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HelpScenes

CityEngine Help

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Export 360 VR Experiences from CityEngine

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3D navigation essentials

CityEngine 2025.0    |    |   Help archive
2025.02024.12024.02023.12023.02022.12022.02021.1

In this topic

  1. Navigation tools
  2. Shortcuts

To navigate in the 3D Viewport window Viewport, you can use navigation tools that allow you to move around the scene such as tracking, tumbling, or looking around. You can select the appropriate tool on the toolbar and click and drag the mouse in the Viewport window Viewport. Alternatively, these actions can be applied using a modifier.

A common way to navigate a scene is to create a selection by clicking objects or dragging a selection rectangle on them, and press F to frame the selection in the Viewport window . You can then rotate, pan, or zoom in and out to explore the objects and the scene.

Navigation tools

The following table describes navigation actions:

Tumble or rotate the scene.

  • Click the Tumble/Rotate tool Rotate and drag the scene.
  • Press Alt and click to drag the scene.

Move the view left, right, up, or down.

  • Click the Pan/Track tool Pan and drag the scene.
  • Press Alt and wheel button to drag the scene.
  • Press the arrow keys to move the scene in that direction.

Dolly/zoom the camera toward or away from the point of interest.

  • Click the Dolly/Zoom tool Zoom and drag the scene.
  • Press Alt and right-click to drag the scene.

Rotate the view from the current camera position. This can help create bookmarks that 360 VR exports.

  • Click the Look around tool Look around and drag the scene.
  • Press B and click to drag the scene.

See 3D navigation essentials for a complete list of actions, keyboard shortcuts, and how to change the mouse and navigation settings.

Shortcuts

The following table lists keyboard shortcuts:

Press F

Frame the selection (or the whole scene if the selection is empty).

Press arrow keys

Move the camera left, right, forward, or backward.

Press A

Frame the whole scene.

Press N

Turn the camera's view direction toward north while keeping the view angle to the ground.

Press Shift+N

Turn the camera's view direction vertically down and rotate the scene so north is up.

Press X, Y, or Z

Turn the camera's view to respectively align to the x-, y-, or z-axis. This allows you to quickly see front, back, top, bottom, and side views.

Press H

Reset the camera to the default position.

Press Spacebar

Maximize 3D Viewport. The active 3D Viewport is maximized and fills the entire CityEngine window. Press the Spacebar again to restore the previous window layout.

Right-click the Viewport window and click Toggle Fullscreen

Make 3D Viewport fullscreen. To return to the normal mode, press Esc or click the same context menu entry.

Tip:

  • The CityEngine preferences (Edit > Preferences > General > Navigation Devices > Mouse) allow you to change the mouse navigation schemes according to the schemes of other 3D applications.

    If you have a 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse device (https://www.3dconnexion.com/), click Edit > Preferences > General > Navigation Devices > 3D Mouse to set the scheme.

  • Linux users may want to change the modifier key mapping for navigation to the Ctrl key since some window managers catch the Alt key.

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In this topic
  1. Navigation tools
  2. Shortcuts