Jeff Smith
Ready to transition to Autodesk Fusion 360 from another CAD tool? Customizing your orbit/pan settings can go a long way in making your transition easier.
Customizing orbit/pan settings is one of the first points I cover when teaching new users. Fusion 360 allows you to customize your orbit/pan settings to make your transition from products like Solidworks and Tinkercad easier. Simply head over to your name in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard. From that drop-down menu, select Preferences.
From the Preferences menu, on the main screen for General, select the drop-down menu from Pan, Zoom, Orbit Shortcuts. From this drop-down, you have several program choices. The default will be Fusion 360. You can also select from the other options, including Inventor, Solidworks, Alias, and Tinkercad. Kudos to Autodesk for adopting a design mindset for this user experience.
Now, your Pan, Zoom, and Orbit tools will function like the program you are coming over to Fusion 360 from. Here’s a quick list of what these different short-cuts do:
Fusion 360
- Zoom: roll the middle mouse button or Ctrl + Shift + middle mouse button
- Pan: middle mouse button
- Orbit: Shift + middle mouse button
Alias
- Zoom: Shift + Alt + right mouse button
- Pan: Shift + Alt + middle mouse button
- Orbit: Shift + Alt + left mouse button
Inventor (Windows only)
- Zoom: F3 + left mouse button
- Pan: F2 + left mouse button
- Orbit: F4 + left mouse button
SolidWorks
- Zoom: Shift + roll middle mouse button
- Pan: Ctrl + middle mouse button (Windows) or Command + middle mouse button (Mac)
- Orbit: Middle mouse button
Tinkercad
- Zoom: roll the middle mouse button or Ctrl + Shift + middle mouse button
- Pan: middle mouse button
- Orbit: right mouse button
PowerMill
Note: The PowerMill preset uses its own Default Orbit type.
- Zoom: Roll the middle mouse button
- Pan: Shift + middle mouse button
- Orbit: Middle mouse button
- Zoom to box: Ctrl + Shift + middle mouse button (Windows) or Command + Shift + middle mouse button (MacOS)
I hope this Quick Tip helps make your transition to Fusion 360 a smooth one, and keep modeling! Check out this help guide for a full tutorial on setting and adjusting your Fusion 360 preferences.
