Keyboard shortcut to pan down viewport?

[Anonymous]

The UI method to pan down the viewport (e.g. Front view) is to use the hand tool and drag. This much we all know. However, I am drawing a shape with the line tool and, because it will be a large shape with many vertices, I am zoomed in and need to continually extend my line out of the viewport. I can't zoom out because I need to see the detail. Is there a keyboard shortcut for this panning? Obviously I can't use the hand tool without letting go of my line.

In Photoshop, the viewport pans with you if you extend your lasso tool (for example) way outside the viewport. Max does not do this. I hope that there is a solution and that someone here can share it.

Thanks.

[Stefan_L]

You can zoom in and out with your mouse wheel while drawing the line. 

If you zoom out at the top of the screen and zoom in at the bottom, you're going down 

[darawork]

Pressing down the middle mouse button (wheel button) gives you the pan hand too.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate the replies Stefan and darawork. Unfortunately, neither of those work. You can only zoom in and out in the same location. You can't zoom out at the top and in at the bottom without moving the viewport. Activating the hand with the center mouse button releases the drawing tool which is what I need to avoid.

The solution is going to have to use the keyboard, not the mouse. It seems like there should be a way to do this using the arrow keys in combination with another button, for example. Anybody?

[Stefan_L]

Assuming 3dsMax 2014:

Customize / Customize User Interface...

On the "Mouse"-Tab make sure that the two "Zoom about Mouse Point..."s are checked.

Edit:

The MMB does not break the line drawing process here...

[Anonymous]

Stefan, the good news is that I see this feature was added in the 2013 edition. The bad news is that I cannot get it to work. I've checked the boxes, saved it, and no change. Drat!

[Stefan_L · Accepted solution]

It has always been instable 🙂

But you can zoom in and out with your mouse wheel?

Then zoom out, move the mouse pointer to the next point of interest, press "i" on the keyboard (centers the view) and zoom in again.

[Anonymous]

Oh, hell yes. That worked. I'm not sure how I would have known about the "press I" part of the equation. I'm very glad you told me. Whew. Now I can get back to this project. Thank you very much.