Translate and Rotate Entities

Use the Move tool to translate and rotate selected entities.

Certain types of entities, like assemblies, cannot be moved with the Move tool. Entities like pressures cannot be moved because their position and orientation are determined by the entity to which they are applied.
  1. From the Home tools, click the Move tool.


    Figure 1.
  2. Optional: Click on the guide bar to define movement options.
  3. Select an entity type using the guide bar selector.
  4. Select entities to move.
    The Move tool is placed the center of selected entities.
  5. Click a graphical manipulator then do one of the following:
    • Drag the graphical manipulator to translate or rotate entities in the selected direction(s).
    • Enter a precise value in the microdialog and press Enter.
    To Do This
    Translate along an axis Click the X, Y, or Z arrow.


    Figure 2.
    Translate along a plane Click the XY, XZ, or YX plane square.


    Figure 3.
    Translate freely in 3D space Click the origin of the Move tool.


    Figure 4.
    Tip: Use the icons in the microdialog to align the tool to a part or the global axes.
    Rotate around an axis Click a curved arrow.


    Figure 5.
    Rotate freely Click at the tip of the X, Y, or Z arrow and drag.


    Figure 6.
Tip: Use snap points to align entities by clicking-and-dragging a snap point on one entity to the snap point on a second entity.

Reposition the Move Tool

Reposition the Move tool along an axis, within a plane, or in 3D space to change the center of rotation.

  1. From the Home tools, click the Move tool.


    Figure 7.
  2. Enter editing mode in the following ways:
    • Hold Shift.
    • Double-click one of the graphical manipulators.
    The Move tool becomes orange, indicating that it is ready to be repositioned.
  3. Similar to translating and rotating, use the graphical manipulators and microdialogs to reposition the tool.
  4. Let go of Shift or left-click in empty space to exit editing mode.
    The Move tool displays in white.

Microdialog Options

When clicking the Move tool origin:

Align the Move tool its default orientation and position:
  • Click once to reset its orientation to match the global coordinate system, or local system if one is assigned.
  • Click twice to also reset its position to the centroid of your selection, or the local system origin if one is assigned.
Align the Move tool along an edge or face. If the Move tool is being repositioned (highlighted orange), clicking this button will force the Move tool to be aligned automatically as you drag it around the model.
Select and assign a local coordinate system to the Move tool. After a new system is assigned, the Move tool automatically repositions to its origin.
Note: Currently, the Move tool only supports assigning rectangular coordinate systems.
Tip: When a local system is assigned to the Move tool, the system button is shown with a tick mark , indicating that the manipulator is now in local system mode. Clicking this button again to change the assigned system or reset it to go back to global system mode.

When clicking a translation or rotation arrow:

Orient the selected direction using the Vector tool.
Δ
Use the buttons to apply an incremental translation or rotation in the selected direction.
Tip: When using the Vector tool to define an orientation between two snaps, the Δ increment field is also automatically populated with the corresponding distance.

Example: Align Two Solids

The following example takes a look at two cylinders with the goal of aligning their faces.


Figure 8.
  1. From the Home tools, click the Move tool.


    Figure 9.
  2. Set the selector to Solids then pick the cylinder on the left.
  3. Align the tool with the cylinder's face.
    1. Double-click on the origin of the axis to enter editing mode and reposition the tool.
    2. Drag the origin of the axis to the snap point on the center of the cylinder's face.


      Figure 10.
    3. Click at the tip of the X arrow and drag to a snap point on the face's edge.


      Figure 11.
    4. Drag the Z axis' curved arrow to a similar snap point on the face's edge.

      By rotating this axis, you lock the other two degrees of freedom.



      Figure 12.
    5. Left-click in empty space to exit editing mode.
    Tip: It is also possible to automatically align the tool to the selected part by clicking in the microdialog. This works well in many cases, but the result depends on the position and geometry of the selected parts; so for complex scenarios, manually repositioning the origin and axes (as shown above) is a more dependable way of aligning the Move tool.
  4. Translate and rotate the cylinder so it aligns with the other.
    1. Drag the origin of the axis to the snap point on the surface center of the other cylinder.


      Figure 13.
    2. Click at the tip of the X arrow and drag to a snap point on the target face's edge.


      Figure 14.
    3. Drag the Z axis' curved arrow to a similar snap point on the target face to finish the alignment.


      Figure 15.


      Figure 16.