How do you zoom extents in 3ds Max when the model disappears?
Ctrl + Alt + Z — Zoom Extents
Press Ctrl + Alt + Z to zoom extents in the active viewport so every object fits on screen again; Z zooms extents on the current selection only, and Shift + Ctrl + Z does it in all viewports at once.
Related 3ds Max shortcuts: Viewport Navigation
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Alt + W | Maximize Viewport Toggle | Expands the active viewport to full screen and back. |
| Z | Zoom Extents Selected | Frames the current selection in the active viewport. |
| Ctrl + Alt + Z | Zoom Extents | Frames the whole scene in the active viewport. |
| Shift + Ctrl + Z | Zoom Extents All | Frames the whole scene in every viewport. |
| Alt + Z | Zoom Mode | Activates the interactive zoom tool. |
| Ctrl + W | Zoom Region Mode | Drag a rectangle to zoom into it. |
| [ | Zoom Viewport In | Steps the zoom in. |
| ] | Zoom Viewport Out | Steps the zoom out. |
| I | Pan Viewport | Pans the viewport to centre on the cursor. |
| Ctrl + P | Pan View | Activates the pan tool. |
| Ctrl + R | Orbit View Mode | Activates the orbit tool. |
| Shift + Z | Undo Viewport Operation | Undoes the last camera move, not the last scene edit. |
| Shift + Y | Redo Viewport Operation | Redoes the last camera move. |
| Alt + Home | Home View | Returns to the ViewCube home orientation. |
| Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Z | Zoom In 2X | Steps the active viewport zoom in by a factor of two. |
| NumPad / | Virtual Viewport Toggle | Turns the virtual viewport on and off. |
| NumPad + | Virtual Viewport Zoom In | Zooms the virtual viewport in. |
| NumPad - | Virtual Viewport Zoom Out | Zooms the virtual viewport out. |
| NumPad 8 | Virtual Viewport Pan Up | Pans the virtual viewport up. |
| NumPad 2 | Virtual Viewport Pan Down | Pans the virtual viewport down. |
| NumPad 4 | Virtual Viewport Pan Left | Pans the virtual viewport left. |
| NumPad 6 | Virtual Viewport Pan Right | Pans the virtual viewport right. |
From the 3ds Max reference (157 entries) · all how-to answers
What zoom extents actually does
Zoom Extents recalculates the bounding box of everything in the scene and fits it into the active viewport, so it is the recovery move whenever the model seems to vanish after a bad scroll or an accidental pan. Ctrl + Alt + Z does that for the active viewport; Shift + Ctrl + Z (Zoom Extents All) applies it to all four viewports at once, which is faster after a layout reset. If a stray object is sitting far from the origin the fit will look empty — select what you want and use Z for Zoom Extents Selected instead.
Related viewport keys
Zoom Extents lives with the other viewport navigation keys in the Autodesk table: Alt + W maximises the active viewport, Ctrl + W starts a zoom region, and the middle mouse button pans while Alt with the middle button orbits. The Home key on the ViewCube returns to the saved home view, a different notion from extents because it restores a stored camera rather than fitting the geometry. Camera and light viewports do not respond to extents in the same way; switch to Perspective (P) first.
When the model is genuinely gone
If extents still shows nothing, the object may be hidden (Unhide All from the Display panel), on a hidden layer, or frozen and set to display as a box. Isolate Selection mode, toggled with Alt + Q, is another common cause: leaving it shows everything again. Every key here is on the 3ds Max reference page on this site, which is built from Autodesk’s own keyboard shortcut tables and lists the viewport group separately from modelling and animation keys.