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Look At

What is it?

The Look At tool aligns the 3D viewport to face a selected face head-on. It's perfect for inspecting specific surfaces, texture work, or precise modeling tasks. After selecting a face, you can adjust the view with zoom, roll, pitch, and yaw controls for the perfect angle.

Access and Shortcuts

  • Pie Menu: Manipulation > Look At
  • Operator: damtools.look_at
  • Modal keys:
  • Click → Select face to look at / Confirm view
  • Mouse Wheel → Zoom in/out
  • Ctrl + Mouse Wheel → Roll view (rotate around view axis)
  • Shift + Mouse Wheel → Pitch view (tilt up/down)
  • Alt + Mouse Wheel → Yaw view (pan left/right)
  • ESC/Right Click → Cancel operation

Workflow

Basic Steps

  1. Activate Look At
  2. Hover over faces to see highlighting
  3. Click on a face to align the view
  4. Use mouse wheel to zoom in/out
  5. Use modifier keys with wheel for additional adjustments
  6. Click to confirm the view

View Adjustment

  1. After selecting a face, the view aligns perpendicular to it
  2. Mouse wheel controls zoom
  3. Ctrl+Wheel rotates around view axis
  4. Shift+Wheel tilts up/down
  5. Alt+Wheel pans left/right
  6. Click to confirm or ESC to cancel

Parameters

  • Face Selection: Which face to align the view to
  • Any mesh face in object mode
  • Highlighted in red when hovering
  • View Distance: Automatic or controlled with mouse wheel
  • Default: Based on face size (3× radius)
  • Adjustable with mouse wheel
  • View Orientation: Controls for fine-tuning
  • Roll: Rotate around view axis
  • Pitch: Tilt up/down
  • Yaw: Pan left/right

Tips

  • Perfect for texture work on specific faces
  • Great for inspecting hard-to-reach areas
  • Use roll to align with natural orientation
  • Works with any visible mesh object
  • The view distance is automatically calculated based on face size
  • Combine with other view navigation tools for precise positioning
  • Works in both orthographic and perspective views

Known Limitations

  • Only works in object mode
  • Requires mesh objects with faces
  • May have issues with very small or thin faces
  • Cannot save views for later recall
  • View alignment is based on face normal, not object orientation
  • Works best with relatively flat faces

See Also