3D scene controls and settings
Look up 3D scene controls and settings here. For what the scene shows and what each mode is for, see 3D scene.
Navigation
| Action | Mouse |
|---|---|
| Orbit (rotate the view around a point) | Left-click drag |
| Pan (slide the view without rotating) | Right-click drag |
| Zoom | Scroll wheel |
| Select an entity | Left-click |
| Deselect | Click empty space |
On a trackpad, a two-finger swipe zooms, and pan needs a right-click held while dragging.
Keyboard shortcuts
The scene has keyboard shortcuts for moving the camera, focusing on, hiding, and isolating entities, switching transform tools, and undoing, redoing, and saving Build mode edits. For the full, current list, open Settings > Keybindings in the scene.
Keyboard navigation pauses while you type in a field or hold ⌘ (or Ctrl).
Details panel fields
The Details panel shows the selected entity’s pose and geometry on its Details tab, and how it draws on its Appearance tab. Fields that correspond to frame configuration are editable in Build mode for configurable frames, and read-only otherwise. In Move mode, the panel becomes the move controls instead.
| Field | Meaning | Frame configuration |
|---|---|---|
| world position (mm) | The entity’s position in the world frame | None. Computed from the local pose and the parent chain |
| world orientation | The entity’s orientation in the world frame, as an orientation vector | None. Computed |
| parent frame | The frame this entity is attached to | frame.parent |
| local position (mm) | Position relative to the parent frame | frame.translation |
| local orientation | Orientation relative to the parent frame, entered as OV (deg) or Euler | frame.orientation, stored as an orientation vector in degrees whichever form you enter |
| geometry | The collision geometry: None, Box, Sphere, or Capsule | frame.geometry.type |
| dimensions (mm) | x, y, z for a box; r for a sphere; r and l for a capsule | frame.geometry x, y, z, r, l |
| Appearance tab: color, opacity, axes helper | How the entity draws in the scene | None. These change the rendering only, not the configuration |
The panel header can open a frame POV widget and copy the entity’s pose and geometry as JSON. To center the camera on the selected entity, use the scene’s focus control or its keyboard shortcut.
Settings
Settings controls how the scene fetches and draws data, such as refresh rates, point cloud display, and which vision services render. Pages that rely on a particular setting name it where it matters. Toggle the rest to see what they do.
Import files
Drag a file onto the viewport to add it to the scene:
| File type | Loads as |
|---|---|
.pcd | A point cloud |
.ply | A triangle mesh. A .ply file that holds only points draws as triangles, not points, so convert point clouds to .pcd first. |
.json, .pb, .pb.gz | A scene snapshot. The file name must start with visualization_snapshot, or the scene rejects it as an unsupported file type. A snapshot can also set the camera’s starting view. See Viam Visualization. |
Imported files are placed relative to the world frame.
To remove an imported file, select it and use Remove from scene in the Details panel header.
Was this page helpful?
Glad to hear it! If you have any other feedback please let us know:
We're sorry about that. To help us improve, please tell us what we can do better:
Thank you!