Rotate Tool Trouble

I’ve watched and read many things on how to use the rotate tool yet it just doesn’t behave for me. Sometimes I click multiple times on multiple faces or edges and get nothing. Sometimes I might get it to rotate but then it won’t finish or I have to click and move the mouse a bunch for anything to happen. It seems random. What am I doing wrong? I’ve tried on a Mac and a Chromebook.

Have you visited the LEARNING CENTER yet? Interactive tutorials put on by the Sketchup Team.

FWIW, a student in a recent class of mine complained that he couldn’t make the Rotate tool work.Turns out he had grabbed the Protractor by mistake.I’ve almost made the same mistake myself, especially since the Protractor cursor and the Rotate cursor are nearly the same. Could carneys’s problem be a case of mistaken identity?

Thanks for that resource! I didn’t see anything that helped for my issue but super helpful.

I’m using SketchUp for Schools (the online version) and definitely using the Rotate tool (although the rotate tool sure looks like a protractor). I’m baffled.

The protractor is merely a (blue) ring with angles marked on it.
The rotate tool has two extra black rotation arrows as cursor on top.

Pay attention to the status bar down left on screen. It tells you what options there are, what to do, during various stages of using each tool.

As for the rotation tool:

  • you can rotate something you selected or a copy of that selection (hit [Ctrl] to toggle the + sign on)
  • the ring marks the plane the rotation is in
  • first click is the start of rotation
  • second (last) click is to determine the angle / you can overrule this by inputting a value
  • You can specify a certain rotation plane by dragging the cursor along an edge or whatever (from one point to another) while holding down the Lmouse button after the first click.
    (just some hints)

It’s now working as expected. Suddenly. Thanks for your help! It seems there was maybe a glitch in the online system for a bit. Or something. Never did anything differently

Thank you! Great tips