# Having Trouble Aligning Cylinders/ Round Bodies

**URL:** <https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569>\
**Category:** Modeling Questions\
**Created:** [February 16, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569 "2025-02-16T18:52:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bad\_at\_Cad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@Bad\_at\_Cad](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Bad_at_Cad)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/1 "2025-02-16T18:52:43Z")

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I am working with lots of round bodies, cylinders, discs etc-- and I am having great difficulty trying to align them to other bodies or even the XY axes etc. The construction axis I added to the center of each cylinder seems to be useless for this. Does anyone know of a video tutorial that shows the correct way to go about aligning bodies to round bodies?

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**Author:** ![JST](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@JST](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/JST)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 8:33pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/2 "2025-02-16T20:33:54Z")

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Use the translate tool, the sanppings dots jumps to the center, if you move them to the arc. Also to easy align to the construction axis …if the bodys not paralell the face to face with the align tool

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**Author:** ![arroniow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/arroniow/32/30268_2.png) [@arroniow](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/arroniow)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/3 "2025-02-16T20:46:58Z")

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Don’t forget the measurement tool will give the distance between centres of curves and circles, including solids.  
You can also now move objects by typing measurement fractions.  
So if you want to move a sphere by a 1/3 of it’s diameter simply type the Diameter / 3 (example 20/3) in the move widget.

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**Author:** ![JST](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@JST](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/JST)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/4 "2025-02-16T20:57:59Z")

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At first was the align tool. The second was the translate tool.  
https://www.loom.com/embed/cb40eab3bd18433caa8a1c00c1fc5436

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**Author:** ![Bad\_at\_Cad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@Bad\_at\_Cad](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Bad_at_Cad)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/5 "2025-02-16T21:00:53Z")

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thank you both for the suggestions, I’ll give them a try

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**Author:** ![SCALEMODEL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@SCALEMODEL](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/SCALEMODEL)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 12:19am UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/6 "2025-02-17T00:19:53Z")

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Never knew you could pull out a alignment ARROWS! 🤯

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**Author:** ![arroniow](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.shapr3d.com/arroniow/32/30268_2.png) [@arroniow](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/arroniow)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 1:05pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/7 "2025-02-17T13:05:28Z")

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You and me both!

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**Author:** ![JST](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@JST](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/JST)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/8 "2025-02-17T15:40:14Z")

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> **[Adaptive user interface](https://support.shapr3d.com/hc/en-us/articles/7873882619548-Adaptive-user-interface)**
>
> Shapr3D has an adaptive user interface functionality that automatically recommends tools as you make selections in your projects. These tailored menus allow you to easily access everything you need...

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JST](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@JST](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/JST)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 4:13pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/9 "2025-02-17T16:13:52Z")

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This video with the old UI, but usefull.

[![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/shapr3d/original/3X/8/f/8ff42567a4e569d8ad24b426dd17fd4ae18eb2d5.jpeg "Mastering the Align Tool | Shapr3D Step-by-Step") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgchH4bWLoQ)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SCALEMODEL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@SCALEMODEL](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/SCALEMODEL)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/10 "2025-02-17T16:34:12Z")

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I have been going by the UI demos within Shapr and those little videos never show how to drag out arrows.

Also if you can drag out arrows in Align Tool you basically turned it into a Translate tool.

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**Author:** ![JST](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@JST](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/JST)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/11 "2025-02-17T16:51:44Z")

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See from 4,50…the attached vid.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SCALEMODEL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@SCALEMODEL](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/SCALEMODEL)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/12 "2025-02-17T16:55:27Z")

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Ya thats why I mention because I was looking at that long video and the built in UI Help videos don’t have pullouts. For me would have been real helpful if they showcased that, wouldn’t even needed to use translate tool.

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**Author:** ![JST](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@JST](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/JST)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/13 "2025-02-17T17:15:06Z")

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I only use the alignment tool to align planes, edges, corners. For the edited alignment I always use the “translate tool” and if possible I edit a circle, so I always see the “snap”!

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**Author:** ![Bad\_at\_Cad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@Bad\_at\_Cad](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Bad_at_Cad)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/14 "2025-02-21T15:06:25Z")

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I’ve had zero luck with using “Translate”, it never seems to do what I need it to do unfortunately. 🙁

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SCALEMODEL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@SCALEMODEL](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/SCALEMODEL)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/15 "2025-02-21T18:42:31Z")

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So these are just general alignment ideas, if you can screencapture what the object looks like. Maybe we can find some solutions, maybe not if it has too much rounded surfaces.

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**Author:** ![Mathis58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Mathis58](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/u/Mathis58)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://discourse.shapr3d.com/t/having-trouble-aligning-cylinders-round-bodies/36569/17 "2025-02-22T20:26:09Z")

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Try this again. For some reason I all of a sudden cannot successfully download a video.