In Blender, you’ll often find that you can zoom in to a point but then can’t zoom any further, even if there’s plenty of room to zoom to the meshes on the scene. Is there anything you can do to zoom in further if you can’t zoom in as far as you’d like? The answer is YES!
But, before we get into how to fix it, let’s look at why zoom stops at a certain point.
A brief explanation why zoom stops at a point in Blender
There is a limit to how far in you can zoom. If you want to keep zooming in, you must reset your view. Blender’s 3D navigation uses a central point to orbit around.
In practice, this is useful for modeling an object that you need to rotate around a lot to see from all sides (Think of a potter using a wheel). However, this makes it difficult to explore a scene or model an object from the ‘inside,’ for example.
The solution
There are several ways to set up a new view center.
Method 1: Dot option if you have an object in the 3D viewport
One common method is to select an object and then press the dot or full stop (.) key on your keyboard. You will zoom in on the object you chose in the viewport.
But what if there are no objects in the viewport? … or the object is very large? (For instance, a terrain mesh). This is where method two comes into play.
Method 2: How to zoom and navigate around large scenes or scenes with no obvious center
- View Dolly: CTRL Shift + middle-mouse or Shift+ + or – works similar to zoom but translates the view center (like panning forward).
- Walk / Fly Mode: Shift + F As with dolly this can move the view back and forth (using the mouse wheel), but you can also look around using the mouse and WASD keys, it’s a mode all on its own and has pros and cons which are better explained elsewhere.
- Auto Depth (Interface Preferences): Useful in combination with Zoom To Mouse Position. Using these will make sure the distance is always the value under the mouse cursor, this means you have to consider where you click when moving the view but can also be very handy since it gives you a lot more control. If you work with large scenes – like a game level for example, and want to move around a lot, I’d recommend trying these options.
- Border Zoom: Shift + B: Also sets the center point when zooming.
- Center the view around the mouse cursor: Alt + Middle-Mouse (click). This will take the position under the cursor and make it your viewpoint center.
- Center the view around the mouse cursor: Alt + Middle-Mouse (click). This will take the position under the cursor and make it your viewpoint center.
Typically, when you can’t zoom in as far as you’d like, it’s because you’re in perspective view instead of orthographic view. You can toggle between the two by hitting the “5” key on the numeric keypad. You can tell what view you’re in by looking in the upper left corner of the viewport. It’ll tell you the view you’re in (such as “front ortho” or “front perspective”).
