Aligning

These options allow you to align and orient the view.

Axes

Blender uses a right-angled «Cartesian» coordinate system with the Z axis pointing upwards.

X axis

Left / Right

Y axis

Front / Back

Z axis

Top / Bottom

You can select the viewing direction for a 3D Viewport with the View menu entries, Navigation Gizmo, or by pressing the hotkeys.

These operators change the view to be aligned with the specified global axes:

Top

Numpad7

Front

Numpad1

Right

Numpad3

Holding Ctrl shows the other side of the same axis.

Bottom

Ctrl-Numpad7

Back

Ctrl-Numpad1

Left

Ctrl-Numpad3

Holding Shift aligns the view relative to the active selection. So you can for example, view a rotated objects side, or align the view to the active face in mesh Edit Mode.

The view can also be aligned by holding Alt-MMB and moving the mouse towards the view to align to.

Align View Menu

Reference

Menu

View ‣ Align View

Align View to Active

The options in this menu align your view with specified local axes of the selected active object, bone, or, in Edit Mode with the normal of the selected face.

Hold down Shift while using the numpad to set the view axis.

Align Active Camera to View Ctrl-Alt-Numpad0

Gives your active camera the current viewpoint.

Align Active Camera to Selected

Points the active camera toward the selected object; based on the direction of the current viewpoint.

Center Cursor and Frame All Shift-C

Moves the cursor back to the origin and zooms in/out so that you can see everything in your scene.

Center View to Cursor

Centers view to 3D cursor.

View Lock to Active

Centers view to the last selected active object, overriding other view alignment settings.

View Lock Clear

Returns the view alignment to the view align settings before use of View Lock to Active.