Hi all,I'm currently working with Inventor 2017 and AutoCAD 2017. I have a 3D part that I made in Inventor and then imported into my AutoCAD file. When imported it is shown on the front plane (XY). I would like to rotate this object to an ISO Top Left but just the object that was imported and not the whole drawing. I have played around with the 3D rotate but it is very frustrating to use and I can not seem to find a decent tutorial on it. Is there a way to rotate this object with a view cube or something similar without rotating the entire drawing?The second question I have is since I am primarily using the model space this this scenario I would like to only change the visual style of this object and not the whole drawing. Is there a way to change the style to "shaded with edges" for just the object rather than the whole drawing. In the future when my company starts incorporating viewports this will not be a problem but currently I need to find a solution since all of their title blocks are still in the model space. Let me know if this makes sense or if I need to clarify anything more.Thank you

You can rotate the object using the regular ROTATE command just make sure your UCS origin is on the object itself (perhaps the base?) and that the UCS is in the correct orientation relative to the way the object will be rotated.I don't believe users can change the visual style of a single object in model space. You might be able to come up with a kludge solution but would it be worth the time and effort?

John Connor2017-01-23 20:01:54

Hey John, As always thank you for the quick response. I figured as much for the visual style. It was more of a preference thing anyway. Currently my UCS origin is at a fixed 0,0,0 location that I shouldn't move since we use it for an insertion point. Once I put the object on top of the UCS the rotate command will only allow me to rotate on the X/Y axis. So am I supposed to use the 3DROTATE command instead?Or as an alternative I might create a second UCS on my template so I can switch back and forth so I don't disrupt our insertion point. Its been a while since I played with it but I can give it a shot.

Put a placeholder where your current origin is located then move the origin temporarily to the base of your object.  Reorient your UCS as previously described.  Rotate your 3D object.  Put the UCS back the way it was (orientation-wise) then return the origin using the placeholder you previously created.  You do not have to use the 3DRotate command.  I think I've used that command twice and it was for practice only.  I reorient my UCS the old fashion way...manually via the keyboard.  It has always worked for me.  Now I must disappear for a while.  Will check back later. 

Thanks John, I'll play with that for a while.

Well?  Were you able to rotate the object?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Hey John, I was able to do it. Slightly different way though, I had a programmer that was able to create a macro to auto rotate the part to approximately where we wanted it. I then used the rotate command on a face to rotate to an axis. This helped with any slight adjustment to accent any particular details. Thanks.

Sounds like more work than was actually required but the end result is what counts.

We have a Customized tab on our Menu bar that automatically loads the macro every time we open the program. Your method wasn't difficult. I just see problems in the future with some of our older CAD operators trying to learn new 3D methods. They are so old fashioned that even there dimensions are not associative. It explode every time they set it.
pweeks2017-01-25 20:39:52