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I spent a lot of time building up my armature for my dragon model and then, after I was all done and started to refine it, I realized that the bones from the pelvis out to the end of the tail were pointing the wrong way - they need to have their heads pointing the other direction:

Armature with bones pointing in the wrong direction

I don't want to have to delete these bones and start over.

Is there an easy way to switch the direction of the tail bones?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Switch Direction of Bones

Thankfully Blender has a simple command that will reverse the direction of selected bones called "Switch Direction". You can access this two different ways:

  • Select rig > Tab > select bones > Specials menu (W) > Switch Direction

  • Select rig > Tab > select bones > 3D View Header > Armature menu > Switch Direction

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ I wouldn't say its hard to find, its in the Armature menu. $\endgroup$
    – ideasman42
    Apr 26, 2014 at 8:52
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    $\begingroup$ Thank you for pointing that out! I had been looking for something to "Reverse direction" ("Switch" never occurred to me) and I was also looking for a Bones menu item in Armature, i.e. Armature -> Bones -> Reverse Direction. $\endgroup$
    – Thom Blair III
    Apr 26, 2014 at 10:08
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    $\begingroup$ For Blender 2.8x the shortcut is now Alt + F $\endgroup$
    – Steak Overflow
    Mar 27, 2020 at 15:28
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Blender has a function to switch the direction of Bones, however its worth noting that there is also the ability to select a bone chain in one step:

  • Enter Edit Mode Tab
  • Select a bone on either end of the chain you want to flip RMB
  • Hold Ctrl and click RMB to select the other bone in the chain.
    (this selects bones in between, matching similar behavior in mesh editmode)
  • Armature menu > Switch Direction (or AltF)
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