MOVING & ALIGNING IN 3D

QUICK ALIGNMENT

The easiest way to position a new puzzle piece exactly where you want it is to first tap on an object in the scene that you want to align it to. So, for example, in this scene, there are 3 Laser beams. If we just drag a mirror in there's no telling what it will be aligned with:

If we want to place a mirror on top of the closest laser we can do that easily simply by tapping on that laser emitter. When you tap on anything in the scene, the next puzzle piece you drag into the scene will automatically be aligned to it. So, we tap the laser emitter, drag the new mirror in, and viola! It is aligned with it:

MOVING PUZZLE PIECES IN 3D

When you select a puzzle piece and drag it, it always moves along the current plane. When the camera is in its default position and you drag on a puzzle piece, it will move up, down, left, right. But if you need to move the puzzle piece forward or backward then you need to change the current drag plane. This is as simple as just rotating the camera around to the side.

The selection ring around a puzzle piece indicates the direction of the current drag plane. So, in the example below there is a drum in the distance, and the green selection ring indicates the plane that it will move.

If we want to move the drum forward, then we rotate the camera to the side like so:

Notice that the selection ring has changed colors and it now indicates a new plane. To move it where we wanted it, we just drag to the left:

A similar thing happens if we rotate the camera up:

Now the selection circle changes to blue and the drag plane changes as well.

Rotations in 3D work exactly the same as moving them. The pieces always rotate on the plane indicated by the selection circle. So, in this example there is a mirror reflecting the laser beam, but how do we rotate the mirror such that the laser beam is shooting toward the camera?

Simple. Just move the camera to the side, the selection ring will change and allow us to rotate the beam to the desired location:

When positioning and rotating puzzle pieces in 3D, it is very helpful to have the Snap-To-Grid feature turned on. This ensures that the objects are perfectly aligned as you move them around, and it ensures that your rotations are on exactly 90º right angles which can really help solve many puzzles.