Use Pivot Presets¶
Move an actor's pivot to any bounding-box position with a single click. Pivot Tool provides 27 preset points across centers, corners, and edge midpoints so you can place pivots precisely without typing coordinates.
Preset positions at a glance¶
Presets are organized into four groups:
| Group | Positions | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Bounding Box Center | Center of the entire bounding box | 1 |
| Center | Center, CenterTop, CenterBottom, CenterLeft, CenterRight, CenterFront, CenterBack | 7 |
| Corner | All eight corners of the bounding box (four top, four bottom) | 8 |
| Edge | Midpoint of each of the twelve edges (four top, four mid, four bottom) | 12 |
Apply a preset¶
- Select one or more actors in the viewport.
- In the Pivot Tool panel, locate the Pivot Preset area at the top.
- To see where the pivot will land before committing, hover over a preset button. A preview indicator appears in the viewport.
- Click the button to move the pivot to that bounding-box position.
The actor's transform gizmo snaps to the new point. The mesh geometry stays in its current world position.
Auto Save mode
Enable Auto Save in the preset options to write the preset pivot into the actor automatically after each click. When Auto Save is off, the pivot is applied as a temporary offset that you can further adjust before committing.
Preset options¶
Open the options dropdown (gear icon) in the Pivot Preset area to configure how presets behave.
Group Mode¶
When enabled, presets calculate the bounding box of all selected actors combined rather than each actor individually. The resulting pivot sits on the combined bounding box.
Use Group Mode to pivot-align a set of actors to a shared reference point — for example, placing the combined bottom-center pivot of a building assembly at ground level.
Last Selected Mode¶
Uses the last selected actor's bounding box as the reference. All other selected actors receive the same pivot offset relative to that actor. This is valuable when you want multiple actors to share the same pivot position determined by one reference actor.
Vertex Mode¶
Snaps the pivot to the nearest vertex instead of the mathematical bounding-box point. The result is a pivot that sits directly on the mesh surface rather than at the geometric bounding-box corner or edge.
Children Mode¶
Includes child actors attached to the selected actor when calculating the bounding box. Without this option, only the root actor's own bounds are used.
Text Mode vs. Graphic Mode¶
Switch between a graphical button grid (showing the bounding-box shape) and a text-based button list. Both produce the same result. The graphic mode offers faster visual recognition; the text mode works better in narrow panel widths.
Single Preset Mode¶
Displays one preset group at a time instead of showing all four groups simultaneously. Use the mouse scroll wheel over the preset area to cycle through groups.
Responsive preset panel behavior¶
PivotTool keeps the preset area usable when docked into tight editor spaces:
- The preset controls wrap to fit the available width.
- Button labels simplify or disappear at smaller widths so the interactive controls remain reachable.
- Display options move into tighter layouts automatically when space is limited.
- Ctrl + Mousewheel over the preset widgets scales the preset display.
- Shift + Mousewheel toggles single preset mode.
- In Single Preset Mode, use the mouse wheel to switch between preset groups.
Create sockets from a preset group¶
Right-click a preset overlay to open the context menu and select Create Sockets. This creates mesh sockets at every position in that preset group (Center, Corner, or Edge) in one action.
For more on sockets, see Manage Mesh Sockets.
Next: Set the Actor Pivot — learn how to type an exact offset, copy a pivot between actors, and snap to the nearest vertex.