Aligning¶

These options allow you to align and orient the view.

Axes¶

Blender uses a right-angled “Cartesian” coordinate system with the Z axis pointing upwards. Left/ Right corresponds to looking along the X axis, Front/ Back along the Y axis, and Top/ Bottom along the Z axis.

You can select the viewing direction for a 3D View with the View menu entries, or by pressing the hotkeys. You can select the opposite directions if you hold Ctrl while using the same numpad shortcuts.

These operators change the view to be aligned with the specified global axes:

Top Numpad7
Bottom Ctrl-Numpad7
Front Numpad1
Back Ctrl-Numpad1
Right Numpad3
Left Ctrl-Numpad3

Align View Menu¶

Align View to Active

The options in this menu align your view with specified local axes of the selected active object, bone, or, in Edit Mode with the normal of the selected face.

Hold down Shift while using the numpad to set the view axis.

Center Cursor and View All Shift-C

Moves the cursor back to the origin and zooms in/out so that you can see everything in your scene.

Align Active Camera to View Ctrl-Alt-Numpad0

Gives your active camera the current viewpoint.

Align Active Camera to Selected

Points the active camera toward the selected object; based on the direction of the current viewpoint.

View Selected NumpadPeriod

Focuses view on currently selected object/s by centering them in the viewport, and zooming in until they fill the screen.

Center View to Cursor Alt-Home

Centers view to 3D-cursor.

View Lock to Active Shift-NumpadPeriod

Centers view to the last selected active object, overriding other view alignment settings.

View Lock Clear Alt-NumpadPeriod

Returns the view alignment to the view align settings before use of View Lock to Active.