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Rotating Objects in 3D


trashcan

Question

I've been struggling with Vectorworks 3D rotate for a long time, mainly when having two rotate non-cube objects along multiple axis. Here's how I'm doing it. There's gotta be a better way. 

 

I have this multiple extrude object, essentially a rectangular pyramid:

image.thumb.png.c3cf21f9821bbb2c01dc428b5097d3a0.png

 

From the side it looks like this:

image.thumb.png.6f10979cac0f18257baa4e379db156ec.png

 

From the top:

image.thumb.png.dd1458e9f03b1e354685e45687598c32.png

 

If I want to rotate in 3D in ONE direction it's easy. Say I need to tilt it down 45°

 

I go to the side view, here's what I do:

image.thumb.png.3818d4b5038058e0b0165d43714f5952.png

 

Great:

image.thumb.png.96f0cc921b22fd31e41ed86489d2ab4d.png

 

Here's how it looks from the top:

image.thumb.png.b008056558ce30cc2338fe95ca185da9.png

 

Now I need to rotate it 45° on the Z axis (panning it), great:

image.thumb.png.8c4b0f1326f47695b161d6cfe3a725a4.png

 

Now I want to fine tune that rotation. If it was still aligned like the first view, I would do this:

image.thumb.png.54b69cec426ad4782c25b7290c7bd314.png

 

But now the side view looks like this:

image.thumb.png.10f40d3da411366d5556c6847cfd5f3f.png

 

I would think that solve here is to use the working plane somehow. I need to align my view to the side of the pyramid so I can rotate it along the Z axis. 

 

 So I've made the working plane the "bottom" of the pyramid and then extruded a line on the side of it:

image.thumb.png.8d4552aa0a45c386ed8450d92ebfd6b8.png

 

Then I've made that extruded line the working plane:

image.thumb.png.34f1da17770ee1a6cf3092a74721e4d1.png

 

Now I can fine tune the objects' 3D rotation on the Z axis. 

 

Is there a better way to do this?

 

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Only you would know this is a frostum ! 

 

If understanding properly:

image.thumb.png.8910101d0d8f7cef23851e172dda8672.png

 

Then group those bad boys. Using this method, it sometimes works. 

 

Right now in left iso, if I use the rotate tool, I get a rotation along this axis:

image.thumb.png.431cea0810c83a49f102ca4bba780ac7.png

 

If I go to the side view, I can do it by the side, so now I have rotated it a long a few axis:

image.thumb.png.95aa95c658bb3970716ef2fc2dabc818.png

 

Cool. Now how do I tilt it down even more? This is the plane it's giving me:

image.thumb.png.4529544515ea5ca1d1c781b0521eba96.png

 

I can use those 3D loci to create a temporary working plane and then use that for rotation. Ah right obvious! 

 

I've added a fourth 3D loci so I can use the working plane method for both panning and tilting:

image.thumb.png.07b7605dd412bd1a02891f415cbe0ca0.png

 

Abracadabra:

image.thumb.png.9dcb196c7cf6e4bd8fb02da2bd1655d3.png

 

After some more tinkering, technically, you don't even need 3D loci (though if you add shift your frostrum it might be useful). You can select the mid-points of each plane and the tip to select your working plane. Works like a charm. Can't believe it took me this long to figure this out... Not super intuitive! 

 

If only you could select a 3D anchor point for an object and control all of this stuff in the OIP 😞 like any other program 🤯

 

image.thumb.png.481e363dfb0bb0baa5ea0d4ddc004840.png

 

Or 3D handles:

image.thumb.png.9fdb057a1507cbd21c2a944b8b4ba22c.png

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