Datasheet

GETTING THE VIEW YOU WANT

distance from the object; instead, you’re changing the area that your viewport displays. The Field-

of-View tool has the potential to distort your view, just as a super-wide-angle fish-eye lens or a

super-telephoto lens tends to distort a photograph. Until you find yourself in a situation where you

really need to change the field of view, you may want to refrain from using the Field-of-View tool.

Now let’s take a look at the Arc Rotate Selected tool:

1. Return to the view you had before you used the Field-of-View tool by selecting Views 

Undo View Change.

2. Click the Select Object tool, then click on a blank space in the viewport to clear any selections

that may be active. In the next exercise, you’ll see why this is significant.

3. Click the Arc Rotate Selected tool.

You see a yellow circle with squares at each of the four cardinal points on the circle. If you

place the cursor inside the circle, the cursor looks like two overlapping ellipses.

4. Place the cursor on the square at the far left of the circle. Notice that the cursor changes shape

to what looks like a horizontal ellipse.

5. With the cursor on the square, slowly click and drag the cursor to the right. Notice how the

view rotates.

6. Place the cursor on the square at the top of the circle. Now the cursor changes to a vertically

oriented ellipse.

7. With the cursor on the square, click and drag the cursor down. The view now rotates in

that direction.

The squares on the yellow circle are like handles that you can grab and turn to change your view

orientation. The left and right squares constrain the rotation to the horizontal plane, and the top and

bottom squares constrain the rotation to the vertical plane. If you prefer, you can adjust the view

freely without constraint in the vertical or horizontal direction by clicking and dragging the cursor

anywhere within the circle. You can also rotate the view by clicking and dragging anywhere out-

side the circle. The following exercise demonstrates these features. Pay attention to the shape of the

cursor in each step.

1. Place the cursor anywhere within the circle. Then slowly click and drag in a small, circular

motion. Notice how the view changes as if your point of view were rotating around the

group of chairs.

2. Place the cursor anywhere outside the circle. Then slowly click and drag in an up-and-down

motion. Now the view rotates around the circle as if you were tilting your head from side to side.

You may have noticed that the cursor changes, depending on whether you’re inside or outside

the circle. This gives you further cues regarding the way the Arc Rotate tool affects your view.

You’ve been introduced to nearly all of the viewport tools. However, there’s one more feature of

the Arc Rotate Selected tool that you’ll want to know about before you move on. The Arc Rotate

Selected tool uses the center of the viewport as the center about which it rotates when no object is

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