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I know how to move a single vertex to a precise coordinate, input (x,y,z) coordinate into (side bar)/(item tab)/(transform global). But this only moves that single selected vertex. I want the whole object (such as plane, cube related to that selected vertex) moving along with that selected vertex, keeping the shape of object.

I have searched online for many methods, but none of them solves my problem.

Can you help me perform such action in Blender?

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  • $\begingroup$ You can add an extra vert to the exact location, and use the snap tool, then remove it. Or put the cursor in the right location, select "Active element" for "Transform Pivot Point" (next to the snap tool). Then hit Shift+S and select Selection to Cursor (Keep Transform). Make sure all of the verts are selected and the ominous one is active. $\endgroup$
    – FFeller
    Sep 19 at 12:53
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    $\begingroup$ @FFeller If you use Shift+S, the option is called Selection to Cursor (Keep Offset), not "Keep Transform", to make sure he is not ignoring it because he cannot find it and uses just Selection to Cursor, that would not be good for his mesh ;) $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Sep 19 at 13:00
  • $\begingroup$ @FFeller, thanks for your advice. I am not sure how to make the all vertices selected but last one selected being active. I used (shift+LMB) to select vertices one by one, but in the final they all turn to be active. I am testing your method on a plane. $\endgroup$
    – Dexter
    Sep 20 at 1:02
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    $\begingroup$ @Dexter Active is always the one that is differently highlighted than the others - in Blender's default theme, it is white instead of orange. If you Shift+LMB select vertices one by one, it is the last one selected. If none are selected and you left-click one to select it and then press A to select all the rest, the first one that you selected by clicking is the active one. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Sep 20 at 8:58
  • $\begingroup$ @GordonBrinkmann, I tried to select the four vertices of a plane one by one using Shift+LMB. But in the final, all four vertices selected are in same orange color and the whole plane becomes selected. I don't know what happened in my setting. For objects selection, I can use "Scene Collection" to choose which are selected and which is active. $\endgroup$
    – Dexter
    Sep 20 at 9:47

3 Answers 3

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It depends a little bit on what you want to do - should the mesh be moving in Edit Mode so that the origin of the object stays where it is or do you want the object to completely move, keeping the origin at its relative position to the mesh? Possible ways to achieve some of these results:

First of all make sure the Snapping is set to Vertex.

vertex snapping

Now you can activate the Cursor tool, this way you can drag the 3D cursor wherever you want by holding down LMB. If you hold Ctrl while dragging (but you have to start dragging without the key), you can snap the cursor to the vertex which you want to place in a specific location later on. You can do this in Object Mode or Edit Mode. Deactivate the Cursor tool again to make sure you are not accidentally moving it for the next steps.

cursor tool

Switch back to Object Mode if you are not already. You can now select the object, right-click and choose Set Origin > Origin to 3D Cursor if you don't mind the origin changing its position. Then simply enter the specific location in the XYZ Location to move the whole object.

set origin

Instead of changing the origin, you can press Shift+A > Add > Empty to place an empty at the position of the 3D cursor, and therefore where the vertex is. Then first select the object, Shift + select the empty, Ctrl+P > Set Parent To > Object. Now the object is a child of the empty and you can move this to the specific XYZ Location and the object will follow.

parenting to empty

If you want to keep the origin where it is and only move the mesh in Edit Mode, you can use this method: select the vertex which should be placed in the specific location. Press Ctrl+H > Hooks > Hook to New Object. This creates an empty at the location of the vertex.

While still in Edit Mode, hit A to seelct all vertices now. Go to the modifiers, there you will find a Hook-Empty modifier. Press on the button Assign. Now all vertices are hooked to the empty. Switch back to Object Mode and now you can move the empty to the specific location, the mesh will follow while the origin stays where it is.

hook to empty

assign vertices to hook

Combinations and variations of this method are possible, too. For example, if you do not want to move the 3D cursor but want to parent the object to an empty in the vertex position, select the vertex and hook it to an empty. But then delete the hook modifier and just parent the object to the empty like described earlier.

And for completeness to have a visual reference for FFeller's (second) method: set the Transform Pivot Point to Active Element at the top, make sure the vertex which determines the position is the active one like the highlighted white one in the image below (either by selecting it first, then all others with A or Shift-selecting it last). Place the 3D cursor in the desired location by entering the XYZ values in the View tab of the sidebar. Then press Shift+S and choose Selection to Cursor (Keep Offset). The Keep Offset part is important, otherwise all vertices will fall together in the same location. This method also moves only the mesh while the origin stays in place.

selection to cursor

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks so much! @gordon-brinkmann. I just tried you first method, it works well! Now I am trying your second method. $\endgroup$
    – Dexter
    Sep 20 at 8:03
  • $\begingroup$ @Dexter If this helped you, you might consider accepting the answer. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Sep 20 at 8:55
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks Gordon Brinkmann! This is this my first time using StackExchange asking question for blender, just know this accepting answer. $\endgroup$
    – Dexter
    Sep 20 at 9:50
  • $\begingroup$ One more note is that when I select object and empty, the first selected item is active not the final one as stated in manual, which is very curious maybe my blender 3.6 has some setting changed? $\endgroup$
    – Dexter
    Sep 20 at 19:40
  • $\begingroup$ @Dexter Are you now talking Outliner selecting or 3D Viewport selecting? Because you mention the Outliner in the comments above and what you say about the object and empty is actually how it works in the Outliner. However, Shift+LMB in the Outliner works like in the Windows Explorer: click a first file, then Shift+click a last file and all files inbetween are selected. Same with objects in the Outliner. Therefore the first object is active and not the last - because it probably gets selected with more objects inbetween so none of them has a higher "priority" to be the active one. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Sep 20 at 20:09
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To illustrate FFeller's first method, snapping the vertex of the object to a vertex already at the correct XYZ location :

  1. In edit mode select and duplicate a single vertex ShftD then in the side panel > Transforms enter your required X,Y and Z location.
  2. Open the snapping drop-down and set the Snap to option to Vertex and the Snap with to Active.
  3. Next select all the vertices of your object then holding down the Shft key, deselect then reselect the vertex you want to be at the new XYZ position. This makes this vertex the last vertex of the object to be selected and so it becomes the active vertex that will be used in the following snapping operation.
  4. With all the vertices of the object now selected hit the G (to move) key and holding down the Ctrl key (to activate the snapping tool) move the mouse cursor towards the single vertex at the correct xyz location. When the mouse cursor is close to this vertex the objects active vertex will snap to this position.
  5. To delete the now necessary vertex, hit the H key to hide the selected vertices, select and delete the remaining vertex and finally unhide the object with Alt H .

enter image description here

Edited to add an example file : https://blend-exchange.com/b/y6dejGOo

enter image description here

To test the snapping, download the above .blend and try hitting G followed by Ctrl and moving your mouse cursor towards the vertex at the green arrow.

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    $\begingroup$ Hej, 3fingeredfrog. The single vertex duplication should be (Shift+D) right? And when I hold down Ctrl key move the object with active vertex (white selected), it won't snap to that duplicated single vertex point. $\endgroup$
    – Dexter
    Sep 21 at 10:01
  • $\begingroup$ @Dexter, Thanks, I have edited my answer to change to Shft D and also added a little .blend file that you can download and test. It should open as in the added image with the mesh selected. Just hit G followed by the Ctrl key (activates snapping tool) and move your mouse cursor towards the vertex at the green arrow. $\endgroup$
    – 3fingeredfrog
    Sep 21 at 11:36
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, 3fingeredfrog. I finally figure out how to snap vertex to point. I must move that four corner cursor not vertex to the point then release it. $\endgroup$
    – Dexter
    Sep 28 at 0:08
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Here's a different way that doesn't involve any snapping (mostly because Blender snapping always hurts my head):

  1. Place the cursor where you'd like. You can place it using shift-s snap cursor to selected, you can input manual (world-space) coordinates in sidebar/view/cursor, or you can just plop it down anywhere you'd like with the cursor tool. I'll start by snapping the cursor to a vertex on Suzanne's ear:

enter image description here

  1. Switch to edit mode, vertex select, on the object you wish to snap. Change your pivot point to "active selection." Select all, then deselect, reselect the vertex you want at the cursor, so that it is your actively selected vertex.

enter image description here

Everything in the cube is selected, but the white vertex is the active selection.

  1. Use a snap selection to cursor (keep offset) operation. I call this from the shift-s menu:

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ This answer was already given by FFeller in the comments and visualized in my answer. The only difference is, you snapped the cursor to the ear beforehand (but since the question says "precise coordinates", I'm not snapping to some other vertex but rather enter values for the cursor). And for a solution that "doesn't involve any snapping", you mention snapping quite often in the process ;) By the way, all methods I described can be achieved without any snapping as well (apart from the Shift+S of FFeller's method) if you don't mind copying location values. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Sep 20 at 9:02
  • $\begingroup$ @GordonBrinkmann Oh, I was talking about snapping as in the magnet icon, which begins your answer, and which 3fingeredfrog is using. Because your answer was long, and not divided into any sections, and started with snapping to nearest vertex, I thought that's what you were focusing on. I think pictures are appropriate to snap selection with offset, as is a very short description of how to get an active selection and what it looks like when you have one, considering Dexter's confusion in the comments. I'm not sure what you're getting at here-- are you asking me to do something? $\endgroup$
    – Nathan
    Sep 20 at 14:38
  • $\begingroup$ I honestly don't know how to divide into sections... but the last sentence in my first paragraph starts mentioning "Possible ways" (plural), so I thought this would hint at different methods :D $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Sep 20 at 15:32
  • $\begingroup$ @GordonBrinkmann Yeah, I don't know how to divide into sections either, although I'll sometimes number things, which gets formatted decently. I'm just explaining why I added this answer, because you seem concerned about it, and part of why is that when I looked at your answer, it started with magnet snapping, and it was long, and I don't need to know how to move things precisely myself :) Again, if there's something you want me to do, feel free to ask. $\endgroup$
    – Nathan
    Sep 20 at 16:31

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