Tutorial: How to free-rotate parts in an assembly

[Max]

Sometimes you may want to freely rotate a part in an assembly without having to use the Triad tool. To do this:

1) Be in an assembly workspace
2) Hold down SHIFT
3) Click and hold the LMB down over your part
4) Drag the mouse around. The part rotates freely with your mouse.

If your part is fully unconstrained, it will rotate in a truly free manner. If it has constraints on it, it will behave in adherence with the constraints. If it appears to be behaving in an unexpected manner while constrained, try rotating the view a bit and rotating from a different angle.

 

[tdaly]

I tried this, and it does work, but the part rotated very slowly, with jerking movements. Is this what you experienced? My graphics card is up to date, and other things, like complete assemblies, rotate quickly.

 

[lamar]

I hold down the left & right mouse buttons at the same time to rotate. works well for me

 

[bigseb]

I hold down the left & right mouse buttons at the same time to rotate. works well for me

This will rotate everything. Max is talking about rotating only one part relative to an assembly.

 

[cleschak]

WOW.. :mrgreen:

That is a fantastic tip. I always hated the triad tool simply due to the fact that unless you turn it back off after the rotate, it will always pop up on subsequent clicks and is distracting. Many times you just need to rotate a part closer to its desired orientation in order to constrain it as you wanted and this makes the work flow smoother and less distracting.

Thanks Max!