Blender Loop cuts and vertices measurement

Question

I have some problems when adjusting loop cuts and when I extrude the vertices of loop cuts. When I do a loop cut I would like to place the cut at the position of an exact millimeter.

I have in the scene menu ticked the box Units > Metric > Degrees
I have ticked the box Normals > Edge Info > Length

But I am facing those problems:

1. When I view the whole mesh which I want to place a loop cut on, then I can not adjust the loop cut to the exact position (in millimeters) where I want the cut to be. So I have to zoom down and move the cut. Zoom in once more ant move the cut again.

   Is there a possibility to give exact numeric values to where I want the cut. Or can I move the cut to where I want without the need of zooming in?

2. When I extrude, the values is limited to my zoom-level, so I have to zoom in really deep, then, the numbers is not visible, because they are locked to horizontal axis which is not visible. So I have to guess if it is right, zoom out and check-then zoom in and adjust-and so on.

   Is there a possibility to give exact numeric values for the height of the extrude? Or can I extrude so much I want without the need of zooming in?

Answer 1

Blender doesn't offer exact dimension modelling tools that you may expect in a CAD program. There are some things that may help, start with this previous question.

Most tools allow you to type in numeric values while they are being applied, what that value represents may vary between tools. When using the loop cut tool you can enter a value between 1.0 and -1.0 that represents a percentage of movement towards the next vertex on either side with 0.0 being centred.

Extruding allows you to enter a length that is a distance from the original location. You can also cancel the extrude to leave the new vertices in the same location as the original vertices, then move the vertices (G) which allows you to enter x,y,z values as distance moved in each direction. The first number you enter is used for x then you can use tab to move to the y and z values.

Pressing Ctrl and Shift can also help - while you are moving vertices pressing Ctrl is a shortcut to enable snapping which by default will snap values to whole units (grid increment snapping type). Pressing Shift will slow down the movement to allow more precise placement. Pressing Ctrl and Shift will snap to 0.1 increments.

With loop cut Ctrl will snap to 0.1 increments, Shift will slow down movement and together will snap to 0.01 increments.

Answer 2

I found how to do it.

First to mention, I maybe was pretty unclear in my question. What I needed to do is extrude the vertices including the lines which they are connected to.

@sambler gave me a link in his answer where they told how to extrude the vertices with the lines untouched (at least, that was what happened to me).

Ok, here comes the solution. I use the menu which comes up when I hit the N button, then if folding out the menu 'Transform' you see values for the vertex (at least one vertice has to be selected ).

Then you can move one vertice or a whole loop-cut, depending of what you select with your mouse before you change the value(s).

As a side note. To get the vertices correct distance from left and bottom, I found that it is simplest to 1. Place the objects lover-left corner at coordinates y0 x0. 2. Move the 3d-cursor to that point. 3. In object-mode, choose menu 'Object->Transform->Origin to 3d Cursor'

Thank you @sambler . Even though you not gave me the precise answer, maybe because my question not was very precise. You gave me some correlated knowledge.