Camera View Control and Entity Selection

The mouse is the primary means of controlling the camera view and selecting entities (e.g., geometry, simulations) in Caedium.

View our screencast about interaction control in Caedium:

View our screencast on selection in Caedium:

Mouse Controls

All mouse-driven camera operations start by pressing and holding a mouse button. Simultaneously moving the mouse while holding down the button results in the real-time motion of the camera. The operation completes when you release the mouse button.

Mouse Buttons

Left Mouse Button

The left mouse button is user configurable, and its operation depends on the selection in the Home Toolbar under Mode as shown below.

Interaction Toolbar

The left button can be configured to perform spin, pan, zoom or select operations. For zoom, pushing the mouse away from you moves the camera forward (the model gets larger) and pulling the mouse towards you moves the camera backward (the model gets smaller).

Middle Mouse Button

The middle mouse button always controls pan.

Mouse Scroll Wheel

The mouse scroll wheel always controls zoom. The zoom increments using the wheel are fixed and are therefore not as precise as the continuously variable zoom offered by configuring the left mouse button as zoom. Rotating the wheel away from your hand moves the camera forward. Rotating the wheel toward your hand moves the camera backward.

Right Mouse Button

The right mouse button always controls select.


The pivot point for a spin, pan or zoom operation in Caedium is either the closest point on the geometry under the cursor when you start the operation or, if there is no geometry, the mid-point between the front and back clipping planes.


Spin rotates the camera around the pivot point. The axes indicator, in the bottom left corner of a camera view, shows the orientation of the world coordinates relative to the camera.


Pan moves the camera in the plane parallel to the current camera orientation.


Zoom moves the camera either closer to or further away from the pivot point.


Select highlights the geometry underneath the cursor by making the edges of the geometry bold. Keeping the mouse button pressed and simultaneously moving the mouse will continuously make selections until you release the mouse. Selection is a primary operation for using Caedium tools and gaining access to an entity's properties displayed in the Properties Panel.


Fit-All adjusts the camera view to best fit the entire visible model and resets the front and back clipping planes. Fit-All also has an option to select standard views, such as front and back.

3Dconnexion Support

On the Windows platform you can use a 3Dconnexion 3D mouse to control the camera.

The 3Dconnexion Control Panel must be launched prior to launching Caedium to enable the 3D mouse support.