Mouse, Touch, and 3D Mouse
How to move the view with each kind of device. None of this changes the model.
Mouse and Trackpad
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Drag with the left button | Turn (orbit) the model freely, with no pole to get stuck on |
| Scroll wheel | Zoom |
| Middle-button drag | Pan (slide the view) to start with |
| Right-button drag | Spin to start with |
| Shift and drag | Pan |
| Ctrl (or Cmd) and drag | Zoom |
| Alt and drag | Roll (turn the view like a steering wheel) |
| Right-click without moving | Opens a right-click menu |
| Click without dragging | With a measuring or sketch tool armed, picks a point; with Select, picks an entity |
On a trackpad, use a two-finger scroll to zoom and the Shift, Ctrl and Alt drags for the rest.
Step by Step: Change What the Mouse Buttons Do
- Click File, then Settings, then the Mouse tab.
- Under Mouse: middle button, pick Pan, Spin, Zoom or Rotate.
- Under Mouse: right button, pick one of the same four. Rotate is the roll.
- To flip a direction, click Show advanced controls at the bottom, then under Controls pick Reverse spin direction, Reverse zoom direction or Reverse twist direction. The spin and twist choices apply to the arrow keys too.
- Close Settings. Your choices are kept in your browser.
Touch (Phone and Tablet)
- One finger drag: orbit
- Pinch: zoom
- Two-finger drag: pan
- Two-finger twist: roll (spins the part in the screen plane)
- Tap (no drag): a measurement or sketch pick, the same as a click
See Phone and Tablet for the rest of the touch layout.
If the View Will Not Turn
A padlock on the cube means the view is locked. Click the padlock to unlock. A drag with the right or middle button, when it is set to Spin or Rotate, still works while the view is locked. See The View Cube and Lock View.
Arrow Keys
The arrow keys also turn the view: 15 degrees a press, 90 with Shift, and Alt with Left or Right rolls it. See Arrow Keys Turn the View.
3D Mouse (SpaceMouse)
A 6-degrees-of-freedom puck from 3Dconnexion works over WebHID in Chrome and Edge. Not every browser supports WebHID, and where it is missing the 3D mouse tab is hidden.
- Plug in the puck.
- Open File, Settings, 3D mouse.
- Click Connect and choose the device in the browser's prompt.
- Make sure Enable 3D mouse is ticked. It is on to start with.
- Push, pull, twist and tilt the cap to pan, zoom and rotate together.
Options (most under Show advanced controls):
- Speed and Dead zone sliders.
- Zoom with: slide fore and aft, or press and lift.
- Reverse a direction: each of the six cap motions on its own.
- Rotate about the part, not the view, Keep the view level, and One axis at a time (strict).
- Ignore spring-back on release, Ignore accidental off-axis input, and separate Rotate speed, Pan speed and Zoom speed.
- A Reconnect 3D mouse prompt appears if the browser loses the device.
A 3D mouse works only on a computer, and only for the tab you are looking at.
Tips and Common Problems
- Scrolling zooms the wrong way. Use Reverse zoom direction.
- The model drifted off center. Click Fit.
- The 3D mouse tab is missing. Your browser has no WebHID. Use Chrome or Edge.
- The mouse spins when I wanted to pan. Hold Shift while dragging, or change the right button to Pan.