Set Origin

The Set Origin operator is used to relocate the origin point of the selected or active object. The origin point is used as the pivot when you scale or rotate an object. It is also used to position objects when added to the 3D viewport.

Figure 1

You get two option when using the operator on where to place the new origin point. You have Axis which puts the origin point on the furthest possible vertex point in the X, Y or Z axis or the Selected which sets the origin point on the average location of all the selected vertices.

Figure 3

In Figure 3, you can see the origin represented by the small orange dot and also the 3D widget. Notice how it repositions on the farthest point in the selected axis? You can also reverse this by using the negative or positive direction of this axis.

Figure 4

This new location is determined by the farthest point in the mesh using vertex location. To use more vertices and move the location of the new origin point, simply raise the value of the tolerance property.

Figure 5

Using Selected will use the average location of the selected vertices as the new origin point.

Figure 6

This operator is mainly designed to work with the Random Scatter operator in order for the scatter object to be placed on the surface of another object perfectly on its "foot" or the farthest point in the negative Z axis.

Figure 7

When using this for Random Scatter, be sure that the model is "standing up" on the Z axis because the Random Scatter operator uses this axis to align the scatter object on the normals of faces.