# Absolute Positioning and Snapping Help Needed
**URL:** https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902
**Category:** Modeling Questions
**Created:** [May 20, 2021, 11:55am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902 "2021-05-20T11:55:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jclenker](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jclenker)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 11:55am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/1 "2021-05-20T11:55:35Z")
I’m confused about absolute positioning in the application. Once an object is created and positioned in the 3D space, I can only see relative positioning based on where the object is positioned at the time. So if I want to ensure that the top of an object is exactly 29" above the floor, I can’t see any way to verify or adjust that. It seems I’m only able to adjust it by sight. And when I zoom in to the nth degree, I can see that the snapping tool is not working. So I’ve spent a couple hours messing around with trying to create something resembling a picture frame with miter joints and each of the objects is not precise. This is incredibly frustrating. Most other 3D applications I’ve used make it relatively simple to manage objects in absolute space.
Can anyone please help me both with the positioning issue and the snapping issue?
I’m using the OSX app right now, but I think the same question applies to iPad.
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@Oregonerd](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Oregonerd)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 2:04pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/2 "2021-05-20T14:04:06Z")
A quick and dirty method would be to create and extrusion from top view sketch 29" and use the align tool. Assuming your floor is at 0 zAxis.
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### Author:  [@jclenker](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jclenker)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 5:57pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/3 "2021-05-20T17:57:51Z")
Thanks for the reply. But you’re kind of reinforcing my concern that Shaper 3D doesn’t allow us to know precicely where our objects are in 3D space. That seems a major ommission in the design of this tool.
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### Author:  [@Istvan](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Istvan)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/4 "2021-05-20T18:05:45Z")
Have you tried the Align tool?
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### Author:  [@jclenker](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jclenker)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/5 "2021-05-20T20:28:08Z")
I know about the Translate tool, which pulls objects goether. That helps. But it would still be really helpful to be able to click on an object and see its coordinates on the x,y,z.
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### Author:  [@TheBum](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/TheBum)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 8:47pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/6 "2021-05-20T20:47:47Z")
I think that would require being able to select a vertex, which isn’t currently supported in 3D mode. Otherwise, what part of the object does the x, y, z pertain to?
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### Author:  [@Enginerd](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Enginerd)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2021, 12:17am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/7 "2021-05-21T00:17:04Z")
As some have mentioned, Align Tool and Translation Tool are youre best friend. Try to do your sketches near the origin. For one of my project I had the same problem as you as I had a heigh limit I wanted to meet but I couldn’t really measure my object and move it with precision easily.
I just tapped the front face to get a flat view of my height axis and drew a sketch that had my line go up to my height and then a horizontal line as my “ceiling” and then used that as a reference for my object and snap point for the translation tool since you can translate and object to a sketch.
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### Author:  [@jclenker](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jclenker)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/8 "2021-05-21T14:51:22Z")
Thanks for your insight. Again, this is a workaround and it would be easily solved if we had an absolute positioning coorinate system in the application.
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### Author:  [@jclenker](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/jclenker)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2021, 2:52pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/9 "2021-05-21T14:52:06Z")
The X (Horizontal), Y (Vertical), Z (Depth) axises.
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### Author:  [@SoCuul](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/SoCuul)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2024, 7:34am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/absolute-positioning-and-snapping-help-needed/12902/10 "2024-06-07T07:34:24Z")
Sorry for necroing, but with the newest parametric features and developments over the past 3 years, is this now possible in Shapr? I’m struggling with it myself currently.