Transform Snapping & Precision

Snapping makes objects move, rotate and scale in fixed steps instead of freely, so things line up without typing numbers into the Properties panel. Precision mode does the opposite job: it slows the mouse down so you can make tiny adjustments by hand.

Both work everywhere you transform something in the editor:

dragging the gizmo handles (the red / green / blue arrows, rings and boxes),
the cursor-locked transforms (R rotate, S scale, and the move that starts after Ctrl + D duplicate; in the 2D viewport G / R / S),
3D nodes and 2D widgets.

Cheat sheet

Do this	To get this
Click the magnet button in the toolbar, or press `M`	Turn snapping on / off
Pick from the dropdown next to the magnet, or press `Alt + M`	Choose what to snap to: Increment, Vertex, Edge, Face
Hold `Shift` while transforming	Temporarily do the opposite of the magnet button
Hold `Ctrl` while transforming	Precision: the object moves much slower than the mouse
`Edit → Preferences → Appearance → Viewport`	Change the step sizes and the precision speeds

M and Alt + M can be rebound in Edit → Editor Hotkeys… (category Gizmo). Shift and Ctrl are fixed modifiers and cannot be rebound.

Turning snapping on

The magnet button sits in the top toolbar, right after the Local / World button. It is highlighted while snapping is on. The setting is remembered between editor sessions.

You do not have to switch it on to snap once in a while. Shift always inverts the button:

Magnet button	`Shift` not held	`Shift` held
Off	moves freely	snaps
On	snaps	moves freely

So most people leave the magnet off and just hold Shift when they want a snap, or leave it on and hold Shift for the odd free adjustment. You can press and release Shift in the middle of a drag; the object jumps to / from the snapped position straight away.

What to snap to

The dropdown next to the magnet chooses the snap target.

Increment (default)

Moves in fixed steps. With the default settings that is 1 unit for translate, 15° for rotate and 0.1 for scale.

Steps are counted from where the object was when you started the drag, not from the world origin. An object sitting at x = 0.37 moved with a step of 1 goes to 1.37, 2.37, … not to 1, 2. If you want an object exactly on the world grid, type the starting position once in the Properties panel; after that, increment snapping keeps it on the grid.

Vertex, Edge, Face

These snap the object to other geometry in the scene. They apply to translate only. Rotate and scale always use increments, whatever the dropdown says.

What snaps is the object's pivot (its origin, the point the gizmo sits on), not its surface:

Target	The pivot lands on…
Face	the point on the surface directly behind the pivot, as seen from the camera
Vertex	the nearest corner of the triangle behind the pivot
Edge	the nearest point on an edge of the triangle behind the pivot

How to use it:

Turn snapping on (or hold Shift) and choose Face, Vertex or Edge.
Drag the object so its gizmo passes over the mesh you want to snap to.
A small orange marker shows where it will land: a circle for Face, a square for Vertex and Edge. Release the mouse to keep it.

Things worth knowing:

Vertex and Edge only grab when you are close. The pivot has to be within the Vertex / Edge Pick Radius (16 pixels by default) of a corner or edge on screen. Further away, the object just moves freely, so large flat surfaces do not keep yanking the object to a far corner.
The pivot must be over a mesh. If there is only empty space behind the pivot, nothing snaps. To reach a corner on the silhouette of a mesh, come at it from the inside of the mesh's outline.
Axis and plane handles are respected. Dragging the red X arrow with Face snapping on slides the object along X until it lines up with the surface; it will not jump off the axis.
The object never snaps to itself or to its own children, and hidden nodes are ignored.
It works on static meshes, instanced meshes, terrain and voxel nodes, in both perspective and orthographic views.
Because the pivot is what snaps, an object whose pivot is at its centre ends up half-buried in the surface. Objects with the pivot at their base (props, characters) sit on the surface as you would expect. End (drop to surface) is still the quickest way to place a centred object on the ground.
The first snapped drag in a large scene can pause for a moment while the editor collects the scene's triangles. It is rebuilt at the start of each drag, so moved objects are always current.

2D widgets

In the 2D viewport, snapping always uses increments (the dropdown is ignored):

Offset and Size snap to the Widget Increment (8 pixels by default).
Rotation snaps to the same Rotate Increment as 3D.
Axes set to stretch are stored as ratios rather than pixels, so they are left unsnapped.

Precision (hold Ctrl)

Hold Ctrl during any transform and the object moves at a fraction of the mouse speed (0.1× by default), which makes fine positioning easy without zooming in.

On gizmo handles the handle falls behind the mouse cursor while Ctrl is held. That is expected: the mouse is being "geared down". Release Ctrl and it moves 1:1 again from where it is, with no jump.
Ctrl and Shift combine: Ctrl + Shift with the magnet on gives you slow and free movement.
Snapping still applies while Ctrl is held, you just need more mouse travel to reach the next step.
While a transform is in progress, Undo, Redo and Save shortcuts are paused, so Ctrl + Z will not undo in the middle of a drag. (Z is also the "lock to Z axis" key.) They work again the moment you finish or cancel the transform.

Changed from earlier versions: holding Shift used to slow cursor-locked transforms down. Slow movement is now on Ctrl, and Shift is the snapping modifier. Shift + X / Y / Z still locks to a plane.

Axis locks and snapping together

X, Y, Z lock a cursor-locked transform to an axis, and Shift + X / Y / Z lock it to a plane. Because Shift is also the snapping modifier, the order matters:

Press X first, then hold Shift → locked to the X axis, with snapping inverted.
Hold Shift first, then press X → locked to the YZ plane (as before).

Changing the lock restarts the transform from the object's original position.

Settings

Edit → Preferences → Appearance → Viewport, under Transform Snapping and Transform Precision. Scroll down; they are below the grid and selection colours.

Setting	Default	What it does
Snapping Enabled	off	Same as the toolbar magnet button.
Snap To	Increment	Same as the toolbar dropdown.
Translate Increment	1.0	World units per step. `0` turns translate snapping off.
Rotate Increment	15°	Degrees per step. Also used for widget rotation. `0` turns it off.
Scale Increment	0.1	Scale change per step. `0` turns it off.
Widget Increment	8 px	Pixels per step for widget offset and size in the 2D viewport.
Vertex / Edge Pick Radius	16 px	How close on screen the pivot must be before Vertex / Edge snapping grabs.
Precision → Normal	1.0×	Mouse speed of cursor-locked transforms. Lower it if `R` / `S` feel twitchy.
Precision → While Control Is Held	0.1×	Mouse speed while `Ctrl` is held (cursor-locked transforms and gizmo handles).

Normal only affects the cursor-locked transforms. Gizmo handles always follow the cursor 1:1 unless Ctrl is held.

A note on scale snapping

The two ways of scaling count steps slightly differently:

Gizmo scale handles snap the scale factor: with a step of 0.1 an object of scale 2 goes to 2.2, 2.4, … (×1.1, ×1.2, …).
Cursor-locked S snaps the amount added: the same object goes to 2.1, 2.2, ….

For an object that starts at scale 1 the two are identical.

Troubleshooting

Nothing snaps. Check the magnet button and whether Shift is held (it inverts the button). Check the increment for that operation is not 0.

Vertex / Edge does nothing but Face works. You are further than the pick radius from a corner or edge. Move closer, or raise Vertex / Edge Pick Radius.

Face snapping does nothing. The pivot is not over any mesh from the camera's point of view, or the only mesh behind it is the object itself / one of its children.

The object snaps to odd positions like 1.37. Increments are counted from where the drag started. Put the object on a round number once and it will stay on round numbers.

M does nothing. The mouse has to be over the viewport, and the key may have been rebound; check Edit → Editor Hotkeys… → Gizmo → Toggle Snapping.

The gizmo handle lags behind my mouse. Ctrl is held (precision mode).

For how this is implemented, see Transform Snapping internals.