Having trouble with Camera

hey all, just started getting into Opengl and am having trouble understanding translatef.. at first i thought it controlled the actual view, but it actually controls where things are positioned (i think?!). Anyway, my question is this, I have a skeleton opengl window, and a spinning cube, the code i use is basic, and i have added this to my DrawCube(); function glTranslatef(0.0f,0.0f,z); glTranslatef(0.0f,0.0f, forward); I made it so that the keyboard ''a'' and ''z'' would decrease and increase the forward variable, to move the object back and forth. If i wanted to draw a large cube around the small one (a square room for example) would the translatef lines make both objects move backwards and forwards? or just the one that the function is in? I hope i''ve made this clear enough, if not i will try and make it easier to understand Also, I''ve tried to make a floor to my scene, but I cannot seem to get it to position right, it either positions as if stuck to the bottom of the cube, and it rotates with the cube, or it just doesnt seem to render atall. any ideas what im missing ?? Thanks for your time, hope someone can help