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Snaps Palette


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The 'Snaps Palette' provides a handy floating palette that holds all the settings and tools related to snapping in a single viewport. The palette can be initiated from the menu bar command "Edit > Snapping > Snaps Palette". Once opened, the visibility of all floating viewports can be toggled on and off by pressing the ' ` ' (grave accent, same as tilde ~) key. At the top of the palette is the same 'Snapping' options available in the interface snapping menu or from the menu bar. The information on snapping is covered on the snapping page of the documentation. Below are several tool options users can use for precision transforms. Created with the power of the 'Tool Pipe', they are automated combinations of transform actions, snap settings and Action Centers.

Snaps PaletteSnaps Palette - Presets

Drag Snap
The Drag Snap tool combines the Element Move transform with Geometry Snap. This allows components of a mesh to be quickly "dragged" and "snapped" to other components in the project. By default the Element Move transform is set to "Auto" which allows you to click and drag a vertex, edge or polygon regardless of the current selection mode. (See Element Falloff and/or Geometry Snap for more information.)

Drag Snap Rigid
The Drag Snap Rigid tool is very useful for moving connected geometry by dragging it from a single component such as a vertex, edge or polygon. The tool combines with snapping so that you can quickly snap the current component to another component in the project while dragging the rest of the connected polygons along in a rigid manner.

Planar Rotate Snap
The Planar Rotate Snap tool is excellent for precisely aligning elements. To use the tool you simply click on any component in the scene. This initial click determines the element upon which the tool handles will be centered. Next you use the outer most handle to establish the resting orientation for the rotation control by dragging that handle to any component in the project. The handle will snap to vertices, edges or polygons. Once the rest orientation has been determined, use the inner round handle to apply some rotation. This rotation action can be freehand or you can once again leverage geometry snapping to very accurately set the rotation.

Planar Rotate Snap Axis
This tool is similar to the Planar Rotate Snap tool with the extension of a second axis handle for controlling the plane of rotation. This is an advanced tool that is invaluable in certain complex rotation scenarios that require absolute precision. Like the Planar Rotate Snap tool the first click sets the center and axis for the tool based on the component under the mouse.

Scale Absolute
Scale Absolute combines the scale tool (Absolute Handles option active) with the Geometry Snap modifier. The tool utilizes a two step process. In the first step you use the Absolute Handles to set the starting scale point for the tool. Next you use the Scale handles to actually modify the geometry. During both steps the handles can/will snap to the geometry thus allowing you to use one mesh component to set the initial scale and a second component to create the Absolute scale.

Size Absolute
The size absolute option opens a absolute sizing option

Advanced Handles
This option toggles the visibility of Advanced Handles for the selected tools. This often places additional controls into the screen viewport making it easier to produce more accurate results.

Commands--

Absolute PaletteAbsolute Scaling
Pressing the 'Absolute Scaling' button of the Snaps palette, opens yet another palette with a useful set of utilities that go well beyond basic scaling. Allowing users to explicitly define a size and scale on an items bounding box, and modify the center axis position when assigning the transform.

Grab Size: This command 'grabs' the actual bounding box size and inputs it into the 'Uniform' and 'Explicit' data fields as a point of reference for sizing the selection.

Uniform--
The 'Uniform Scale' options provide a means to uniformly (equally) scale all axes of a selection in a single step. To use, first choose the 'Grab Size' command, this captures the Longest Axis length and inserts it into the Uniform value input field as a point of reference. Next, select a 'Scaling Center' if you wish it to be other than the default bounding box center. Enter a new explicit value into the 'Uniform' input field. In Uniform Axis, define the Axis you wish to scale absolutely, and then finally LMB+click the 'Uniform Scale' button to perform the scale operation.

Uniform Scale: When this button is pressed, the bounding box for the selected item is uniformly scaled by the value in the 'Uniform' input field, based on the 'Uniform Axis' field.

Uniform Axis: When scaling the bounding box, the 'Uniform Axis determines on which axis the scaling command will operate, with the other two axes scaled in proportional amount in relation to the defined axis.

Explicit--
The 'Explicit Scale' option provides a means for users to define a specific size to the bounding box of the selected elements. To use, first choose the 'Grab Size' command, this captures the bounding box volume size of the entire selection. Next, select a 'Scaling Center' if you wish it to be other than the default bounding box center. Enter a any new Size values into the X,Y & Z input fields,and press the 'Explicit Scale' option to scale the object to the specified size.

Explicit Scale: When this button is pressed, the bounding box for the selected item is scaled by the value in the X,Y and Z input fields.

Reference Scale: When this button is pressed, the selected section of geometry (assuming its a smaller section of a whole) defines the scaling amount as a reference, but all connected geometry is scaled proportionately to the selected area. Say for instance if you knew the size of the cockpit of a race car, one could scale the entire car by the proportional amount based on just the selected cockpit area.

Scaling Center--

Scaling Center X/Y/Z: When scaling a selected area, the 'Scaling Center' values define the origin of the scaling operation as defined from the drop down box selections. The 'Low' options defines the side toward the negative end of the axis, 'Center' the averaged center position of all vertices, and 'High' being the side of the bounding box nearest the positive values of the axis.

 

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