Edit Preferences option to change the up axis between Z or Y
I know we're all thinking it. Blender needs Y axis set as up just like the other 3D software, BUT, I really don't think we should get rid of Z axis as up just to please people coming from other software.
The Preferences menu could help with that, just like we can switch between right click or left click if we want, or change the color picker type, or colors of a lot of things in Blender.
We could have an area in either Interface, Input, or Navigation where we can select which axis to use for Position, Rotation, and Scale.
The new axis would automatically swap the two axis, so for example, Z and Y would swap if you went to the Z axis, and selected Y as the target. There could also be a tooltip, letting you know what each axis will then when swapped.
5 Comments
That topic has been extensively discussed already:
What's the standard?
Tl;dr there isn't one.
The idea of a "single standard" coordinate system is simply not true. There are 4 common standards, each application uses a different one, and some people are used to one or two. But there isn't one overwhelmingly more common, or technically better or fundamentally "more intuitive" than another. The CS tendencies mostly comes from different areas of the industry or even from more specific contexts like historical usage (e.g. game engines for side-scrollers who evolved from 2D to 3D went Yup while those made for top-down views went Zup).
Freya Holmér on Twitter: "Here, have a coordinate system chart"
Why is this not a simple change?
The Coordinate System (CS) is a foundational block in a 3D software. Changing it is a complex and disruptive process that requires fundamental rewriting of the software. It’s not just about adjusting visual elements, but involves reworking the core logic, data structures, mathematical calculations, and workflows that the software relies on. This change would ripple across various aspects of Blender, causing significant issues and requiring extensive development and testing to ensure functionality is maintained.
Even beyond the software change itself, the impact has very long ramifications to the user experience. Existing assets like animations would break, requiring extensive adjustments; physics simulations could produce inaccurate results; and addons which rely on the current system would need to be rewritten to the new one. Users would face a (re)learning curve, confusion would arise.
And if we did all that, it would still not fix the core issues people think it would.
Exporting to other software with different coordinate systems remains unresolved. Different programs have their own conventions, and merely changing Blender's CS wouldn’t solve the underlying challenges of aligning assets across various platforms. Users would still need to perform extra steps to adjust assets for compatibility with external tools, making this "solution" only a partial fix to a larger, ongoing problem in multi-software.
What about adding an option ?
Some softwares provide an option to switch between Y-up and Z-up, hoping that at least people would be abole to use the software in a way that feels more comfortable to them.
But because actually changing the CS is virtually impossible, those options only affect the GUI rather than fundamentally changing how transformations work. Which means:
Thank goodness there's someone here who can pretty much tell the people wanting this to shut up. I'm personally completely fine with Z as up, as that's how it works in Source Filmmaker, and reality as well. Y as up makes absolutely no sense outside of the rest of the ancient 3D industry and the ancient Maya setting the so called standard.
Hm that isn't what i said
if there are 2 standards its only super logical that you should be able to select what standard you are using like in houdini.
THis is a pointles hasle with an ez fix.
Actually there are four standards, and it isn't an easy fix.