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I've been trying to get Blender's pivot to work more like Maya's with snapping. What I'd like to do is snap the pivot point of my selected object to a vertex of a target as shown below:

enter image description here

However, when I turn on vertex snapping this is the result I get, which looks to me like it's snapping the closest edges to the selection:

enter image description here

However, the result I'd like to get would be this one (this is eyeballed but I'd like to be able to do this with snapping to get precise results):

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ if in Blender 2.83, .. set 'Snap To' to 'Vertex' in the snapping panel, and in Object mode, the object origin should snap to vertices.. Have I missed the point? $\endgroup$
    – Robin Betts ♦
    Jul 28, 2020 at 11:42
  • $\begingroup$ @RobinBetts That is the setup I'm trying on 2.83, but unfortunately it works the way it does in the 2nd image for me. Don't know why it's that way, but I can't get the actual pivot to snap no matter what. EDIT: Seems to work with the center of the object in Edit Mode, but nothing seems to make it work with custom pivot. Strange $\endgroup$
    – weittakes
    Jul 28, 2020 at 11:48
  • $\begingroup$ @RobinBetts I also had no idea you can snap vertex to vertex in Object node, until I tried it :). $\endgroup$
    – jachym michal
    Jul 28, 2020 at 12:01
  • $\begingroup$ Ahhhh... Should have been: to: 'Vertex' AND with: 'Active'. ( I nearly never have mine set to anything else).. does that help? $\endgroup$
    – Robin Betts ♦
    Jul 28, 2020 at 12:03
  • $\begingroup$ I think your question is focused to "Origin" (orange point) not pivot point that can be cursor, bounding box or center of several selected objects. If so, can you change naming in your Q? Thank you $\endgroup$
    – vklidu
    Jul 28, 2020 at 13:48

2 Answers 2

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To snap the Origin Point (orange dot) choose to snap with Median

It's in the Snapping Menu, second from right.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ This is what I needed! I assumed that median just always means the center of the object, but it seems to be the Pivot. $\endgroup$
    – weittakes
    Jul 28, 2020 at 11:52
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, it's a bit confusing :). To snap with the center of an object, choose Center. $\endgroup$
    – jachym michal
    Jul 28, 2020 at 11:53
  • $\begingroup$ If I skip naming part, Median and Center works the same for me. In Object mode both snap Origin in Edit mode snap to center of geometry. Can you confirm that? I used rectangle with origin out of center. $\endgroup$
    – vklidu
    Jul 28, 2020 at 13:04
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    $\begingroup$ Yes Active snaps in edit mode like active vertex etc, in object mode if you have selected more objects it snaps active (brighter) one from its origin, that make a sense, yes. $\endgroup$
    – vklidu
    Jul 28, 2020 at 13:38
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    $\begingroup$ @vklidu Center refers to the Transform Center.. (see below) $\endgroup$
    – Robin Betts ♦
    Jul 28, 2020 at 14:16
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Well, this exchange got me looking stuff up and trying things out. (TL;DR)

What's the difference between Median and Center?

  • Median is the vector-average point of the current selection. In Object mode, that's the vector-average of the selected object origins - if you have only one object selected, that's its own pivot. In Edit mode, that's the vector-average of selected vertices, whether selected as vertices, edges, or faces.
  • Center refers to the current Transform center, as set in the Transform Pivot Point dropdown. For example: if in Edit Mode, that's 'Bounding Box', the snap source will be the center of the bounding box of the verts in the object's orientation, not the average position of the vertices. If it's '3D Cursor', the snap source is the position of the 3D cursor with respect to the selection before the move started, which can be very useful. If you can put the 3D cursor at any point with respect to your geometry, (often using ShiftS,) you can use its location as your Snap source.

What I don't get is why, in Object Mode, 'Center'+'Bounding Box' still snaps the object's pivot, not the center of the object's bounding box.

There's also the A feature, which lets you select the weighted average of multiple snap targets. If Snap is locked on with the magnet, you can hit A to add the current hover-target to an accumulation to be averaged. This means, for example, you can hit A twice at one end of an edge, and once at the other, to snap to a point 2/3 of the way down it.

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    $\begingroup$ Great explanation, thanks :). I had no idea about the average feature. $\endgroup$
    – jachym michal
    Jul 28, 2020 at 14:20
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    $\begingroup$ @JachymMichal Nor did I! I really think 'Bounding Box' should work in Object mode, though... unless I've missed something. $\endgroup$
    – Robin Betts ♦
    Jul 28, 2020 at 14:24

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