How do I orbit in Mortise with a mouse?

Right-drag. On a trackpad or a Magic Mouse, slide with two fingers.

On a trackpad hold ⇧ and slide. With a wheel mouse hold ⇧ ⌘ and right-drag, or drag with the middle button. Holding Space and dragging pans on any device.

My scroll wheel orbits instead of zooming. How do I fix it?

Open the project menu and set Mouse to Wheel. Every scroll then zooms.

Moving around the 3D view

You turn the model round, slide it and come in close with the same hand you use for everything else on a computer. Mortise reads a trackpad and a wheel mouse differently, and tells them apart by itself.

Updated October 15, 2026

With a trackpad or a Magic Mouse

Orbit: slide with two fingers
Pan: ⇧ + slide
Zoom: pinch, or ⌘ + slide
Orbit, any device: right-drag

Zoom goes toward the wood under the pointer, so point at the joint you want to see and pinch. ⌃ + slide zooms too.

With a wheel mouse

Orbit: right-drag
Pan: ⇧ ⌘ + right-drag, or middle-drag
Zoom: turn the wheel

On any device, hold Space and drag to pan.

The Mouse setting

The project menu (the chevron beside the project’s name) has a Mouse setting with three choices. It is remembered in this browser.

Auto: Tells each scroll apart: a wheel zooms, a two-finger slide orbits. The default.
Trackpad: Every scroll is a slide: it orbits, ⇧ + slide pans, ⌘ or ⌃ + slide or a pinch zooms.
Wheel: Every scroll zooms; right-drag orbits and ⇧ ⌘ + right-drag or middle-drag pans. Pick this to drive a Magic Mouse like a wheel mouse.

What the view turns around

An orbit turns around the model’s centre, or around the wood at the centre of the screen after you have zoomed or panned toward it. A small dot marks the pivot while the view turns and fades when it stops. Press F to frame the whole model again, which also resets the pivot.

Named views and the view cube

The cube in the top right corner shows which way you are looking. Click a face, an edge or a corner to fly to that view; drag the cube to orbit.

Frame everything: F
Top · Bottom: ⌘↑ ⌘↓
Left · Right: ⌘← ⌘→

The front of a piece faces you in the Front view. Heights and alignments read true in the straight-on views.

Measuring between boards

Select a board, hold ⌥ and point at another. Mortise draws the gaps between them as a staircase along the three axes, a dashed line for the straight distance, and where boards overlap, the shared volume and how deep it goes. Nothing changes; let go of ⌥ and the readings go.

Holding Option with a table leg selected: the gaps to another leg drawn in magenta along each axis, with the straight distance — With a leg selected and `⌥` held, pointing at the far leg reads the gaps between them.

Snap, grid, dimensions and preview

The bottom right corner holds the switches for what is drawn over the model:

Snap S: Drags land on faces, edges, centres and the measuring grid.
Grid X: The floor grid: a line every inch and a heavier one every foot, or every 10 mm and 100 mm in metric.
Dims I: Sizes and callouts drawn on the wood: length, width and thickness on real edges.
Preview: Window light, soft shadows and a satin finish on the wood, for looking at the piece while you keep working. It is off each time a project opens. For a finished picture, use Export › Render image.
in · mm: The units every reading and field uses.

Questions

How do I orbit in Mortise with a mouse?: Right-drag. On a trackpad or a Magic Mouse, slide with two fingers.
How do I pan?: On a trackpad hold ⇧ and slide. With a wheel mouse hold ⇧ ⌘ and right-drag, or drag with the middle button. Holding Space and dragging pans on any device.
My scroll wheel orbits instead of zooming. How do I fix it?: Open the project menu and set Mouse to Wheel. Every scroll then zooms.
How do I get the whole model back on screen?: Press F to frame everything.