Can't rotate object in any other axis than Z using

Support Basics & Interface
1

Hello

I installed Blender as I wanted to participate in a course about this great tool but unfortunatly I’ve come to a strange malfunction.

At the bottom section of window which displays the objects on my scene there is a set of buttons connected to the 3D manipulation widget.
The thing is when I use the one responsible for rotating the object around each axis I can only rotate it based upon Z-axis (Rotate Manipulator).

I’ve advised to uncheck a button with three dots (Manipulate Center Points) but doing so disables any rotation using this tool. (I mean the tool which surrounds the object with a sphere on which each axis is presented by a different color which you can click+hold and then proceed to rotate the object relative to the sphere curve I’ve selected.)

I’ve tried many solutions (Reinstalling and installing again doesn’t work, restoring default settings neither), I would love to be able to work with all tools present.

To clarify, I can rotate object using other modes but this one is very handy for me and I would like it to be fixed because it’s relativly easy to grasp for beginner like me.

Thanks in advance.

2

Have you tried to change transform orientation? At example to global or local?

3

Just as a starting point, I can confirm that with my 2.67a install, all three rotational manipulators work normally, so its not a universal bug.

To confirm, you are saying that if you click and grab on the blue rotate manipulator on the cube, that it works, but the red and green ones do not? - perhaps provide a screen shot to be sure we understand what you are struggling with.

Can you confirm that this happens with the default cube, or are you using a model obtained elsewhere? If its the latter, there are constraints, or locks, that can be applied to a model by its author to prevent rotation in a specific axis.

4

Yes I use the default cube, any other default object spawned acts the same.

No, If I click and grab on ANY rotate manipulator it uses Z axis. If I click+grab green, it rotates along Z axis, if I click+grab red one, it still uses Z axis as it’s base of rotation. If I click+grab blue… well it works as intented cuz it uses Z axis… ;/

I have never downloaded models for Blender as I just started to use it.

5

What if you press R (for rotate), then X (for rotate around X axis only), then move the mouse? Does it still rotate only around Z axis?

6

This way works, as I stated in first post. But I wish for Blender to let me use click+grab on red/green rotate manipulators as it should be.
I want to be able to use fully functional aplication as it was intented to be used.

7

Sorry, I wasn’t aware you’ve stated this. I understand you want to use the manipulators. Unfortunatelly I can not repro the problem and have no other clue what might be the cause.

8

I have a similar problem. I’m running Blender 2.69 on a 64-bit Windows 7 system. I’ve used Blender for many years, most recently 2.49b, since it has a .Nif file exporter. I’ve switched my Win 7 system to 2.69 and in most ways love it–except the rotation manipulator.

I have not been able to rotate around any other axis except Z by clicking and dragging on the rotation manipulator. I have tried the following: loading a fresh default cube, viewing in ortho vs perspective mode, setting the manipulator to Global vs Local mode. I’ve also looked at the transform data and verified that no axis is locked.

For reference, I understand that, in Blender 2.4x, you click on a ring, then drag to rotate around the axis. However, in Modo you click and drag on a ring to rotate. I think that’s how Blender 2.6x is supposed to work.

I’ve tried just clicking on a ring and dragging. This results in a rotation around the Z-Axis. When I release the mouse, the Rotation panel shows, under Constraint Axis, the Z-Axis is checked. If, instead, I click on the outer white circle, uncheck the Z-axis constraint, check the X-Axis constraint, then drag on the red circle (who’s axis is parallel to the X-axis), the cube is rotated around the Z-axis. As before, when I release the mouse, the Z-Axis constraint is checked.

If I’m very careful, sometimes I can click and drag on the white circle to rotate around the view, but no matter how closely I place the cursor on the white circle, this only works part of the time. The rest of the time it rotates around the Z-axis.

Based on my experience and Shadeful’s posts, this seems likely to be a bug. If so, are there other tests that I should do and how do I report it?

9

Are you by chance using Blender on a notebook?

The reason for my question: I have seen (very rare) descriptions of your problem in this forum and the only things they had in common was the fact that Blender was run on a notebook class graphics card on Windows.

Everything else seems to be perfectly random: Notebook manufacturer, graphics card (happened on ATI and nVidia), driver version, Blender version.

Unfortunately this randomness and the very rarity make the issue near impossible to troubleshoot…

10

IkarisShinji, thank you for your reply. Although I wish the issue didn’t exist, it’s good to know that it’s a bug and not something I’m missing (AKA dumb operator). Yes, the system is a notebook (Samsung Series 9 w/I7 processor, 4 GB Ram, 256 GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 2.4 lbs!).

I can use workarounds by changing the transform orientation in the header of the 3D window, so I’ll stick to the keyboard shortcuts for now.

11

I can confirm after using the switchable graphics on my windows 8 i7 laptop that it is a problem with the intel graphics 4000 graphics because when I switch to the dedicated gpu (radeon 7670m) The rotation manipulator tools work fine

12

Hello from 2023, all!
This answer is for anyone struggling with this bug in Blender 2.79.
As far as I know, this version is crucial for The Sims 4 pose editing, and newer versions cannot be used.
So, the answer to this issue is to change the selection setting in Blender to OpenGL Occlusion Queries: https://www.blenderaid.com/post/109402087139/use-opengl-occlusion-queries-selection-method-for

https://youtu.be/UVNo3Y2rW2c - I made a screen recording.