Adjust Pivot Rollout

You can adjust the position and orientation of an object's pivot point at any time using the tools on the Adjust Pivot rollout. Adjusting an object's pivot has no effect on any children linked to that object.

Make a selection in the viewport. > Hierarchy panel > Pivot button > Adjust Pivot rollout

The Adjust Pivot rollout in the Hierarchy panel

You cannot animate the functions on the Adjust Pivot rollout. Adjusting an object's pivot on any frame changes it for the entire animation.

Tip: You can temporarily use a separate, independent "working" pivot instead of an object's own pivot, for example when you want the object to orbit around a central point. See Working Pivot Rollout.

Pivot point sets hand to the center of the clock face.

Procedures

To reposition an object's pivot point:

Select an object and then turn on Hierarchy panel > Adjust Pivot rollout > Affect Pivot Only.
Move or rotate the pivot.

You can also use Align, Quick Align, and Align to View on the toolbar to align the pivot.

See Adjust Transform Rollout for related information.

Interface

Move/Rotate/Scale group

Each of the buttons in the Move/Rotate/Scale group box highlights when active. This determines which part of the object is affected by the three buttons in the Alignment group (see following), as well as the Transform and Align commands on the main toolbar.

Affect Pivot Only

Transforms affect only the pivot point of the selected objects.

Note: A Scale transform has no effect on the pivot.

Affect Object Only

Transforms affect only the selected objects (and not the pivot point).

Affect Hierarchy Only

Applies only to the Rotation and Scale tools. It applies the rotation or scale to the hierarchy by rotating or scaling the position of the pivot point without rotating or scaling the pivot point itself.

Note: You can use this on hierarchies of 3ds Max objects, but avoid using it on Bones systems. To reposition, rotate or change the size of bones in a chain, see Bones.

Note: It's important to remember that the Align, Normal Align, and Align to View functions are all affected by the state of Affect Pivot Only, Affect Object Only, and Affect Hierarchy Only. Snap mode allows you to snap the pivot to its own object, or to any other object in the scene.

Alignment group

The tools available in this group depend on whether Affect Pivot Only or Affect Object Only is active in the Move/Rotate/Scale group (see preceding). The tools are unavailable when Affect Hierarchy Only is active.

If you chose Affect Pivot Only (see preceding), the buttons work as follows:

Center to Object

Moves the pivot to the center of its object.

Align to Object

Rotates the pivot to align with the object's transformation matrix axes.

Align to World

Rotates the pivot to align with the world coordinate axes.

If you chose Affect Object Only (see preceding), the buttons work as follows:

Center to Pivot

Moves the center of the object to its pivot location.

Align to Pivot

Rotates the object to align its transformation matrix axes with the pivot.

Align to World

Rotates the object to align its transformation matrix axes with the world coordinate axes.

The following command is available only from the Edit menu > Edit Pivot submenu, and applies in both Affect Pivot Only and Affect Object Only modes:

Move Pivot to Origin

Moves the pivot of each object in the selection to the world center: position (0,0,0).

Pivot group

Reset Pivot

Resets the pivot point to the position and orientation it held when the object was first created. This is not affected by the state of the Affect Pivot Only and Affect Object Only buttons.