Guides

Navigating a 3D Scene

Once you have a Scene3D with some geometry, the Metal preview becomes an interactive viewport. You can fly the camera around, select objects, move them with gizmos, and drop keyframes - all without leaving the preview.

Set up a scene

  1. Press N and add a Scene3D node, then connect it toward your Output.
  2. Add geometry (e.g. Box or Sphere), a Light, and a Camera3D, and wire them into the scene’s inputs.
  3. The preview now renders the scene. Click into the viewport to give it keyboard focus before using any shortcut below.
With no Camera3D connected you still navigate a free viewport camera. Connect one and your moves drive that camera directly, so the framing you set is the framing that renders.

Orbit, pan & dolly (mouse)

The classic DCC tumble controls work on the look-target - the point the camera is aimed at:

  • Left drag - orbit (azimuth / elevation) around the target.
  • Right drag, Middle drag, or Shift + Left drag - pan.
  • Scroll wheel - dolly in and out (changes distance to the target).

Fly through (keyboard)

Hold the fly keys to move the active camera continuously, first-person style:

  • W / S - forward / back.
  • A / D - strafe left / right.
  • Q / E - down / up.
  • Scroll wheel while flying - tune the fly speed.

Frame the selection

Select an object and press F. The camera flies to frame it: it aims at the object’s bounding-box center and backs off to a FOV-aware distance so the whole object fits, and it widens the camera’s near/far clip planes when needed so nothing gets sliced by the frustum.

Select objects

  • Click an object to select it. Cameras and lights show editor icons in the viewport - a little body-plus-lens for cameras, a bulb for lights - so you can click them too.
  • Shift + Click or Cmd + Click adds to the current selection for multi-object edits.

Transform with gizmos

With something selected, a gizmo appears at its pivot. Switch modes from the floating toolbar (top-left of the viewport) or with the keyboard:

  • 1 - translate (drag an arrow to move along that axis).
  • 2 - rotate (drag a ring to spin around that axis).
  • 3 - scale (drag an axis cap, or the center cube for uniform scale).
  • Hold Shift while dragging to snap (0.1 units, or 15° for rotation).

Local vs global axes

The leftmost toolbar button - or the X key - toggles the gizmo between Global (globe icon, axes stay world-aligned) and Local (cube icon, axes ride the object’s own orientation). Use Local to nudge a rotated object along its own forward or up direction.

Keyframe a transform

  1. Arm recording: enable REC (auto-key) on the timeline.
  2. Move the playhead, then drag a gizmo or fly the camera. Each move/rotate/scale drops a keyframe on the affected channels at the playhead - one drag, one keyframe.
  3. Scrub or play back to see the animation. Everything is undoable with Cmd + Z - gizmo moves, camera navigation, and keyframe edits alike.
Gizmos and editor icons hide automatically during playback so the performance view stays clean; they return when you pause.

Display helpers

In the Scene3D inspector you can toggle Wireframe (with an adjustable line width) and turn Show Textures off to inspect shading and topology while you work.

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