Rotating Components

  • You cannot rotate a component whose position is fixed or fully defined.
  • You can only rotate a component within the degrees of freedom allowed by its mating relationships.

Dragging to Rotate a Component

To rotate a component by dragging:

Right-click and drag the component.
The component rotates within its degrees of freedom.
To prevent this behavior, clear Move components by dragging in Tools > Options > System Options > Assemblies.

Using a Triad to Rotate a Component

To rotate a component with a triad:

  1. Select a component.
  2. Select a ring and drag. Also:
    • To snap, right-click the selected ring and choose Snap while Dragging. Close to the ring, the snap increment is 90°. The increment decreases as the pointer moves further away from the ring.

    • To rotate in preset increments, right-click the selected ring and choose Rotate 90° or Rotate 180°.
    • To enter specific increments, right-click the center sphere and select Show Rotate Delta XYZ Box.
  3. Click in the graphics area to turn off the triad.
    To move or align the triad:
    • Drag the center ball to drag the triad freely.
    • Alt + drag the center ball or an arm and drop it on an edge or face to align the triad with the edge or face.
    • Right-click the center ball and select Align to, Align with Component Origin, or Align with Assembly Origin.

Using the PropertyManager to Rotate a Component

To rotate a component with the PropertyManager:

  1. Click Rotate Component (Assembly toolbar) or Tools > Component > Rotate.
    The Rotate Component PropertyManager appears, and the pointer changes to .
  2. Select one or more components in the graphics area.
  3. Select an item from the Rotate list to move the components in one of following manners:
    Option Description
    Free Drag Select a component and drag in any direction.
    About Entity Select a line, an edge, or an axis, then drag a component around the selected entity.
    By Delta XYZ Type an X, Y, or Z value in the PropertyManager, and click Apply. The component moves around the assembly’s axes by the angular value you specify.
    You can rotate one component or group of components after another; the tool remains active until you click it again, or select another tool.
  4. Under Advanced Options, select This configuration to apply the rotation of the components to only the active configuration.
  5. Click or click Rotate Component again when finished.