# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Orthographic Views

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## Orthographic Views

An  view (or projection)
of a 3D scene is a 2D picture of it in which parallel lines appear
parallel, and all edges perpendicular to the view direction appear in
proportion, at exactly the same scale.

Orthographic views are usually aligned with the scene\'s primary axes.
Edges parallel to the view axis disappear. Those parallel to the other
primary axes appear horizontal or vertical. The commonly used
orthographic views are front, side, and top views, though back and
bottom views are possible.

Uniform scale makes an orthographic view very useful when constructing
3D objects, not only in computer graphics, but also in manufacturing and
architecture.

Here\'s one way to think about the orthographic view:

Imagine photographing a small 3D object through a telescope from a very
great distance. There would be no foreshortening. All features would be
at the same scale, regardless of whether they were on the near side of
the object or its far side. Given two (or preferably three) such views,
along different axes, you could get an accurate idea of the shape of the
object, useful for \"getting the feel\" of objects in a virtual 3D world
where you\'re unable to touch or handle anything!

## Example

Here is a drawing of a staircase:

!An isometric view of a
staircase{width="300"}

and here are three orthographic views of the same staircase, each
outlined in red:

!**Figure 1:** \"First Angle\" Orthographic views of a
staircase{width="600"}

The views are from the front, top, and left. Dashed lines represent
edges that, in real life, would be hidden behind something, such as the
left wall of the staircase. (Think of each view as an X-ray image.)

The leading edges of the steps are visible in both the front and top
views. Note that they appear parallel and of equal length in 2D, just as
they are in 3D reality.

## Additional Resources

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