diff --git a/src/components/three/viewCubeBus.ts b/src/components/three/viewCubeBus.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72d42fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/components/three/viewCubeBus.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+import * as THREE from 'three';
+
+/**
+ * Shared bus between the main 3D viewer and the floating ViewCube widget.
+ * - mainCameraRef / mainControlsRef: written by ModelViewer each frame
+ * - requestView(dir): asks the main camera to animate to a canonical view
+ *   along the given world-space direction (unit vector pointing FROM target
+ *   TO camera). e.g. (0,1,0) = top view, (0,0,1) = front.
+ */
+export const mainCameraRef: { current: THREE.Camera | null } = { current: null };
+// OrbitControls instance — typed loosely to avoid drei type churn
+export const mainControlsRef: { current: any | null } = { current: null };
+
+export interface ViewAnim {
+  active: boolean;
+  startPos: THREE.Vector3;
+  endPos: THREE.Vector3;
+  startUp: THREE.Vector3;
+  endUp: THREE.Vector3;
+  t: number;
+  duration: number;
+}
+
+export const viewAnim: ViewAnim = {
+  active: false,
+  startPos: new THREE.Vector3(),
+  endPos: new THREE.Vector3(),
+  startUp: new THREE.Vector3(0, 1, 0),
+  endUp: new THREE.Vector3(0, 1, 0),
+  t: 0,
+  duration: 0.5,
+};
+
+export function requestView(dir: THREE.Vector3) {
+  const cam = mainCameraRef.current;
+  const controls = mainControlsRef.current;
+  if (!cam || !controls) return;
+  const target: THREE.Vector3 = controls.target ?? new THREE.Vector3();
+  const distance = cam.position.distanceTo(target);
+  const d = dir.clone().normalize();
+  const endPos = target.clone().add(d.multiplyScalar(distance));
+  // Up vector: keep Y up unless we're looking straight up/down
+  const up = new THREE.Vector3(0, 1, 0);
+  if (Math.abs(dir.y) > 0.99) {
+    up.set(0, 0, dir.y > 0 ? -1 : 1);
+  }
+  viewAnim.startPos.copy(cam.position);
+  viewAnim.endPos.copy(endPos);
+  viewAnim.startUp.copy(cam.up);
+  viewAnim.endUp.copy(up);
+  viewAnim.t = 0;
+  viewAnim.active = true;
+}