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How to Use

Getting Started

To get started, simply use Blender as you usually would, transforms will be automatically constrained to a plane based on your view angle.

To toggle automatic constraints you can press the ac_on icon in the top bar. Alternatively you can use the shortcut Shift+Alt+X. This can be configured in add-on preferences, see Hotkeys

UI cheatsheet (click to expand)

cheatsheet

Constraint Plane

By default transformations will be constrained to a 2D plane based on:

  • The viewing angle in the 3D viewport
  • The selected transform orientation

The automatic plane will be in the selected transform orientation based on the most perpendicular axes to the view angle:

moving_cube

Specifying The Constraint Plane

To always use the same constraint-plane you can specify planes directly from the toolbar. These options will be in the dropdown if you are using the compact toolbar.

  • Constrain to the automatic plane
  • Constrain to the XY plane
  • Constrain to the XZ plane
  • Constrain to the YZ plane

To better tell the planes apart by their icons, there is an option in the add-on preferences to use colored icons: color_icons

It is possible to assign hotkeys to specific planes, see Hotkeys

Constraint Plane Orientation

When specifying a constraint plane, constraints are applied directly to the current transform orientation. You can change it so that the specified constraint plane is in global space and constraints will use best matching plane.

plane_orientation

  • Transform Axis: Use specified constraint plane directly
  • Closest to Global: Use the closest plane in the current transform orientation to the specified plane in global space

Constraint Axes

You can override the constraint planes altogether by specifying individual axes. These constraints are always applied directly to the current transform orientation.

override_constraints

To go back to constraint planes, simply toggle all axes off.
It is possible to assign hotkeys to specific axis combinations, see Hotkeys

Transform Tools

Specify which transform tools are constrained when constraints are on. For simplicity Move includes duplicate-move and duplicate-move-linked.

Extrude Tools

Specify which extrude operations are constrained when constaints are on. For simplicity Edge/Vert will affect curves and bones too (the option will be re-named when in those edit modes)