This MASSIVE new v1.0 release is a major design overhaul for Mesh Align Plus, and brings these big new features:
- A new Easy Mode
- A new Geometry Manager panel
- A new multi-edit-grab-all feature
- More calculations have been added to the calculate & compose panel,
- A complete rewrite of the wiki and all tutorial GIFs and reference materials
You'll see the (renamed) tools underneath the new "Align" tab in the 3D View Sidebar.
Easy Mode
Easy Mode enables super fast two click (or less) workflows for common alignments, on all main operators. Want to align surfaces? Using Easy Align Planes, just select a face and hit "Start Alignment", then select another face and hit "Apply to Active":
Easy Mode uses the active object to pick alignment verts, and you can optionally align multiple objects together (all objects that were selected on first press move together with the active object).
If you want extra control over the alignment orientation, select 3 verts in order, one by one (the vert selection history affects the final alignment).
The old/classic operators (now called expert mode) are still there if you want more advanced options and features for complex cases and workflows.
Easy Angle Finder
The Easy Angle Finder (inside Easy Axis Rotate) lets you quickly pick two lines and find the angle between them.
Geometry Manager
The Geometry Manager is a place for permanently storing geometry keys for repeat workflows, plus it has an "Add Reference Geometry" feature for accessing common reference planes (XY, XZ, YZ) and axis lines (X hat, Y hat, Z hat), plus the world origin.
You can copy and paste from this list into the expert mode alignment operators, or just add new planes/lines/points and edit their constituent points directly.
Multi-Edit-Grab-All
You can now grab-all from any selected object in edit mode (before only the active object worked). This lets you grab-all key verts from an active OR non-active object in multi-edit mode.
Beware that multi-edit-grab-all can cause unexpected behavior if your key verts come from multiple objects, like a plane that comes from three different meshes (in this case the active object takes priority), so it's best to use the grab-all buttons to pick verts from any single active OR non-active object (and use expert mode/geom editing if you want to maintain key vert ordering when your key verts come from multiple objects).
New Tools in the Calculate & Compose Panel
There are new Calculate & Compose tools:
- Intersect Plane/Plane: Makes a new Line key that is the intersection of two given planes
- Nearest Point/Line: Makes a new Point key that is the closest point to a given point on a supplied line
- Nearest Line/Line: Makes a new Point key that is the closest point on the first line to the second line