Can You EASILY Change Protractor Orientation?
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I find the "typical" way to change the orientation of the protractor VERY awkward --especially when working with ONLY with a horizontal plane.
One of the SU "tips" [when you first open SU 6 Pro], is the creation of a sphere from a copied circle. The copied circle is then shown to be ROTATED very easily by rotating the protractor DIRECTLY. HOW did they do that!!!
IS there an easy command or technique -- as the SU tip implies -- to rotate the protractor from (e.g.) the horizontal plane to the red or green planes WITHOUT moving the protractor around in space until it converts to a vertical orientation?
Thanks,
Louis
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The easiest way to change the orientation of it is to use some geometry thats already in your model, once youve got it orientated properly you then hold shift to keep it in te right orientation while you use it.
The other way of doing it is 'moving it around' as you said. To be a bit more specific, if you hold the protractor up toward the 'horizon' then it should change to either red or green, depending on which plane you move it towards. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get the hang of it its pretty easy.
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REMUS,
Tnx for your response. What you described is what I typically do.
My confusion began when I noted that the SU "TIP" showed the protractor changing its orientation WITHOUT being moved to a vertical plane -- to force its orientation change.
Perhaps they were taking a shortcut and eliminating the reorientation steps that are typically used? I'm hoping there is an easier way...
Louis
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Louis,
I guess you mean the Rotate tool, not the Protractor, although both are oriented the same way.
In addition to the two techniques you and Remus have mentioned, you can also orient the Protractor/Rotate tool to a system axis using inferencing, without reference to existing geometry or camera orientation. When you set the axis of the tool, instead of just clicking the mouse, divide that action into mouse-down and mouse-up. First, place the cursor over one point of the axis--say an endpoint or midpoint--and press the left mouse button down, and leave it down.
Now drag the mouse in the direction you want to orient the axis. You will see that it trails a dashed rubber band line that represents the proposed axis of rotation. When the dashed line approaches one of the system axes--red, green, or blue--it will snap to the axis and turn the color of the axis, just like with any other inferencing action. When the axis of rotation is aligned with the desired system axis and is displaying in the associated color, release the mouse button (mouse-up), and the axis will be set, whereupon you can proceed to click to set the starting and ending angles.
~Voder
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Louis,
The drag-technique that Voder describes -- demonstrated:
How do I get the protractor and rotate cursors to do what I want?Taff
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If you are in an iso view you can sometimes switch orientations (for both the rotate and angle guide tools) by moving the cursor(pointer) around the view window then pressing the shift key to lock it
So if the cursor is near the bottom the orientation is blue; near the top right green; top left red.
Weirdly this only works in some orientations of the view - bug? feature? who knows.
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Float cursor on rotation point and use arrow keys to change orientation. Once you've found your desired orientation then left click & rotate as per normal.
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