Hey guys I just came across this and thought I would share. One of the things I liked about wings was that you could move a face, vertice, or line along another elements normal path. This can be handy.  I did not think this was possible in Blender but came across a thread on Blender Artist that mentions this very thing. Just select what ever element you wish to copy the normal orientation from and hit Ctrl + Alt + Space Bar. This orientation is now added to the orientation menu at the bottom of the 3d viewport.  Always some thing new to learn. :)

Thanks. Bookmarked.

Nice find.

Merci!  This is of good use.

bet we all have "our" tricks that others might not know lol

blender is so complex you need to put a lot of effort into learning it all  

You are right heddheld so far most of my Blender knowledge is confined to just the modeller and  there is a bunch to learn even in that area. I need to come to grips with Cycles and I would like to learn the compositor and finally animation and rigging.

Thank you for sharing this trick

Cool.  I for one am glad you're so focused on the modeller.  That's the area most of the hotkeys apply, and are most difficult to remember.

Thanks for the encouragement max :)

one thing about this forum its often (not always) connected to poser/DS content (look in a unity forum's blender thread and its all about unity lol )

that alone changes the "mind set" of what you want/need to do (my bro likes unity and I make some models for him but the limits for polycount etc make it a lot harder then poser stuff!! although I did learn a lot about baking so not all bad)

then there's the route we all take to end up in blender , when working I was autocad (other) and CNC programs, we [hardly] ever draw a line we'd specify a start point and a end point then early retirement forced me to find free or cheap software to pursue this as a hobby. Think the first non-cad proggy I found was anim8or followed by poser (Carrara ~Bryce etc) then wings then hex and finally (after 2.5 lol ) blender. I often start a model these days with one vertex! couple of years ago I woulda said that's MAD but it does give better toppo !!

Maybe we should ask Lobo to make a sticky for hints tips and tricks ??

My fav tricks is have a multi button mouse and map your fav shortcuts to it (I have a R.A.T. and it takes care of loop cuts and merge with one thumb click (is more but there the most used ) so if your looking for a new mouse .......... get a multi button one

Fav tip is map the shortcut for simple subD (not the modifier the one on T panel) to backslash , hands there anyway ;-)

ps to add a shortcut hover mouse over button and add shortcut ~ hit the key you want ........ DONT FORGET to save preffs and BEFORE you make shortcuts make sure that key combo isn't already in use

have fun and keep on blending 

"Maybe we should ask Lobo to make a sticky for hints tips and tricks ??"

I was thinking the same thing.  Many years ago I frequented the Rhino forum and the co-ordinator would post "Command of the Day" type threads on a regular basis.  I think it would be a good idea to start something similar.  Anyone could post their tip or trick, and so long as the only posts were of this nature, then it would be easy to scan through the thread looking for that useful gem of a tip.  It would become cumbersome if there were the usual "great tip", "thanks for the tip", "that was really useful" etc type of replies so the posts would have to be confined just to the tips and tricks. 

"Maybe we should ask Lobo to make a sticky for hints tips and tricks ??"

I was thinking the same thing.  Many years ago I frequented the Rhino forum and the co-ordinator would post "Command of the Day" type threads on a regular basis.  I think it would be a good idea to start something similar.  Anyone could post their tip or trick, and so long as the only posts were of this nature, then it would be easy to scan through the thread looking for that useful gem of a tip.  It would become cumbersome if there were the usual "great tip", "thanks for the tip", "that was really useful" etc type of replies so the posts would have to be confined just to the tips and tricks. 

Great Idea and as request Tips & Tricks Sticky

Very cool thanks Lobo.

Very cool thanks Lobo.

Your welcome should had something like this a while ago 

I for one don't have an interest in modelling specifically for Poser, but I'll probably use the models I make in scenes where Poser characters exist.  I don't render in Poser, so I usually just pose, and export the character to a render engine anyway (unless I'm animating).  I want to learn how to make the same sorts of objects in Blender that I did in 3dsmax, and most of that is hardsurface and high poly.

The only forums on Rendo I frequent are 3dsmax, the 3D Modelling forum, and now this one.  A sticky of the tips and tricks threads will be handy, and much appreciated.  There's plenty of tips in the other threads I participated in that could go in there.  I'll look back on them and add them, with appropriate credits, to the new sticky if that's ok.

I for one don't have an interest in modelling specifically for Poser, but I'll probably use the models I make in scenes where Poser characters exist.  I don't render in Poser, so I usually just pose, and export the character to a render engine anyway (unless I'm animating).  I want to learn how to make the same sorts of objects in Blender that I did in 3dsmax, and most of that is hardsurface and high poly.

The only forums on Rendo I frequent are 3dsmax, the 3D Modelling forum, and now this one.  A sticky of the tips and tricks threads will be handy, and much appreciated.  There's plenty of tips in the other threads I participated in that could go in there.  I'll look back on them and add them, with appropriate credits, to the new sticky if that's ok.

I think any tip or trick even if from another application if it can be translated to Blender will be appreciated by everyone. I know I often look for things that is done in other applications and try to translate into Blender. Working with one at the moment that is giving better render result when dealing with cylindrical objects but having a bit of a heck of a time UV mapping it. Main reason I have not shared it yet 

Very interesting, but I have to ask, because I have no idea... in what situation would this come in handy?  Not sure I understand where and when I should choose to use this trick.

You can control the movement of a more complex collection of elements with a simpler one. It's just a simple tool. It's like asking in what situation would you use extrude. There is bunch. I guess the short answer is anytime you want to move something/somethings in a non standard direction. You can create objects just for a reference. Sorry if I' m not being clear.Maybe I can come with a better explanation later.

This is useful to simplify precision modeling, David.  If you aren't familiar with how something like this could assist your workflow, then it' probably best not to worry about its application at this point in your learning process.

Every face on every object is aligned to a vector direction; otherwise known or referred to as a face or vertex normal.  This "normal" direction dictates how the transformation manipulators are positioned when you select an object's element (such as a face).  A face on a cube, for example, will point in a different vector direction than the face of a tetrahedron (as shown in Cybermonk's screencap).  This trick allows you to copy the vector direction from the transform manipulator of one object's element selection, and use it to move, rotate, or scale the elements on another object.  This is useful for certain modeling tasks, because it allows you to lock the movement of a selected element to some other object's vector normals direction, and move it along those axes.

Thanks Lux well said. I think you are right this is the kind of thing that makes more since after you've modeled for a while. Speaking of which you ever go back and look at some of your old models and think omg I could do that way easier and better now.  And then do lol

Ps: Lux what kind of software do you use to do your Tutorials? Any suggestions?

Thanks Lux well said. I think you are right this is the kind of thing that makes more since after you've modeled for a while. Speaking of which you ever go back and look at some of your old models and think omg I could do that way easier and better now.  And then do lol

Ps: Lux what kind of software do you use to do your Tutorials? Any suggestions?

I usually just record my tutorials with Cam Studio; a open-source screen recording, and streaming video software.  So far, I've found it to be the easiest of any I've tried, and does a decent job.  If you happen to find something better, for free, please let me know. http://camstudio.org/

I've  heard some folks who use this online screen capture service, because they don't want certain software on their systems:

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

However, I've never used it personally, and can't testify to it's performance.

Thanks for the links Lux. I'll give those a try.

blender can do screenshots or capture a vid from work area  but its not so friendly

or theres wax getting a bit dated now but some times old an simple is better lol ;-) 

http://www.debugmode.com/wax/

could try checking out giveaway of the day, they have given out this sort of soft before but they do send ads etc so can be annoying

off to check them links  lol see if I can find one that knows what I want to do rofl its so flipping annoying when you finish a tut and forgot to start the vid going

I found one called Webinaria. It's free and user friendly.  http://download.cnet.com/Webinaria/3000-13633_4-10705452.html

As far as free ones go, that cam studio lux pointed out is the most widely used, with lots of features.  You can save to many different audio and video formats, like Mp4, AVI, with many customizable options.  I used Webinaria before for a video presentation, and while it was very easy to use, I wasn't quite happy with the control I had over the output.  It can save out to AVI or convert to compressed FLV, but there aren't many options for tweaking the capture results or the output quality of the video. I think they give you some preset options.  Camstudio has tons of customizations to tweak the output video, including frame rates, and HD, but it's slightly higher learning curve.  I like the Webinaria editor for quickly adding titles and stuff to the output, but I do most of that work in Movie Maker.

I should mention, i used these things years ago, so maybe things have changed since then!

As to useful screen capture software I have used "SCREENSHOT CAPTOR VERSION 4" but it does not at this time do video I have used it for written tutorials and it is free it is donation ware the licensing is a little weird but for how easy it is to use compared to "snag it" it is free none the less. I would highly recommend it http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/screenshotcaptor/index.html They have several other freebies another one of there that I use daily is LaunchBar Commander

Yeah I have not quite got the hang of Cam studio yet HMorton but at least I have Webinaria until I do.Thanks for the link Lobo that screen capture program looks pretty cool.

Yeah I have not quite got the hang of Cam studio yet HMorton but at least I have Webinaria until I do.Thanks for the link Lobo that screen capture program looks pretty cool.

Let me know what you are having trouble with in Cam Studio.  I'll be more than happy to share the settings I found most useful for capturing my video tutorials, and maybe it will help.

Yeah I have not quite got the hang of Cam studio yet HMorton but at least I have Webinaria until I do.Thanks for the link Lobo that screen capture program looks pretty cool.

Your welcome I found it after I bought Snap which is another screen capture program from Ashampoo and it does video but could not get the hang of it and found that screen capture program and if I remeber right you get trail license that last 6 months renew the license again (for nothing) for another 6 months and on the final renewal which is a year the program is your. I found it useful enough that in the end I did donate something for it but you do not have to. 

lol  I tried that snap (for video) what a waste of space !!! some my fault I think 'cos I have multiple moniters spent time setting it up then it recorded most of one screen and a bit off t'other WTH so I binned it ;-) had a quick look at cam studio and its got no probs with my moniters so thats a thumbs up for now

for a simple screen cap its built into windoze, "snipping tool" basic but it works

I never load anything I dont NEED ;-) very few shortcuts on desktop no windoze fancys :-( , like to save all my ram for blender

I find it funny how we all work in totaly dif ways on a comp , really is time I swopped to linux

I have a dual boot with Windows 7 and LinuxMint I must say I do like Mints look and feel but do think I need to start considering time for a new PC build so I can add more memory and get a much better GPU since my present one falls short and can not take full advantage of Cycles render