Navigating in 3D Space

Unity is a 3D engine with controls similar to Maya. If you are unfamiliar with Maya and/or working with 3D, this tutorial will teach you how to proficiently move around in the Scene view, as well as provide you with some tips and tricks for working more quickly in 3D space.

Views

The Scene view is where you will be navigating around your scene, and the Game view is where you will see a preview of your target device’s screen. Most find it easy to work with these two windows side by side.

Controls

When you want to change your scene view, make sure the window is active by clicking anywhere inside it. The, press the alt key. This activates navigation mode. Then use the following mouse gestures to look around the scene.

Alt+Left Click = Rotate

            -hold the left button and drag the mouse left and right to rotate the view. You can also move the mouse up and down to look above or below your assets.

Alt+Middle Click = Pan

            -hold the middle button and drag the mouse left, right, up, or down to pan the view.

Alt+Right Click = Zoom

            -hold the right button and drag the mouse right to zoom in, and left to zoom out. Alternatively, spin the scroll wheel to zoom in and out.

Framing

To quickly frame any asset, select it in either the page editor or hierarchy, then hover the mouse over the scene view and press the F key. After that, zooming and rotating will use this object as the center point, until a new object is framed or the camera is panned.

Framing is very helpful if you’ve lost your assets in the scene view and want to find them quickly.

Using the Scene Gizmo

You can quickly make your scene view match your game view by clicking the front Z arrow on the scene gizmo, here highlighted in yellow:

The scene will then display “Back” instead of “Iso”. You can then use the X arrows to spin the scene horizontally, or the Y arrows to spin vertically.

Remember that most assets used in The Active Reader are flat planes, so looking directly above or below them will make them appear invisible, as they have no thickness. If you ever get lost using the gizmo, click the center cube and then the back Z arrow, and you’ll be back to the Back view and can navigate normally.

For more information about navigating in Unity's scene view, check out their manual here: Unity Scene View Navigation.