3d cursor help

[roger]

I am creating a very simple model and want to add a new poygon (a roof surface on a house) that snaps to two existing (eave) vertices. I have nearsnap turned on. However I can never get the polygon to snap to the correct (or indeed any) vertices). I suspect that in 3d terms I am too far away. But how do I move the 3d cursor. There is a comment in the manual under Spheres, Boxes,etc that mentions holding down the alt key whilst dragging. But this does not seem to have the desired effect (any) when in polygon mode.Surely there is a way of changing the the other axis co-ordinate whist in an ortho window. What am I missing.

Roger

[Andy]

In move/size mode, holding down alt and dragging the mouse with the left mouse button will reposition the 3D cursor. The 3D cursor is used to specify the missing coordinate like you say.

(so for nearsnap to work like you want, you would line up the 3d cursor with the plane of points you want to snap to. Nearsnap looks in all three dimensions for the nearest point within the distance specified in File->settings)

HOWEVER, from experience, most people (including me) never use the 3D cursor at all because it's so easy to make things and then reposition them afterwards.

Andy

[roger]

Thanks Andy,

I think I have worked it out now. Single left click in a window with alt pressed does the trick. But I do seem to be able to confuse it quite easlily. I end up with a number of stationary small crosses in the windows and two large ones, one purple coloured. At that point I usually get a "tell Andy" message.

Roger

[Rune]

At that point I usually get a "tell Andy" message.

:D Very amusing. I guess we'll be trying to track this one down.