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These features are available in some CAD software packages. I haven't come across these features in Blender. Are they available as built-in features or add-ons?

I want to be able to build a model, return later on and edit an Edge or a Face such that it makes a certain angle with some reference.

iKlsR
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vangap
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  • Can anybody answer this one? I am really stuck here. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/312055/how-to-add-similar-slant-vertices-with-same-angle – Shivansh Bansal Feb 17 '24 at 06:24

4 Answers4

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As well as the ruler and protractor option that was added in blender 2.67, you can also display edge length and angles while you are editing.

In 2.80+ you can find the length and angle options in the viewport overlay options menu.

viewport overlay options

For v2.7x, you can turn on these options under the Mesh Display panel of the properties region - N

2.7x mesh display options

sambler
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  • For Blender 2.8 you now find this in Edit Mode under Viewport Overlays: https://i.stack.imgur.com/LsGJp.jpg (@sambler could you maybe add this as an update to your answer?) – flawr Nov 17 '19 at 14:33
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Well, while there might be scripts helping with that, there are at least workarounds:

you can rotate with numerical input, in this example hitting R,-30,RETURN. You can switch on Edge Info >> Face Angle to see what you are doing. And you can rotate around the 3D cursor so you can decide where your center of rotation is (.,, switches back).

An even newer solution would be to select the center vertex last with a shift-RMB and then switch to 'Active Element' as pivot point ALT.). Then you don't even need the 3D cursor for that.

If you need reusable functionality, you can consider using hooks or even armatures to control parts of the mesh from outside.

enter image description here

Gunslinger
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Haunt_House
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6

You can't enter an angle directly to define your edge angle. What you can do though is measuring the angle between two edges with the ruler tool.

Just enable the tool in the toolbar (T) in the edit mode and add 2 measurement points: On the first vertex of the first edge and on the last vertex of the second edge by hitting (Ctrl)+(LMB) and dragging your ruler. Snap them to the vertices by holding (Ctrl). Finally, drag the middle point of the ruler line and drag it to the connection of the two edges (snap it again with (Ctrl)). The angle will be immediately shown.

You can find the documentation here: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/3D_interaction/Sketching/Ruler_and_Protractor

plasmasolutions
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5

Mesh Align Plus (my addon) was designed to do this. Here's how you measure angles (via GIF, text steps below):

enter image description here

  • Select/Grab 2 points
  • Select/Grab another 2 points
  • Hit "Angle of Lines"

You can get to that panel in the 3D View > Tools Panel (T). Selection order is important (first selected is the "Start" of the line. Also, the points can be anything (mesh verts, 3D cursor, average vert position etc.).

Here's another GIF that shows how you can go back later, and match an angle to a measured reference (it's too big to direct link from imgur apparently):

Matching a measured angle (GIF)

Read more at the Wiki, under Measure and Calculate Stuff.

egtwobits
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  • How do I install that into Blender? – Niloufar Nov 06 '17 at 15:09
  • @Niloufar, go https://github.com/egtwobits/mesh-align-plus/releases and download the .py file (for v0.4 currently) in the downloads section, then stick it in your Blender Foundation\Blender\2.79\scripts\addons folder. – egtwobits Nov 09 '17 at 02:17