Rotating an object relative to another object.

[rhoscadman]

Hello All,

Am I mistaken in thinking there used to be a feature that allowed you to rotate an object a set amount (of degrees) from another object. Obviously these two share the same rotational base. But try as I might I cannot seem to make it happen again. 

I know you can use Rotate > Reference, then overlap the two objects then rotate the first object the desired amount. This means 2 separate commands.

I also know you can see the angle of both objects in your properties, then you do the sums then you rotate the first object by the desired amount plus the difference.

These strike me as rather long winded, especially when you need to orientate dozens of objects relative to one another

Can anyone help?

Cheers

rhoscadman

[Jason.Piercey]

---

@rhoscadman wrote:

I know you can use Rotate > Reference, then overlap the two objects then rotate the first object the desired amount. This means 2 separate commands.

---

I'm not following that exactly.  Can you provide a sample drawing?  Seems to me the Reference option should work fine.

[GrantsPirate]

An image or drawing will help us understand what you are after.  In the mean time I think that you can rotate the UCS to match the reference object.  Then rotate with the reference option, proceed from there.  The UCS can be easily rotated, let us know if you need help with that.

[rhoscadman]

Thanks for looking into this, I have attached a basic drawing  with the notes. I hope this explains what I mean more clearly. Feel free to experiment on this to achieve what I'm hoping.

Rhoscadman

[rhoscadman]

yes, I understand what you are suggesting as regards the UCS alignment. But this is just an extra command to achieve what I would say is a fairly straightforward goal: Ok what ever angle this object is, I need to set this second object relative to the first one at............any other angle.

Cheers

Rhoscadman

[Anonymous]

Is the command you're looking for Align, or 3DAlign?

[JDMather]

If you use Parametric dimensions and constraints - you can enter any angle you need and AutoCAD will update the geometry.

[rhoscadman]

No, Align Command does exactly that....it aligns the two entities (objects so that they are parallel. What I'm looking for is a relative orientation in degrees.

[rhoscadman]

Sorry, but it's a bog standard 2d Acad Lt man you're talking to here. Parametric dimensions and constraints? wassat? Is that something you do with a Ouija Board?

Just kidding.

[nestly2]

I don't think it can be done within a single AutoCAD command.  A different variation of what's already been suggested is to align the UCS with the object to be rotated... thereby eliminating the need to invoke the [R]eference option within ROTATE command. 

Yet another option is using GRIPS and Dimensional Input, but I'm not sure it's actually faster or fewer steps.

[JDMather]

Oops, I missed the LT part of your original problem description.

[rhoscadman]

Thanks nesty for that animation (how do you create those?), but I am begining to accept that there is no easy 'one-step' solution to my request.

Unless no-one else resolves this I'll just carry on doing  the Autocad 'Two Step'. Cheers