Rotating with a reference point

[Ken Walton]

Does anyone know how to rotate an object by using a reference point or object other than its pivot?

 

Shown below is the problem.

http://www.cgarchitect.com/forum/filepush.asp?file=pivothelp.jpg

 

I need to create these boat slips (about 60 of them) and "line them up" with the site plan. The problem is that none of them are "straight" and I don't know the angle of offset. What I'd like to do is similar to what you can do in any CAD program or Rhino - line up one vertex and then rotate using a "reference line" that will in turn snap to the next appropriate vertex... (Does that make sense?) I don't think this exact method is possible in max, but if anyone knows a way around it, it might help.

 

Thanks in advance,

Ken Walton

[Victor Erthal]

Why dont you change the pivot point to the left end of the rectangle an then use the spacing tool to copy using the spline that defines the terrain?

[Ted Boardman]

>>I need to create these boat slips (about 60 of them) and "line them up" with the site plan. The problem is that none of them are "straight" and I don't know the angle of offset.

 

Ken,

 

I didn't dl your file, but heres

a couple of things that might work:

 

Try

 

1-Switch to Local Reference Coordinate System.

2-Select all floats, click Align.

3-Check Align Orientation-Local x,y, or z.

4-Check the appropriate x,y, or z Align Position and Minimum in the left column, Maximum in the right, depending on your orientations.

5-Click OK.

 

Or

 

1-Create a Helper Grid object.

2-Use Normal Align to align it to the face of the dock

3-Select all the floats and use Viewport Align to get them facing in the right direction.

 

Either should work.

 

Ted

[Ken Walton]

Thanks for your suggestions everyone - I figured out a way to do it like I was talking about though: I just lined up one vertex with a point on the property line, snapped a bone to the point I needed to rotate from and linked the two, then just moved the other end of the bone to the next point on the line. Sounds confusing, but it's simple and works like a charm.

 

Ken Walton

[abicalho]

You can always choose an object to act as a Pivot for your object - in the dropdown there's an option called "Pick" - it allows you to pick an object.

 

Then, after that, use Ref Coordsys World and you can rotate your object around the selected object.

 

Alexander

[quizzy]

I know your problem, so I wrote a script a couple of months ago, its called object2spline align. This way you can align an object to a spline that has been imported form lets say autocad (that has a perpendicular pivot point) You can find it on my site..... Sometimes you have to rotate 90 degrees but hey, thats not a big prob...