Move the camera

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This page applies to WPF projects only

The camera for 3D content represents a vantage point and behaves much like a video camera.

Tip

If you move the camera orbit so that part of the 3D object extends beyond the blue bounding box, the parts outside the box will not be visible unless you clear the check box for the ClipToBounds property in the Appearance category of the Properties panel. Alternatively, you can scale the Viewport3D object to make it larger.

To move the camera using the Camera Orbit tool

  1. In the Toolbox, click Camera Orbit Cc295010.0f80cb0b-7405-4759-9e97-fcde9a53cbb5(en-us,Expression.10).png.

  2. On the artboard, click a 3D object, and then drag your mouse to move the camera that is looking at that object. You can change the behavior of the Camera Orbit tool in the following ways:

    • Hold the ALT key when dragging to move the camera closer to the look-at point (ALT + move mouse up) or further away from the look-at point (ALT + move mouse down). CTRL also constrains the movement of the camera to the X and Y plane.

    • Hold the SHIFT key when dragging to snap the movement every 15 degrees in each of the three directions (X, Y, and Z).

Cc295010.7e183f1f-37d8-4dcb-980c-19a5d61ca087(en-us,Expression.10).gifBack to top

To move the camera using the Camera properties

  1. Under Objects and Timeline, expand the Viewport3D object for the object that you want to modify. The Viewport3D object contains a child object for the camera, and a container object for the world geometry.

  2. Expand the camera container object, and then select the Camera child object.

  3. In the Camera category of the Properties panel, you can adjust the following properties:

    • **Width  ** For the orthographic camera only, this attribute controls how much of the content is visible. As this number becomes larger, more of the content will be visible.

    • **Position  ** The position of the camera in the world.

    • **Direction  ** The point at which the camera is looking in the world.

    • Up Vector   Specifies which direction is “up” for this camera.

    • Perspective Field of View   For the perspective camera only, this attribute changes the amount of the content that is visible through the camera and the amount that objects in the document appear to be distorted by the camera. Small values reduce the amount that an object is distorted by perspective. Large values cause objects to become very distorted, as with a fisheye lens.

    • Far/Near Clipping Planes   These properties control how close to or far away from the camera an object can get before it disappears from the rendered view.