Friendly Pivot Addon Documentation

The Friendly Pivot addon brings most of the functionality of Autodesk Maya’s Pivot Transform tool to Blender, with thoughtful improvements tailored for Blender’s workflow. Its main goal is to let you quickly and conveniently change the Pivot Orientation, Origin, and 3D Cursor position using far fewer keystrokes — eliminating the need to select individual mesh components, bones(Pro version), or curve points(Pro version) and avoiding tedious menu navigation.

Simply press D, hover your mouse over the highlighted component, and click LMB, MMB, or RMB to instantly change the pivot. Alternatively, use the Pivot gizmo to freely move the Origin in 3D space or set a custom pivot orientation. Both methods support an incremental snapping system.

In addition, the BBox gizmo (Pro version) makes it easy to align the Origin and 3D Cursor to the selected object’s boundaries.

The Friendly Pivot addon is available in two versions: Simple and Pro.
The Simple version provides essential tools for setting the Pivot Orientation, Origin, and 3D Cursor for Blender mesh objects.
The Pro version includes everything from the Simple version, plus support for BBox gizmo, orientation preview gizmo, multiselection, armature, and curve objects, as well as the ability to set the 3D Cursor directly in the UV Editor.

The addon is available on Blender Market Gumroad

Video Intro Pro
Video Intro Simple

Features

  • Easy change Pivot orientations.
  • Easy change Origin positions.
  • Easy change 3D Cursor orientation and position.

Requirements

  • Blender 4.2 or higher for Pro version.
  • Blender 5.2 or higher for Simple version.

Latest version

The latest version of Friendly Pivot Addon is 0.5 plus.

Installation

It's recommended to remove previously installed addon before the installation!

From "Get Extension" Preference tab

  • Start Blender, then Edit → User Preferences → Get Extensions tab,
  • Press 'Install from Disk' command in Extension settings dropdown menu (down-arrow icon located in upper right area of Get Extensions tab),
  • Locate and select downloaded friendly_pivot zip file,
  • Activate the addon, save user settings,
  • Close preferences.

From "Add-ons" Preference tab

  • Start Blender, then Edit → User Preferences → Add-ons tab,
  • Press 'Install from Disk' command in Add-ons settings dropdown menu (down-arrow icon located in upper right area of Add-ons tab),
  • Locate and select downloaded friendly_pivot zip file,
  • Activate the addon, save user settings,
  • Close preferences.

Quick usage

Select object, press D (default invoke key, changeable) or activate Friendly Pivot Tool in Blender toolbar then hover mouse cursor above necessary and highlighted component then:
* Press LMB to set new Pivot Transform Orientation or
* Press RMB to set new Origin position or
* Press MMB to set 3d Cursor orientation and position.
For more actions and modes see the addon's manual.

Contact

The addon is in BETA and works well but could be errors. If there is an existed one, please report a bug by pressing Support button in dropdown menu(upper left FP icon) while Friendly Pivot addon is active in main Blender viewport.