How Can I rotate a lighting fixture in any direction

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I was wondering , if anyone could share if there is any way we can rotate a light fixture in any direction.

I have made a light fixture , unchecked always vertical, checked the work plane based but still i am not able to rotate the light the way i want it to.Especially if I want to rotate according to the Z axis. Please share your thought.

Thanks,

Prattusha.

[ToanDN]

You may want to host it on a named reference plane then rotate the plane.

[chrisplyler]

Is it face-based or what? One side of the family (imagine one side of a cube) is "hosted" onto a ceiling, or a wall, or whatever you hosted/placed it on.

If you mount it on something horizontal, like a ceiling for example, then you should be able to rotate it about the Z axis no problem. If you've mounted it on something vertical, like a wall, then you can spin it around like a clock on the wall, but its Z is defined by the wall's Z. Make sense?

[Anonymous]

Hello Toan,

I tried that already... not working..

[Anonymous]

Hello,

It does make sense...thanks.

[barthbradley]

Interesting tip, Toan. Kind of like screwing in a light bulb using the "rotate the ladder" method. 

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello Toan,

I tried that already... not working..

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[Anonymous]

Hello Toan,

Thank you so much for the solution. I tried to create a work plane in the project and rotated that, as a result it did not work.

Thanks a ton.

Regards,

Prattusha.

[Anonymous]

Hello Toan,

Just curious that does it mean that I need to save the rotated light as a separate family with different type name?

As I am new here, what I am doing is that modelling every luminaire from our catalogue and saving it as separate models. But do we have any option where in the family if I mention all the outer dia and respective cutouts for one family of downlight, will I be able to choose one model from the family data, so rather making separate models of all the sizes, can I be able to incorporate all the sizes in one model and be able to choose from there?

I am sorry if I am asking a really stupid question.

Thanks,

Prattusha.

[barthbradley]

 This is a perfect example of where a Type Catalog is applicable and useful.