I am coming from 3DS Max, so I am used to being able to set transform values relative to an object’s parent (such that setting the location and rotation values to 0 will align the child object with its parent). However, the Transform panels (both in the 3D Viewport and Properties Editor) always seem to work in world space. In fact, the documentation outright states that this is how it is supposed to work.
I find that this dramatically alters my workflow in certain situations. Is there a way to work with the local transform values directly? Please note that I am using the industry-compatible controls (for obvious reasons). I have done some searching on this issue, but the closest answers I can find are very old and not satisfactory.
I am very confused. I attempted to take some screenshots to demonstrate why this answer did not make sense to me, and lo I wound up producing the result that I wanted (except that I couldn’t choose to set the position of the child in world space, but we’ll neglect that for the moment). Then I did more fiddling and produced something I REALLY don’t understand, which suggests that there is some fundamental concept that I am missing.
Observe in the image below how the sphere is a child of the empty cube. It somehow has a position of (0,0,0), but it is not at the origin of either world or local space. What exactly is it at (0,0,0) relative to?
I am aware of delta transforms, and in some cases they could be used to get around this. Why would I want to specify the position of an object relative to the position it was in when I made it a child? Is there any way to switch between editing a given object in local and world space? What is the “expected workflow”?
I’m sorry, I feel the questions I asked yesterday were overly aggressive.
With the Blender keymap on, pressing x y and z doesn’t do anything related to world space and local space. Am I supposed to press those keys in addition to another key?
You can use G/R/S for Move/Rotate/Scale + an Axis X/Y/Z and then use mouse or type the values in.
For example G XX 1.5 and enter will move 1.5 units along the local X axis.
Ah, yes, I am aware of this feature. However, what I would like to be able to do is set absolute values, either in local or world space depending on my needs. Moving an object in local X or world Y is not a problem, what I am used to is being able to set “the local X position is precisely 7, and the world Y rotation is exactly 45”.
I dont know an way to do so for an child object.
In edit mode you can set the coordinates globaly and then use rotation with changing the pivot point to the desired center, but that gives not a smooth workflow.
Never worked with 3dmax, perhaps there is no similar workflow in blender, if you have luck there might be an architecture addon or so which gives this ability.
Ok, thank you. Coming from 3ds Max this is very strange. This is a specific way of working that I frequently mention when discussing 3D modelling with coworkers who are unfamiliar with any of the concepts. From my perspective this very much like trying to walk with one leg. Nonetheless, I shall persevere (and look for, maybe even create, a plugin!)