Unity Editor: Viewport Navigation Hotkeys?

Hey guys,

I'm new to Unity, but I have been using other 3D Engines and editors before - among them was Blender. Blender used to have an excellent way of navigating through the viewport using the following numpad hotkeys:

1 - front view (CTRL + 1 - back view)
3 - side view (CTRL + 3 - 'other' side view)
7 - top view (CTRL + 7 - bottom view)
5 - toggle ortographic / perspective display

These would be ever so awesome to have inside the Unity editor as well. I know that these commands can be accessed using the viewport navigation gizmo, but having them as hotkeys would be so much faster... is there a way to do that? Maybe someone already wrote a script for that?

And by the way - using ALT + left/middle/right mouse button is okay. But using ALT + LMB to rotate, SHIFT+ALT+LMB to pan and mouse wheel to zoom in and out would be even better. ALT+LMB is default anyway, zooming with mousewheel works too, but SHIFT+ALT+LMB unfortunately doesn't pan the view - any suggestions how to fix this? (Blender by default also has ALT+ MMB for screen paning, however, it can "emulate" a three-button-mouse by using the additional SHIFT key to basically turn LMB into MMB)

Thanks in advance,


Alan

 

These hotkeys I'd like to see added in Unity. I've been cursing every time I switch back to Unity and my favourite ALT+SHIFT+LMB combination doesn't pan the view.
The numpad view keys are hot too.

 

Yeah, I'd really like to see hotkey buttons for switching to a view. I use Blender, therefore I automatically want the NumPad hotkeys as described above, but anything would be better then having to click that stupid diagram at the top right corner.

 

Hey guys,

I was actually looking for the same thing and I wrote a script that will allow you to switch the SceneView camera between Top, Bottom, Front, Back, Left, Right, and Perspective. This allows you to have quick changes which is great for level editing.

There is a bool called 'sShouldTween'. If this is true, the camera will interpolate between the views similar to how it does when you click on the ViewCube in the top right. If it is false, it will instantly snap to the various views. Everything will appear in a new 'Camera' menu with associated hotkeys (Alt-Shift-Number). Feel free to change those.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using System.Collections;
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using UnityEditor;
5.  
6.  
7. /// <summary>
8. /// Adds a 'Camera' menu containing various views to switch between in the current SceneView
9. /// </summary>
10. public class CameraSwitcher : MonoBehaviour
11. {
12.     /// <summary>
13.     /// The rotation to restore when going back to perspective view. If we don't have anything,
14.     /// default to the 'Front' view. This avoids the problem of an invalid rotation locking out
15.     /// any further mouse rotation
16.     /// </summary>
17.     static Quaternion sPerspectiveRotation = Quaternion.Euler(0, 0, 0);
18.  
19.     /// <summary>
20.     /// Whether the camera should tween between views or snap directly to them
21.     /// </summary>
22.     static bool sShouldTween = true;
23.  
24.  
25.     /// <summary>
26.     /// When switching from a perspective view to an orthographic view, record the rotation so
27.     /// we can restore it later
28.     /// </summary>
29.     static private void StorePerspective()
30.     {
31.         if (SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.orthographic == false)
32.         {
33.             sPerspectiveRotation = SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.rotation;
34.         }
35.     }
36.  
37.     /// <summary>
38.     /// Apply an orthographic view to the scene views camera. This stores the previously active
39.     /// perspective rotation if required
40.     /// </summary>
41.     /// <param name="newRotation">The new rotation for the orthographic camera</param>
42.     static private void ApplyOrthoRotation(Quaternion newRotation)
43.     {
44.         StorePerspective();
45.  
46.         SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.orthographic = true;
47.  
48.         if (sShouldTween)
49.         {
50.             SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.LookAt(SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.pivot, newRotation);
51.         }
52.         else
53.         {
54.             SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.LookAtDirect(SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.pivot, newRotation);
55.         }
56.  
57.         SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.Repaint();
58.     }
59.  
60.  
61.     [MenuItem("Camera/Top #1")]
62.     static void TopCamera()
63.     {
64.         ApplyOrthoRotation(Quaternion.Euler(90, 0, 0));
65.     }
66.  
67.  
68.     [MenuItem("Camera/Bottom #2")]
69.     static void BottomCamera()
70.     {
71.         ApplyOrthoRotation(Quaternion.Euler(-90, 0, 0));
72.     }
73.  
74.  
75.     [MenuItem("Camera/Left #3")]
76.     static void LeftCamera()
77.     {
78.         ApplyOrthoRotation(Quaternion.Euler(0, 90, 0));
79.     }
80.  
81.  
82.     [MenuItem("Camera/Right #4")]
83.     static void RightCamera()
84.     {
85.         ApplyOrthoRotation(Quaternion.Euler(0, -90, 0));
86.     }
87.  
88.  
89.     [MenuItem("Camera/Front #5")]
90.     static void FrontCamera()
91.     {
92.         ApplyOrthoRotation(Quaternion.Euler(0, 0, 0));
93.     }
94.  
95.     [MenuItem("Camera/Back #6")]
96.     static void BackCamera()
97.     {
98.         ApplyOrthoRotation(Quaternion.Euler(0, 180, 0));
99.     }
100.  
101.  
102.     [MenuItem("Camera/Persp Camera #7")]
103.     static void PerspCamera()
104.     {
105.         if (SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.camera.orthographic == true)
106.         {
107.             if (sShouldTween)
108.             {
109.                 SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.LookAt(SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.pivot, sPerspectiveRotation);
110.             }
111.             else
112.             {
113.                 SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.LookAtDirect(SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.pivot, sPerspectiveRotation);
114.             }
115.  
116.             SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.orthographic = false;
117.  
118.             SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.Repaint();
119.         }
120.     }
121. }
122.  

Hope that helps!
Shawn

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

How can we change associated hotkeys?

 

Hey,

You can change the hotkeys that are used by changing the #2 or whatever at the end of the name.

This page has more reference to various other hotkeys, etc

http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/MenuItem.html

Glad you find it useful!

Shawn

 

2 Spanky555: thank you for useful script!

 

that's great. i was trying to find a way to map the hotkeys to numpad (blender style) but as far as i can tell, that's not possible http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/224603/numpad-keys-in-menuitem.html

any ideas how to do that anyone?

closest i can get is using the F keys
[MenuItem("Camera/Top _F7")]
static void TopCamera()
{
ApplyOrthoRotation(Quaternion.Euler(90, 0, 0));
}


thanks?

 

Anybody know how to change the ShadingMode? I'd like my perspective view shaded but my tops and side be wireframe.

 

Spanky555 That's Awsomely handy - thanks. Makes editing colliders so quick!

 

can i use that script in edit mode?

i tried adding it to my camera object but nothing happens in edit mode

thanks

 

You're not supposed to attach the script to any specific camera. It always automatically targets the Scene view camera.

All the methods are static (not tied to a specific instance), and you call them using the main menu items "Camera/Top" etc. or their respective shortcuts. It should work in edit mode.

 

oh cool, that is so awesome, i set this
[MenuItem("Camera/Top _HOME")]
etc to get blender like keys

 

FYI, you need to surround the code with this
#if (UNITY_EDITOR)
... your class/code ...
#endif
if you want it to build

 

Or place it inside a folder called Editor.

 

Thanks for an incredibly useful script @Spanky555!

I put this in a folder called "Editor" and now it's way easier to move around between the different views and align things etc.

Does anybody know if it's possible to use numpad keys for the shortcuts when defining the Menu Items in code?

For anyone wondering the same thing I did find a workaround though, if you go to Edit -> Shortcuts and search you can search for each one (e.g. "Camera/Front") and change it to numpad bindings in there. For example NUMPAD1 for front, Ctrl+NUMPAD1 for back etc, like Blender

 

Hey guys,
So this is what I did and it feels more on par with blender.
Thanks @mattwilson

 

Guys, I had this completely figured out for Unity 2021 LTS: Here's the code. Just make a script and put it in the "Editor" folder in your project files. It also works for going to the opposite view using Numpad 9. Just like Blender

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using UnityEditor;
3. using UnityEditor.ShortcutManagement;
4.  
5. public static class SceneViewShortcuts
6. {
7.     [Shortcut("Scene View Camera - Top view", KeyCode.Keypad7)]
8.     public static void TopView()
9.     {
10.         MakeSceneViewCameraLookAtPivot(Quaternion.Euler(90, 0, 0));
11.     }
12.  
13.     [Shortcut("Scene View Camera - Right view", KeyCode.Keypad3)]
14.     public static void RightView()
15.     {
16.         MakeSceneViewCameraLookAtPivot(Quaternion.Euler(0, -90, 0));
17.     }
18.  
19.  
20.     [Shortcut("Scene View Camera - Front view", KeyCode.Keypad1)]
21.     public static void FrontView()
22.     {
23.         MakeSceneViewCameraLookAtPivot(Quaternion.Euler(0, 0, 0));
24.     }
25.  
26.     [Shortcut("Scene View Camera - Opposite view", KeyCode.Keypad9)]
27.     public static void ToggleView()
28.     {
29.         SceneView sceneView = SceneView.lastActiveSceneView;
30.         Camera camera = SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.camera;
31.         Vector3 currentView = camera.transform.rotation.eulerAngles;
32.         if (currentView == new Vector3(0, 0, 0))
33.         {
34.             MakeSceneViewCameraLookAtPivot(Quaternion.Euler(0, 180, 0));
35.         }
36.  
37.         else
38.         {
39.             MakeSceneViewCameraLookAtPivot(Quaternion.Euler(-currentView));
40.         }
41.     }
42.  
43.  
44.  
45.     private static void MakeSceneViewCameraLookAtPivot(Quaternion direction)
46.     {
47.         //introduce the scene window that we want to do sth to
48.         SceneView sceneView = SceneView.lastActiveSceneView;
49.  
50.         //if there is no scene window do nothing
51.         if (sceneView == null) return;
52.  
53.         //not a camera on the scene but the scene window camera
54.         Camera camera = sceneView.camera;
55.  
56.         //Get the pivot
57.         Vector3 pivot = sceneView.pivot;
58.  
59.  
60.         sceneView.LookAt(pivot, direction);
61.     }
62. }

 

Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread. To extend amirhosseinzarei151's updated answer. To switch between orthographic & perspective cameras simply add this method to the SceneViewShortcuts class above:

Code (CSharp):

1. [Shortcut("Scene View Camera - Perspective Switch", KeyCode.Keypad5)]
2. static void PerspCamera()
3. {
4.    SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.orthographic = !SceneView.lastActiveSceneView.orthographic;
5. }

And toggle the switch by hitting the 5 key on your keypad