my problem is this, I have made a 3 d model of a piece with many different pieces that are suspended in air (they are not all connected together) however they do move together when you rotate them.
let us pretend it is 2 ladders with a board in between them, but the board is not touching the ladders, when you rotate the image they all rotate together. so far so good
but as you go to rotate them to get a particular view, the program rotates the image basically on 1 leg on the ladder and does NOT allow you to get to the view you want (basically 45 degrees of rotation on the face and a 22.5 degree rotation down) or more of a top side view or a bottom up side view
now if you go to use the rotate tool; because they are different pieces that are not touching; it makes a mess of it, by rotating 1 piece which ends up in another piece which can not be rotated into the proper plane on another etc. etc.
you can not component the whole thing as it picks up only 1 piece at a time
if you move the axis to anywhere on the model or even away from the model you can not get the model to rotate to the position you want as somehow the rotation is still oriented around the leg of the ladder. which is where it was to begin with.
I can not find any videos on this, as it shows how to basically rotate a box but nothing complex
How about uploading the SKP file so we can see exactly what you’ve got and show you how to do what you’re asking. I’m sure it’s actually quite simple but having your model will make it much easier to help you out.
lol I would love to but it is for a patent submission and is why I used the example of 2 ladders and a board
if you move the axis from 1 leg of a ladder to the other ladder, far away as it is separate by the board, the model still rotates on the leg oft the first ladder,
That’s quite a riddle you’ve written there and “a picture is worth a thousand words” certainly comes to mind.
I’m not clear whether your problem is in rotating the “camera” view to get the perspective you need, or rotating the objects themselves?
I’m not sure about your component comment either but, whether or not all your elements are components it would seem “grouping” them all as one would keep them all together when rotating them?
Are you in perspective mode or parallel? this could be why the view you want is tricky?
The main axis of the model red, green, blue (which may fall on the leg of the “ladder”) is marking the o,o,o on the xyz axes and does not represent a point of rotation.
Not sure if any of this is any help or is just another riddle in answer form?
Also attached a gif that shows some of the moves described. (while this is not the web version, the tools will be much the same)
the corner of the ladder is at location 0-0-0. the
ladder sits on the green 0 degree axis, the boards are 45 degrees off
of rotation
the view required is to get the boards to 0 degrees and then tilted
towards you to get a perspective view
because there are many components (much more than this example) the
program is not picking them all up, therefore if I try to make a
component many are left behind. while I can spin the ones that are in
component to the correct orientation, I then can not get the ones that
were left behind back into place.
if I build a box around the whole thing and spin the box on a CORNER
it will keep all the pieces inside of it and spin but it will keep the
same spin axis so when you erase the box it is the same orientation
problem
if you spin ON the box, the box will crush and the piece inside the
box does not spin
sometime it will pick up the all pieces and allow me to spin the
piece 45 degrees but not allow any tilt forward .when you then go to
tilt it forward the piece blinks back to its original orientation
, so you start all over again however this can not be continually reproduced
no matter where you place the axis on the piece it rotates on its
original 0-0-0 location axis
it you draw another piece to link to it off of the 0-0-0 orientation
and onto the orientation you want, once linked together the spin
orientation is still on the 0-0-0- axis, not the linked piece
on all other drawings the board start off at 0 degrees and the ladder
is at 45 degrees, there is absolutely no problems rotating the piece
to any view you want
Sorry to report that the further explanation doesn’t clarify your issue much more.
I note that the geometry in you sample is not grouped and I wonder if this is why elements are being left out when you transform them. In the attached I have “grouped” all the geometry which then allows it to be moved as one item…rotating to get your boards level and further rotated for another view.
Again. The axes shown in the main window exist to orient the world’s coordinates, it does not influence or dictate the center of any rotation. The point of rotation is dictated by where you place the rotation tool, this can be arbitrary or locked to certain axes by using the cursor keys.
