Introduction

The 3D Viewport is used to interact with the 3D scene for a variety of purposes, such as modeling, animating, texture painting, etc.

Header Region

../../_images/editors_3dview_introduction_3d-view-header-object-mode.png — Object Mode header.

The header contains various menus and controls based on the current mode. Its items are split into three groups:

Mode & Menus

Mode Ctrl-Tab

The 3D Viewport has several modes used for editing different kinds of data. For example, the default Object Mode would let you place a character in the scene, while Pose Mode would allow you to pose it.

The shortcut Ctrl-Tab brings up a pie menu for quick mode switching. If you have an Armature selected, it’ll instead switch between Object Mode and Pose Mode.

Pressing Tab will switch between Object Mode and Edit Mode for objects that support it.

View

This menu offers tools for navigating in 3D space.

The other menus depend on the current mode, Object Mode menus listed below:

Select: Contains tools for selecting objects.
Add Shift-A: Contains a list of different objects types that can be added to the scene.
Object: Contains tools for operating on objects, such as duplicating them. A subset of these tools can also be accessed by rightclicking in the 3D Viewport.

Transform Controls

Transform Orientation Comma: Used to change the Transform Orientation, which affects the rotation of the transform gizmo.
Pivot Point Period: Used to change the Pivot Point, which affects the location of the transform gizmo.
Snapping Shift-Tab: Offers options for snapping items to others that are nearby. You can hold Ctrl to toggle snapping on/off temporarily (as long as the key is held).
Proportional Editing O: Used to smoothly transform unselected items that are near the selected ones. See Proportional Editing.

Display & Shading

Object Type Visibility

Change which types of objects are visible/selectable in the 3D Viewport. See Object Type Visibility.

Viewport Gizmos

Change how gizmos are displayed in the 3D Viewport.

Viewport Overlays

Change how overlays are displayed in the 3D Viewport.

X-Ray Alt-Z

Make the whole scene transparent, allowing you to see and select items that would otherwise be occluded. This is a shortcut to the X-Ray option inside the Viewport Shading popover.

In Pose Mode, this same button controls a different setting with its own separate on/off state. Rather than making the scene transparent, it shows the armature in front of any geometry.

Viewport Shading

Change the shading of the 3D Viewport.