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Synopsis

viewPlace [-eyePoint linear linear linear] [-fieldOfView angle] [-lookAt linear linear linear] [-ortho] [-perspective] [-upDirection linear linear linear] [-viewDirection linear linear linear] [camera]

viewPlace is undoable, NOT queryable, and NOT editable.

This command positions the camera as specified. The lookAt and viewDirection flags are mutually exclusive, as are the ortho and perspective flags. If this command switches a camera from ortho to perspective or the other way around without specifying a new field of view, then one is calculated based on a heuristic involving the selected objects.

If the camera is not specified on the command line, the command will check to see if there is a camera on the active list.

The user should be aware that some positions will be unattainable. For example, using a new camera located at the origin and specifying a lookAt of [0 0 -5] and an up of [1 1 1]. In these cases, the camera will always aim at the lookAt, and the new up direction will be determined by transforming the specified up into camera space and then projecting this vector onto a plane defined by the camera's up and right vectors. Using the example above, the new up vector will be [1 1 0].

Return value

None

Related

camera, cameraView, dolly, listCameras, lookThru, orbit, roll, track, tumble, viewCamera, viewClipPlane, viewFit, viewHeadOn, viewLookAt, viewSet

Flags

eyePoint, fieldOfView, lookAt, ortho, perspective, upDirection, viewDirection
Long name (short name) Argument types Properties
-eyePoint(-eye) linear linear linear create
The new eye point in world coordinates.
-lookAt(-la) linear linear linear create
The new look-at point in world coordinates.
-viewDirection(-vd) linear linear linear create
The new view direction vector.
-ortho(-o) create
Sets the camera to be orthgraphic.
-perspective(-p) create
Sets the camera to be perspective.
-fieldOfView(-fov) angle create
The new field of view (in degrees, for perspective cameras, and in world distance for ortho cameras)
-upDirection(-up) linear linear linear create
The new up direction vector.

Flag can appear in Create mode of command Flag can appear in Edit mode of command
Flag can appear in Query mode of command Flag can be used more than once in a command.

MEL examples

// Create a new camera
string $cam[] = `camera`;
string $camShape = $cam[1];

viewPlace -p -fov 20 $camShape;

viewPlace -eye 0 0 20 $camShape;

viewPlace -la 0 0 0 $camShape;