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Navigation

Graphite4D opens on a 3D view of your model. A single toolbar runs across the top of the view, the Properties panel opens on the right, and an optional graph panel sits below. This page shows how to move around the model and find your way through the workspace.

Orbit, pan and zoom with a mouse

Orbit turns around the point under the pointer when you start dragging. Over empty space, that point is on the ground. You can press or release Shift during a drag to switch between orbit and pan.

The left button belongs to tools and selection. It never moves the camera.

Use a trackpad

• Scroll with two fingers, or pinch, to zoom toward the pointer.
• To orbit, drag with the secondary (right) button. Hold Shift as you drag to pan.

Use touch

• Drag with one finger to orbit.
• Pinch to zoom, and drag with two fingers to pan.
• Tap to select.

While a drawing tool is active, one finger draws. Put a second finger down to cancel the unfinished shape and navigate instead, then lift all fingers before you place the next point.

To select with a box on a touch screen, choose Select with a box in All tools. Your next one-finger drag draws a box instead of orbiting.

Fit the view

Press F or choose Fit design beside the camera menu. Graphite fits the selection. With nothing selected, it fits the whole model, or the group or drawing you have open.

Switch views

The camera menu is the first button in the toolbar. It shows the current view, for example Perspective.

To orbit again after Top or Front, press 1. The modeling tools work in all three views.

Plans, sections and elevations are drawings, not camera views. Your saved drawings appear under Drawings in the same menu, and + New floor plan starts one. See Drawings.

The camera menu also holds Field of view (°) for the perspective camera, Display style, Appearance settings and Hide ground grid.

Fly through the model

1. Open the camera menu and choose Fly under Navigation.
2. Click the 3D view, then use W A S D to move and Q / E to go down or up.
3. Drag with the right button to look around. Middle-drag still orbits.
4. Press Esc or choose Exit fly (Esc) to return to orbiting.

Hold Shift to move 4× faster, Ctrl for 10×, or both for 40×. Fly works in the Perspective view only.

Work inside groups

What you can click depends on where you are. At the top level, you select whole objects and groups. Shapes live inside editable objects; drawing at the top level starts a new one.

• Double-click a group to open it in place. The rest of the model fades, and you edit only what is inside.
• Press Esc to go back up one level. If a tool is active, press Esc until the Select tool is idle first.
• Press Shift I to show or hide the rest of the model while you work inside.
• Press I to isolate the selection, and again to exit isolation.

See Modeling for making and editing groups.

Find any tool

The toolbar reads from left to right:

1. The camera menu and Fit design.
2. Quick tools for what you are doing now.
3. All tools, which searches everything.
4. Properties, which opens the Properties panel.

Quick tools change with the selection. With nothing selected, you see the modeling tools, then Draw wall and Building levels. With faces or edges selected, you see Select, Move, Rotate, Push / pull, Offset, Make group, Eraser and Delete. The toolbar shows as many as fit.

Press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows to open All tools. Type a tool name or an architectural term, such as stair or extrude. Use the arrow keys and Enter to run a result. Each result shows its kind, such as Tool, Node or Recipe, and its shortcut. Choose the pin beside a tool to keep it in the toolbar. Toolbar preferences, at the bottom of the list, resets your pins.

While a tool is active, the quick tools make way for the active command. You see its name and next step, the Typed dimensions field for exact values, and buttons to finish or cancel.

Use the Properties panel

Choose Properties at the right end of the toolbar, or press N.

• With something selected, Properties shows its settings. For faces and edges, it shows how many you selected and whether they form a solid.
• With a tool active, it shows the tool's steps, a field for exact values and its options, such as the Paint bucket's material.
• With nothing selected, it says No selection.

Once open, Properties follows the selection. Selecting alone doesn't open it. Click the active command's name in the toolbar to open that tool's options. Drag the panel's left edge to make it wider.

On a phone, Properties opens as a sheet from the bottom of the screen and starts closed.

Open the graph (optional)

Every model is also a graph of design steps. You never need it for direct modeling, but it shows how a design is built and lets you drive it with parameters.

• Press Shift G to show or hide the graph below the 3D view.
• Drag the graph's top edge to resize it, or press Shift F for a full-height graph.

See Recipes and the graph to learn more.