Moving around the 3D view: mouse, trackpad and the view cube

The 3D view works with a mouse and with a laptop trackpad. Solid Vibes picks the right gestures for you, and you can switch any time.

With a mouse

Panning moves the whole view sideways without turning it. Zooming goes toward the cursor, so scroll over the detail you want to see.

With a trackpad

On a Mac the right button is awkward and a two-finger scroll is the natural way to move around, so trackpad mode makes scrolling pan instead of zoom.

Which mode am I in?

Solid Vibes notices a trackpad on its own. The first time you pinch, or scroll sideways (a mouse wheel can't do either), it switches to trackpad mode and tells you with a short message. It remembers your choice in this browser.

To choose yourself, press ⌘K (Ctrl + K on Windows and Linux) and type navigation:

• Navigation: mouse: the wheel zooms.
• Navigation: trackpad: two-finger scroll pans and pinch zooms.

Once you have picked one yourself, Solid Vibes stops guessing. Using a mouse with a laptop now and then? Pick Navigation: mouse, or keep trackpad mode and use pinch (or hold Ctrl and scroll) to zoom.

In Sketch and Sculpt modes

Drawing and sculpting use the left button and Shift + drag (Sculpt uses it for box selection), so while you work in those modes, pan with the middle button, the right button, or a two-finger scroll in trackpad mode. Alt + drag orbits in sketch mode.

The view cube and the axes

The cube at the top right shows which way you are looking. Click a face to look straight at it (Top, Front, Right…), an edge to look at it from between two faces, or a corner for an angled view. The cube turns as you orbit.

The coloured X (red), Y (green) and Z (blue) axes start at the cube's lower corner and reach out past its edges, with a lettered dot at each end. They stay visible from any angle, even when you look straight along the ground and the cube shows only two faces. Z points up. When an axis points straight at you its dot sits next to the corner so you can still read it.

If the view won't respond

• If pan feels like zoom (or the other way round), you are in the other mode: press ⌘K and pick the one that matches your device.
• If a drag ever seems stuck (you let go of the button outside the window, say), click once in the 3D view. Solid Vibes lets go of a drag it lost track of by itself.
• In Sketch and Sculpt modes, a plain left drag belongs to the tool. Pan with the middle or right button or a two-finger scroll.

Next: Keyboard shortcuts and the command palette.