Hi,
I haven't modelled for awhile and I can't seem to get the handle for the edit sop to align to the primitive's orientation. It's always aligned to the world axis, even if I right click it and align it to object.

Any clues?

Thanks,
Wayne.

Houdini 10.0.374

Several ways to move a selection along a plane defined by a primitive face.

To align a handle to a primitive face first disconnect it by hitting the single quote ‘ key. The center solid square and arrow tips go hollow.
Next RMB (Right Mouse Button) hold on the handle and choose the “Start Orientation Picking” option and then click on three points to orient the handle to. If you want to orient to a polygon, select three points on the polygon.
Hit the single quote ’ key again to connect the handle to geometry selections again and move your points.
Note that you can hit enter on the first pick to just move the handle to that point or hit enter on the second pick to align the handle's X axis and leave the origin where it is.

If you do this a lot, you can bind the “Start Orientation Picking” menu to a hotkey. Hold down Ctrl-Alt-Shift when you select the menu option to open up the Hotkey Manager on that menu item. Select your available hotkey and accept.


Another approach is to orient the construction plane then hold down the ctrl key to drag your selection in 45degree angles and use the alt key to elevate the selection from the construction plane.

To orient the construction plane to a face, you need to use the yellow persp1/left1/top1…etc upper right menu button Set Construction Plane > Start Orientation Picking. Now pick three points on your face to reorient the construction plane to that face.

Now make your selection and hold down the ctrl key to slide that selection along the construction plane in 45 degree angles or just drag the selection around without using the axes handles on the transform jack.
Use the alt key on your selection to elevate it of the construction plane.
RMB in the viewport empty space and use the Flatten to Construction Plane to flatten your selection to the construction plane.



As an aside, you can use the peak handle in the Edit SOP to pull a face by it's primitive normal.

Thank you Jeff!