I just found out about these today and yesterday, is so cool and helpfull that I just had to share. Really helps with the modeling process. Let me know if it helped, and if you know any more similar tips, please do post!

1. To transform (grab, rotate, scale, etc) things more precisely, hold ctrl while moving your cursor for even increments (the increments are the size of your background grid squares, which can be adjusted in the 3D View Properties window (view --> properties), or hold shift for slower, more precise, movement.

2. To transform stuff with movement restricted to a particular axis (x, y, z), go into a transform mode, and then press either x, y, or z. Alternate method, move the cursor near one of the axis lines and press your middle mouse button, the axis you wanted should now be selected, with movement restricted to it.

3. You can type in specific values when transforming, after you enter the mode, just type in a value and then hit enter. So, let's say you want to grab your selected vertices, and you want to enter a specific value for the grab movement along the y axis, just hit the following keys:
   G, Y, enter your value, then hit Enter on your keboard!

4. You can adjust the co-ordinates of anything by selecting it and then pressing the property window hotkey which is the "N" key on your keyboard, or go to transform in your tool menu (space bar) and click on Properties. You can also change the name of your object in that window, and I have no idea what the "Par:" field is, anyone know?

5. To adjust the coordinates of the 3D cursor, go to the 3D View Properties window (view --> properties). Handy for when you want to add a new object to a specific location on the 3D view grid. Anyone know if there's a hotkey for going to the 3D view properties window?

6. Snap function, usefull for MANY things! Go to Object --> Snap if you're in object mode, Mesh --> Snap if you're in edit mode, and play around with the different snap functions to see what they do. Hotkey is S plus a number for the specific snap function you want. Some examples, aligning a selected object or vertex to a grid line, aligning the 3D cursor to the 3D grid, aligning the cursor to a vertex, so that you can create a new mesh object right ontop of the selected vertex, stuff like that. :D

Message edited on: 11/30/2004 08:17

Message edited on: 11/30/2004 08:22