Camera refuses to stay on 2 point perspective

This only started happening today in a particular file. I had been working on a different file for weeks and weeks and NEVER had this happen. Now, I am to the point where I cannot even navigate around in my model. Not with the Look Around, not with Orbit or Pan. Each and every time I go to the Camera menu and select (and re-select) “Two point perspective” it only stays until I use the next tool - any tool whatsoever - if I paint a material, draw a line, even just activating the move tool or any of the thousands of things you do without even thinking, I find myself unable to pan & orbit normally, and a quick check in the Camera menu and sure enough, it’s back to “Perspective.”

What is happening??? Has anybody else had this happen? Did this get downloaded with something from the 3D warehouse? This is insane. I cannot work like this. What did I do??? :sob:

1 Like

you are the first person I have ever come across that says they ‘model’ in 2 point perspective…

I’m not even sure it has ever been possible, as it disappears as soon as you orbit…

john

What you are experiencing is normal behavior for 2-Point Perspective. It is expected that orbiting the camera will make it drop out of 2-Point Perspective and go to normal Perspective. That’s intended as a display setting, not a modeling setting.

Well, to be honest, maybe that’s not the problem. Maybe something else is happening, but that perspective setting is what I noticed, because I’ve never had to mess with it before. I cannot get inside my model and look around, any attempt to zoom in/out takes me inside walls & furniture or into outer space. I have no control any more, to just get inside and look around! I can’t figure out why!??

In SketchUp, “two point perspective” refers to the special case of the camera pointing exactly horizontally, that is, perpendicular to the z axis. That orientation eliminates convergence of edges parallel to z, leaving only two points of convergence. Any camera motion except pan violates that camera alignment, and drops back to full perspective.

I wonder if you got a bit of geometry far away from the rest of the model, or maybe the whole model is far from the origin. Those situations can cause the camera to be very unstable.

It sounds like you are seeing clipping. Do a search for clipping on the forum. There’s lots written about it already.

You know, maybe… that has happened before from things I’ve gotten from the 3D warehouse. Some people are psychotic with scale, or extremely careless about cleaning up their models before uploading them. In fact, the sofas I have in there now, were the size of a city block when I first got them!

Clipping? OK, I’ll look into it.

It sounds like you are seeing clipping. Do a search for clipping on the forum. There’s lots written about it already.

OK, now that I know what clipping is, that was also happening earlier today, but I changed the field of view and mostly got that taken care of, but still wondered why that started happening with this file and never, ever happened before with my other file. And trust me when I say, I pushed the limit on how close I could zoom in and NEVER had clipping happen! I regularly zoomed into where a 1/8" section of line took up the entire screen of my laptop, I’m not joking!

So, the weird thing is, why would these settings arbitrarily change from one file to the next?

FWIW, I followed the troubleshooting steps I found in my clipping search, and now I can zoom, orbit, etc., just like I’m accustomed, so thanks again for your help! :smiley:

I understand what you want… when we set camera in two point perspective it moves your cemra for getting the verticals straight… some times it moves more than expected and model dosent fit at screen… what i do is to use pan (but this modify the eye height) but it dosent gives desire results… i dont know if maybe look around tool (the eye icon) respect the two perspective camera and dont modify the verticals …

It’s odd that you’ve dredged up a more than 8 year old thread.

In order to get 2-point perspective the camera’s “image plane” must be vertical. If you can pan the camera without accidentally orbiting you can maintain 2-point perspective. You could also set 2-point perspective and then hit Zoom Extents or Zoom Selection as appropriate. Another option is to first set the Camera to Parallel Projection and select an appropriate standard view and again use Zoom Extents or Zoom Selection as appropriate. Then switch the camera to 2-Point Perspective. Create a scene to save the camera position.

With Look Around it’s difficult to avoid tilting the camera up or down which loses the 2-Point Perspective.

Thank you Dave for you time and sharing knowledge…

So the solution is to what you suggest is :
1 first have on screen your desire frame or perspective in sketchup on PERSPECTIVE MODE and set a scene

2 click or switch to PARALLEL PROYECTION MODE

3 without moving anything click or switch to TWO POINT PERSPECTIVE MODE and it will give you the most aprox image you desire when you set your scene at PERSPECTIVE MODE

It this process correct?

PAN tool modifies the verticals of TWO POINT PERSPECTIVE MODE?

That process works.

Pan does not change the tilt of the camera. Orbit does. If you ensure you are only panning the camera when you move it you’ll keep 2-Point perspective.

Thanks again Dave! You were very clear in your solution and yes it works…
the only doubt i still have is if the eye tool (look around) tilt the camera because in the practice when using this tool i still see the verticals very straight… but that can be my eye perspective and i can be confusing and it slightly tilt camera…

As I wrote, it’s very difficult to avoiding tilting the camera with the Look Around tool. It’s practically impossible to move the cursor in a perfectly horizontal direction on the screen. Maybe you could set up a straight edge to follow with your mouse. Seems like a lot of work, though.

Keep in mind that in reality we rarely see anything in 2-Point perspective.

Thanks for sharing knowledge DaveR it make a lot of sense what you share

1 Like