Per the title, is it possible to align the viewpoint of the 3d viewport to a custom transform orientation? Ie one that has been made when selecting a face and creating an orientation etc etc. I figure it would be useful when trying to move a mesh around another object so things line up. I may have missed something during a course video, but I hope this makes sense!
Or even align the viewpoint to a face normal ~
Cheers
NM. Found it: View > Align View > Align View to Active > etc
Hang on, I only half answered my question.
That works for the active selected.
But is there a way to align the view to the average normals of multiple selecteds?
HI Harris,
As far as I know, that is not possible.
But you can enable the 3DView > Stored Views Addon, which might help you create Views that you want and return to those, independent of what you have Selected...
Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but it could be a step in the right direction.
There's the holding Shift + all the numbers of the numpad trick. So normally when you press the numbers in the numpad to change your view, it does what it always does, but if you hold shift and then press any of those numbers, it will align the view to the local orientation of the object, or something like that, but it'll give you the chance to align your object, I use that all the time for that purpose.
Cheers Guys,
The Align view to active selected function (Shift + numpad) is probably my safest bet for now.
Perhaps if what I'm thinking of doesn't exist (even after a google search for addons) then it's possible that it's not necessary in the Blender workflow.
That being said, this might be what I am thinking of. This could also come down to me learning relevant terminology to know what to google for etc etc. https://blenderartists.org/t/align-3d-view-to-custom-transform-orientation/1328947 included in that link is this DL link - https://github.com/fdaubine/Align2Custom?tab=readme-ov-file
I'll have a look and let you know if it answered my Q!
Also another quick question about the safety of downloading addons, and this is poss more of a question about the reliability of them and malware/viruses etc.
Are there, or have there ever been any problems with downloading unofficial/community made addons which have resulted in users experiencing viruses etc?
Ie, is it generally safe to download and install addons - or would it be wise to spend some time looking into reputable websites/sources? On that, are there recommended and commonly used websites?
To be completely fair, I don't necessarily think that I'm personally at that point in my Blender learning journey where I need to be looking at addons just yet anywho - but for future considerations, what are your thoughts?
I would suggest use the same level of discretion as you would any purchase or download.
A reputable source/provider/seller is always a good starting point.
I have been using Blender for 10+ years, and I don't use third party addons. Modern Blender comes with many addons that just need to be enabled depending on your needs. Modern Blender has many more features than it used to.
Top Tip: Learn the fundamentals and the how to's without addons. If an addon fails you because of a version change, you have the knowledge to complete your project regardless.
I have never heard of any addon being used as malware. Especially since it's in python and people easily have access to it's code. With that said I agree with Adrian on using some caution. Now there have been fake Blender downloads that had Malware so I always download blender from blender.org.
It has never happened to me that an addon caused something bad to happen to my computer or get a virus and stuff, nor have I heard it happen to someone else. So yeah caution but your probably fine, unless you have the worst luck ever.
This is the sort of stuff than can cause you to panic and go irrational. Like in the 90's when you're waiting for a phone call and you had been waiting for hours by the phone, because there were no cellphones and you had to be by the phone, and now you had to go out to get groceries for 5 minutes, but then you're like what if in the 5 minutes that I'm out, the phone does ring? Now you don't want to go out because you know the phone will ring and you'll miss it, but you have no choice, you rush out and you come back and now you're freaked pout that perhaps the phone rang while you were way. When the correct way to go was meh, if it rings it rings, I'll call back, they'll call back, whatever man, I'll just live life.