Shift + 7: Rotate Viewport to Normals flipping upside down

[Harris Clook]

Not necessarily a problem, I’m just wondering why it does this.

@18:17 Jonathan selects a couple faces and hits Shift + 7 to rotate the viewport to the normals.

Initially I did that, but what I did that was slightly different where that the last selected face was different to the one he had selected (The face with the white outline as opposed the others with orange outlines – I forget the actual terms… ‘primary selected’ maybe?)

When I hit the hotkeys to rotate the viewport to the normals it flipped it upside down.

When I changed my selection so the last selected face was the same as Jonathans, it rotated the viewport to rightside up. All is good, I’m carrying on tickety-boo.

Quick note: I’ve tried other variations, and every last selected face bar the last that Jonathan selects seems to flip it upside down too.

Why might this specific shape be so special that it doesn’t do a summersault on me when it’s the last selected?

I know I can rotate the island in the UV editor and carry on sailing, but I’m just wondering what’s happening under the hood.

I’ll add screenshots for visuals

This is the special face that when hitting Shift + 7 rotates the viewport like you’d expect

This different last selected face then flips it upside down

Same boat, but with a last selected face thats right next to the “special face”

[Harris Clook]

Edit: Upon following the video, I realise that when shift + 7ing the other eyes/brows etc that the viewport starts doing cartwheels.

I figure this is normal. I suppose I’m wondering why an isolated group of selected faces, where different last selected face within the group can result in different rotated viewport normals. And to confirm, does shift+7ing multiple faces rotate the viewport to the average normals across each of them?

[Martin Bergwerf]

HI Harris,

SHIFT+Numpad 7, puts the View, so that the Normal of the Active (the lighter one) Face, points towards you. (So, not the Average Normal of Selected Faces!)

Now, that still leaves a 360° of possible orientations. If you set the Transform Orientation to Normal, and Select only one Face, you can see the (tangential) X- and Y- axes from that Face, SHIFT+Numpad 7, will turn the Active Face, so that the (positive) Y is up and the (positive) X points to the right:

[Harris Clook]

You pinned the tail on the donkey!
Cheers!

[Martin Bergwerf]

One extra tip:

after SHIFT=Numpad 7, you can ‘rotate’ the View with SHIFT+Numpad 4 and SHIFT+Numpad  6 (keeping the Face’s Normal pointed towards you).

[Author]

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