Snapping
 

In the Mech Warrior Robot tut Kurt does something whis he doesn't explain in a manner I understand(not his fault though!)
It's abot the snapping tool. Here we'll do a trick, hit the insert key -and then he does 3 or 4 hings whis I havent got a clue- but the object turns (after having chosen rotate) to a certain point he chose (the midpoint of a -intopview) circle. Now I can't after 1 hour searching reconstruct it the way he does it. In the construction of the toes I could bypass the problem by snappin point to point each toe seperatly, but with the curved tube I have not a clue.

So to sum it up : how do I rotate an object (in top view) to a certain designated (mid)point, sort of array.

Thanks.
M.

not sure i this is what you meant but...wouldn't you just use the rotate tool still? even on top view? or use the channel box to rotate it more precisely?

you mean snap the pivot key on the x axis and then duplicate it on negative x axis so you have a duplicate ?

there are basically 3 types of snapping


gridSnap - hold x

vertexSnap - hold v

curvesnap - hold c


by hitting the insertKey the manipulator enters editMode. which means you can instead of moving the whole selection, just move its pivot point. hit insert again and your selection moves/rotates/scales around the new selection pivot.
tricky thing with curveSnap is to get the manipulater very near the curve and then hold c, cause curveSnap only works within a very close distance of the curve.

you can do this also with components verts/faces/edges.. but! - the changed pivot is existing only until you hit q/w/e/r/t or select something else from your scene.

hope that helped.

ok, ...
 

The rotation and duplication worked well, but now I think I accidentally put something on that makes that when I move an object, I can only move it on an invisible grid, how do I turn this off?

Thnx

I feel like a complete moron doing this...
I think it'll take me ages to get my Mech robot tut finished


Anyhow.
Any help welcome

Posting it and I found it

Feel a bit less a moron already.
x or snap to grid

ole ole

there is an option called discret move. you find it in Modify - Transform Tools - move/rotate/scale. if checked the manipulator moves in grid units. turn it off and you can "float" move again.