When exporting to STL it is imperative that all items (that should) fit together as one unit. In a more complex project, it is even needed to union everything, or the STL can be completely beyond repair.
As an example, in one project I have hundreds of screws and nuts. All just ‘markers’.
Placing them by-eye will under the building phase is visually OK for rendering, but not for STL. It is possible to do all screw heads and ‘nuts longer’ so the by-eye error is irrelevant. But that is not always easy with thin targets, and I lose the ‘cartoonish’ look that I love to shear (that I also wish I could keep in Publish).
More than often I also have nuts and bolts correct in two axes, but ‘hoovering’, so how do I get screws, nuts and other items tight to union?
By measurement
I select the opposite faces and get a readout in mm with four decimals. I then select items to move and input the distance. Besides, doing this for hundreds of items is error-prone (transferring the non-copyable numbers manually), is a lot of work, and I am also uncertain if four decimals are enough to get a working union. A -0,0001 blocks the union.
By Align
This can only be used if I use it in combination with Project or I will lose one or two axis alignments. Besides, this is also a lot of extra work, and worse, at a Project outside the target Align will not work.
By Translate
Will not work as long as I do not have a specific center from and to target that aligns to two axes. Though it will work if Projecting (even a free form) and then connecting vertices. Numerous extra steps.
By Axis
Does not work with Align or Translate
By grid
Of course, this would work, but it would limit the project in its entirety.
I have found no way to easily manage this; maybe I am missing some obvious way?
If none, I could see that the Align or Transfer tool could have an option to move only perpendicular (to the selected/clicked surface) or by a specific world axis or construction axis.
Edit:
Btw, the new (otherwise very usefull) Enhanced selection visibility makes performing by-eye alignment even harder.