Draft Move

Description
The Move tool moves or copies the selected objects from one point to another. If no object is selected, you will be invited to select one.

To produce various copies in different arrangements use Draft Array, Draft PathArray and Draft PointArray.



How to use

 * 1) Select the objects you wish to move or copy.
 * 2) Press the  button, or press  then  keys.
 * 3) Click a first point on the 3D view, or type a coordinate and press the  button. This serves as the base point of the operation.
 * 4) Click another point on the 3D view, or type a coordinate and press the  button. This is the new position of the base point.

The move operation can be used on 2D shapes created with the Draft Workbench or Sketcher Workbench, but can also be used on many types of 3D objects such as those created with the Part Workbench or Arch Workbench.

Options

 * Press, or  after a point to constrain the next point on the given axis.
 * To enter coordinates manually, simply enter the numbers, then press between each X, Y and Z component. You can press the  button when you have the desired values to insert the point.
 * Press or click the checkbox to toggle relative mode. If relative mode is on, the coordinates of the next point are relative to the last one; if not, they are absolute, taken from the origin (0,0,0).
 * Press or click the checkbox to toggle continue mode. If continue mode is on, the Move tool will restart after you finish the operation, allowing you to move or copy the objects again without pressing the tool button again.
 * Press or click the checkbox to toggle copy mode. If copy mode is on, the Move tool will keep the original shape in its place but will make a copy in the second point.
 * You can use both and  to place several copies in sequence. In this case, the duplicated element is the last placed copy.


 * Hold after the first point to also toggle copy mode. Keeping  pressed after clicking on the second point will allow you to continue placing copies; release  to finish the operation and see all copies.
 * Hold while moving to force snapping your point to the nearest snap location, independently of the distance.
 * Hold while moving to constrain your next point horizontally or vertically in relation to the last one.
 * Press or the  button to abort the current command; copies already placed will remain.

Scripting
FreeCAD Scripting Basics, Draft API, and the autogenerated API documentation.

The Move tool can be used in macros and from the Python console by using the following function:


 * Moves the base point of the objects in by the displacement and direction indicated by.
 * This vector is relative to the base point of the object, which means that if an object is moved 2 units, and then another 2 units, it will have moved 4 units in total from its original position.


 * If is  copies are created instead of moving the original objects.
 * is returned with the original moved objects, or with the new copies.

Example:

Limitations

 * When moving a document object that is based on a Sketcher Sketch, for example, a PartDesign Pad or PartDesign Revolution, you must move the original sketch. If you move the derived object, it will just go back to the position defined by the sketch.

Preferences
Moving is affected by the snapping preferences found in Draft Preferences. Go to.



By default the option "Always snap (disable snap mod)" is active, which means that you don't need to press a modifier key to activate the snapping tools. The default keys are:


 * constraint modifier, to constraint the movement of the cursor along the X, Y, or Z axis.
 * snap modifier, to snap the cursor to specific modes given by Draft Snap.
 * alternative modifier, to activate an alternative function for the tool.

Moving along a specific axis
In order to move along a specific axis, you must first select a working plane containing this axis (see the selecting working plane page for more information).

After selecting the first point to move, start to move roughly in the axis direction and hold the key. FreeCAD will automatically find which axis you are trying to follow and stick to this axis.

(This tool is especially powerful if you want to align a point to another one, regarding to an axis only).

More on constrain move here

Snapping
If you have a point that you want to directly match on a solid, you can use snapping see the snapping page on how to activate the snap. Select the first point (using snap or not), and then hover to the second point until you see it highlighted.

By default the snapping mode is activated, but you may have it deactivated in the preferences (see preceding section), in that case, you will have to hold the Snapping key by default.

Alt Mode
Alt mode allows you to copy and object instead of moving it only.