Rotate axes relative to part or vise versa

[SherpaDoug]

I made a beautiful part to produce on my 3D printer with one problem. I made the part on edge. Think of the Eiffel tower pointing East instead of Up. There are probably 3rd party G-code tools to fix the printer files but I would rather fix the problem at its source in the Alibre part model.

I have the Y axis pointing up when it should be Z pointing up. I think I need to rotate the Y & Z axes about the X axis 90 degrees, or rotate the part relative to the axes. But I cant find a way to do either. I am probably asking the wrong question.

How can I fix my part model?

SherpaDoug

 

[Ralf]

Please take a look:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=14066&p#p85843

 

[SherpaDoug]

I don't think mirroring on any combination of the principle planes is going to help. Do I need to use a 45 degree plane somehow?

It sounds like the Boolean unite trick might do the job, but for me the axes rotate in step with the part rotation so nothing useful happens. Maybe I am not doing the last step right? I don't see the triad with rings anywhere. I just have the three 3D arrows.

- New (empty) 3D part
- Boolean Unite
- Choose your 3D Part
- Insert
- Design Explorer -> RMB -> Show Reference Geometry
- Now you can move, rotate...your 3D Part, freely in any direction and if you want, you can assign constraints...

I have "Personal Edition 2012" 14.0, perhaps this feature is not available in my version?

 

[Ralf]

Please take a look: Triad
.

 

[Ralf]

...much more accurate: Constraints
.

 

[SherpaDoug]

Thanks, I got it! The triad with rings does not show up until you pick a face to rotate. I then used "Precise Placement" to get exactly 90 deg around the X axis.
Too bad you loose all the sketch history when you do this. It looks like if I want to revise the part I will have to modify the unrotated original and rotate it again before exporting the 3D printer file.

SherpaDoug

 

[Ralf]

Too bad you loose all the sketch history when you do this. It looks like if I want to revise the part I will have to modify the unrotated original and rotate it again before exporting the 3D printer file.

No, you do not lose the history and it is not necessary to rotate again.
Edit your part -> Save -> Close -> Open your (boolean) part and you can see your modifications.