# Automatic 'axis alignment'?

**URL:** <https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/automatic-axis-alignment/17030>\
**Category:** Modeling Questions\
**Created:** [January 23, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/automatic-axis-alignment/17030 "2022-01-23T19:13:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DragonDon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a698b9/32.png) [@DragonDon](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/DragonDon)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/automatic-axis-alignment/17030/1 "2022-01-23T19:13:26Z")

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Is there an option to have something automatically sign to a certain axis?

Nearly every item I import never aligns with any axis. So if I want it to align, say with the x-axis, how do I do this without doing multiple ‘moves’ to get it there when I don’t see any reference like “This face is -2.5mm from the x-axis”? That way I could simple set the move to +2.5mm and know it was at 0.

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**Author:** ![Istvan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/istvan/32/23668_2.png) [@Istvan](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Istvan)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/automatic-axis-alignment/17030/2 "2022-01-23T19:27:45Z")

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Hi! Have you tried the [Align](https://support.shapr3d.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016919159-How-do-I-align-objects-) tool?

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**Author:** ![DragonDon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a698b9/32.png) [@DragonDon](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/DragonDon)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 7:31pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/automatic-axis-alignment/17030/3 "2022-01-23T19:31:53Z")

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Ah, thanks for the suggestion.

When I tried, I get ‘mesh bodies cannot be aligned’ message. So what does that mean for me?

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**Author:** ![Istvan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/istvan/32/23668_2.png) [@Istvan](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Istvan)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/automatic-axis-alignment/17030/4 "2022-01-23T20:24:41Z")

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Mesh bodies are not really ideal in a CAD environment. Meshes are just a bunch of triangles, while CAD geometry is made of surfaces and curves. Try to get those files in a proper CAD format, like STEP or X\_T. Meshes in a CAD system are mostly useful as reference objects, not as editable objects.

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**Author:** ![DragonDon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a698b9/32.png) [@DragonDon](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/DragonDon)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 8:36pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/automatic-axis-alignment/17030/5 "2022-01-23T20:36:34Z")

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Whelp, lot more learning to do as I really have no idea what either of those are. It was an ‘stl’ file that I imported, and a fairly simple one at that. Might just have to make my own…but boy does that turn this project into a much longer process.

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**Author:** ![Istvan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/istvan/32/23668_2.png) [@Istvan](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Istvan)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 9:19pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/automatic-axis-alignment/17030/6 "2022-01-23T21:19:28Z")

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This is a good read on the topic: [Mesh vs. CAD - 3 Space](https://3space.com/blog/mesh-vs-cad/)