There is currently no way to configure the controls. This has been discussed before; pretty much every CAD program uses its own controls, so modifying ours would inevitably displease everyone except people who use one particular CAD program. It seems pointless.

I've tried FreeCAD briefly, it had a few hardcoded presets for this behavior that one can chose from. Do you think something like this can be added to SolveSpace?

Not easily, the code that handles controls is not currently written in a way that is amenable to this sort of customization. It'd require a major refactor.

I believe it would be useful for many people. So if there is a chance someone will tackle this in future, would be nice to label this as feature request.

The rotation controls are also counter-intuitive to me. It is almost trial and error to get the view i am after...

Does it help if you tick the "use turntable mouse navigation" checkbox on master?

Unfortunately no, it is even more confusing with that option, can't imagine someone would actually want that.
The primary issue I have is that any circular-like motion turns the model in the opposite direction to what I expect. I've got used to most of other things.

Thumbing up. Even with turntable enabled it still feels quirky compared to blender.
I think rotation around the X axis is not correct.

solvespace-rotation.mp4

@hinell, before rotate select XYZ-normal origin point from active g001-references (or any other point to be used as rotation origin) and click F4 (or go to menu "View > Center View At Point") — then retry rotation behavior.

@hinell Imagine the model is sitting inside a glass ball. Moving the mouse UP is like rolling that ball upward by pushing your hand (or mouse) across it. Another analogy is to think of a trackball, and the model is inside the trackball. However you want to think of it, the rotation is rotating the model, not the camera. Well, it actually is moving the camera because none of the coordinates in the model change, but it's supposed to feel like moving the object. Does any of this explanation help?

@Symbian9 Thanks. It worked. I can't find it in references however. Would be nice to have it documented.

It would be also nice to have the last point remembered each time I hit F4 so not to click on it every time. Or even better to get the point of focus automatically.

Would improve UX immensily.

However you want to think of it, the rotation is rotating the model, not the camera.

@phkahler, no, you missed the point where @hinell told that he "think rotation around the X axis is not correct." — problem here is that selecting/setting origin of 3D view rotation is not well documented in SolveSpace docs.

Thus, if XYZ-origin point is not cenetered 3D view rotation looks like has offset if rotate it around "display X-axis" or "display Y-axis" (rotating around "display Z-axis" may look normal in same time).

In LeoCAD app there is excellent UX on 3D view rotating with many various methods.