Orbit

Get about the model.

Keyboard: O - though you will hardly ever want it. Read the next section instead.

The three you actually use

Middle-drag spins the model. From any tool, at any point, even half way through drawing a line - which is exactly when you need to see round the back of something. Nothing about what you were doing is lost.
Right-drag slides the drawing about.
The wheel zooms, towards the pointer, so the thing under the cursor stays under the cursor.

The orbit tool does the same with the left button, for a mouse with no middle button and for a trackpad. Hold Shift while dragging it to pan instead of spin.

Snapping the view square

Hold Ctrl and let go, and the view clicks into the nearest standard direction - one of the twenty-six the view cube offers: six faces square on, twelve edges half way between two, and eight corners. It glides there rather than jumping, so you keep track of what you are looking at.

Spin round to roughly the view you want, then press Ctrl before you release the button. While it is held the status line names where you will land - let go to click into FRONT RIGHT TOP - and if the cube is showing it lights the face it is about to go to. Change your mind and let go of Ctrl first; nothing happens.

Use it when you want a face of the model squared to the screen and did not want to hunt for the exact angle by hand.

Orbiting the model to an odd angle, holding Ctrl while the view cube lights the nearest view, and letting go as the view glides there. — Spin it round, hold `Ctrl` - the cube in the corner lights the view it will go to - and let go. It glides there, so you never lose track of the model.

Leaving a standard view

Spinning out of PLAN or ISO drops you into the free 3D view first, aimed where you were already looking, so the model does not jump. That is SketchUp's behavior too. V steps back through the standard views - top, front, right and the rest - and I toggles isometric and plan.

Finding your way back

Shift+F, or /fit, zooms until it all shows. The one to remember when you are lost.
/origin puts the view back on 0,0,0.
/cube puts a view cube in the corner: click a face to look square on, an edge for the half turn between two, a corner for the three-quarter view most drawings are read from, or drag it to turn. It also says which way you are facing, which the VIEW menu cannot.

Every one of those flies the camera there rather than jumping, and that is on purpose: watching the model turn is what stops you losing your place.

The three you actually use

Snapping the view square

Leaving a standard view

Finding your way back

See also