Move around the studio

Moving around the studio is a mouse job with one or two keys. The studio view offers two modes: orbit turns the view around the area you are looking at, fly walks you through the room like a first-person camera. The top view and the camera preview have their own, simpler controls. All keys below are defaults — Settings → Shortcuts… changes them.

Applies to BASIC, STUDIO, CINEMA · A mouse with a right button, a middle button and a wheel is assumed · You need: a project open on the SETUP tab.

Where to find it

The camera controls sit as a small widget in the bottom right corner of the studio view: four buttons for rotate, pan, zoom and framing, plus a label that reads Orbit or Fly. Everything the widget does can be done with the mouse directly in the view.

Orbit around the set

Orbit is the mode a new project starts in. From 00:53 the clip does the three moves below on the studio view, in 25 seconds.

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Input	Result
Right mouse button + drag	Turn the view around the area you are looking at
Middle mouse button + drag	Shift the view sideways and up or down
Space held + drag with any button	The same shift, without a middle button
Mouse wheel	Change the viewing distance
Button ① … ③ of the widget + drag	Turn, shift and zoom without the extra mouse buttons
F or button ④	Frame the selected objects; with nothing selected, the whole set

The view tilts between 80° above and 80° below the horizon, and the viewing distance runs from 0.01 m to 1000 m. Both ends are quietly enforced: the view stops instead of flipping over.

Fly through the room

Fly mode is the fastest way to a camera position at eye level, or to check what a wall looks like from a metre away.

1. Click the Orbit / Fly label or press V. → The label switches, and the mode is kept in your settings, so it survives a restart.
2. Hold the right mouse button — or keep the widget’s rotate button ① pressed — and steer.

Input	Result
Mouse movement	Look around
W / S	Fly forwards / backwards
A / D	Fly left / right
Q / E	Fly down / up
Shift held	Fly twice as fast
Mouse wheel	Change the flying speed; the factor appears beside the widget as 1.00 x

The steering keys only work while you hold the rotate control. Let go and they go back to their other duties in the SETUP tab: Q switches the selected light on and off, W shows and hides its stand, S sets it as the solo light, E lifts the library into a floating window. The speed factor runs from 0.01 x to 100 x.

Pan the top view

The top view in the lower right panel looks straight down on the set without perspective, so there is nothing to rotate.

Input	Result
Right mouse button + drag	Shift the view
Middle mouse button + drag	Shift the view
Space held + drag	Shift the view
Mouse wheel	Zoom

Aim the camera preview

The camera preview is not a view you fly through: everything you do in it moves the photo camera itself, and therefore changes your shot.

Input	Result
Right mouse button + drag	Pan and tilt the photo camera
Rotate button of the widget + drag	The same rotation
Mouse wheel	Change the focal length, within the zoom range of the lens

Position, height and tilt are typed in the inspector; see The photo camera and Choose a focal length.

Select while you navigate

• Left click picks the object under the pointer.
• Shift + left drag draws a selection box — also when you start on an object, because Shift suppresses the move. Hold Ctrl (Cmd on macOS) as well to add to what is already selected. Locked objects stay out of the result.
• Right click, or Ctrl + click on macOS, opens the context menu for whatever is under the pointer.

Because the right button is also the rotate button, a right click that moves rotates the view and a right click that stays put opens the menu.

Two keys that change what you see

• T swaps the camera preview with the studio view, so you can build full size. Press it again to swap back. Older screenshots on the internet often show the swapped layout.
• O starts the picking mode for the zero point: the next click sets the point every typed position is measured from. Esc cancels it. See Set the zero point for measured positions.

Troubleshooting

• The right mouse button rotates instead of opening the menu. Both are on that button. Click without moving the mouse for the menu.
• I pressed W and the stand of my light disappeared. W shows and hides the stand of the selected object. Press it again.
• My clicks set a zero point instead of selecting. The picking mode is on — press Esc. → Set the zero point for measured positions
• A navigation key does nothing. Shortcuts follow the pointer: move it over the view you mean, and out of any text field you were editing. → Keyboard shortcuts

Related

• The user interface — which panel is which.
• Select, move and measure objects — moving what you selected.
• Keyboard shortcuts — the full table, and how to change a key.
• Quick start: from empty studio to finished image — the whole first pass.