Rotate handles using move tool? SU2020

[IanR]

Hi,

Finally got some work for using SU2020 with and I saw that the move tool rotate handles were not visible on the side faces of an object. Having written half of this post about asking if it disappeared as an option in SU2020 then I Alt+Tabbed back into SU and it appeared on the sides… a strange bug that I think might be hard to replicate, but thought I should mention it. Whilst it was not visible on the sides (x and y axes) it was visible ontop - relative to the z axis … I made a cube - made it a component and saw the rotate handles on this, so I went back to the sides of the previous shape (it was a dome from the Place Shapes Toolbar made by Alex Schreyer available in Sketchup Warehouse)

[colin]

There is a new feature in 2020 where you can move things from their bounding box. If you were close to one of those the red + handles would not be shown.

[IanR]

Okay thanks yeah I saw that … very useful - so I guess since/although the object was approximately 400x400x 170 mm high it meant that the rotate handles did not appear because my cursor was too close to these bounding box corners? I tried zooming in to see if they would appear but they didn’t so I wonder if it’s not a relative handle size thing, but an actual distance parameter that controls the visibility?

[colin]

That’s a good idea. The sensitivity of the bounding box handles seems to be a certain screen distance away. You could get cases where by the time you are far enough away from one corner, enough to show the red + handles, you’re now close to another corner. It was easy to zoom away from something far enough that the rotate handles would not appear.

[IanR]

Great, well I hope that my personal discovery can help the development

[g.h.hubers]

@IanR

… it meant that the rotate handles did not appear because my cursor was too close to these bounding box corners?

I don’t think there is a bug involved.
Clearly if you hover over any of these bounding box handles (8 corners or 12 midpoints or 6 side centers) SketchUp will give priority to these points when applying the ‘Move’ tool.
However, to me it seems that whenever you view a group or component and your viewing angle is within the virtual cone of a side you’ll get to see this side’s red rotation grips that can pop up with the ‘Move’ tool. That cone has an apex angle of (about or exact?)) 150 degrees, at least that is what I experienced in ‘Parallel Projection’ mode. See:

Here both the side and the top will not show their red grips. Once you orbit to be within one or both (side and/or top) cones you’ll get to see their respective red grips.
The bounding box grips don’t play a major a minor role unless you hover over them.
It’s the viewing angle that matters most.

[IanR]

Yes you are right I think. Colin explained it in his first post

[Wo3Dan]

@IanR

Colin explained it in his first post

That’s part of the story