Navigation controls freaking out

TheMageWilliam

This is frustrating me quite a bit. Every so often the navigation controls seem to go crazy. I am working on a character and everything moves fine, but then suddenly I rotate the navigation cube, and suddenly I am yards away, outside of my scene. Just now that happened, and I could not seem to regain any sort of control, so I shut down. Not sure of the name, but the 4 arrows that move you in a 2-dimensional plane was instead rocking me left and right while moving me. Clicking on a single side of the cube was causing strange actions, instead of fixating on a single plane ended up spinning and twisting the scene. I tried clicking it a couple of times and ended up viewing the entire scene as if I was looking out of a plane.

I attempted to switch what the focus was to see if that helped, and it did not.

Can anyone explain why this is happening? Not sure if this is normal behavior, or if there's something I am doing that is causing this that I am not aware of.

Catherine3678ab

Sounds like you hit the dolly camera control. It's right beside those directional arrows. {I think that is what they are called. They rock the scene like one is on a ship or something}

TheMageWilliam

Strange. I have to admit I am not even sure what that is. I know what a dolly is for a camera, but not the what and where of it for Daz. 

Is there a way to "un-hit" it? I shut down and restarted to get it working again. This isn't the first time that's happened to me.

Anyway thanks for the response.

mavante

When you "zoom in" with the magnifying glass in the viewport, that is the equivalent of a real-world dolly. You aren't zooming the camera lens; you are "moving" closer to the prop, character, whatever.

On my Mac, the cursor can somehow seem to get "stuck" to one of the onscreen controls, even when I let up the mouse button, which can create very frustraing results.

I urge you to find, toggle on, and use the Keyboard Navigation. On the top toolbar the toggle button is usually, in most workspaces, at the far left of the horizontal main lineup of tools: The icon is little squares representing keyboard keys, with four of them "lit up" (see attached image).

Then you can use the "w" and "s" keys to dolly in and out, respectively. The "a" and "d" keys will move you left and right. The "q" and "e" keys will move you up and down. Can really speed up your work flow.

TheMageWilliam

I actually do use the keyboard. Convenient, but unless I am missing something, I don't know off a way to rotate the view with a keyboard, just move it in a 2-dimensional plane. But the dolly comment makes sense. I just purchased assets that connect lights to a "gimble" so instead of moving the light you move the gimbal. 

mavante

TheMageWilliam said:

I actually do use the keyboard. Convenient, but unless I am missing something, I don't know off a way to rotate the view with a keyboard, just move it in a 2-dimensional plane.

Well, dollying in and out is not strictly a 2-dimensional plane, but I understand the point.

I don't know of any keyboard way to rotate your view around a selected object, if that's what you mean, but you can certainly rotate your view around its own axes—pitch, yaw, and roll—if that's any help. I don't know how to link directly to a specific post in this forum, but user @Mirage made and uploaded here a handy graphic table of keyboard shortcuts, which I have copied and am attaching.

ETA: I believe Mac users—like me—have to replace "Ctrl" in the above with the "Command" key. Not able to open DS right now to be absolutely sure, but pretty sure.

mavante

I said in my message above that I didn't know of a keyboard way to rotate your view around a selected object, but then something was nagging me, because I knew I use to be able to rotate around an object, not using the onscreen tools. I only now got some time (puff, puff, pant, pant) to go searching for where I once had learned that, and—Doh! It's in a video I hadn't seen in ages that is one made by Daz:

Daz 3D Tutorial: Hotkeys and Time-Saving Tips and Tricks in Daz Studio

It isn't strictly a keyboard-only way to do it, but a keyboard+ left or right mouse button. That video has lots of navigation tips and tricks.

TheMageWilliam

Thanks for that link. (Should have posted this earlier.) The second he mentioned right-click, I tried that with the rotation tool, and now it works fine if it's right-clicked. I still don't understand why the left-clicking is reacting the way it is though.

But this works, so that is all I need. Thanks.

 

Catherine3678ab

Not rendering, can now provide picture. This is the camera tool I meant. It like 'rocks the boat' ...