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Viewports are openings into the three-dimensional space of your scene, like windows looking into an enclosed garden or atrium. But viewports are more than passive observation points. While creating a scene, you can use them as dynamic and flexible tools to understand the 3D relationships among objects.

At times you might want to look at your scene through a large, undivided viewport, giving you a "picture-window" view of the world you're creating. More often, you use multiple viewports, each set to a different orientation.

If you want to move an object horizontally in the world space, you might do this in a top viewport, looking directly down on the object as you move it. At the same time, you could be watching a shaded perspective viewport to see when the object you're moving slides behind another. Using the two windows together, you can get exactly the position and alignment you want.

You also have pan and zoom features available in either view, as well as grid alignment. With a few mouse clicks or keystrokes, you can reach any level of detail you need for the next step in your work.

Another way to use viewports is to place a camera in your scene and set a viewport to look through its lens. When you move the camera, the viewport tracks the change. You can do the same thing with spotlights.

Orthographic Views

Whether produced on computer or paper, most 3D design relies on orthographic views for accurate description of objects and their positioning. Maps, plans, cross-sections, and elevations are all orthographic views. In familiar terms, you might think of these views as "flat" or "straight-on," or as "looking at right angles."

Orthographic views are two-dimensional, each defined by two world coordinate axes. Combinations of these axes produce three pairs of orthographic views: top, bottom; front, back; left, right.