moving a vertex on a single axis

[WAR_Nuker]

the way hammer is....you cant really control complicated architecture too well. take a cylinder for instance (cant find a better example). when you create one...you may or may not have verticies that land on a specific point that snaps to the grid. if i wanted to move one of those verticies....i would have to move it so that it snapped to where two axes intersect on the grid (as far as i know). the thing is....i dont always want to move it about two axes. a lot of the time i just want to move a vertex straight up and down. is there any way to constrain a vertex so that it only moves about 1 normal direction (0,90,180,270) when you want it to?

furthermore, for those who know AutoCAD, is it possible to have something like osnaps? like....can you move the vertex of one object to the location of another vertex? this would be super useful too.

 

[Raeven0]

Hold ALT as you move a vertex and it should not snap to the grid. But all objects whose vertices aren't snapped should be entities.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

yeah i know....im remaking my spiral staircase for my map so that i might be able to smooth out the bottom easier....and i think i found a way to do it...but it would involve me dragging vertices straight up and down.

do you know if that snapping thing i mentioned is possible too?

 

[Raeven0]

I think, having selected a vertex, you can use the arrow keys to nudge it in a certain direction (this may have to be enabled in the 2D options), but you can't have snap-to-grid on only one axis. If vertices are moving in odd directions, though, your grid isn't small enough or you aren't holding your hand steady enough

 

[WAR_Nuker]

Nuts..

 

[Unarmed]

Whats wrong with the vertex manipulation.... moves stuff in one axis if you like it to.... you'd have to have parkinson to fail. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding the question.

 

[WAR_Nuker]

its hard to explain.....but sometimes youll have a solid that has verticies that dont land on a normal coordinate....but instead land on a coordinate that has decimal places you see. my question is how one would move a vertex in 1 axis and only 1 axis and have it snap on the intersecting axis only. raevens method made it so the vertex wouldnt snap to anything....but i want it to at least snap to an intersecting axis (sorry i didnt say that earlier).

i found a workaround though. i select the soild...go into vertex mode...and select all the vertices. i then move the vertex i want to manipulate to a normal coordinate....and doing so will drag the whole solid. you can then use the grid to move vertices up and down or whatever. then you just put the solid back where you found it. i used this method to smooth out the bottom of my spiral staircase. i will post screenies soon if youd like to see.

 

[-Psy-]

I understand what you mean. Just make sure the Cylinder's size is to the power of 2.

Like;

32, 64, 128, 256

etc

 

[WAR_Nuker]

well im talkin about the stairs though....i made a 90 degree arch and made it cut up into 8 parts. i moved every step one by one. then...i made the part for the smoothed bottom. i did this by copying the original spiraled stairs and shifting them directly underneath the original stairs. then i had to drag some vertices up to give that smoothed look to the bottom of the stairs. since that would cause non planar surfaces (because the steps arent parallelograms)...i had to split up each 'step' (were still talking about the steps i put directly underneath the original steps) into two triangular wedges. its really hard to explain....and i think using a video tut or something would be the best way to show the method i used....but im a horrible teacher. anywho....heres the final product:

and in hammer:

what a pain in the ass that was to figure out....

 

[Unarmed]

Hmm.... i think I understand you now.... and the only thing i can think of is using ctrl + m and then the "move tool" there... But using only that to fit things in would be a pain..

 

[WAR_Nuker]

yeah....and i had to merge vertices....and i dont think the move tool would have worked for vertex mode. anyways its all good....as long as i have a method that works...its ok with me.