Visualize viewport navigation focus point & quickly set it.

[XonosIO]

While most may not feel the way that I do, it seems that the viewport focus point could use an enhancement that would certainly benefit my workflow. Currently, the viewport pivot works by anchoring to an invisible point that is pre-set by a certain distance from the viewport camera that can be moved by panning (alt+mmb) / (ctrl+mmb). The pivot, ofcourse works wonders when zooming out and selecting an object (relying on the pivotal point of the object) or pivoting the average point of your selection. It becomes problematic for me when I am working "up-close" to hammer out very fine detail and then I need to pivot the working area after dropping my selection. Many might suggest to change workflow and they may be right however, adjusting workflow often means working around limitations which I believe this is.

My idea is that there be a means (preferably a customizable hotkey + ui toggle button) to toggle and lock a visual representation of the viewport camera pivot point. So, there's three features in this idea.

1. Toggling Viewport Navigation Camera Focus/Pivot
   1. User presses hotkey and can physically see in 3d space the pivot point as they move around.
2. Override & set viewport navigation pivot point manually or by collision when focus point is toggled.
   1. User can select and drag/rotate the pivot point which will work respectively with snapping enabled.
      • Note: Notice that I mentioned 'rotate'. By rotating the view port focus point, this would enable the user to rotate on any axis and change the pitch/roll that would redefine Top/Bottom. This is not 'priority' in my opinion however, it would offer some interesting flexibility to workflow.
   2. User can optionally set the viewport pivot point positioning by "casting a ray" from the viewport camera location/angle which then seeks to collide with object boundaries (if not a mesh/poly) or, if in sub-object mode, polygons. If a collision is made, the focus position that is currently availble adjusts to the new target location.
3. Viewport Navigation Pivot Overrides
   1. The idea here is that, while in "viewport pivot override mode" the user can freely navigate between any object while retaining the original pivot point. This, in my opinion, is the most important. If toggling the pivoting position & locking it is not reasonable - I would be ecstatic to, at the very least, be able to do this.

As always, thank you Audodesk & the community for all that you do.

[electrotoast_old]

We're going to archive this as this functionality is in previous versions of 3ds Max with the Orbit Point of Interest option for the viewport.

Check out the different navigation modes here.