Using Layout
To maintain this link (the communication between the two programs via the "Hub") it is a bad idea to have more then one instance of either program open
- Display settings
- Viewport switching
- Save your objects!
- Displaying, working with the Manipulator
- Manipulating your camera (or light)
- Object and World Coordinates
Display Settings
Layout starts with just one viewport. You can change this to the far more practical multi viewport setting in the display settings. If you hit d you will get the preferences window with the display tab selected.
Change the Viewport Layout to quad to get the four window view. You can save this as the default view!
Viewport switching
In Layout you can use your numerical keys to switch the active viewport (the one your mouse is over) to a different view
- Back
- Top
- Right
- Perspective
- Light View
- Camera
- Schematic
Note that this is different from Modeler, where these numbers switch between layers
Save your objects!
Objects are NOT an integral part of the scene file and changes you made to the object's material settings in layout are not saved when you save the scene. To save these changes you have to save your objects: File → save → Selected Object
File → save → All objects incremental will change a new version of all the objects in you scene
Displaying, working with the Manipulator
You can toggle the display of the manipulator with ALT-F5
Manipulating your camera (or light)
In Camera view you cannot use ALT to move around your scene. I assume this is to avoid accidental changes to camera position and angle. However, if you select your camera (SHIFT-C) you can move and point it in the camera view:
- Hit t to move (translate) the camera
- LMB (holding the Left Mouse Button) - Moving left / right will move the camera left to right
- LMB - Moving up / down will move the camera forward / backward
- RMB - Moving up / down will move the camera up / down
- Hit y to rotate the camera
- LMB to rotate left / right and up / down (a.k.a. pan and tilt or heading and pitch)
- RMB to rotate around the axis the camera is pointing down (roll or bank)
If you select a light (SHIFT-L) the manipulations are the same for the selected light if you choose Light as your viewport
Object and World Coordinates
You can switch between World, Parent (the coordinate system of the object the current object is parented to) and Local (or Object) coordinate systems with Modify → General → Coord System or:
- SHIFT-F5: World Coordinates
- SHIFT-F6: Parent Coordinates
- SHIFT-F7: Object Coordinates