Move object to central reference point

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am a complete newbie to 3ds. 

I have inherited a 3d model of a ship and I would like to move the 0,0,0 origin of the model to a very specific point in space. 

My ship, in reality, (not model), has a coordinate reference system of which I want to match the model to. Unfortunately i do not know the current model origin point in my vessel CRS, but i think I can create a point on the model that I do know in my vessel CRS.

So,

Can I create a single point within/around the model, snapping to the edge and centre of an object?

Can I then move the whole group of objects, ie entire ship, giving this new point a specific XYZ?

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks in advance,

Marc

[Anonymous]

I think you are probably talking about pivot points. If you need to manage several objects at same time sometimes is also convenient to group them first

[Anonymous]

Ok thanks KarlAkimor.

So does the pivot point also become 0,0,0 in X,Y,Z?

[Anonymous]

The world has a global coordinates and that is not going to change. If you want the center of your object become the center of the coordinates, then you need to move the object to that center, ensuring the pivot is in the center of the object.

What you can do is to manipulate objects and pivots based in local coordinates also. But this is not going to affect the world coordinates. World coordinates will be used when importing, exporting etc. and in many operations.

[Anonymous]

ok yes it sounds like it's the world coordinate I want to change then, as I am interested in exporting the model.

Could you kindly advise,

How i can identify the centre of current world coordinates?

How can i see the current world coordinates of object sides/faces/intersections etc?

How to move for example a corner of an object to a specific world coordinate? ie not the centre 0,0,0 but 1,1,1 for example.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

The grid will give you a reference. The center is in the cross of the two black lines. You can see the grid with the letter G

If you use the move tool you will see in the bottom the coordinates of the pivot of the object. If you right click in the spinner of each number it will reset it to 0 and will move the object to the center.

This works also with subobjects as faces, points etc

If you have several objects selected instead one this won't work. You need to group them first and will move them in reference to his common pivot.

Notice that pivots are not necessarily always in the center of the object but they will be used as reference to move the object. You can edit the pivot  in the pivot section of the command panel and center the pivot to the object if needed. Remember to leave the edit pivot after that or you will be moving the pivot instead the object.

You can also align the pivot to a sub object or selection of sub objects. Then any transformation of the object will use that pivot.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply KarlAkimor.

There's a lot to comprehend there on a Sunday morning 🙂

But before i play with my model I will have a go with a simple shape as per your example.

Many thanks,

Marc