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I would like to know how to change the increments used for snapping transforms. This would be useful in a number of situations but my problem now is that when I change the units it does not scale the snapping increments to match. So when holding down ctrl the cube snaps from here:

enter image description here

To here:

enter image description here

I would like it to snap to the 1 foot grid, or possibly any other amount I find useful. It would also be nice to be able to change the rotation snap as well.

PGmath
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7 Answers7

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If you hold ⇧ Shift while snapping, then it will snap in smaller increments:

enter image description here

Or if you view from an aligned view such as top ortho (Numpad 7), the snapping increments will be equal to the grid subdivisions (which change with zoom level):

enter image description here

gandalf3
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    Thanks for the answer gamdalf3. So I gather it is impossible to manually change the snap amount to some arbitrary useful amount? And likewise for the rotation snap? – PGmath Sep 15 '14 at 20:31
  • @PGmath Not that I know of.. But you can specify the amount to rotate/translate numerically, e.g. G+Z+= 6" will translate the object 6 inches up on the Z axis. – gandalf3 Sep 16 '14 at 02:07
  • Can we conclude that holding shift+ctrl+ snaps to a tenth of the ctrl+ snap? – Steven May 03 '18 at 13:31
  • @TavernSenses That seems to be how it works, yes. I haven't looked at the internals to be sure though. – gandalf3 May 03 '18 at 21:09
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Snapping will use the resolution of the displayed grid, so you have to change the scale of that.

You can do that in the Properties Shelf (press N). Open Display rollout and change the scale of the grid. (For example if you use Metric system, type 0.01 and Blender will snap things to centimeters).

Mr Zak
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Tee Jey Jeytee84
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    So 0.001 will snap to things to millimeters. No, it doesn't. In fact, the display scale appears to have no influence on snapping whatsoever. – Steven May 03 '18 at 13:23
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As of the latest release, the 2.73 release candidate, it seems that when the scene units are set to imperial it will snap by feet instead of blender units at all times (when Ctrl is pressed). This holds true even in perspective view mode.

But it seems to still be impossible to change the snapping increment to a custom value.

PGmath
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  • this is still the case as of 3.3.0. there doesn't seem to be a way to define the increment, no matter the units you're using or the unit scale. – takecare Sep 28 '22 at 16:12
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Create a Snap Template made of vertices according to the desired offset in a separate Mesh object, then snap to those with snapping mode set to Vertex.

I would also make one that is spaced one unit apart. Then for quick edits to this, you could scale it. If I needed 1/8 I could scale the template down by that factor and use it at those increments, then I could reset it by scaling it back up 8 times.

enter image description here

Rick Riggs
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You can change the scene units, in the properties window. By default blender is in blender units which is the same as meters, but if you change it to Imperial grid snapping will snap to the new imperial grid only if you are in one of the views front, top, left, ect.

David
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Blender snaps to the displayed grid. Changing the scale of the displayed grid is answered at this other answer. The method of doing so changed around blender version 2.7,

Christopher Pratt
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Turn on "absolute grid snapping" then go to Scene > Units and adjust the "Unit scale" property. Higher values will make the increments smaller.

Polybius
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