How to move origin blender

Object Origin¶

Each object has an origin point. The location of this point determines where the object is located in 3D space. When an object is selected, a small circle appears, denoting the origin point. The location of the origin point is important when translating, rotating or scaling an object. See Pivot Points for more.

The color of the origin is set by the State Colors and in light blue to denote library linkage on both the source and the linked object. The size can be changed in the Interface tab of the User Preferences.

Set Origin¶

The Object Origin and Geometry can be moved relative to each other and to the 3D Cursor.

Type Geometry to Origin Moves the model to the origin and this way the origin of the object will also be at the center of the object. Origin to Geometry Moves the origin to the center of the object and this way origin of the object will also be at the center of the object. Origin to 3D Cursor Moves the origin of the model to the position of the 3D cursor. Origin to Center of Mass Moves the origin to the calculated center of mass of model (assuming the mesh has a uniform density). Center Median Point Center, Bounding Box Center

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If you are anything like me you jumped straight in when you started learning about Blender. Not too long into the learning experience you might have realized that you need some help with basics, centering objects, origins and pivot points is probably one of them if you came across this page. So how do we center these things?

To center an object to the scene, press «Shift+S» and choose «Cursor to world center». Then select your object and press «Shift+S» again. This time choose «Selection to cursor».

In this example we used the 3D cursor to move the object to the center of the scene. In the rest of this article we will continue to explore alternative ways to center objects, origins and the pivot points.

What is the difference between object, origin and pivot point?

Object, origin and pivot point are three different things in Blender.

The object is a container. It contains all the data that an object holds. For instance, it holds the mesh that we access when we tab into edit mode. The mesh, or geometry, is different from the object. It is just contained inside it.

The object has an origin point. This is a single point in space that represents the position of the object. We see it as a yellow dot in the 3D viewport.

The pivot point is different. This is the point we do transformations around. By default, the pivot point is set to the selected objects’ origin. But we can change this to be a number of different positions.

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How to center an object in Blender?

To center an object in Blender we follow these steps.

We can also center the cursor with Shift+C. This shortcut will also center our camera on the scene at the same time. Giving us a sense of the scale of our scene.

We can use the 3D cursor to move our object to any precise location by following these steps:

This way we can center our object to anything that we can select. But some locations can’t be selected, like the world origin that we center to in the first example.

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Center multiple objects

We can center multiple objects at once. We will use the same procedure as outlined above. Hold shift and select multiple objects and then press Shift+S and select «selection to cursor».

By default, Blender will take all the selected objects and stack them on top of each other at the position of the 3D cursor.

If we don’t want to stack the objects, but instead want to center them as a group as if it was a single object. Essentially moving the median point of the selected objects. Then we can press F9 to open the operator panel at the mouse cursor position after we moved the selection to 3D cursor. We then get a single «offset» checkbox. Check it to move the objects as a group.

Center object to another object

If we want to center an object to another object, we move the 3D cursor to that object by selecting it and pressing Shift+S, choose cursor to selection, then hit shift+S again and choose object to cursor.

By now I am sure you see the pattern. Since Shift+S opens a pie menu we can choose the menu entry just by moving the mouse and release the shortcut. As you do this more and more you will learn to do this very quickly.

How to center an objects’ origin in Blender?

If we need to move the objects’ origin to the center of the object we select the object, right click and go to «Set origin→Origin to geometry».

We can also choose «Origin to 3D cursor». Since we can move the 3D cursor to any selection with the Shift+S pie menu, and move the mouse to the 6’o clock position we have a large set of options.

For instance, we may need to set the origin point at the floor level of an object. In that case we go into edit mode, select one or more faces at the bottom of the object press Shift+S and set the 3D cursor to selection. Then we tab back to object mode, right click and set the origin to 3D cursor.

We can also use this if we have an object like a door, and we want to rotate the door to open it. We can use the origin point to rotate around to open and close the door in an animation.

We can also manipulate the origin directly if we to go the top right corner of the 3D viewport and hit options we can check «origins». With this checkbox, we can use any transformation tool to move the origin independently. A faster way to toggle between regular transformation and origin only is with Ctrl+.. That is a period.

This enables us to also use the regular snapping tool that you can read more about here.

How to center the pivot point in Blender?

To center the pivot point to an objects’ origin, find the pivot point menu in the middle of the header of the 3D viewport and choose «Median point». Make sure you are in Object mode and your transformations will be in relation to toe objects’ origin.

When choosing our pivot point we have a few different options. The same pivot point system is used in both Object and edit mode. These are our options:

The most common pivot points are Median point, Individual origins and 3D cursor. Depending on our needs we can use these to center the pivot point to any element.

If we need to transform from the center of a single element, like a face or edge, we can use median point. This is the default pivot point option and is suitable for the most common transformations. It will always transform from the center of our selection.

If we have multiple non-connected elements that we want to transform around their own center individually, we can set pivot point to «Individual origins».

The 3D cursor is our best option when we need to transform from a specific point. We can place the 3D cursor with the Shift+S menu in this case.

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Related questions

How do I align two or more objects on a specific axis?

Select the objects, go to object→Transform→Align objects. From the operator panel you can set the axis and properties for the alignment.

How can I align the view to a face?

Go into edit mode, select the face and press Shift+Numpad 7.

How can I create a custom orientation?

Go to edit mode, make a selection and go to the orientation menu in the 3D viewport header. Press the plus button and a new orientation will get added to the list based on your selection.

Object OriginпѓЃ

Each object has an origin point. The location of this point determines where the object is located in 3D space. When an object is selected, a small circle appears, denoting the origin point. The location of the origin point is important when translating, rotating or scaling an object. See Pivot Points for more.

The color of the origin changes based on the selection state of the object.

Object is active.

Object is selected, but not active.

Object is not linked and not selected.

Object is linked.

Object is selected, linked, but not active.

Colors are themeable and might appear different. The colors described here are from the default Dark Theme.

Set OriginпѓЃ

Object ‣ Set Origin

The object origin and geometry can be moved relative to each other and to the 3D cursor.

Type Geometry to Origin

Moves the model to the origin and this way the origin of the object will also be at the center of the object.

Origin to Geometry

Moves the origin to the center of the object.

Origin to 3D Cursor

Moves the origin of the model to the position of the 3D cursor.

Origin to Center of Mass

Moves the origin to the calculated center of mass of model (assuming the mesh has a uniform density).

Median Point Center, Bounding Box Center

To transform an object’s origin directly, enable Origins in the Pivot Point popover.

© Copyright : This page is licensed under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 Int. License. Last updated on 08/15/2022.

Change pivot or local origin of an object

How can I change the local origin of an object, without changing the object location in the world space.

This is the object located at position (0,0,0) in the world space

This is the same object located at position (0,1,0) in the world space, but with its local origin offset so that the object is in the same place

Is there a way to do this in a single step?

4 Answers 4

One way to do this is by entering Edit mode and placing the 3D cursor where you want the new origin. (When doing this, you can be very precise by selecting vertices, edges or faces and using them as guides. If you pick several points and snap the cursor to them using Shift + S → Cursor to Selected, Blender will use the average of the selected points to determine the new location of the cursor).

You then go back to Object mode and use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + C → Origin to 3D Cursor to update or change the object origin to the location of the 3D cursor.

For 2.9+ you need to go to Object Menu, and select Set Origin > Origin to 3D Cursor.

How to change the objects ORIGIN in Blender

Introduction – ¿What is the origin of an object?

The origin of an object in Blender is the point in space that represents the whole object, for example if we want to say the exact position where the object is, we will use the position of the origin. Furthermore, transformations like position changes, rotations and scale will be calculated relative to the origin coordinate. The origin of a 3D model is a concept that is used throughout different design software, for example if we export our Blender model to Unity, the origin of the model that is defined in Blender will be the origin of the object in Unity. For these reasons it is important to know how to change the origin of an object in Blender, placing it where we think it is more convenient. In the following video I explain two ways to do this.

MODIFY ORIGIN
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How to know where the origin of an object is in Blender

The origin of an object in Blender is represented by a yellow dot, below we see a cube, a torus and a cylinder with their respective origins.

Working Modes – Object Mode and Edit Mode

In Blender we can work in different modes, two of them in particular are the object mode and the edit mode, with the TAB key we can switch between both (if we have at least one object selected). In the object mode as its name indicates we will work with objects, that is, we will not take into account the geometry of the object itself, but its basic transformations, such as position, rotation and scale, and here the origin is important to represent the object in space. When we move, rotate or scale the object, we will be doing it in relation to its origin point.

In the object mode we can know the exact position of the origin point in the transformation panel (shortcut “N” if it is not visible), as we see in figure 5, in the tab Item, we can see the location of the origin, its rotation and its scale and of course we can manually enter values in these fields, positioning precisely an object or giving it a certain orientation or size.

In Edit mode (figure 6), on the other hand, we get inside the object and we can see and modify its geometry, that is, the vertices, edges and faces that conform the mesh. In this mode we can create new faces and do all kind of geometrical transformations but the origin remains in the same location, unless we explicitly modify it.

In figure 7 as you can see, all the vertices of the cylinder was selected and have been moved, the origin point however remains in place, if we compare it with the cylinder in figure 3.

How to modify the origin of an object in Blender using the 3D cursor

After understanding what the origin of the 3D object is and what it is used for, we will see how to modify the origin’s position to any point in space. To do this we will help us with the 3D Cursor.

First we will see how to position the 3D Cursor exactly where we want, for that we will see three examples, the first is to position the 3D Cursor in the center of a face, on a vertex or in the center of an edge.

Placing the 3D Cursor in the center of a face in Blender

Giving a certain object, we go to the edit mode and select a face from the mesh(with the faces mode, shortcut “3” or by selecting the vertices that define it). Once we have the face selected we use the shortcut “SHIFT+S” to open the SNAP menu, as we see in figure 8, this menu gives us many options, but the one that interests us at this moment is to move the 3D Cursor to the current selection, as we have the face selected, the result is that the 3D cursor is moved to the geometric center of the face, as we see in figure 9.

Placing the 3D Cursor on a Vertex in Blender

If we repeat the process but this time having only one vertex selected, the 3D Cursor will be positioned on that vertex, see figure 11.

Placing the 3D Cursor in the center of an edge in Blender

And if we do the process again but this time having an edge selected (two vertices), we see how the 3D Cursor moves to the center of that edge, see figure 13.

With practice, using one of these three techniques or a combination of them we will be able to position the 3D Cursor at any point of interest in the object or in the world.

How to move the origin to the 3D cursor in Blender

Now that we have the 3D cursor placed in the position where we want to move the origin’s object we will proceed exiting the Edit Mode and entering the Object Mode, then right click on the object, go to the “Set Origin” option and choose the “Origin to 3D Cursor” option (figure 14), this will make the object’s origin move to the current position of the 3D Cursor.

As we can see in figure 15, the yellow point that represents the origin has been moved to the center of the edge where the 3D Cursor was located, from now on, the transformations made in object mode will be calculated with respect to that new origin, as we can see in figure 16, a rotation restricted to the X axis is made and the result is that the origin point remains fixed and the rest of the object rotates around it.

Conclusion

The origin of an object is important because it defines the position of the object in the world and the transformations that are made on it, in general will be calculated with respect to the origin.

It is possible to modify the origin of a 3D object and position it where is more convenient according to the object, for example if it is a helix, it is convenient that the origin of the object is in the rotation axis of the helix, this way, when we rotate the piece, the result will be a natural rotation for that object.