Enable Axis

It is often necessary to move an object’s origin, for example to be able to rotate around this point in an animation. Temporarily repositioning the axis can also be useful when modeling. This is exactly what can be done with this mode. Using the L hotkey you can switch quickly to this mode and back.

When rotating or moving the axes of a hierarchical object, all axes of the child objects will be changed. If these child objects have animation tracks, errors will occur in the animation, since the axes of the parent system will have changed. This is why, before creating the animation, it is important to first define the axes.

Component Mode (points, edges, polygons)

A workflow example for changing the modeling axis:

• Make your selection as usual
• Switch to Axis mode
• Adjust the modeling axis
• Deactivate the Axis mode
• Enable, for example, the Rotate tool and rotate around the newly positioned modeling axis

When editing object components, the Axis mode can be used to temporarily move or rotate the modeling axis. Don’t mix this function up with the Move tool’s modeling axis settings (see Axis), whose settings are of a global nature and will be calculated when you make a selection.

When temporarily adjusting the modeling axis (make sure to avoid multiple selections in the Object Manager – only the object to be edited should be selected), the following control options are available:

• For the Move tool, the axis can be moved freely (if necessary, click on the small cube at the center of the modeling axis) or only in the direction of the axis or plane via the handles.
• Individual components can be clicked on at which point the modeling axis will be set. You can, for example, snap groups of points to other points using a single selected point (with corresponding Snap settings).
If Shift is pressed while clicking on a component, the axis’ rotation will remain constant and can only be moved.

• If new component selections are made, the modeling axis will switch to the options defined in the modeling axis settings for the respective tool (Move, Scale, Rotate, etc.).