Use the View Panel

You can use the new ViewCube tool and NavBar, or the View Panel to control your view, or you can choose to use neither.

To select View Panel as the view control

1. Choose Preferences > General Preferences.
2. Click Viewing and set the View control option to VIEW PANEL.

To display the View Panel

• With View Panel selected as the View control, press + . (also + Command on the Mac).

Tools

Of special interest are the following tools:

Look at

Clicking the Look at icon centers the view and zooms in on the selected objects (or all objects if nothing is picked). See also Center the view on specific objects.

Plane view

Checking Plane view lets you tumble about the currently active construction plane (that is, the construction plane is used as the ground plane).

Bookmarks

As you work on the model, you typically change the camera view back and forth between two or more areas of interest. The view panel lets you “bookmark” views of the model and return to those views by clicking the name of the bookmark.

Additionally, shading attributes (from the Diagnostic Shading panel or WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade), and annotations (created using tools in the Paint tab) are stored in bookmarks.

When switching from one bookmark (or view) to the next, the camera is animated to take you smoothly from one view to another without getting disoriented.

The time (in seconds) taken to transition from one view to the next is controlled by the View transition time option in Preferences > General Preferences (Viewing section).

The default is 0.5 seconds. When this value is set to 0.0, the smooth animation is turned off.

See Bookmark an annotated model or more details on annotating bookmarks.

Add bookmark for the current view

1. Tumble, track, and dolly the camera to the view you want to save.
2. Press + (also + on the Mac).
3. Click New in the Bookmarks section of the viewing panel to add a bookmark for the current view.
   Note

   Alternatively, you can create a bookmark by clicking the New button in the Bookmark Lister.

   In the Bookmark Lister, the new bookmark is added to the current shelf. The Viewing Panel does not have shelf separation, so all new bookmarks are added sequentially to a single list.

   Note

   To add a new shelf to the Bookmark Lister, click the in an empty part of the Bookmark Lister, and choose New shelf from the drop down menu.

Edit a bookmarked view

1. Press + (also + on the Mac).
2. Click Edit in the Bookmarks section of the view panel.

   This opens the Bookmark Lister.

   Note

   The Bookmark Lister can also be opened by choosing Windows > Bookmark Lister.

   
3. Release + (also + on the Mac) and do any of the following in the Bookmark Lister:
   • To change the name of a bookmark, hold down (Windows) or (Mac) and double-click the bookmark icon. Type a new name in the dialog box, then click OK.
   • To remove a bookmark from the list, click the bookmark icon, then click the Delete button (trash can) or drag it to the trash can icon by holding the ..

View your bookmarks

• To display a bookmarked view in the perspective window, click the appropriate bookmark icon in the Bookmark Lister, or the bookmark name in the viewing panel.
• Click the Previous or Next button in the Bookmark Lister to view the bookmarks in sequence, starting at the current bookmark (indicated by a green outline around the bookmark icon).

  You can also use the Page Up and Page Down keys as a quick way to show the previous or next bookmark without the need to open the Bookmark Lister.

• Click the Cycle button to see the bookmarks in a slide show fashion. The slide show starts at the currently selected bookmark (green outline) and displays the following bookmarks in order, all the way to the end of the shelf. It then loops around to the first bookmark and continues cycling indefinitely.
  • To stop the slide show, click anywhere in the window.
  • In the option box, an option called Bookmark cycle time specifies how long each bookmark is displayed. Check the Repeat cycles option to make the slide show repeat indefinitely.
  • To have the bookmarks display only the camera settings (view) without the display attributes (shading, and so on), click the Toggle Only Camera Mode button.
• To track or dolly an annotated bookmark view, you must first set the view to isometric mode by clicking the Perspective checkbox in the Viewing Panel so that a checkmark does not appear.
  Note

  Changing the view in Perspective mode by tumbling, tracking, or dollying removes all annotations.

Save one or more bookmarks as image files

1. To save only some bookmarks on the current shelf, select them in the Bookmark Lister. (See To select one or more bookmarks.)

   A border appears around the selected bookmark(s) (green for the current one, white for the others).

2. Double-click the Publish Bookmark button to open the option box.
3. In the option box, set Bookmark Publish to Selected, Current Shelf or All, and select an Image File Type (default is jpeg).
4. Click Go.

   A file browser window is displayed.

5. Choose a folder and type in an object name for your image or group of images.
   
6. Press (Windows) or (Mac).

   The saved images are called <object name>_<bookmark name>.<file type>.

   Note

   If bookmark names are not unique, “_<#>” is added to the image names to make them unique, for example: issue_BM_1.jpg, issue_BM_2.jpg, and so on.

What if...?

• The Viewing Panel does not appear when I hold + (or + on the Mac)?
  1. Choose Preferences > General Preferences.
  2. Click Viewing on the left side of the option window.
  3. Make sure that View Control is set to VIEW PANEL, then click Go.