FreeCAD on Ubuntu - how to rotate/pan?

I just installed FreeCAD on Ubuntu 20.04 and opened a .stp file, which seems to be valid.

While attempting to work out how to rotate/pan, I found various pages upon Googleing (for example https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Manual:Navigating_in_the_3D_view) which list the usual suggestions one would expect (some combinations of left mouse button, Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and the Windows key). None of these work.

I recall something when using some other program about that Ubuntu preempts the use of certain key combinations which makes this type of functionality not work with some programs. Is there a way around this? For example in Google Maps holding Ctrl + left mouse button rotates as expected, the same as in Windows, so I know it's possible to make it work if the developers do certain things. Is there a way around this limitation in FreeCAD on Ubuntu or am I doing something wrong? FreeCAD isn't of much use if the view can't be rotated/panned.

Solution 1:

Actually this has nothing to do with Ubuntu.

Based on this site https://www.xsim.info/articles/FreeCAD/en-US/HowTo/Mouse-operation-setting.html with the default mouse 3D setting of CAD the pan and zoom actions involve pressing and holding the middle mouse button, which I find unintuitive.

As an alternative, go to Edit -> Preferences, then set 3D Navigation to Gesture:

Now holding the left mouse button will rotate and holding the right mouse button will pan (rolling the mouse wheel still zooms in/out) which I find much more intuitive.