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After moving some objects particularly along the Z axis I would like to be able to snap them back to their original position. I have found a previous thread for 'snapping' an object back to it's original after using the rotate tool but cannot work out how to bring an object back to its original position especially on the Z axis.

John Arnold
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1 Answers1

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Resetting all Transform values to 0 is Alt+G for location, Alt+R for rotation and resetting scale to 1 is Alt+S. After performing these three steps Transform location will be (0, 0, 0), rotation (0, 0, 0) and scale (1, 1, 1).

To set it back to a different location/rotation/scale, these differing values should be set in the Delta Transform properties of the object. Delta or Δ stands for (among other things) "difference" in mathematics and means in this case the divergence from the "normal" Transform properties.

Looking at this cube, it has a Transform location and a Delta Transform location. They have to be added together to get the actual world location of the cube (or multiplied for scale):

world location

In case your object has Delta Transforms, then resetting the Transform values will result in (0, 0, 0) + Δ(x, y, z). So this way your object resets to a location different from the world origin.

Now, moving an object by hitting G only changes the Transform location, not the Delta Transform. If you moved an object to a location which should be its new "original" location, then you can apply these transforms with Ctrl+A > Apply > All Transforms to Deltas. In the options you can then also choose if you want to apply all transforms or just Location, Rotation or Scale and if you want to reset the normal transforms.

After doing it you can see that now the Transform location of the cube is reset to (0, 0, 0) while the new Delta Transform location is (7, 2, 1). This is its new "original" location. When you move the cube with G, resetting the transform with Alt+G moves it back to (7, 2, 1).

location delta transforms

Gordon Brinkmann
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  • Thanks heaps. The method I found in another thread for setting rotation is Object > Transform > Align to Transform Orientation. I used it and it seemed to work. How is that different from Alt + R? – John Arnold May 19 '21 at 08:03
  • @JohnArnold Well, Alt + R is resetting values to (global) 0, aligning to a transform orientation can set it to any transform orientation you choose. If it's set to Global than it's usually the same as Alt + R, but in Blender you can define custom orientations, e.g. setting it to the normal of a face which is rotated randomly. In this case aligning it to the custom orientation can set it to a very different rotation than Alt + R. – Gordon Brinkmann May 19 '21 at 08:10
  • @JohnArnold You might consider accepting the answer. Or is there more help I can give you with this? – Gordon Brinkmann May 19 '21 at 10:09
  • @JohnArnold Please read here: What should I do when someone answers my question? – Gordon Brinkmann May 19 '21 at 20:52
  • Thanks Gordon. It was nice to find that out (accepting an answer) as I had never noticed that before. I looked for a method to CLOSE the thread as most forums around seem to have but didn't find it. I am now informed and will look at my other threads and do the same where appropriate. Looking back on other threads some had an 'answer' (with screen shots etc) and some 'comments' (just text yet still an answer as far as I was concerned). I am now 'educated' and will be more careful. – John Arnold May 19 '21 at 23:22
  • @JohnArnold Well, many people don't know... nobody ever takes the tour, right? ;) But anyway, telling people to accept an answer sometimes feels inept because it looks like one only wants to get the reputation points. But it's often better and rather the goal of this site to show people who might have the same problem that there has been found a solution. And the algorithms here keep bumping up older questions if there is still no accepted answer, which is a bit frustrating sometimes if you going to help with some problem and see the best solutions has actually already been found long ago. – Gordon Brinkmann May 20 '21 at 08:44
  • @JohnArnold Now the problem is only who asked can accept the answer, usually he's the only one to decide if it helped. But a lot of people ask and maybe stay around for the answer but are then gone so those answers will never be accepted, I guess. Comments are supposed to be informative, maybe give hints or ask for details to clarify questions - not for long discussions (what I'm doing now, sorry) and not for full acceptable answers because this site is meant to be clear and straight forward - there are questions and answers. Of course sometimes comments can provide or point to answers. – Gordon Brinkmann May 20 '21 at 08:53
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    @JohnArnold What you can do now like this case with the UV faces - one way is to ask the respondent Jachym to put this as a full-fledged answer so you can accept it, or, let's say you have a comment which showed you the right direction but doesn't qualify as the real answer, you can even answer your own question to show how you found the solution. This still helps others who might come across the same problem. And after some time ( I think 48 hours) you can accept your own answer. You don't get reputation points for answering your own, but at least people see there is a solution. – Gordon Brinkmann May 20 '21 at 09:01