I am sure this is a really basic question and even thought I had seen an option to do this.
But how do you place 2 object on the same plane?
I have an object and imported an other, and its in a completely different point in space… As I try and drag it around, it moves in 3D, so doesn’t end up where I want it.
After much zooming/rotating and moving, I have manage to get them close… But how exactly do I get them at the same level…
I guess I could make a rectangle and place them on it so they “snap” to the same level… But is there a specific tool or feature to achieve this?
Sometimes it helps if you approach the problem one axis at a time. That is, start to move the entity and lock the direction to one axis - say blue. Then you can use inference on the other entity to move until the blue axis locations align. Repeat the process for the red and green axes.
For the move tool, pick a point that is on the base of the first object. Then lock the axis and find an inference to a point that is on the base of the second object.
Take note where you click when you start the Move operation. The point you click will be the base point for the move. So to move, for instance, a bottom of an object down to a face representing a “ground” you first click on a bottom corner of the object, then move down and watch for, for instance, an “on face” inference marker to appear before clicking a second time.
How do you “lock” the axis… If I grab the bottom of the 1st object, and moved it to the bottom of the 2nd, they are at the same plane… But if I then let go, the 2 objects get “merged”…
If I get them level and then try to move them appart, the 1st object still moves around in 3D space… .How exactly do you “lock” the axis? Is this using the arrow keys? I tried that and it locks the axis from the ORIGINAL position.
You can lock a move on axis with the cursor keys or by holding Shift once you start the move.
If the “objects” merge, that would imply you aren’t making groups or components of the objects before putting them together.
At the start of the move grab the entity by clicking and releasing. Click and release again to drop it when you get it where you want it to be.
As above, you can lock on axis with the cursor (arrow) keys.
I usually hold Shift for locking the direction because it’s the same key for locking in any direction including following a line that isn’t parallel to any axis and it’s on the left side of the keyboard where my left hand hovers while drawing.
First of all group/components helped, so thanks for that.
But when I move the object, if I use the cursor keys to lock the axis, it does it from the point where the object was to start with… So if I have it in the air, click on the button edge, and then move it after pressing ‘left’, its locked to the green axis but in the air.
And if I hit shift, its locked to a axis drawn between the original and new position (i.e diagonal)…
Perhaps I am reading it wrong… Do you mean click, move and drop onto the correct axis (but with the 2 parts ontop of each other) and then use the cursors/shift to move it around on that plane… If so, I get it now
Yes. Of course it would since that’s the starting point of the move.
It’s locked in the direction you start the move. So if you are following a line that is off axis, it’ll lock to that line.
I mean, click on the point you want to grab and release the button. Move the selected entity to where you want it and then click and release to drop it.
Maybe you could show us at least an image of what it is you’ve got and how you want the entities positioned.
thanks for this thread - in about 30 secs I was able to see where I was going wrong, and correct it (choose parts and create COMPONENT, then choose MOVE to align a corner of each COMPONENT to the corner of a common part). This got all parts onto a common plane, and saved me a bunch of trial and error.
