Remove constraint and retain the result of its influence?

I come from nearly 10 years of using Maya and I’m trying my hardest to figure out equivalent ways of doing things in Blender.

One of the techniques that I’ll frequently use is the use of temporary constraints to align, move or animate objects. When I’m done with the action, I’ll delete the constraint and the constrained object stays put.

Is there a way to:

  • Delete a constraint in Blender and have the constrained object remain where it was before the constraint was deleted?
  • Bake an object that has been animated with a constraint and then delete the constraint, leaving the object animated solely under the power of its own keys?

Thank you in advance.

Part A of your question: Go to Object/Transform/Apply/Visual Transformation (in object mode). Then delete the constraint.

Also becoming familiar with Blender’s transform orientations may help you in some situations where you might not have to use or rely on constraints.

Not sure about part B have not done that yet in Blender.

Outstanding! Thank you for the quick reply. That is exactly the methodology I was hoping for.

If you’d like to follow my efforts on understanding Blender’s spatial relationships, you can check out my on going discussion on Global vs. Local space here:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=208399