Axes Gizmo
The axes gizmo is a small interactive cube in the bottom-left corner of the 3D viewport. It shows the current camera orientation and lets you snap to standard views by clicking its faces, edges, or corners.
Location and appearance
The gizmo is rendered as a heads-up display (HUD) overlay that always appears at a fixed screen position in the bottom-left corner, regardless of zoom level or camera distance. It uses an orthographic projection so the cube never appears in perspective.
Each face of the cube is labeled with a direction name:
| Face | Direction | Axis |
|---|---|---|
| Right | +X | Positive X |
| Left | -X | Negative X |
| Back | +Y | Positive Y |
| Front | -Y | Negative Y |
| Top | +Z | Positive Z |
| Bottom | -Z | Negative Z |
The cube continuously rotates to mirror the main camera's orientation, so the visible face labels always match what you would see looking in that direction.
Coordinate system
deFlex uses a Z-up coordinate system:
- X points to the right.
- Y points toward the back of the scene.
- Z points up.
This matches common engineering and CAD conventions. The axes gizmo reflects this orientation at all times.
Snapping to standard views
Click any part of the gizmo to animate the camera to that view direction:
Face clicks
Clicking a labeled face snaps the camera to look straight along that axis:
| Click | Resulting view | Looking along |
|---|---|---|
| Top | Top-down (plan view) | -Z (looking down) |
| Bottom | Bottom-up | +Z (looking up) |
| Front | Front elevation | +Y (looking toward back) |
| Back | Rear elevation | -Y (looking toward front) |
| Right | Right elevation | -X (looking left) |
| Left | Left elevation | +X (looking right) |
Edge clicks
Clicking an edge between two faces snaps the camera to a 45-degree angle between those two directions. This is useful for isometric-like views.
Corner clicks
Clicking a corner snaps the camera to a view that combines three axis directions at once, producing a trimetic view. For example, clicking the top-front-right corner gives a classic isometric perspective.
Camera animation
When you click the gizmo, the camera smoothly animates from its current position to the target view over approximately 0.3 seconds using an ease-in-out curve. During animation:
- The camera maintains its current distance from the orbit target (it rotates on a sphere, not translating toward/away).
- The orbit target (center of rotation) does not change.
- The camera's up vector stays fixed at (0, 0, 1), consistent with the Z-up convention.
- For polar views (looking straight down or straight up the Z axis), the camera is nudged very slightly off-axis to avoid mathematical degeneracy without any visible effect.
Hover feedback
When you hover over a face, it highlights in the application's primary accent color to indicate it is clickable. Edge and corner hit zones also highlight on hover with a semi-transparent overlay.
Related pages
- Keyboard Shortcuts -- includes numpad shortcuts for standard views (Numpad 7 for Top, Numpad 1 for Front, Numpad 3 for Right)
- Viewport Tools -- toolbar tools that work alongside the gizmo