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Pin is a Happy Artist tool for interactive anchored placement. You click to pin an object to a surface point, then drag to define its rotation and scale in a single gesture before releasing to confirm.
New to Pin? Follow the step-by-step Pin — Getting Started tutorial first.

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Supported resource types

Pin supports:

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How it works

  1. Click on a valid surface point. MegaWorld places a preview object at that point with scale (0, 0, 0) and calculates a local orientation frame from the surface normal.
  2. Drag the mouse. The distance from the click point to the cursor controls scale. The angle between the forward direction and the cursor direction controls rotation.
  3. Release to confirm. If the cursor moved fewer than 5 pixels from the original click point, the object is discarded instead of committed.
Rotation and scale each have their own Transform Mode that controls how they respond to the drag.

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Tool-level controls

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Position

  • Offset — shifts the object’s Y position after it is placed on the surface. Default is 0.

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Rotation

  • Transform Mode — controls how rotation is calculated during drag:
    • Free — rotation continuously follows the cursor direction around the placement axis. The object rotates smoothly as you move the mouse.
    • Snap — rotation snaps to the nearest multiple of Rotation Angle as you drag. Default is 30 degrees.
    • Fixed — the object is placed at a fixed rotation defined by Rotation (Vector3 Euler angles). Dragging does not change rotation.
  • Up — determines which axis is used as the local “up” direction for the orientation frame. Available when Transform Mode is not Fixed.
    • Surface Normal — the up axis follows the surface normal at the hit point.
    • X / Y / Z — locks the up axis to the corresponding world axis.
  • Weight To Normal — blends the up direction between world up and the surface normal. Available when Up is set to Surface Normal. At 1 the object fully follows the surface normal. At 0 it uses world up. Default is 1.

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Scale

  • Transform Mode — controls how scale is calculated during drag:
    • Free — scale grows proportionally as you drag away from the click point. Scale is derived from the distance to the cursor on the placement plane, normalized to the object’s bounds.
    • Snap — scale snaps to the nearest multiple of Snap Scale Value as you drag. Default is 0.3.
    • Fixed — the object keeps a fixed scale defined by Scale (Vector3). The drag distance is ignored.

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When to use Pin

Pin is best when you want:
  • a tactile one-gesture placement workflow where you set rotation and scale in the same action;
  • objects that need to be oriented relative to the surface they land on;
  • quick manual variation without opening transform fields.

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Notes

  • Press F while hovering a valid surface point to frame the camera on that point.
  • If you release the mouse without dragging, the object is discarded.
  • When Scale Transform Mode is Fixed, the object is always committed regardless of drag distance.