Almost have it! Seasoned Vets Please

Hello,

Thanks for your time here. I’ve been using Blender a little under a month now… that being said, I’m really getting the hang of it. I still just have few, probably basic, questions that I hope you can answer:

  1. I know I can center my center point using the Edit tab, and within Edit Mode. How can I force that center point to the most absolute bottom of my object? Say you place a cube, and the pink dot is in the center. I go to Edit. I then can move my object so the pink dot is at the bottom of the cube? I can eyeball this movement, but I’d like a quick way of doing this, plus I’d like to make absolutely certain that the geometry is butted-up with the geometry below (say a cube on a plain). Maybe it doesn’t matter where the center is (pink dot). I guess what I’m trying to say is, can I place a cube on a plane (simplest example) that is perfectly on top of that plain? I’d like to not go into orth mode and eyeball this function.

  2. Here’s a viewing problem I keep running into. Keep in mind I know I can hit “/” on my numeric keypad for a local view. But, I’d like to do this with all objects present. Also, I understand that I can replace my 3D cursor and hit C… but this isn’t helping. I also know I can hit “.” on my num-pad as well, but even that doesn’t work.

Scenario is: Say you create a cube (or a series of plains into a room), and cut a window in it, then place another cube within. Say I want to have a sun light shine thru this window on the cube (picture all that good stuff). Now I’d like put my view inside of that cube, so I may focus on the interior. You’d think that you could zoom into the cube, past the walls. Nope, it ends when get to the walls of the big cube. I even selected the small cube thinking that would help. When I get close it’s like I’m looking through binoculars. Is it because of the relation of the small object to the big and it affects my view?

Thanks, these are the two things I’ve been struggling with.

  1. I think what you are asking really is - can you snap an object to the grid and yes you can. In the user prefences area, under ‘snap to grid’ click on ‘grab/move’ and that’ll keep the object snapped to the grid lines. Meaning if you set down a plain and then set down a cube, you can level the cube with the plain.

  2. hit the 5 on the numerpad, it’ll change your view type. (make sure Num-lock is active)

  1. This works only if my plane/object is directly on the gridline… what if it isn’t what if it’s in the center of gridline? Then my object doesn’t snap to the other object. So the only workaround I can find is to always have my geometry (when snapping is desired) on a gridline. That kinda sucks. NO snap to object?

  2. That was embarassing… and easy. I wondered why it worked sometimes and not others… just had to get out of perspective. Damn! And thanks!

To move the centre point to the base of the cube.
Select all the 4 bottom vertices of your cube.
Shift+S / Selection to Curser - moves the curser to the centre of these 4 vertices
Go into object mode
Editing (F9), In Mesh panel, select Center Curser. Moves the centre point to the curser position

Richard

You are a god! Thanks for that. Do I always have to select all the vertices on the coplanar level? What if I have a crazy shaped object…