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I would like to know how to change the increments used for snapping transforms. This would be useful in a number of situations but my problem now is that when I change the units it does not scale the snapping increments to match. So when holding down ctrl the cube snaps from here:

enter image description here

To here:

enter image description here

I would like it to snap to the 1 foot grid, or possibly any other amount I find useful. It would also be nice to be able to change the rotation snap as well.

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6 Answers 6

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If you hold ⇧ Shift while snapping, then it will snap in smaller increments:

enter image description here

Or if you view from an aligned view such as top ortho (Numpad 7), the snapping increments will be equal to the grid subdivisions (which change with zoom level):

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for the answer gamdalf3. So I gather it is impossible to manually change the snap amount to some arbitrary useful amount? And likewise for the rotation snap? $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    Sep 15, 2014 at 20:31
  • $\begingroup$ @PGmath Not that I know of.. But you can specify the amount to rotate/translate numerically, e.g. G+Z+= 6" will translate the object 6 inches up on the Z axis. $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3 ♦
    Sep 16, 2014 at 2:07
  • $\begingroup$ Can we conclude that holding shift+ctrl+ snaps to a tenth of the ctrl+ snap? $\endgroup$
    – Steven
    May 3, 2018 at 13:31
  • $\begingroup$ @TavernSenses That seems to be how it works, yes. I haven't looked at the internals to be sure though. $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3 ♦
    May 3, 2018 at 21:09
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Snapping will use the resolution of the displayed grid, so you have to change the scale of that.

You can do that in the Properties Shelf (press N). Open Display rollout and change the scale of the grid. (For example if you use Metric system, type 0.01 and Blender will snap things to centimeters).

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    $\begingroup$ So 0.001 will snap to things to millimeters. No, it doesn't. In fact, the display scale appears to have no influence on snapping whatsoever. $\endgroup$
    – Steven
    May 3, 2018 at 13:23
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As of the latest release, the 2.73 release candidate, it seems that when the scene units are set to imperial it will snap by feet instead of blender units at all times (when Ctrl is pressed). This holds true even in perspective view mode.

But it seems to still be impossible to change the snapping increment to a custom value.

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  • $\begingroup$ this is still the case as of 3.3.0. there doesn't seem to be a way to define the increment, no matter the units you're using or the unit scale. $\endgroup$
    – takecare
    Sep 28, 2022 at 16:12
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Create a Snap Template made of vertices according to the desired offset in a separate Mesh object, then snap to those with snapping mode set to Vertex.

I would also make one that is spaced one unit apart. Then for quick edits to this, you could scale it. If I needed 1/8 I could scale the template down by that factor and use it at those increments, then I could reset it by scaling it back up 8 times.

enter image description here

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You can change the scene units, in the properties window. By default blender is in blender units which is the same as meters, but if you change it to Imperial grid snapping will snap to the new imperial grid only if you are in one of the views front, top, left, ect.

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Turn on "absolute grid snapping" then go to Scene > Units and adjust the "Unit scale" property. Higher values will make the increments smaller.

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