← All ideas
  • Published 7 Aug 2019

Edge/Face/Normal Constraint

I am a new Blender user, Coming from Max and Maya. They both have an edge constraint feature, which simply locks the transforms of verts/edges/faces to either existing edge and faces. In Max and Maya, you can constrain an element (like a vertex or edge) to only move along an existing surface (an edge or a face, they work in slightly different ways), so you can move, rotate or scale the selected element(s), but they stay ‘stuck’ to the existing surface. I love the edge slide feature in Blender, it works better in most situations, but the nice thing about Max and Maya’s implementation is though, that it also works with rotation and scale.

I could see this as being a feature that was turned off or on, like snapping or proportional editing, maybe from the same menu area as snapping (a toggle with a dropdown to chose edge or face constraint) or as a right click menu item in edit mode.

I have a video that shows the feature in action, or there are some animated gifs on the autodesk site describing the movement.

knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-A7C41EA4-3249-4A24-A0AA-788D1F7D3DBF-htm.html

and a video demonstrating it as well (though doesn't do a great job of showing how it can be useful) youtube.com/watch

100%

Development Status: Open

Upvote 51 Downvote 0
skantron
7 Aug 2019

15 Comments

Josephbburg

For now, you can get a similar result using a duplicate and snapping, but that's tedious. This is a feature I've often wanted.

4
guitarguy00

Any update on this feature? Constraining to face and normals is part of my regular workflow in 3DS Max when doing hard surface modeling. This would surely make me jump to Blender.

1
EzyPoly

Vote me. blender.community/c/rightclickselect/SScbbc/ . It's absolutely must have feature for advanced precise modeling.

1
1COD

yes I do agree scale+slide too

nhi96nguyen.design

youtube.com/watch Here is the solution for rotating with constrain.

readthesourcematerial

Generally when working within the x,y,z axis I will use those keys to hold an axis constraint. If my edit is not on the x,y,z plane I will adjust the "Transform Orientation" dropdown and I usually set it to normal or local. Once you are in those modes you still need to tap x,y or z to get your constraint BUT they will be oriented per your selection. If you are looking to move geometry on the surface I think you will have to use the "gg" slide or face snapping via dropdown menu. Lastly a new trick that I learned is that if you are using "gg" to slide on a edge you can hold ALT to extend that edge thus constraining the movement along the edge path.

1COD

but to do exactly what you want you have the tool shear. and if it's not aligned to the world try with normal orientation {attachment shearjpg}

EzyPoly

* @zgorg2004 * how you ll solve such task?{attachment 2019-08-08_11-46-57mp4}

1COD

* @impacman * sry I don't really understand it

skantron Author

* @zgorg2004 *

I love the shear tool, but it only works on linear surfaces. If I am working on a complex surfaces with compound curves, it will not let me maintain that curvature. I'll see if I can make a video that demonstrates a case use where I would want to use it.

skantron Author

* @skantron * I might be getting confused about the conversation threading here, but this is the use I might typically want in Blender. If I have a loop I want to move, but keep it's overall shape, and move it somewhere else on the model. There are workarounds for sure, but it's super fast in MAX and Maya to do this and I'd love to have it in Blender, especially if it could use the Active Element pivot point selection and proportional editing in Blender, it would be a better tool than whats in 3DsM&M. youtu.be/M6ZpAU6c5UU

1COD

and for this one if you have an edge loop around with Ctrl+R you can do checker deselect and then move selected vertices with GZ if aligned to global world orientation. if not GZZ. and to redo the circle you can use circle in loop tools or more simple SZ0 if orientated to global {attachment other_partjpg}

1COD

the first one maybe this is not exactly what you want but you can dissolve the edge loop (X...) and do a new one with K and Z and C if you want an angle of 45 for instance.{attachment Kjpg}

1COD

the second video is moving with normal. you can do it. and if it is aligned to the world a simple GZ will be enough (with selection face) {attachment move_normaljpg}

EzyPoly

* @zgorg2004 *