3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [34]
Cross-Reference
Strokes are covered in Chapter 4, “Customizing the Max Interface and Setting Preferences.” •
Using the Viewport Navigation Controls
Although the ViewCube, the SteeringWheels, and the scroll wheel make navigating the viewports easy, you can still use the standard navigation tools located in the bottom-right corner of the interface. The standard viewports show you several different views of your current project, but within each viewport you can zoom in on certain objects, pan the view, or rotate about the center of the viewport. Clicking a viewport with any of the Viewport Navigation Controls automatically makes the selected viewport the active viewport. In Table 2.1, the keyboard shortcut for each button is listed in parentheses next to its name.
Caution
When one of the Viewport Navigation buttons is selected, it is highlighted yellow. You cannot select, create, or transform objects while one of these buttons is highlighted. Right-clicking in the active viewpoint or clicking the Select Objects tool reverts to select object mode. •
Zooming a view
You can zoom into and out of the scene in several ways. Clicking the Zoom (Alt+Z) button enters zoom mode where you can zoom into and out of a viewport by dragging the mouse. This works in whichever viewport you drag in. To the right of the Zoom button is the Zoom All button, which does the same thing as the Zoom button, only to all four viewports at once. If you hold down the Ctrl key while dragging in Zoom mode, the zoom action happens more quickly, requiring only a small mouse movement to get a large zoom amount. Holding down the Alt key while dragging in Zoom mode has the opposite effect; the zoom happens much more slowly, and a large mouse move is required for a small zoom amount. This is helpful for fine-tuning the zoom.
The Zoom Extents (Ctrl+Alt+Z) button zooms the active viewport so that all objects (or the selected objects with the Zoom Extents Selected button) are visible in the viewport. A Zoom Extents All (Ctrl+Shift+Z) button is available for zooming in all viewports to all objects' extents; the most popular zoom command (and the easiest to remember) is Zoom Extents All Selected (Z), which is for zooming into the extents of the selected objects in all viewports.
You can use the brackets keys to zoom in ([) and out (]) by steps. Each key press zooms in (or out) another step. The Region Zoom (Ctrl+W) button lets you drag over the region that you want to zoom in on. If you select a non-orthogonal view, such as the Perspective view, the Region Zoom button has a flyout called the Field of View. Using this button, you can control how wide or narrow the view is. This is like using a wide angle or telephoto lens on your camera. This feature is different from zoom in that the perspective is distorted as the Field of View is increased.
Cross-Reference
Field of View is covered in more detail in Chapter 19, “Configuring and Aiming Cameras.” •
Panning a view
The Viewport Navigation Controls also offer two ways to pan in a viewport. In Pan mode (Ctrl+P), dragging in a viewport pans the view. Note that this doesn't move the objects, only the view. The second way to pan is to hold down the I key while moving the mouse. This is known as an interactive pan. In addition, the Ctrl and Alt keys can be held down to speed or slow the panning motions.
Walking through a view
The Walk Through button, found as a flyout button under the Pan button, allows you to move through the scene in the Perspective or Camera viewport using the arrow keys or the mouse just as you would if you were playing a first-person computer game. When this button is active, the cursor changes to a small circle with an arrow inside it that points in the direction you are moving. You need to first click in the viewport before you can use the arrow keys.
Caution
The Pan button is a