How to rotate a rectangle?

[Anonymous]

Surprisingly no previous answers or instructions on this simple situation. Maybe I'm running a deficient copy of Fusion 360. I just want to rotate a rectangle.

I've sketched it. Then in the same sketch want to rotate it. I call the Move command or keyboard shortcut M. I click on the rectangle, then click on the center as pivot point. But it does not rotate. In fact, it seems there are dozens of sub objects to click and I don't want any of them. I've tried marquee-selecting the entire area, and it shows "13 selected" but still won't rotate. See attached screenshot.

What am I missing?

[masa.minohara · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

Could you try clicking the green check mark to fix the pivot point to see if that makes a difference? I hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

My goodness. That's it. Only the umpteenth icon click in such a sophisticated procedure. Thank you for the reply and helpful screencast.

[Anonymous]

But how to MOVE the same rectangle in the X or Y direction?!

The same quirky sequence of clicking DOES NOT work!

[JamieGilchrist]

the problem is that when you snap any point of your sketch, in your case the center point, to the origin, Fusion implicitly adds a coincident constraint to the origin and the fact that you've added dimensions to your rectangle has locked you into a fully constrained sketch. Try two things: 1. make your sketch so no part of it is touching the origin and you will be able to move the sketch as you expect. 2. On your existing sketch at the origin, left mouse click and hold until you get a pop up selection list, select the sketch constraint and delete(you'll have to do this twice for each cross leg of your center point sketch). No try the move command.

hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the quick reply.

"...implicity adds a coincident constraint to the origin" is quite a kick in the balls for new users. Yes of course I want to snap to origin. But seriously?

And those dimensions were more implicit adds by Fusion 360. I was simply typing in the size of the rectangle. Am I suppose to know that I have to delete the dimensions afterwards?

Now on a Macintosh with 4-button trackball, I'm assuming you mean "left click" is standard click. But click and hold for the pop up selection shows the attached screenshot. Which is the constraint to select for deletion? The sketch is now two rectangles sharing corner at the origin because I couldn't move a single larger rectangle.

[Anonymous]

I've deleted all constraints ( I think ).

But the rectangle still does not move.

[TrippyLighting]

I bet there is still "something" constrained to the origin.

Please export your design as a .f3d and attach it to your next post.

[JamieGilchrist]

One last setting I forgot about.  right click at the origin and hit the fix/unfix.  This will free you from the origin.

I agree that the fixing to the origin for sketches can be a bit frustrating, especially since we don't do a great job of providing feedback about this.

do you have other 3D cad/modeling experience that set your expectation that you would/should be able to move your sketch?

trying to get a sense of previous experiences that may have help form your expectations and what those expectations are.

hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

The Fix/UnFix procedure is a toggle, yes? So I've tried doing it repeatedly. But how can I tell which state — fixed or unfixed — after each click?

Here's what happens (screenshot). It's no longer a rectangle. The Move attempt apparently moved a vertex after breaking the rectangle into connected lines.

I'm coming from Vectorworks, so this would be called converting a rectangle into lines, which is not want I want. I just want to grab the rectangle and move it, either snapping to objects, the grid, a point — or with coordinate inputs. Should be simple.

[TrippyLighting]

If you don't want to have the rectangle constrained to the origin, then don't draw it there. The safest way I've found to unconstrained that corner of a rectangle from the origin is to left-click and hold on the origin and select the "Parents" tab in the pop-up dialogue. The sketch point there seems to be the one having to be un-constrained.

If you want a freely moveable and rotatable rectangle:

1. Then draw a normal 2-point rectangle not constrained to the origin.
2. Delete the 4 horizontal/vertical constraints.
3. Apply two perpendicularity constraints.
4. Dimension one side of the rectangle.
5. Apply an equal constraint between the dimensioned line and a perpendicular one.

That rectangle can be dragged with the mouse anywhere. Just make sure it does not snap to any other point other than the grid.

If you don't want it to snap to the grid either, hold the Command key (macOS) or the CTRL Key (Windows).

You can also use the move command to drag and rotate the rectangle.

[JamieGilchrist]

hi Kenyan,

agreed, the fix/unfix toggle is not ideal.  for a work around i would avoid snapping any sketches to the origin, unless you know you never want to move it.

see the attached video. not snapping to the origin does not apply a fixed constraint.  so i can freely drag or use the move tool on my sketch.  If I move and snap to the origin the fix constraint gets applied or if I fully constrain by dimension to the origin the sketch gets locked down.

hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Okay I think I'm beginning to understand — the Origin is very very special. Anything snapped to it or created on it will get "automatically fixed."

But then, how to move this 30 x 40 rectangle to where the left center is precisely on the origin? There's no edge-middle grab handle. There's also no "Midpoint to Corner" mode in creating a rectangle. And snapping a corner first to the origin makes it agonizing to move up a mere simple 20 units.

[TrippyLighting]

If you want the left line to align precisely with the origin without the corner point being constrained to it, then apply a coincident constraint between the left line and the origin point.

That takes care of the horizontal direction. Then for the"units" to place it precisely in the vertical direction apply a dimension from the origin point to the bottom line, or bottom left or right corner point.

Maybe this screencast I just created to also help a user in another thread helps some:

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the explanation and video. It’s a good starter course for this extraordinary feature. I’ll definitely devote some time to study it.

[Anonymous]

While I'm enrolled in this University of Rectangles studying in the Department of Constraints, there seems to be some missing instructions and unanswered questions.

Still cannot position the rectangle as shown earlier.

Trouble seems to be what to do after clicking the "Set Pivot" option in the Move command? See screenshots below. After clicking the corner that I want as pivot, I've tried clicking the corner again. But then what? Clicking on the nearby square does nothing. The goal again is to move the rectangle precisely by the corner, perhaps snapping to another point in the same sketch. Possible? What are precise click-by-click procedures?

By the way, when an orthogonal rectangle is placed corner on Origin, the constrained legs ARE NOT highlighted like in your video. See last screenshot below.

Drag corner to snap to something, but the rectangle does not move.

No highlight of rectangle showing constraints to Origin. All legs are same blue color. This adds to confusion.

[thepirate1]

-Deleted-

[Anonymous]

Could it be more difficult, buggy or quirky?  Such a simple command, that so many hidden requirements.  What works one time, doesn't the next.  Can't believe this is from the same company that brought us AutoCAD.

[Anonymous]

What version are you using because my move command is totally different, then what your showing.  My move/rotate command is asking for a number of degrees.  I've followed the examples and still doesn't rotate.  Why is this so complicated?

[TrippyLighting]

The move command has received significant updates since this thread was started. These new additions make the move command parametric.

 If you can create a screencast that explains your difficulties that would certainly help.