Rotate content in the 3D View

Use the Rotate mode in the 3D view to rotate selected content in the scene.

This mode is for rotating nodes in the 3D scene.

Enable the Rotate mode

• Click the Rotate button in the 3D View toolbar.

Rotating an object

All the rotation operations move in reference to the selected object.

When you select an object for rotating, the Transformation gizmo showing the transformation axis displays at the transformation point. The axis is represented as a portion of a circumference with its center in the rotation center and which lays on a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis.

An additional bright grey circumference surrounds the other three circumferences. This grey circumference represents the rotation around the camera forward direction at the gizmo position.

This 3 + 1 circumference representation allows the users to have an intuitive visual interface to understand what rotation each axis is supposed to perform.

In addition, whenever a rotation is performed, all axis except the selected one are hidden and the segment of the circle that corresponds to the rotation is filled with the axis color. This gives an effective visual feedback of the operation that is being performed.

Note: You can use a fixed pace whenever rotating around any axis. To do this, either enable the rotation snap button from the 3D View Toolbar or hold the SHIFT key while dragging the gizmo. The fixed pace of rotation degrees used by the gizmo is configurable by the Snap To Degrees parameter on Graphic Context Editor Parameters.

Editing nodes with Quaternion fields (SQUAT type)

If the selected object features quaternion rotation fields, such as rotation and rotationOffset, the Transformation gizmo will guide the editing of the rotation by showing the axis around which the rotation will happen. Quaternion rotation fields have squat field data type.

Rotate an object around one of the displayed axis

• Select an object, place the mouse over the desired axis. The axis color becomes brighter. Left-select and drag the object to rotate it.

Local space and World space

Depending on the type of node selected, the interface allows you to:

• Choose between Local space and World space to rotate the object. This choice is directly reflected by the displayed Transformation gizmo, so that users are aware of the direction of the axis along which the transformation is going to happen. Camera space rotation is not affected by this, since camera space is the same either way.

• Choose the transformation Channel. Nodes that support it will allow you to choose between the Transform channel or the Offset channel. Depending on which channel is selected, the user’s drag editing will affect the rotation field (Transform channel) or the rotationOffset field (Offset channel).

Editing nodes with legacy orientation field (SVEC3 type)

Orientation (svec3) uses the yaw, pitch, and roll convention. The three operations are applied in sequence, not independently. This means that pitch rotation axis depends on the current yaw and the roll rotation axis depends on the current yaw and pitch.

In this case, the Transformation gizmo does not reflect the current rotation of the object. Therefore, the shown axis are aligned with the performed orientation only when the orientations that come before them are zeroed.

For example, Yaw (around Y axis, green circumference) is always showing the rotation it performs, Pitch (around X axis, red circumference) is showing the rotation it performs only if Yaw is zero. Roll (around Z axis, blue circumference) is showing the rotation it performs only if both Yaw and Pitch are zero.

Modify the yaw value

• Select an object and drag the green circumference.

Modify the pitch value

• Select an object and drag the red circumference.

Modify the roll value

• Select an object and drag the blue circumference.

Rotation in camera space is supported also in this case. The drag on the camera space circumference results in a mix of Yaw, Pitch, and Roll modifications that rotate the object around the center of the gizmo along the camera rotation circumference.

Move camera around in the scene

See Interacting with mouse and keyboard.

Ladder node behavior

Use the Rotate mode in the 3D view to adjust the yaw of the Rotation gizmo displays at the bottom of the ladder.

Editing the yaw

When you select the ladder object, the World Y-axis of the displays at the top of the ladder.

Edit the yaw of the ladder

1. Select the ladder node from the Nodes panel.

2. Select the ladder yaw field in the node properties.

3. Enable the Rotate button in the 3D View toolbar.

4. Drag on the gizmo to edit the yaw.

   Note: If any other field or no field at all is selected, the gizmo is used to edit positions of the node. Only selecting the height field that stores the ladder height will cause the height value to be edited.