# Transform

Move, rotate, and scale objects in the viewport. The gizmo has two coordinate-space modes and smart snapping; learn which is which and you'll stop fighting it.

![Transform popover open in Build mode with numeric Position (X / Y / Z), Rotation (X / Y / Z), and Scale (X / Y / Z) fields](/files/rxjOXT2pcaiV3MYqSoJV)

## What it does

Moving objects in 3D is where the muscle memory you brought from Blender, Maya, or Unreal stops helping. Intangible's transform gizmo is deliberately simpler than what you're used to – position, rotation, and scale on each axis, plus a center cube for uniform scale – and it has two coordinate-space modes depending on what you're trying to do.

Common pitfalls include scaling an object to zero and losing its handle, or letting smart snapping launch an object outside the camera frustum. The fixes are below.

## How to use it

Select an object in the viewport. The gizmo and the contextual menu appear. The contextual menu's transform panel has direct numerical entry for X, Y, Z position, rotation, and scale – use it for precise placement when dragging is too coarse.

For rough placement, drag the gizmo handles directly:

1. **Move along an axis.** Click and drag a single arrow handle for X, Y, or Z translation.
2. **Move on a plane.** Click and drag the small square between two arrows for two-axis translation.
3. **Rotate.** Click and drag a circle handle. Each circle corresponds to one rotation axis.
4. **Scale per axis.** Click and drag the cube handles at the ends of the X, Y, or Z axes for non-uniform scale.
5. **Uniform scale.** Click and drag the white cube at the center of the gizmo to scale the object uniformly on all three axes at once.

### Gizmo modes

The gizmo has two coordinate-space modes, switched from the toolbar:

* **Global**: handles align to world axes. Up is up regardless of how the object is rotated. Use this when you want predictable world-space movement.
* **Local**: handles align to the object's own axes. Critical when you're moving objects relative to themselves – putting a phone in someone's hand, attaching a prop to a moving vehicle.

Snapping is a separate toggle on the same toolbar. Turn it on, and the gizmo will snap to the floor and to nearby vertices on other objects. Turn it off when the snapping is fighting you (it tries hard, sometimes too hard).

## Details

| Control                | Where it lives                         |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| Direct numerical entry | Contextual menu → Transform panel      |
| Uniform scale handle   | White cube at the gizmo's center       |
| Gizmo mode             | Coordinate-space toggle in the toolbar |
| Snapping               | Snapping toggle in the toolbar         |

## Common mistakes

* **Object scaled to zero.** Scaling along all three axes to zero makes the object unselectable in the viewport and unreachable from the gizmo. Recover via the [Scene Outliner](/build/scene-outliner.md): find the object by name to select it, then re-enter a non-zero scale value in the Transform panel.
* **Object disappeared off-screen.** Snapping plus a fast drag can launch an object well outside the camera frustum. Fix from the Scene Outliner: select the row, press `F` to frame, then enter clean position values in the Transform panel.
* **Wrong axis when posing characters.** A character moved in Global mode rotates around world-up; in Local mode it rotates around its own spine. Use Local for character poses where the figure isn't facing the world axes.

## Related

* [Working with objects](/build/working-with-objects.md)
* [Selection and grouping](/build/selection-and-grouping.md)
* [Scene Outliner](/build/scene-outliner.md)
* [Asset library](/build/asset-library.md)


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