In this short tutorial, we’ll see how to place one object on the surface of another in Blender using the Snap tool in Face Project mode.
Video Transcript
Hello everyone! In this short tutorial, we’ll see how to place one object on the surface of another in Blender using the Snap tool in Face Project mode. We won’t just stick to the textbook case, but we’ll also look at a couple of more specific solutions.
Let’s start with the simplest case and the settings that are common to all situations. The basic case assumes that the Origin of the object we want to place on another is located on the face that serves as its base.
In this case, it’s enough to activate the Snap tool by clicking on the magnet icon in the header of the 3D View, then selecting the Face Project and Align Rotation to Target options.
Once that’s done, we can move the first object to place it on the second one.
However, if the Origin of the object we want to place is not located at what should be its base, then the Snap tool won’t give the expected result. In this case, we can proceed in two ways.
The first solution consists of moving the Origin of the object to the point we want to consider as its base. To do this, I switch to Edit Mode and first select the vertex or face I want to use as the object’s Origin.
I then press the shortcut SHIFT S and choose Cursor to Selected to place the 3D Cursor at that point.
After that, I switch back to Object Mode, right-click, and choose the Set Origin to 3D Cursor tool.
Now I can place the first object on the second one, this time achieving the desired result.
The second solution I’ll show you is a bit more elaborate, but it’s useful if for some reason you don’t want or can’t move the object’s Origin to the desired point. So, I’m resetting the Origin to the center of the object.
To put this into practice, I first add an Empty object to the scene.
With Snap enabled in the same way we saw earlier, I position the Empty at the point on the object that I want to consider as its base.
Once that’s done, I parent the object to the Empty like this: I first select the object, then I select the Empty using SHIFT and click to perform a multi-selection, making sure the Empty is the active object in the selection. Then I right-click and use the Parent Object tool.
The object keeps its original Origin, but is now parented to the Empty, so I can move the Empty and position it wherever I want.
If the object ends up positioned upside down, don’t worry. This happens because Snap places the Empty in such a way that its local Z axis, which corresponds to the vertical direction, is aligned with the direction of the face it’s placed on. More technically, the local Z axis of the Empty points in the same direction as the Normal of that face.
To fix this, simply set the Empty’s rotation to zero on all axes, then rotate it 180 degrees around the Y axis, press CTRL A, and choose Apply Rotation. This makes the local Z axis of the Empty point in the opposite direction from the base face of the object.
Now we can place the object on the surface by moving the Empty, while keeping the object’s Origin in its original position.
If, after positioning the object, you want to get rid of the Empty, first select the object, right-click, and choose Clear Parent and Keep Transformation from the Parent menu.
This way, the Empty and the object will be unlinked, and you’ll be able to delete the Empty while the object stays in the last position you placed it.
Alright, that’s it for this tutorial! I hope you found it useful! See you next time!