Rotating Objects

You can rotate objects around a point. To determine the angle of rotation, you enter an angle value or specify base points. You can also rotate objects to align with other objects.

Whether entering a positive value rotates the objects counterclockwise or clockwise depends on the Direction Control setting in the Units Control dialog box. The plane of rotation and the direction of the zero angle depend on the orientation of the user coordinate system.

Rotating an Object by a Specified Angle

You can rotate an object around a base point by specifying a relative angle using one of two methods:

• Enter a rotation angle value from 0 to 360 degrees. You can also enter values in radians, grads, or surveyor bearings.
• Drag the object around the base point and specify a second point. Turning on Ortho and polar snap, or using object snaps for the second point is often useful with this method.

In this example, you rotate the plan view of a house by specifying an angle.

Rotating an Object to an Absolute Angle

You can rotate an object around a base point to a new absolute angle. For example, to rotate the object in the illustration around the base point to a horizontal orientation, use the Reference option of ROTATE. Select the object to rotate (1). Specify the reference angle with two points. Enter 0 to rotate the reference angle on the object to a horizontal orientation.

You can specify a point instead of entering a new absolute angle. For example, to align the door symbol with the wall, specify the reference angle by specifying two points (2 and 3) on the door symbol that you want to rotate. Object snaps help you ensure precision when specifying the points on this object. You then specify the new absolute angle by specifying a point (4) on the object to align with.