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  • Published 11 Oct 2021

Y axis up and Z for depth (as an option)

Many are used to the traditional Y-up axis. Especially those who work with After Effects and Element 3d or Cinema 4D.

So please make it an option at least so that new learners like me don't get confused.

9KgUe.png

This idea was marked as a duplicate of Y - axis, finally UP?.
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Development Status: Open

Upvote 4 Downvote 3
ahmad1
11 Oct 2021

4 Comments

Lauloque

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"
coordinates 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:

  • You still have the same issues when importing/exporting
  • Creates confusion and inconsistencies from one user to another
  • Most users stick with the default setting, reducing the practical benefit of such an option.
  • Any issue encountered by using the optional CS display will be answered by not using it in the first place
1
koko_ze

Eh I constantly move between Houdini and Blender... just rotate it if the export/import isn't correct

1
xixi92

Nahhh bro, never....