Align View port Perpendicularly to Selected Face

Hello everyone, I’ve been looking to see if there is any way to align the current view port perpendicularly to a selected face for doing things like stencil map stamping (and related things) where the relationship between the view port and object need to be as “flat” as possible.

I’ve seen the “Align View to Selected”, but that doesn’t work for me (it either does nothing, or moves the view port into a completely wrong alignment.

I am using 2.69 on Windows 7. Any ideas?

I’ve been looking to see if there is any way to align the current view port perpendicularly to a selected face

I’ve seen the “Align View to Selected”, but that doesn’t work for me (it either does nothing, or moves the view port into a completely wrong alignment.

That’s what it does. In what way does it not work ? Show us, give an example blend file.



example blend.blend (623 KB)

in face mode select face
then bottom header view menu select face then select top
and it will change the view onto that face

happy bl

What you want is probably switch to Normal where it currently says Global.
Then select face you need and look on View menu -Align View - Align View to Selected: use Shift or Shift +Ctrl and Numpad view keys to rotate view as you need

Tried changing Transformation Orientation modes, tried using different methods of aligning to the face, still just goes to weird angles.

Are you on about the view rotating when aligning view to selected? There’s a workaround for that now. Ctrl Shift Scrollwheel to rotate view (new in Blender 2.69).

Shift Numpad 7 and view will align to the selected face.
Center view to selected with Numpad . (period/full stop).
Rotate the view (Ctrl Shift Scrollwheel).
Pan and zoom.

The view will stay aligned to the selected face unless you orbit (MMB).

If you’re in perspective mode the view will be distorted depending on zoom and Viewport Lens Angle (Key N > View).

-LP

Tried your method in 2.69 using orthographic mode (see pictures). It is as close as I have gotten to what I am looking for (not quite what I was looking for but since I can rotate stencil images, I guess its good enough). Really, I’m just looking for a way to align the camera straight on to the angle of the face (or faces normal) while remaining parallel to the angle of the face/normal and maybe that just isn’t possible. Either way, I appreciate all the help.
.