The part of a
3D program or
3D package which provides an
interface for the placement,
animation, and some times
texturing of
3D objects.
In many 3D programs such as
Ray Dream,
Infini-D,
Carrara,
Strata 3D it is a mode, almost always the root mode of the application.
In the case of programs like
Lightwave, the scene editor is a separate application from the
modeler, but it also contains the
renderer, there are further instance where all three functions are separate programs.