Views and Navigation
Views and Navigation
Mouse navigation
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Middle mouse drag | Pan |
| Mouse wheel | Zoom, smooth and cursor-centred |
The wheel zoom factor is set in Settings → Display → Wheel zoom factor, from 1.01x to 3.00x
per notch. The same page reports the current zoom and pan values.
Zoom commands
ZOOMEXTENTS (ZE)
Ribbon: View → Extents Command: ZOOMEXTENTS, ZE
Fits all drawing content — geometry, survey point markers, everything — in the view. The first thing to reach for after an import or a large edit.
ZOOMWINDOW (ZW)
Ribbon: View → Window Command: ZOOMWINDOW, ZW
ZOOM WINDOW: Two corners (unsnapped) — rubber previews fit area | ESC cancel
Two clicks define the rectangle to zoom to. The rubber-band preview shows the area that will fit. The corners use the unsnapped cursor, so a nearby snap point cannot pull one off target.
Both zoom commands refuse to start while another command is running —
ZOOM EXTENTS — finish or cancel the active command first.
There is no ZOOM PREVIOUS, no named views, and no ZOOM with a scale factor.
PAN (P)
Command: PAN, P Menu: Right-click ▸ Pan
PAN — drag with the left mouse button. Press Esc, Enter, or right-click to exit.
A modal pan. Most of the time the middle-mouse drag is quicker — this command exists for when the middle button is not available.
ORBIT (3DORBIT, 3DO)
Command: ORBIT, 3DORBIT, 3DO Menu: Right-click ▸ Free Orbit
ORBIT — drag with the left mouse button to tumble. Press Esc, Enter, or right-click to exit.
Free-orbits the model view. Model space only — ORBIT — model space only; a paper sheet is 2D.
Orbit is how you check elevations. A plan view cannot show you that two lines which appear to cross are at different heights, or that a surface has a spike in it. Tumbling the view makes both obvious in seconds.
ViewCube
A cube in the corner of the viewport, model space only. Click a face to swing the view to that orientation:
TOP · BOTTOM · FRONT · BACK · LEFT · RIGHT
The view eases into place rather than jumping, so you keep your bearings. The cube also tracks the current view azimuth.
To get back to plan view, click TOP.
Visual styles
Ribbon: View → Visual style Command: VISUALSTYLE, VS, VSCURRENT
How the viewport draws.
| Style | Effect |
|---|---|
| 2D Wireframe | Every edge visible, no depth testing — the classic CAD view. Draw order decides what sits on top |
| Hidden | Depth testing on, so near geometry hides far geometry |
| Shaded | Depth testing on, plus lit fills for imported meshes and hatches |
What "Shaded" actually fills. Only two things: imported meshes (IMPORTMODEL) and
hatches / filled regions. It does not fill TIN surfaces — those are drawn as triangle edges
in all three styles, so switching styles on a surface changes nothing you can see. See
Known Limitations.
On a purely 2D drawing the three styles also look alike, because nothing occludes anything.
Usage:
VS SHADED
VS 2D
VISUALSTYLE ← reports the current value and the options
A bare VISUALSTYLE answers Visual style = 2D Wireframe. Usage: VS 2D | HIDDEN | SHADED. and
anything unrecognised answers VISUALSTYLE — enter 2D, HIDDEN or SHADED.
To read a TIN surface in three dimensions, use ORBIT — not the visual style. Tilting the view
is what exposes elevation, spikes, and bad shots.
Elevation and the work plane
ELEV / UCS sets the Z that new geometry is drawn at, reported on the status bar as UCS: World
or UCS: Elev <z>. See Drafting Aids.
Model and paper space
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Status bar MODEL / PAPER button | Toggle between model space and the current layout |
| Status bar layout tabs | Switch directly to any layout |
| ☰ menu | Model space · each layout · New paper layout |
| Double-click a viewport | Enter floating model space (FLOAT) |
MSPACE / MS, PSPACE / PS |
The same, from the command line |
REGEN (RE)
Command: REGEN, RE
Regenerates the drawing and refreshes the GPU caches. Use it if the display looks stale after a large edit — geometry that should have disappeared but is still drawn, or an edit that has not shown up.
Isolating what you can see
ISOLATEOBJECTS, HIDEOBJECTS, UNISOLATEOBJECTS temporarily reduce a dense drawing to what you
are working on. VP Freeze does the same per viewport in a layout. See Object Selection and
Layers.
Panel layouts
View → Reset layout restores the built-in panel arrangement.
View → Layout ▸ saves and recalls named panel layouts:
- Save current as… — Saves the current panel layout as a named .ini file. Names may contain letters, digits, dash, and underscore
- Switch to — pick from the saved layouts
The log confirms UI layout: saved as "<name>" and UI layout: switched to "<name>".
Display settings that affect the viewport
Settings → Display (see Settings and Options):
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Color theme | Dark or Light |
| Wheel zoom factor | Zoom per wheel notch |
| Display scroll bars in drawing window | Scroll bars |
| Display printable area, Display paper background, Display paper shadow | Paper-space appearance |
| Smooth line display | Removes the jagged look on diagonal lines and curved edges |
| Accelerated font display | GPU-accelerated TrueType rendering |
Common problems
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom extents shows a huge empty area | Something is at a wild coordinate — often a stray point from a bad import | Find and delete the outlier, then ZE again |
| The drawing looks stale | GPU cache | REGEN / RE |
| ORBIT will not start | You are in a paper layout | Switch to model space |
| Lines that should cross do not connect | They are at different elevations | Orbit to check, and see Object Snaps on apparent intersections |
| A surface is a flat mess of triangle edges | Surfaces render as edges in every style; SHADED does not fill them |
Expected. ORBIT to read the shape |
| Panels are in the wrong place | Layout drift | View → Reset layout |
Related
Drafting Aids · Paper Space and Layouts · Point Groups and Surfaces · Settings and Options