Why limit my zoom?

I've noticed this for a while, and thought I'd comment now.

Whenever you are in a render or vector 3d view, you can zoom with the mouse wheel. That's great! ...Until I want to get close in on something and I run into a hard stop that Chief will not allow me to zoom closer in. So to solve it I need to kill the camera view and make a new one closer in to start (or modfy the current one - about a wash either way). This is especially a PITA in full overviews, where I really have to kill the view and setup a new camera view.

So, 1. why is this? and 2. Can the Good Engineers of Chiefdom eliminate this characteristic so I can zoom more? Please? Yes, I realize that at some point you are zoomed in too close to make any sense, but let me decide when that point is, if at all possible. There may very well be some critical software reason why it cannot work, but I have unlimited zoom in some other CAD software I use, as one data point.

I guess I should also post this in suggestions.

Thanks,
Dave

Dave,

Hit the I key.

Cool. Tried it and it works. Hadn't thought to try other zoom methods to proceed further. I learn something new everyday. Thank you , sir! But...wait a sec - Something changes when you do this...Now when you zoom back out the image is distorted. So while this works to get me in close, it is not the same mode as I cannot get zoomed back out (decently) to continue looking at other parts of the plan.

It's a good solution to get in closer, but it's a one-time thing. I still want full range of zoom with the mouse wheel. I know - I'm picky. I'm used to it in other CAD software and it is very fast to use that way.

Thanks again, Louis.
-Dave

Louis is right -- the 'i' key will get you what you want.

And now for the reason behind the complaint: when you're using the mouse wheel to zoom, you're actually changing the camera's field of view, and not moving the camera at all. There is an upper and lower limit to the field of view.

The 'i' key will actually move the camera closer.

OK, I get it. Thanks, Keith.

So is there a way to improve the range of the mouse wheel zoom? Or make it unlimited? I gotta say, you can't beat it for moving around and zooming in & out. That translates to speed and efficiency..

Thanks again.
-Dave

-Edit: Thinking about this more...Feel free to argue with me here. The way the render camera controls behave in pan (middle mouse)/zoom (wheel)/spin (left mouse) work as I would expect. The only hitch is that the zoom limit is, well, limiting. If you use the I key or the corresponding icon, you end up getting distorsion when you zoom back out. Sure you can use O to zoom back out, but there is a simpler solution from the user perspective - the wheel. When I use the wheel, it moves the camera FOV as you say, Keith. Great. That is what we need generally. At any point in a zoom I want to see a distorsion-free view of my model. That generally is only true on model full overviews - until I touch I or O. IMHO, the wheel zoom should be unlimited. Is there any reason it cannot? I use Pro/Engineer Mechanical CAD all the time and work almost totally in 3d shaded views. I can zoom from the point of seeing an entire machine down to the molecules inside it (scale-wise, not for real) and the view never distorts. Obviously they are doing something different in their camera controls than Chief is, but frankly it works, and works simply, easily and intuitively. I guess that is what I am looking for here. And the rest of your users would be happy too, I think.

Well, My $0.02
-Dave again