In the bottom right corner of the 3D Viewer window there are five special buttons:
From left to right, these are: Rotate, Zoom, Pan, Reset and Options.
To use the three graphic controls (Rotate, Zoom, Pan) you click and hold down the left mouse button – a small green light appears on the control to indicate the current mode. Then while holding the mouse button down, you drag the mouse around. The rotate and pan controls work off the x and y drag and the zoom works off the y (up and down) drag. It is easier to try these to see how they work than to explain! When you hold down Alt key on the keyboard while using the Rotate control, you can adjust the position of the ‘side’ light.
The model rotates about the “Center-About” point which is described in the Rotate Around - Model Centering section below.
You can also navigate the model scene by holding down the Alt key with left, center or right mouse button and dragging while positioned anywhere in the 3D Viewer window. By default, the left mouse button rotates or orbits the model; the middle button pans the model left/right/up/down; and the right button zooms the model in/up, out/down. You can reconfigure your mouse button actions so that they match other software you may use, using the settings on the Preferences - 3D Viewer, Selection and Navigation page. Other pointing/navigation devices are also supported, such as 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator or SpaceExplorer (see Mouse Button Reference).
You can also use the Zoom In and Zoom out tools from the Active Window Tab to manipulate the magnification of the 3D Viewer window.
One can also zoom using the wheel in your mouse (if it has a wheel) and this can be done at any time the 3D Viewer window is active. It can also be done while the rotate or pan controls are being used which allows for easy manipulation of the view.
The fourth control is the Reset button which resets the view to the default when clicked. See the ‘Reset Direction’ section below.
The fifth control brings up the 3D Viewer Options Dialog when clicked.
The Reset and Options tools have a shaded blue background to differentiate them from the other ‘mode’ type tools.
The "Link 3D Viewers Control" tool on the 3D Viewer right click menu allows control over multiple open 3D Viewer, i.e., the zoom, pan and rotate controls affect all open 3D Viewers simultaneously.
Note: When manipulating the 3D Viewer, a translucent orange center-about sphere appears at the center location of the rotation/zoom, around which the view is rotated or zoomed. When using the mouse controls (i.e. not the navigation controls at bottom right), the sphere will locate under the mouse cursor if it is directly over a model object such as a point or a point cloud point at the time of rotate/zoom, otherwise the sphere will locate at the previous center-about position. When over a model object, the navigation behaves like “Rotate Around – Model Centering” (see below). When you click the Reset View control, the center-about sphere shifts to the model center position. This applies to the main 3D Viewer, as well as the 3D Viewer in the Imports and Coordinate Systems Pane.