In this lesson video, we are going to discuss one unique feature in blender, which is called the 3d cursor. So what is exactly 3d cursor? Well, if you look closely at the center of the 3d world in blender, there is a small circle that looks like a sniper scope target. This is the 3d cursor. It is basically a pointer in 3d space that can be used for a lot of things in blender. One usage of 3d cursor is for defining the location of newly created objects.
So that is why we need to discuss the 3d cursor first before we can discuss creating objects in blender. By default, the 3d cursor is located at the center of the world if you want to move it around. There are at least four ways to do this. using the mouse and keyboard modifier key using the 3d cursor to mode using the snap command and finally using the sidebar Let's discuss each of these methods one by one. First, we can hold shift and then right click on any location that we want. The 3d cursor will jump to that location.
Blender will detect 3d surfaces when doing this. So if we hold shift and right click on top of this cube, for example, the 3d cursor will be moved to the surface of this cube. The second method to move the 3d cursor is by using the 3d cursor to mode which is this button in here. In these two mode, we can simply left click to any location we like to move the 3d cursor to that location. This method will also detect objects surfaces. The third method is by using the snap command.
With this method, we can easily align the 3d cursor with any object in a scene. To do this, first, we need to select an object. For example, this light object, let me activate the Select mode. First, so we can select objects like before, select this light object by left clicking on it, and then press Shift s to open the snap by menu. Choose cursor to active in here, we can see now the 3d cursor moved to the light object location. If you forget the shortcut, you can access the snap command via the Object menu in the 3d viewport header, and then choose snap in here, then cursor to active.
The last method of controlling the 3d cursor location is by using the 3d viewport sidebar panel. We have discussed briefly about the sidebar panel besides clicking this small carrot button in here to open the sidebar, we can press n in the keyboard or we can go to View menu up here and choose toggle sidebar in here in the sidebar panel in the View tab, notice down here you will find the 3d cursor section If you don't see parameters like this, just make sure the carrot symbol or this small triangle icon in here is looking down, which means the panel section is expanded. If you click this whole bar, the carrot will be pointing to the right, which means the section is collapsed. Okay. In here we can see the location of the 3d cursor in 3d coordinate, the x value, the y value, and the z value.
If you want to move the 3d cursor to a specific coordinate, we can directly type in the values by clicking on any of these sliders and then input the number or you can also move the mouse cursor on any of these input fields and then drag left or right like this. Now this method of input is common inside blender, meaning you will find a lot of these input fields in blender. Most of the time we want the 3d cursor To be located at the center of the world, you will understand later why we want to do this. To reset the 3d cursor location, we can do this in several ways. First, we can use the keyboard shortcut shift c, this method is also useful to reset the viewport to the center of the world. So if you have the viewport looking on other areas or direction, pressing Shift c not only will center the 3d cursor, but also will center the viewport to view the center of the 3d world.
If you forget the shortcut, you can use the snap command method we just by going to the Object menu, snap and then choose cursor to world origin or by using the snap command also, but the via by menu shortcut and that will be shift s and then choose cursor to work origin. Okay. Finally, the last method to reset the 3d cursor is by going to the sidebar panel. In the 3d cursor section, right click on any of these values and then choose reset all to default values. This will make all of the coordinate access set to zero, thus making the 3d cursor position back to the center of the 3d world.