3D Cursor to stay snapped to mesh or object element after transform?
I posted this in the Blender DevTalk / Feedback / UI.papercuts thread but noticed the message in the header to post feature requests here on Right-Click Select ... so
Is it possible for the 3D Cursor to stay snapped to an element?
So that when you snap the 3D Cursor to an element, then move the mesh or object, the 3D cursor moves with the element that it is snapped to.
11 Comments
Hi, here's a demo of how it would work and emulating my braches on a tree scenario. This is a python method however and I have no way of restricting it to translation only which is why I am manually disabling it in the vid. I don't this should have any effect during rotation or scale. The method is simple; new cursor location = start cursor pos + difference between point start and B (points being the selection median in global space). I hope someone can take this up for implementation. Note: this is only for modelling not animation which would likely be far more complex.
Just running into a good use scenario for this and thinking back, I have wanted this for a long time. I'm in edit mode, duplicating and tweaking branches on a tree. I want to scale and rotate the according to the 3d cursor, however there is no point translating with the cursor unless it were able to stick to where I place it (typically the base of the branch). Instead I move it awkwardly, then reposition the cursor and tweak its rotation/scale again.
Currently there is very little use for translating from the 3d cursor, except for 'snap to cursor' , whereas rotate and scale are more common as it can be used as an axis, particularly in edit mode . I think this setting could be in the tool settings.
So what does it stick to? in Object mode it would simply be and offset from the objects origin . In edit mode it woud be an offset from the position calculated by median point .
Where would you put the controls to toggle this?
* @Jason van Gumster * We have several types of selection nested in the toolbar, we could have a different colour cursor that sticks?
* @Jason van Gumster * There is some space for this next to some exisitng 3D Cursor options in the 3D Cursor header (when the 3D Cursor tool is selelcted, mockup below)
* @rory * Stupid question from me: how will the 3D cursor know which element to stick to? There could be some smarts involved, I suppose, but when you snap the 3D cursor, you're not really snapping to an element. You're snapping to a coordinate in space that happens to also be occupied by that element.
So what happens if you snap it to coordinates where two elements occupy that space?
What it sounds like you're really looking for is the ability to use vertex parenting on the 3D cursor. That might call for a slightly different interface.
* @Jason van Gumster * if we think of a "sticky cursor" as a separate tool (sort of like box/lasso select), then you could select the right tool and click on a surface you'd want it to stick to, and this until you project it again to a different surface. It only needs to remember what object the surface belongs to, or just stay there if there is no such object.
In the linked addon below, in the context of Grease Pencil, we had used the parent of the active Gpencil Layer. Have a look at the link, there are some pretty explicit GIFs that show how well that worked.
* @Jason van Gumster * I understand. Thanks for the clarification. I guess I am requesting something like an interactive Origin - a reference point that you can drag and snap to an element, that then stays with the element that you snap it too. Just out of interest, is a Blender Origin contained within a Blender mesh 'object'?
* @rory * From the way you describe your use of it, it sounds a lot more like you're looking to use Empties.
* @Jason van Gumster * It's a bit more like how some others have described it - like the Maya-style interactive Pivot that can be dragged and snapped in one action, and is then the centre for all transforms no matter where the object is.
At the moment in Blender you:
It might not be possible but I was looking for an interactive reference point that can be dragged and snapped like Maya's interactive Pivot.
YES! This is super important for Grease Pencil where the cursor indicates where your lines go when you're not just drawing on planes. A way to place a cursor that stays on an animated element is really really useful.
We actually had such a cursor in an addon on 2.79 and it changed everything. Super useful.
This is the addon :
github.com/Pullusb/Auto-cursor