Change pivot point of gameobject

Questions & Answers
1

Is there a way to simply change the pivot point of a gameobject and make it rotate around a different axis than the middle axis? thanks!

3

Just wanted to update this with a simple solution that now exists since I was looking for the information as well and I just kept coming across the parent object work around.

  • Probuilder, which is a unity asset right off the asset store, that I believe they said was
    going to become standard in the
    future, has the ability to set the
    pivot point of an object in editor.
  • When you have an object selected
    clicking on “Freeze Transform”
    will set the pivot point of the
    object to 0,0,0 in world space while
    keeping the other transform
    information of your mesh exactly
    where it is in world space. So just
    take the object that you want to
    correct the pivot of to near 0,0,0,
    align it how you want and then click
    Freeze Transform. Very Handy, and
    officially supported by unity.
  • There is also a button to set the
    pivot to the meshes center of mass if
    you just want to do that quickly.
  • An added benefit of downloading probuilder is that you can edit meshes in unity as well, which is obviously great.
2

You can find answers to that here, here and here.

You can embed your model inside an empty GameObject and position it wherever you like - this allows you to create any pivot point if you then use the outer game object.

I am not sure what you mean by “middle axis” …

4

@cyllu2 Many of these incorrect answers are how to move mesh geometry relative to the transform position, and do so using the features of ProBuilder.

The actual correct answer to the OP’s question is that “No, the Transform in a GameObject cannot do that.” The work-around is what was posted by @Mindmapfreak : use another parent GameObject where you want the pivot to be.

1 Like
5

in most 3d modeling software you hit ‘insert’ key to change the pivot point of an object. Unity doesnt do that? Seems fundamental?

6

Unfortunately in Unity, modifying the actual pivots is not possible out of the box. I know this is really annoying and something that i always wanted in Unity. So i decided to create an editor utility for the same.

You can try out my asset here:

It allows you to modify pivot position and rotation conveniently from within the unity editor, it also provides you with various useful options like pivot snapping which allows you to manipulate the pivot more precisely. It also fits right within the inspector and needs no addition of components and opening windows from the editor.