Trying to move origins and using shortcuts that stop working

Going through the snapping section in the Blender 3D modelling class for beginner. At one point, the teacher uses the A key to select all parts of the model in edit mode to move it so that he can align the origin near the bottom of the houses, but for me, the period key to center object and a key to select all are very inconsistent regardless of mode. Often the A key just selects my entire scene regardless of what object I have selected, other times it seemingly refuses to select the object itself and only others, preventing me from being able to move the initial object I wanted to transform to help position the origin properly. The period hotkey will also not center my view on my selected object sometimes in both object and edit mode. Is there anything I’m doing wrong, or any common setting that would cause these behaviors? I’ve been trying to fix origin points for about an hour with the same problem cropping up over and over with minimal success.

2 Likes

General Q&A note

Help us all to help you.
Please give full screenshots with any questions. With the relevant panels open.
This can be done by Blender itself, via the ‘Window’ menu bar top left-hand side.
On that menu dropdown is ‘save screenshot’.


Yes, Blender hot-key depends on what mode you are! Object mode, edit mode etc.
Then, IT DEPENDS ALSO in which panel your mouse resides. The active panel is the panel where your mouse hovers.

Use period key on your numpad.

Check if you are in EDIT or OBJECT mode.

3 Likes

Thank you. It seemed I was using tab to switch modes, and tab stopped switching modes, so I was doing operations in the wrong mode as well, which was part of the problem I was facing. I don’t remember where my mouse was at the time, but it may have also contributed to hotkeys not doing the expected behaviors. I took it from the top very slowly for like the 5th time and finally got the method shown in the video to work, with the help of very laborious note taking.

4 Likes

It easy to make mistake, while following the instructions.
Try to see/learn what Blender is trying to do when you use a hot-key.
How things are related! Which is difficult in the beginning!

Like scaling, for example, scale in object mode is something different than scaling the mesh. While visually looks the same, internally in Blender different outcomes.

With doing more little projects, it will lead to more knowledge and less “strange” Blender behaviors.

Have fun!

1 Like

It is the sort of thing once you have been using Blender for a while you are just so used to you forget others new to it may not realise, or note it enough from it being mentioned in lectures. Cursor needs to be over the section you are wanting the tools to work in.

Yup! This is one of the very few times I felt Grant missed the mark in his explanations of things in this course, likely because…

Tab actually doesn’t toggle between Object and Edit Mode as Grant suggests; instead, it attempts to bring you into whatever previous mode you were in, and it doesn’t always work. Personally, I’d advise only using the dropdown menu, for exactly this reason. Glad you worked through it!

1 Like

Yes 90% of the time I would be edit/object mode. Otherwise when it annoyingly fails to be telepathic I use the dropdown too. lol.

1 Like

Many hotkeys have multiple uses!
It depends on which panel you are working on, which relates to where your mouse lives!

Like the Numpad dot (.), it has a different function for the 3D viewport, and for example the outliner panel (show the current select items if not in view).

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 20 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

Privacy & Terms