CAD Like Transform Addon

September 13, 2020June 20, 2021 New Media Supply 0 Comments Snapping

With the CAD Like Transform Addon we can precisely define how we want to snap during a grab, scale or rotation. Snap from the center of a face, center from edge? Or scale an object where you can define to scale from where to where as if you set temporally the origin point to a vertex? That all is possible, and with ease with this addon. And that’s just the basics.

What else I like about the addon is that it doesn’t occupy the N-Panel. Instead it shows up as a tool in the Toolbar. Another benefit of this is that any shortcut the addon is using, it’s not interfering with the rest of Blender’s shortcuts. This because the shortcuts get only active when you activate the tool in the tool-shelf (T-Panel)

How the CAD Like Transform works – The very basics

In short this is the very basics of how the addon works (Add two cubes in the scene first to practise):

Press T to open the Toolshelf. Click the icon CAD.
Select one of the cubes.
Decide what you want to do: G(grab), S(scale), R(rotate).
What snapping mode you want to use: V(vertex), E(Edge), Shift+E(center of edge), F(face), Shift+F(center of face), G(grid), P(perpendicular), N(Normal), O(Origin).
From. Move the mouse to the point where you want to start the operation. (Vertex, edge of center, etc). And click.
To. Do the same (move the mouse) but now to define a second point. This means like: where you want to grab to, or rotate around what direction, or scale to where.
Left click to confirm.

Those are the basics, and I suggest to play around with that until you get that into the muscle memory. But there is more. One of the first things you want to know is that during a Grab, Rotate of Scale you can clear the snapping mode by pressing space bar and define again what the snapping mode is. You can also combine snapping modes.

Another thing that is handy, is that you can always move around the object in your viewport with the middle mouse button. You can do this during the operations

Tutorials for the CAD Like Transform:

To get familiar with the CAD Like Transform Addon, you can also watch this amazing tutorial which shows you the basics without any bla bla:

Excellent tutorial about the basics of the CAD like transfom!

The Shortcuts of the addon.

Tools

Snap Modes

Constraints

Shortcuts for Contstraints - CAD Like Transform Addon — Shortcuts for Contstraints

Options

Advanced use of addon – Video’s

There are more video’s available which cover the CAD Like Transform Addon in more depth:

And there is also a video in Portuguese (brazilian):

Where to get the addon

You can get the CAD like transform on Gumroad. It’s free, but the addon is so well done, and the the developer did an awesome job, so if you consider to pay anything you like the developer will be encouraged to continue his activities.

You can also read more about the addon on Blender Artists. Interesting to note is that the addon is made by Stephen Leger who is the developer of the Archipack addon.