthographic Views" module and the "Perspective Views" module.)

If you have trouble distinguishing between orthographic view and perspective view

... you should activate the View Name option. This is enabled by default and causes the name of the current view ("User Persp", for instance) to appear in the upper left corner of every viewport. If there is no text, then you can enable it by:

1. Accessing the User Preferences window.
2. Click on the Interface tab.
3. Enable View Name.

Undo

Since you've begun making changes to the scene, now is a good time to learn how to undo (and redo) changes.

• To undo a change, press  Ctrl + Z .
• To redo a change you recently undid, press  Ctrl + Shift + Z .

Blender puts a limit on how many steps you can undo. Instructions for changing this limit are in the "User Preferences Windows" module.

Changing Your Viewpoint, Part One

Each viewport has a viewpoint, which takes into account:

• the location of the viewer in the 3D scene (There doesn't need to be an object at that location.)
• the direction the viewer is looking
• the magnification (or zoom factor) used

Changing your viewpoint allows you to navigate your way through a 3D scene.

We'll start with three very basic techniques:

• Zooming
• Orbiting/View Rotation
• Perfect Views.

Additional techniques will be covered later in this module.

Zooming

Blender offers several ways to zoom in and out:

• Use  SCROLL 
• Click and drag vertically with  Ctrl + MMB .
• Use  Num+  and  NUM−  to zoom in and out in small increments.

Note the following limitations of Blender's zoom feature:

• If the viewport is in orthographic mode, Blender zooms as if looking thorough a telescope. You can increase the magnification, but the viewpoint's location doesn't change. For this reason, you cannot zoom into or through objects in orthographic mode.
• If the viewport is in perspective mode, Blender zooms to a point—namely the center of the viewport. The viewpoint can pass through objects, but it can't pass beyond this point, no matter what you do. Zooming only gets slower and slower and slower. If the center of the viewport is somewhere you don't expect, zooming may appear to be broken.

Orbiting and View Rotation

Let's fly around in the default cube, viewing it from different angles. In this way you'll see that it really is a cube, centered on the origin, half above the X-Y plane and half below it.

1. Activate the 3D View window by placing the mouse pointer inside it.
2. Now you can:
   • Click and drag with  MMB  to orbit freely around the center of the view.
   • Use  Shift + Alt + SCROLL  to rotate the viewpoint vertically around the center of the view.
   • Use  Num2  and  Num8  to rotate the viewpoint vertically around the center of the view in 15-degree increments.
   • Use  Ctrl + Alt + SCROLL  to rotate the viewpoint around the Z axis.
   • Use  Num4  and  Num6  to rotate the viewpoint around the Z axis in 15-degree increments.

If this is all very confusing for you, don't worry! You'll learn as you get more experience.

When you are finished flying around the cube, you can restore the original view by reloading the factory settings with File → Load Factory Settings.

If the hotkeys don't work...

You may have pressed number keys above the letters instead of the ones on the numpad. If you do so, the default cube will vanish. This is because the scene consists of multiple layers, the default cube is in layer 1, and you've told Blender to move the selected object (the cube in this case) to the layer of the number you just pressed. For instance,  2Key  tells Blender to move the selected object layer 2. To move it to layer 1 again, press  1Key . You can view the different layers by clicking on the little squares on the layer map:

Because the center of the viewport is invisible (not marked in any way), it's hard to tell where it is. This sometimes results in unexpected behavior during rotation.

Perfect Views

It's often useful to get a perfect view of a scene—in other words, to view it along one of the main axes, with the other two main axes oriented up-down and left-right.

Perfect View Hotkeys

Hotkey	View	Axis Pointing Right	Axis Pointing Up
Num7	"top"	+X	+Y
Ctrl + Num7	"bottom"	+X	-Y
Num1	"front"	+X	+Z
Ctrl + Num1	"rear"	-X	+Z
Num3	"right side"	+Y	+Z
Ctrl + Num3	"left side"	-Y	+Z

The following screenshot shows all three perfect views plus camera perspective for the Suzanne primitive:

Positioning the 3D Cursor

Positioning the 3D cursor is a very basic operation, yet one that many beginners find challenging. It touches on an issue common to all 3D graphics software: "How do you specify points in a 3D scene when we can only see two dimensions at a time?"

Basic Technique

1. Go into either Object Mode or Edit Mode.
2. Move the mouse pointer to the desired position (in any viewport).
3. Click  LMB .

Two Challenges

Challenge #1. Using only tools presented thus far, try positioning the 3D cursor on the virtual camera.

Try it!

When you're done, check your work by orbiting the camera.

Perhaps you thought you were done when you clicked on the camera. But the moment you changed your viewpoint, you probably found that the 3D cursor was actually behind (or in front of) the camera.

Hints:

• Try positioning the cursor in two different perfect views.
• Use orthographic views, not perspective ones.

Challenge #2. Using only tools presented thus far, try repositioning the 3D cursor at the origin (that is, at the center of the cube).

As before, check your work by orbiting the cube. Don't spend too much time on this.

User Comments

"I found that I would select the cube when left clicking on it in object mode, if the "Use 3d transform manipulator" button was enabled. To toggle this off, you click on the gray pointing hand in the 3d panel header, or (Ctrl Space)."

"When you want the cursor back into the cube, just select the camera with RMB, put the cursor into the cube following the steps above, and re-select the cube with RMB."

"I've discovered it helps a lot if you are in Object Mode and not in Edit Mode. I wrote the following before discovering this: The problem with this exercise, for me, is that left clicking on the cube selects the cube instead of moving the 3d cursor. If I click on the cube outside of its central white circle I can get the cursor to move there, but only to outside of this white circle, and even then this only works sometimes."

"I failed at this until I had zoomed in close enough to the cube. When I was too far zoomed out I kept selecting the cube rather than creating an edit point."

"I had the same problem and found it was because the cube was selected. I made sure I was in object mode, right clicked on the camera to select the camera instead of the cube, and I could then position the edit point in the cube. However, doing this messed up the next part of the tutorial because you cannot switch into edit mode with the camera selected! Perhaps the suggestion of trying to put the 3D cursor in the cube should be dropped as it raises too many questions at this stage."

"You can deselect all by pressing the AKEY or the select button in the 3D View."

"Use wireframe mode works better to get the cursor in."

"To get it back in the cube: 1) Make sure you're in object mode. 2) Select the cube. 3) Object > Snap > Cursor to selection (cursor refers to the 3D cursor here) so it puts it right in the middle of the cube."

"I think it's an essential point to note that in order to place the cursor inside the cube, the cube must NOT be selected. AKEY was probably the best way to deselect the object."

"If I remember correctly, undo history gets cleared when you switch between object and edit mode."

"I wasted a lot of time here. Thank you to the reader who suggested (on the 3D view header) Object > Snap > Cursor to selection. It was the only thing that worked to get the cursor visible again and placed where clicked."

"I missed the point of the exercise first time around. You can't set a 3D point on a 2D screen without technique. Orthographic views are crucial. I am just learning, but take that, at least, away from it."

More Ways to Position the Cursor

Here's an easy way to position the cursor at the center of an object:

1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode, with the object selected.
2. Move the mouse pointer to any 3D View window.
3. Snap the cursor to the selected object using either:
   •  Shift + S  Cursor to Selected

   or

   • Object → Snap → Cursor to Selected

Here's 2 easy ways to relocate the cursor to the scene's origin (0, 0, 0):

1. Move the mouse pointer to any 3D View window.
2. Press  Shift + C  to reset the cursor to the origin.
   • Note that this also changes the view location, meaning that when you zoom in, you won't zoom in to the scene origin.
3. A better way is to click Object → Snap → Cursor to Center
   • You can also do this by  Shift + S  → Cursor to Center.

Changing Your Viewpoint, Part Two

Now you'll learn some additional techniques for obtaining the view you want:

• Dollying
• Centering
• Jumping to the camera's viewpoint
• Zooming in on a selected area

Dollying

When you orbited the cube, the viewpoint's position and direction both changed at the same time. You also can shift the viewpoint up-down or left-right without changing its direction. (This is similar to the side-scrolling effect in the classic Mario and Sonic video games.)

This is called "dollying", and it's an important skill to master. Try it now:

1. Activate a 3D View window by placing the mouse pointer inside it.
2. Now you can:
   • Use  Shift + SCROLL  to dolly up and down.
   • Use  Ctrl + Num2  and  Ctrl + Num8  to dolly up and down in small increments.
   • Use  Ctrl + SCROLL  to dolly left and right.
   • Use  Ctrl + Num4  and  Ctrl + Num6  to dolly left and right in small increments.
   • Click and drag with  Shift + MMB  or  Shift + Alt + LMB  to dolly freely in the viewplane.
     

You will likely find this to be a distraction in some cases. To move the viewpoint position back to the center, snap the cursor to the center, then click View → Align View → Center View to Cursor. You could also snap the cursor to the center then press  Ctrl + Num. .

Centering

When you zoom or rotate the view, you always zoom or rotate around the center of the view.

To center the view on an arbitrary point:

1. Move the 3D cursor to the point of interest.
2. Verify the cursor position from a second viewpoint.
3. Press  Ctrl + Num.  to center the view.

To center the view on an object in the scene:

1. Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2. Zoom out until the object is in the viewport.
3. If any objects are selected, use  A  (or Select → Select/Deselect All) to deselect them.
4. Select the object of interest by clicking  RMB  on it.
5. Press  Num.  to center the view.

Jumping to the Camera's Viewpoint

To see the scene as the virtual camera sees it, press  Num0 . Afterwards, you can rotate, dolly, and zoom normally, but the virtual camera will not follow. To go back to your previous view, press  Num0  again.

Zooming into a Selected Area

Suppose you want to get an extreme closeup of a particular area. Because there's no center mark on the viewport, you might have to dolly and zoom several times to get the desired view.

The shortcut for zooming to an area is:

1. Activate a 3D view window that contains the area of interest.
2. Press  Shift + B . A crosshair appears in the viewport.
3. Click and drag with  LMB  to draw a rectangle around the area of interest.
4. When you release  LMB , the viewport will zoom in on the area you selected.

Visibility Layers

Every object in the scene is assigned to one of 20 visibility layers.

Visibility layers have many uses:

• You can put scenery, characters, particles, and lamps in different layers, to help organize your scene.
• By changing which layers are visible, you can simplify your view of the scene and work with only one or two layers at a time.
• When rendering, only visible layers are included. You can use this to render your scene layer by layer, checking each layer separately.
• You can configure lamps to illuminate only objects in the same layer.

Left: Viewing a layer 1 only.
Right: Viewing all 20 layers.

In Object Mode, you can tell which layers are visible by looking at the twenty small boxes located in the 3D View header between the Transform Orientation menu and the "Lock" button. The top row of boxes represents layers 1 through 10, with 1 being the leftmost and 10 being the rightmost. Similarly, the bottom row of boxes represents layers 11 through 20.

Hotkeys

• To view layer 1 only, press  1Key .
• To view layer 2 only, press  2Key .
• To view layer 10 only, press  0Key .
• To view layer 11 only, press  Alt + 1Key .
• To view layer 19 only, press  Alt + 9Key .
• To view layer 20 only, press  Alt + 0Key .

The hotkeys in this section will not work if you've enabled numpad emulation in the User Preferences window. See the "User Preferences Windows" module for more details.

Note to AZERTY users:

On the AZERTY keyboard layout, the standard number keys are the &é"'(-è_çà keys. Do not use  Shift  unless you want to toggle visibility as explained below.

Holding down  Shift  while selecting a layer (by keyboard or mouse) will, instead of making only that layer visible, toggle the visibility. In this way, you can select combinations or to hide particular layers.

The key to press to select all layers at once differs by keyboard layout. It is:

•  ¬'  (the key under Esc) on UK keyboards,
•  `~  on US ones,
•  ö  on German, Swedish and Finnish ones,
•  æ  on Danish ones,
•  ù  on AZERTY ones,
•  ø  on Norwegian ones,
•  "  on Brazilian Portuguese ones, and
•  ò  on Italian ones.

After pressing the aforementioned key, holding down  Shift  while pressing it again will restore the visibility settings you had before you made all layers visible.

When only one layer is selected, new objects are automatically assigned to that layer. When two or more layers are visible, new objects are assigned to the layer that became visible most recently.

To move one or more objects to a different layer:

1. Select the object(s).
2. Press  M .
3. Choose the new layer from the pop-up.

Adding and Deleting Objects

To delete the default cube from the scene:

1. Choose Object Mode from Mode menu in the 3D View header.
2. If the cube does not have orange edges, then it is deselected. To reselect the cube, move the mouse pointer onto the cube and click  RMB  (or  Cmd + LMB ).
3. Press  X  or  Delete  to delete the selected object.
4. Confirm Delete with  LMB  (or  Enter ).

To add a new monkey head (or any other primitive) to the scene:

1. Position the 3D cursor where you want the head to go.
2. Press  Shift + A .
3. Choose Mesh → Monkey.

In the Blender world, this model is known as Suzanne.

Suzanne will be created facing in the global +Z direction. But if you select Align to View in the Operator panel (below the Tool Shelf) then Suzanne and any other object will face directly into the viewport.

Count Your Polys

If you want to count the polygons in your scene, this data is available in the Info Header.

As you can see in the above image, this scene has 507 vertices and 500 faces (polygons).