I have 4 cubes symmetrically placed at the 4 corners of a plane and I want to move them along the x/y axis outward/inward the center of the plane witch is also the origin of the 4 cubes?
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1$\begingroup$ in Object mode you have the Manipulate Center Points option that allows you to do that but in Edit mode I don't think you have any direct way to do this operation, so I guess you'll have to find an indirect trick, like for example separating your 4 cubes in four different objects and using the Manipulate Center Points option then ctrl J to bring them back in the same object, or using the grid, or using the snap tool to snap the cubes to some vertices... $\endgroup$– moonbootsJun 24, 2019 at 6:56
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$\begingroup$ You saved my day! Is there a way to do the same on a mirrored object ? $\endgroup$– Poke PeekJun 24, 2019 at 8:00
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$\begingroup$ please show some screenshots $\endgroup$– moonbootsJun 24, 2019 at 8:03
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$\begingroup$ Manipulate center point work perfectly with 4 differents objects.  $\endgroup$– Poke PeekJun 24, 2019 at 12:16
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$\begingroup$ I modified my answer to have a gif that shows this working. $\endgroup$– dpdpJul 19, 2019 at 18:19
2 Answers
Take one of the cubes symmetrically placed on the plane and mirror it on the x and y axis. Go to the mirror modifier and set the mirror object as the plane (which they will be placed on at the four corners). Now if you go into edit mode you can select the one cube and move it to one corner, and the mirrored cubes will move symmetrically to the other corners. Good luck!
- Select the objects. Right click and choose Set Origin>Origin To Geometry.
- In the pivot point menu set the pivot to Median Point and toggle Only Origins on.
- Scale the objects in the axis that you want to spread them apart.
You may want to snap the cursor to the origin location that the four objects are sharing first, and when you're done scaling the origins, right click>Set Origin>Origin To 3D Cursor to get the origins back where you have them now. Note that if the origins weren't all in the same location like they are now, you could skip the first step. Since they are currently 0 meters apart, scaling the origins has no effect since anything times zero is still zero.
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$\begingroup$ That's great but is there a way to scale them on X/Y simultaneously. So I can move them constrained by the plane not only by one axis? $\endgroup$ Jul 15, 2019 at 7:09
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$\begingroup$ Yes. S key for scale, then shift+z key to constrain to the xy plane. If you use the scale gizmo or active tool, you can drag the xy plane part of the gizmo, or shift+drag the z axis. $\endgroup$– dpdpJul 16, 2019 at 14:43