How to rotate 3D and CAD models with a Mac trackpad
CAD apps orbit with a middle-button drag. A trackpad has no middle button. Slide three fingers instead.
A Mac trackpad has no middle button. MacFixes Pro holds one down while three fingers slide, so CAD and 3D apps orbit the view.
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What macOS gives you
The trackpad does left and right clicks, and there’s no setting for a middle click or middle-button drag. Some 3D apps have their own trackpad navigation; the rest expect a three-button mouse.
How MacFixes fixes it
- 1Turn on the fixOpen MacFixes Settings → Mouse & Trackpad and turn on “Slide three fingers to rotate” (or type its name into Search for a fix).
- 2Allow Accessibility and Input MonitoringmacOS asks for both so MacFixes can see the three fingers and press the button.
- 3Pick the buttonMiddle for most desktop CAD apps, or Right for Tinkercad and Onshape. Then put three fingers on the trackpad and slide.
Why 3D apps want a button a trackpad doesn’t have
3D and CAD apps ask the mouse to do three jobs at once: select with the left button, open menus with the right, and move the view — orbit, pan and zoom — with the middle button and the wheel. On a three-button mouse that’s second nature: hold the wheel down, drag, and the model turns.
A Mac trackpad has a click and a secondary click, and nothing else. macOS has no setting for a middle button on the trackpad, so in an app that orbits with a middle-button drag, there is simply no way to press it.
Which button orbits depends on the app, so check yours before you choose. By default, Blender and SketchUp orbit with a middle-button drag, while Tinkercad and Onshape rotate the view with a right-button drag. Fusion pans with a middle-button drag and orbits with Shift and a middle-button drag. Most CAD apps also let you change their mouse navigation in their settings, often to match another app you already know.
Ways round it without a mouse
The app’s own trackpad navigation. A few 3D apps understand a Mac trackpad directly. Blender is one: a two-finger swipe orbits the view, adding Shift pans, and a pinch zooms. If your app has this, try it first.
A key that stands in for the middle button. Blender’s Preferences → Input has Emulate 3 Button Mouse, which makes Option with a drag act as a middle-button drag. Some other apps have a setting like it; look in their navigation or input settings.
The app’s orbit tool or view cube. Most CAD apps have an orbit tool, a view cube, or both: pick the tool, or drag the cube, with an ordinary click. It works everywhere, and it costs a trip to the toolbar every time you want to look round the model.
A three-button mouse. The answer most CAD courses give, and it works perfectly at a desk. It’s one more thing to carry with a laptop, and no help on the sofa or the train.
Orbiting with three fingers
MacFixes Pro holds a mouse button down for you while three fingers slide on the trackpad. To the app, that is a button drag like any other, so it does whatever the app does with that drag — in most CAD apps, orbit the view.
Choose the button to match your app: Middle for most desktop CAD apps, Right for Tinkercad and Onshape. If your app pans with one button and orbits with the other, switching the fix’s button turns the same three-finger slide from one into the other.
Living with other three-finger gestures
Three Finger Drag. If you drag windows and select text with three fingers — set up in System Settings → Accessibility → Pointer Control → Trackpad Options — it’s paused while this fix is on, and comes back when you turn the fix off or quit MacFixes.
Swipes for Mission Control and full-screen apps. If you use three-finger swipes for these, macOS lets you move them to four fingers in System Settings → Trackpad → More Gestures, so each gesture on the trackpad has one job.
If you also use a mouse at a desk, the trackpad and the mouse share one scroll direction in macOS — set each one its own — and a mouse’s middle and side buttons can be given actions of their own.
Permissions, and turning it off
“Slide three fingers to rotate” needs macOS’s Accessibility and Input Monitoring permissions. macOS asks you, and you allow each once.
- Accessibility lets an app see and work the windows, menus and buttons of other apps, and click or type for you. You can see it, and take it back, in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
- Input Monitoring lets an app read the keyboard, mouse and trackpad while you are using other apps. You can see it, and take it back, in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring.
To stop using it, open MacFixes Settings → Mouse & Trackpad and use the switch on the “Slide three fingers to rotate” row.
Questions
Can I middle-button drag on a Mac trackpad?
Not with macOS alone: the trackpad has no middle button. Some apps offer a key instead, such as Blender’s Emulate 3 Button Mouse. MacFixes Pro holds the middle or right button while three fingers slide, so 3D and CAD apps orbit the view.
Which button should I choose?
The one your app orbits with: Middle for most desktop CAD apps, Right for Tinkercad and Onshape.
What happens to Three Finger Drag?
If you use it, it’s paused while this is on, and comes back when you turn the fix off or quit MacFixes.
Why does it need Input Monitoring?
To see the three fingers on the trackpad. Accessibility is what lets it press the button for you.
More fixes macOS doesn’t give you
One of 47 fixes and 10 apps in MacFixes. Every fix · Every app · Something else your Mac won’t do? Request it.
Rotate 3D and CAD models with a Mac trackpad with MacFixes
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