center view on selected object—without zooming

Question

numpad . will frame the selected object in the viewport, which is fine, but if it's a teeny-tiny control bone it also zooms my view way in, so I have to do numpad .thenctrlscrol scroll scroll scroll scroll… to get back to a useable view every time. Is there a way of centering the viewport on a selected object (/bone/thing) without the view zooming in or out?

Answer 1

First answer:

Not exactly what you want but something close in two steps:

• shift S 2 (cursor to selected). You can also place the 3D cursor where you want with shift RMB
• View > Align View > Center View to Cursor (if you right clic on "Center View to Cursor" you can assign a shortcut for example shift V)

Better answer than my previous:

This script CenterViewSelected.py allows to center the 3D view on the selected element(s):

• by Menu > View > Align View > Center to Selected
• by Shortcut: shift Numpad . (no other action needed but you can change the shortcut by right clic in the menu).

#########################################################################
# Centers the view to selected item(s)                                  #
# License: GPL v3                                                       #
#########################################################################

############# Add-on description (used by Blender) ######################
bl_info = {
    "name": "Center View to Selected",
    "description": 'Centers the 3D View to Selected',
    "author": "hatterer raoul",
    "version": (0, 1),
    "blender": (3, 00, 0),
    "location": "View > Align View > Center View to Selected",
    "warning": "",
    "wiki_url": "",
    "tracker_url": "",
    "category": "3D View"}

#########################################################################
import bpy

class CentereViewSelected(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Center the 3D viewport on the selected item(s)"""
    bl_idname = "view3d.view_center_selected"
    bl_label = "Center View to Selected"
   
    def execute(self, context):
        # store the current cursor location
        cursor_location = context.scene.cursor.location.copy()
        # center the cursor on the active item
        bpy.ops.view3d.snap_cursor_to_selected()
        # center the view on the cursor
        bpy.ops.view3d.view_center_cursor()
        # reset the cursor location
        context.scene.cursor.location = cursor_location
        return {'FINISHED'}


def menu_func(self,context):
    self.layout.operator(CentereViewSelected.bl_idname)

addon_keymaps = []

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(CentereViewSelected)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_view_align.prepend(menu_func)

    # Add the hotkey
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    kc = wm.keyconfigs.addon
    if kc:
        km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name='3D View', space_type='VIEW_3D')
        kmi = km.keymap_items.new(CentereViewSelected.bl_idname, type='NUMPAD_PERIOD', value='PRESS', shift=True)
        addon_keymaps.append((km, kmi))

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(CentereViewSelected)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_view_align.remove(menu_func)

    # Remove the hotkey
    for km, kmi in addon_keymaps:
        km.keymap_items.remove(kmi)
    addon_keymaps.clear()    
    
if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Answer 2

This is one of those really basic functions that Blender seems to inexplicably lack.

So I wrote a script that does what Raoul Hatterer suggested. The script is here (free / open source). Edit: use Raoul's script, it will do the hotkey thing without jumping through any hoops. If you install it you can add it to a hotkey by typing in 'view.center_no_zoom' in the hotkey menu (I can't get it to appear in the right-click add hotkey menu, because I don't know how bl_idname works).

I've added it to Numpad . which overrides the default behaviour (which is also mapped to ctrlNumpad . so I can still use the default behaviour too.