2011

To rotate an object with gizmo
1 Select the object you want to rotate in the Scene View.
2 Click Item Tools tab ➤ Transform panel ➤ Rotate
.
3 Use the gizmo to rotate the currently selected object:
■ Before you can rotate the currently selected objects, you need to position the origin (center point) of
the rotation. To do this, place the mouse over the square at the end of the desired axis. When the cursor
changes to
, drag the square on the screen to increase/decrease the translation along that axis. This
will move the gizmo itself.
Dragging the yellow square in the middle of the rotate gizmo enables you to move it around, and snap
it to points on other geometry objects.
■ Once the rotate gizmo is positioned correctly, place the mouse over one of the curves in the middle,
and drag it on the screen to rotate the selected objects. The curves are color-coded, and match the color
of the axis used to rotate the object around. So, for example, dragging the blue curve between the X and
Y axes, rotates the objects around the blue Z axis.
■ To rotate the orientation of the gizmo to an arbitrary position, hold down the CTRL key while dragging
one of the three curves in the middle.
■ To snap the gizmo to other objects, hold the CTRL key while dragging the yellow square in the middle
of the gizmo.
To rotate an object numerically
1 Select the object you want to rotate in the Scene View.
2 Click the Item Tools tab, and slide out the Transform panel.
3 Type in numerical values into the manual entry boxes to move the object by the amount entered:
■ Rotation X, Y, Z represent degrees of rotation in the current model unit.
■ Transform Center X, Y, Z represent the rotation center point.
To rotate an object with a measure tool
1 Select the object you want to move.
2 Click Review tab ➤ Measure panel ➤ Measure drop-down ➤ Measure Angle
.
3 To rotate the object, click three points on the selected object to determine how the object is to be rotated
(refer to the diagram below).
246 | Chapter 8 Review Your Model