Revit 2026 rotate tool

[ChrisOsborne]

Is there a way to have the rotate tool in Revit 2026 default to "Centre" rather than "Place"? 

Each time I use the tool it defaults back to "Place"

[GaryOrrMBI]

That looks like another "oops" on the part of Autodesk...

Most of the time I (and some that have posted about it) want the "place" option and have to select it every time. It looks like they decided to switch the default instead of giving it the ability to remember the setting last used or to choose your own default.

And... it isn't mentioned anywhere that I can find in help as something that they changed for this release.

-G

[ChrisOsborne]

There's a similar issue with the attach top/base for walls. Previously the default would be to attached the top of wall (which is used vastly more often), but now there's two clicks because there's no default option available.

2026 is slowing down workflows compared to previous versions with this behaviour and I'm not sure what the advantage is.

[GaryOrrMBI]

I hadn't noticed that about the wall attachments...

But yes, you are right, many of their choices as they move the tool options from the options bar to the ribbon seem to leave out all consideration as to how those choices might impact our work flows, they're more based on how many more icons they have to create and/or how much coding they have to do to make tool buttons that remember selections or user preferences.

The "Synchronize" tool for workshared models has "synchronize now" and "synchronize and modify settings" as options but remembers which one you chose last time around then sets that as the default when you select the button or allows you to change to the other option by selecting the pulldown arrow, but that takes more coding than a simple pulldown that requires a second click.

Maybe we'll have to start charging them for Carpel tunnel surgeries as well as lost production due to the ever increasing need for more clicks so they can "modernize" their interface. Yet they somehow think these extra clicks and/or steps will improve our efficiency...

-G

[SteveKStafford]

As Gary mentioned, it seems they have made the default more consistent with my own preference since 8/10 times I have to reposition the rotation origin, not simply accept the centroid of the element(s). The INI file has two items we can control the default for but not the origin location: Disjoin and Copy options.

[Basam.Yousif]

Good catch!!

I hope this will be fix in an upcoming update.

I tried (but failed) to make it work through keyboard shortcuts. I found they have a command shortcut "R3" to 'Place center of rotation' which starts a rotate command using PLACE, as per its name suggests.

However I also found another command 'Center of rotation on center of selection set' - it had no shortcut, so I made it "R4" but this one does not launch the rotate command and only works inside of it!!!

[ChrisOsborne]

With the changes to the ribbon, the attach top/base of wall keyboard shortcut has been split into two - one for attach top and the other for attach base, so at least a shortcut can be assigned to both. Although I'm not sure why they're not seprate buttons on the ribbon, rather than a general "Attach" button that has a further dropdown - there's enough available space on the ribbon bar for this.

So something similar could be applied to the rotate tool, or at least we should have the functionality to save the default behaviour as with disjoin and copy.

[arq_42]

So as a quick workflow you could use R3 and then R4 to make it work?

[RuoqianLu]

Thanks for reporting and providing your feedback on this. We moved the controls of rotate to Ribbon in 2026. Based on some user feedback we thought it's better to change the default to Place instead of Center. But looks like it's just some users' preference.

Now we are working on remembering user's choice for Rotate across Revit sessions. Hope this will make more users working with their preference.

One question for setting. The rotate is used for Rotate Tool, Radial array and Rotate Project. Is it better to share the same setting across all those functions?

Thanks,

Ivy(Ruoqian) Lu

Revit Product Owner

[mhiserZFHXS]

I think having it remember previous user choice is the ideal. But for me, I USUALLY just rotate with the default center point while using the rotate tool and rotate project, but I almost always select the rotation point when doing radial arrays.

[GaryOrrMBI]

Different functions are different functions and have different requirements to serve different needs.

Therefore, never combine preferences for different functions into a single preference shared by these different functions.

Period.

-G

[arq_42]

A good option would also be to activate the tool directly with "center" selected when using its shortcut (i.e R4 as @Basam.Yousif shows), just like with R3.

Select object + R3= rotate place
Select object + R4 = rotate center
Select object + RO = last used

[GaryOrrMBI]

Editing to Retract this post... you did fix that issue (and the visibility was change is there, it was just too subtle for me to notice it at first on my monitor).

_______________________________________________________

While you're at it... the disjoin option doesn't change appearance when selected so you don't know if it's enabled or disabled.

In addition to that (and this has been a long standing issue that has never been addressed), when rotating some entities the disjoin option isn't appropriate so the button is disabled (rotating a model pattern for a ceiling grid for example). The problem with this is that, if disjoin was selected the last time the tool was used then that setting remains, which is invalid for rotating that element, and the element does not get rotated.

The only solution is to draw something, rotate it (making sure to toggle disjoin off), then going back and rotating the grid. It would be more appropriate for the tool to temporarily disable the disjoin option (in addition to disabling the button) until the command has been completed, then resetting it to whatever it was before starting the command.

-G

[GHASEM_ARIYANI]

In my opinion, setting "Place" as the default rotation point in Revit 2026 is a great improvement — especially since in most workflows, users typically specify the rotation point manually.

That said, I understand that for long-time users, this change might cause some initial confusion after upgrading, since the default behavior has been "Center" for many years.
However, after using the new behavior a few times, I believe most users will quickly adapt and even appreciate the added control and flexibility.

[Sleepingfish_Kuo]

Is there a simple logic—such as pressing Enter or Space again—that can let the next step of a command proceed with a default value? For example, when copying → switching to another view → pasting from the clipboard, I can only click a random location with the mouse and can't input a value like 0.

[kent123]

Rotate tool is used extensively all the time, Radial Array much less occasions and more so with Rotate project when least used.

I suppose the 'rotate' setting can be independent between the three. To make things easier it can be uniform across all three to keep it simple.

Albeit, I myself need to actually utilize it to confirm my statement above.

[kent123]

Sounds like more shortcut keys workflow changes due to ribbon tools/tools rearrangement. Does Autodesk know less is more? Not necessarily more shortcuts are better as it is better to use a shorcut key that kill the task instead have having more shortcut keys to kill similar task.

Anyway, you might find this relevant too with regards to Revit 2026's missing original commandID for an original existing command 'Attached Detail Group'

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/revit-2026-s-attached-detail-group-tool-s-wo...

[RuoqianLu]

Thanks for reporting this. I report the issue you found about groups shortcut key to our related team to check.

[Basam.Yousif]

2026.1 update came out yesterday. I tested this and it seems to have been fixed.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2026/ENU/?guid=RevitReleaseNotes_2026updates_html

[kent123]

Hi RuoqianLu,

Could you please respond this to the original post, which is the following URL:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/revit-2026-0-1-s-attached-detail-group-tool-...

...So that there is an Autodesk remedial traction (for future updates?) to this specific 2026 missing commandID query / problem.