Doc:Glossary/Operational Center

Operational Center

The reference point for manipulation of an object. It may be offset from an object's geometric center both spatially and angularly. The operational center moves and rotates in Object mode, but not in Edit mode. A spatial offset is achieved in Object mode by using the Object|Transform menu to transfer the operational center of an object to the position of the 3D Cursor. Many operations in Edit mode involve spatial offset of the operational center - from simply pulling a face to one side to moving a wholly-selected object. The Object|Transform menu allows resetting the operational center to the geometric center or vice versa. Angular offset occurs in Edit mode when rotating a whole object. Rotation of the object will occur, but the attitude of the center does not change. After an angular offset, Local mode selected from the Transform Orientation combo box does not reflect an object's local axis directions, which means probably unexpected results while either translating or scaling the object in Local mode.