I want to rotate the view, but constrain the rotation to a single axis.
For instance, say I am in object mode in side view (NUM3)
I can rotate the view around the Y axis with the NUM8 and NUM2 buttons, but only in fairly large discrete steps. The view I want unfortunately lies in between two of the steps.
I can hold the wheel on the mouse and move upwards. Unfortunately my hand is not steady enough to move it strictly up and down, there is some left-right movement that rotates around other axes.
Is there a way to rotate the view smoothly but constrained to only one axis?
I don’t believe this is possible. This begs the question of why you need to do this – If it is to model something at a particular angle there is probably an alternative/better method.
I don’t know everything of every 3D software but I don’t remember one that had the feature of finely but acurately rotate the 3D view…
Anyway, there is the possibility to align the view on one selected face, in Edit Mode, using the Shift+V > To selected (top). This may be all you need.
Otherwise a workaround would be to create a Plane primitive, rotate it finely like you’d like the viewing plane to be and then again, use , in Edit Mode, using the Shift+V > To selected (top).
I’m trying to make a George Pal style Martian War machine, which is approximately a flattened football with wings. I’ve been trying several methods to cram the mesh into the top/side/front blueprints. After making a tangled mess with NURBS surfaces, I tried a new method.
In front view, I made a (half) outline of the outermost rim according to the blueprint. I mirrored this. Switching to side view, I extruded the outline to the front and rear, aligning the top of each extrude with the top edge according to the side blueprint.
Then for each “rib”, I set the cursor to coincide with the top of the rib, and scaled the rib constrained along the z axis until the bottom of the rib matched the side blueprint.
Switching to top view, I then scaled each rib along the x axis until leftmost vertex matched the top blueprint.
The result was still a bit tangled, but not as bad as the NURBS surface.
The problem is that the surface created is not smooth, it is lumpy.
I was smoothing the surface sort of like a lathe. I was rotating the mesh along the long axis until the next line connecting corresponding rib vertices was lowermost. By inspection one could see where the jagged bits were, and manually move vertices until one had a smooth curve.
But this works best if one can constrain the rotation to the long axis, and rotate precisely until the next curve is lowermost.
Now, is your cue to say “Silly boy! Why do all that work when you can do this?”
