BIM Coordinator Program (INT) April 22, 2024

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Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

Orbit Point

Anonymous
Not applicable
Is there any way to always orbit around the point where you are?

I find that it always orbit around some weird point.

If I disable orbit mode, then click on something, then reenable orbit mode, it will orbit around that point, but this is a hassle to always have to do.

Any pointers?
5 REPLIES 5
mikas
Expert
We might have a language barrier here. But let me try.

I tend to select some object in the middle, and then orbit. This way ArchiCAD takes the selected object as a target or as a zero orbit point. Or at least somtehing slose to it.

Otherways it's a mess: the model orbits as it likes, like a phantom, or like something not desirable.
AC25, Rhino6/7+Grasshopper, TwinMotionMac Pro 6,1 E5-1650v2-3,5GHz/128GB/eGPU:6800XT/11.6.5 • HP Z4/Xeon W-2195/256GB/RX6800XT/W10ProWS
Barry Kelly
Moderator
It is also different depending on whether you are viewing a Perspective or Axonometric view in 3D.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
runxel
Legend
Please vote.
Lucas Becker | AC 27 on Mac | Author of Runxel's Archicad Wiki | Editor at SelfGDL | Developer of the GDL plugin for Sublime Text |
«Furthermore, I consider that Carth... yearly releases must be destroyed»
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
Won't help you in terms of orbit, but I've made a hotkey for explore a long time ago and never looked back in terms of navigating model in 3D perspective.

Maybe it helps that I play games at home, but the WASD navigation is quite smooth and fast for moving through and around the model. Space bar moves up and C moves down. + and - control the speed. Holding down SHIFT gives you a speed boost temporarily.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
sinceV6
Advocate
Hi.
As stated, when there is a selection, AC will use the global center of the selection as an orbit center point. However, when there is nothing selected, AC will use the projection of center point of the current 3D window size on the currently showed geometry. If the 3D window center point falls onto some geometry, it will orbit around that projected point, if it doesn't (the center point projects onto the horizon), then I think the orbit center point is the global center of all the displayed geometry.

The orbit function works the same way, but given that it shows a "+" in the center, will help you understand this better. Try it in an empty file with a couple of objects. As soon as the "+" symbol is over a face, that point will be used as a center point. When if falls out of any geometry, the bounding box center is used instead.

3D WASD navigation is a godsend.

Best regards.
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