by AR Utilities·Modeling
Images © AR Utilities. Used for product review; image policy.
Align Cursor stands out in the superhive library because it aligns the cursor to a selection rather than only moving it there, and can drop a grid you can store and snap to.
Blender moves the cursor to a selection, but Align Cursor extends that by aligning the cursor to edges and vertex clusters as well. It takes the current selection and aligns the cursor to it, working with objects, vertices, edges, faces and spline knots, in both object and edit modes. Selections can be single or multiple.
You control which axes are used. Use Location sets the cursor position from the selection, with separate X, Y and Z axes, and Use Rotation does the same for orientation. A Set Selection Center option adjusts Blender's selection center. When only one edge is selected, a Face Bias control lets you bias which connected face the cursor aligns to, defaulting to 0.5.
A Create Grid option builds a grid mesh at the cursor location and orientation while aligning, giving points to snap to and a way to store the orientation for later. Grid Scale and Grid Density (Low, Medium or High) control the result. As of version 1.0.2, alignment also works with armature bones in edit and pose modes.
Align Cursor is best for modeling work such as straightening, flattening and moving things, where having the cursor aligned to a selection helps.
Align Cursor is completely free to download and use.
Align Cursor works in both object mode and edit mode. In object mode you select one or more objects; in edit mode you select mesh components such as vertices, edges or faces, and it also handles curve knots. The alignment adapts to the selection: a single object uses its transform, two objects align one axis to the line between them and the midpoint, and three or more align to the best fit plane of all positions. The same logic applies to multiple object selections in edit mode.
Align Cursor enables its Face Bias control when only one edge is selected. With it active, you can bias which of the connected faces the cursor aligns to, favouring one side over the other. The default value is 0.5, or 50 percent, which sits evenly between the faces. Adjusting the bias between 0.0 and 1.0 shifts the alignment toward one connected face or the other, which is handy when a single edge sits between surfaces you want to reference.
Align Cursor includes a Create Grid option that builds a grid based mesh at the cursor location and orientation at the same time as it aligns. This gives you points to snap to and a way to store the orientation for later use, so you can build on it or snap objects to it. Grid Scale changes the size of the grid, and Grid Density offers Low, Medium or High settings, equating to a grid line every 1 metre, 10 centimetres or 1 centimetre when using metric units.
Align Cursor added support for armature bones in version 1.0.2, letting you align the cursor to bones in both edit and pose modes. The same release corrected the version string to avoid a warning in Blender 3.6.17. Beyond bones, the add-on aligns to objects, vertices, edges, faces and spline knots, so the bone support extends an already broad set of selection types. Version 1.0.3 later moved the add-on to its own sub directory, and the developer notes you should remove the old version before installing it.
Align Cursor is listed as free here in our catalog. For the most current licensing details, check the developer's page. Functionally, it is a small Blender add-on that aligns the 3D cursor to your selection, with options for location and rotation on each axis, a Face Bias control for single edges, and a Create Grid option. Documentation is available from the developer for a full walkthrough of the options and how to use them.
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