Datasheet
GettinG the View You want
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physically moving closer to or farther away from the chairs. As the name implies, the Field-
of-View tool widens or narrows your field of view, much as a zoom lens on a camera does.
You’re not actually changing the 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 are 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
Restore Active Perspective View.
2. Click the Select Object tool, and 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 Orbit Selected tool (this may be hidden on the Orbit flyout menu).
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 verti-
cally 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 outside 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, circu-
lar motion. Notice how the view changes as if your point of view were rotating around
the group of chairs.
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