SnapMove — documentation

Blender 4.2 LTS or newer. The panel lives in the sidebar (N) under the SnapMove tab.

The same manual ships inside the download as a single offline HTML file, so you have it available without an internet connection.

Installation

SnapMove is a Blender extension. Drag the .zip into the Blender window, or use Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install from Disk. No dependencies, no build step, nothing to download separately.

The idea

Working with SnapMove usually flows in this order:

1. Which way — Pick on Surface sets the origin and the axis
2. Where to — Snap Session carries it from point to point
3. How much — Jog and Quick Rotate close the gap

You do not have to use all of it. Step 1 alone is already worth having. Once the origin and the axis sit where they should, Blender's own G and R take over from there. SnapMove does not replace the standard tools — it prepares the ground so the standard tools land where you want them.

Panel layout

• Start Snap Session — begins point-to-point snapping
• Shortcuts — key reference (leave it collapsed if you like)
• Pick Target — Pick on Surface and its options
• Local / World / Axis — the coordinate system used by Jog, Quick Rotate and axis constraints
• Continuous Jog — drag-based fine tuning
• Quick Rotate — fixed-angle rotation
• Utilities — aligning several objects, and single-object helpers

Pick on Surface

Press the button, then click. That is the whole operation. SnapMove reads the spot you clicked and sets the active object's origin and axis from it.

What you pick

• No modifier — face centre, aimed along the face normal
• Shift — edge midpoint, aimed along the edge
• Ctrl — vertex (a vertex has no direction, so only the position is taken)

Whatever sits under the cursor is highlighted: faces are filled, edges are drawn thick, and a cross marker shows the point that will be taken. The white line is the direction — that is where the axis will point.

What it does

• Move Origin (on by default) — moves the origin to the picked point
• Align Axis (on by default, Z) — aims the chosen axis along the picked direction
• Set Working Axis (on by default) — registers the custom orientation named SnapMove

Neither Move Origin nor Align Axis moves any geometry. The object looks exactly the same; only its origin and axes change.

Keys

• Left click — confirm
• Alt + left click — add another pick (several picks are averaged)
• Enter — confirm using the picks collected so far
• Right click / Esc — cancel
• Middle click / wheel — navigate the view, while the tool is running

To average several faces, keep adding picks with Alt + click; the orange markers accumulate. This lets you take the direction halfway between two bevelled faces, for example — the job you used to do by selecting several faces in Edit Mode.

Moving after a pick

Once the origin and the axis are in place, Blender's standard keys do the work:

• G, Z, Z — move along the normal you picked (pressing the axis key twice selects Local)
• R, Z, Z — rotate around that axis

The first press of an axis key still means the world axis. Nothing about your usual muscle memory changes.

About Set Working Axis

The direction you picked is registered as a Blender custom orientation named SnapMove, selectable from the orientation dropdown in the header.

By default it is only registered, never made active. Making it active would mean G then Z no longer points along world Z, which collides with the habits you already have. Turn on Make It Active if you do want it selected every time. The same orientation is what SnapMove's own Axis mode uses.

Snap Session

Start Snap Session enters a modal state. The first click sets the source point, the second sets the destination. The second click commits the move and ends the tool.

If you select an object before starting, that object is the one that moves. If nothing is selected, the first object you click becomes the target.

Once the source point is set, the object follows the mouse. You can watch the landing spot as you choose it, which makes “somewhere along here” placements — sliding along a construction line, for instance — practical. Right click or Esc returns it to where it started.

While the object is following the mouse, it is excluded from snapping to itself, otherwise it would chase its own geometry. The one exception is Distance Offset mode, where you are meant to take two points on the object itself.

Choosing what to snap to

• Ctrl — vertices
• Shift — edge midpoints
• No modifier — face centres

The same assignment as Pick on Surface.

Axis constraints

Available once the source point is set.

• X, Y, Z — restrict movement to that axis; an infinite guide line appears
• Shift + X, Y, Z — lock that axis and move in the plane (Shift+Z gives the XY plane)

When the panel's coordinate system is set to Axis, the constraint follows the working axis you picked, not the world axis.

Leaving markers

E or Space drops an Empty at the cursor. They are collected in the helper_V collection, and the panel's Select All / Delete All handle them in bulk. Useful for keeping intermediate results while working out a complicated position.

Cancelling

Right click or Esc. While choosing the destination this returns you to choosing the source point; press again to leave the tool.

Tune

Coordinate system

• Local — the object's own axes
• World — world axes
• Axis — the working axis you picked

This setting is shared by Jog, Quick Rotate and the snap axis constraints. If Axis is selected but nothing has been picked yet, the tools fall back to world axes and the panel says so.

Continuous Jog

Press and drag the Rotate Jog / Move Jog buttons to move continuously along that axis.

• The wheel changes sensitivity mid-drag, so a coarse move and the fine adjustment after it are one continuous gesture
• An infinite axis line is drawn while dragging
• Esc or a right click during the drag restores the state from before it started

Quick Rotate

Fixed rotations of 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 90 degrees. The upper row is positive, the lower row negative.

Utilities

Aligning several objects

The active object, the one selected last, is the reference.

• Match Rotation — rotates the selected objects to match the active one; the geometry turns with them
• Match Axis — matches only the local axes; nothing appears to move
• Match Origin — matches only the origin position; nothing appears to move

Single object

• Reset Rotation — clears the rotation, same as Alt+R
• Apply Rotation — applies the rotation
• Origin to Center — moves the origin to the centre of the bounding box

Advanced modes

These live inside a snap session and are not part of everyday work. They exist for rigging linkages and for precise positioning that needs construction geometry.

R — Rotation Mode

Three-point rotation: “pivot here, grab this handle, bring it over there.”

1. Press R
2. Click the pivot
3. Click the handle
4. Move to the target and click

A ghost shows the result of the rotation. When the mouse is over a face or an edge, it snaps automatically to the intersection with the rotation's path. X, Y, Z change the rotation axis, and T toggles tangent snapping. Every update is recomputed from the starting orientation, so no amount of mouse movement makes the shape drift.

L — Link Mode

Rotates two arms at given radii and connects them at their intersection. Intended for rigging linkages such as excavator arms.

1. Press L
2. BASE A (first rotation axis), then RADIUS A (a point that sets the radius)
3. BASE B (second rotation axis), then RADIUS B
4. X / Y / Z choose the plane of the calculation; Z, the XY plane, is the usual choice
5. Click the intersection that appears, and both objects rotate into place

C — Circle Center Mode

Click three points and SnapMove finds the centre of the circle through them. Use it for the mouth of a pipe or the centre of a hole: a cross-section has no face to take a centre from, but three points on the rim give the exact centre.

D — Distance Offset Mode

Click two points and the object moves by the distance between them — “shift it by the same amount as this gap.” Select the object you want to move first.

A — Assist Mode (construction geometry)

Draws construction lines and circles in space and lets you snap to their intersections. This is the CAD-style drafting layer.

• Two clicks — a construction line through both points
• Alt + click on an edge — a construction line along that edge
• C then two clicks — a construction circle (centre, then radius)
• X — delete the construction line or circle near the cursor
• Shift — snap onto the construction line itself and slide along it
• A — leave construction mode and return to normal snapping

Construction lines are placed at exact 3D positions. Trace an edge and you get that edge's extension itself, still true when you change the viewpoint.

Construction circles are built on a plane parallel to the screen, because two clicks do not determine which plane the circle lies on. Draw those while looking straight at the plane you have in mind.

One consequence of the lines being genuinely 3D: two lines that merely appear to cross on screen do not produce an intersection. They have to be close to each other in space.

Sliding along the extension of an edge

Press A, then Alt + click on the edge you want as a reference — an infinite construction line appears along it. Now hold Shift and move the mouse: the cursor snaps onto that line and slides along it, with the object following. Click at the position you want to commit.

Draw two construction lines and you can also snap to their intersection — “where the extension of this edge meets the extension of that one.”

If all you need is the direction, when you only want to move parallel to an edge, there is another route: pick the edge with Shift + click in Pick on Surface, set the coordinate system to Axis, and use an axis constraint. That way is exact and does not depend on the viewpoint.

Limitations

Object Mode only

SnapMove does not run in Edit Mode. Picking faces, edges and vertices — and averaging several of them — is all done from Object Mode by design.

Shared mesh data is refused

On linked duplicates (Alt+D) and objects with linked library data, operations that change the origin or the axes are stopped. They edit the mesh data itself, so running them would deform every other object using that same data. Run Object > Relations > Make Single User > Object & Data first.

Children

Moving the origin preserves the world positions of child objects. Shape keys are transformed along with the mesh.

Troubleshooting

The Pick on Surface button is greyed out

• Are you in Object Mode?
• Is a mesh object selected?

It refuses to run and reports “shared/linked mesh data”

That is the shared mesh limitation above. Make the object a single user.

G then Z no longer means world Z

Make It Active is on, so the custom orientation takes priority. Turn it off to get the standard behaviour back.

It snaps to something other than what I aimed at

• Check which modifier you are holding: Ctrl for a vertex, Shift for an edge, nothing for a face
• For small features, move the view a little closer before clicking

Empties get in the way of picking a face

Empties are given snapping priority within a certain radius so they are easy to hit on screen. Move the viewpoint, or delete the helper_V Empties.

License

GPL v2 or later. Copyright © 2026 hinata_hugu. The full licence text is included in the download.