Using Inferencing with the Rotate Tool – SketchUp Quick Tips
This SketchUp quick tip will teach you to use inferencing with the rotate tool to make modeling easier.
As most of you know, you can use the rotate tool both to rotate objects, as well as to make copies of objects along a radius.
So, for example – I could take this circle, select it, activate the rotate tool, and then rotate it in copy mode to make copies of a circle along this arc.
However – one of the other things I could do is – let’s say that we have this octagon that’s at a different level than our circles that we’re copying, but we want to create a copy of this circle lined up with every point of the hexagon.
Since the rotate tool rotates our object along an arc around a fixed point, it doesn’t matter the height that our center point is set at. We can set our center point at any height above or below our selected object – the only thing that matters is that our “left/right” orientation is correct – our “up/down” location doesn’t really matter.
You can see how if I select this circle, I can activate the rotate tool and rotate my object so that the copies are lined up along the points of the hexagon.
One other thing to note is that once I’ve set my center point with the rotate tool, my “up/down” orientation is set, meaning that I can now set my rotation points at any point, up or down, because my center point is already set. This means if I wanted to, I could rotate my objects up above to match the points of the octagon down below.
Once you get this kind of inferencing figured out, you can use it to quickly move objects around in your model, allowing for quick creation and editing of new shapes.
About Justin Geis
Hi, I'm Justin Geis, and I'm the founder of The SketchUp Essentials. I started using SketchUp as part of my work as a general contractor in 2008. I quickly realized the power of the software and started using it for personal projects. I started The SketchUp Essentials as a place to share easy to follow SketchUp tutorials and tips to help everyone harness the power of 3D Modeling in their lives. When not working with SketchUp, I enjoy playing soccer and spending time with my wife and our two dogs.
