Rotate around a specific point.

Support Basics & Interface
1

I have a dvdbox…

And now I wanna open it, what is the best way to “link” the cover to the box?
If you don’t get the opening, grab a dvd case and open it.
That’s rite, that’s what I wanna do :wink:

Here’s the Blend :slight_smile:

TIA :Z

2

In Object mode with the lid selected, put your cursor at the fulcrum point and hit Center Cursor in the edit buttons. Then it’ll rotate from there.

3

Fulcrum point?

You brought me on the idea to place my cursor on the rotating point, and then selecting “3D cursor” in the combobox; Rotating/Scaling Pivot.

Thanks anyway. :smiley:

4

fulcrum point = pivot point. You said you wanted to “link” it and my way changes the center of the cover so it pivots there and not the true center.

http://www.engineering.usu.edu/jrestate/workshops/machines/images/lever1.jpg

5

Well, I would suggest you change your rig a bit. Your box seems very basic. If you look at a DVD box, there are some definite detals that you should include. Let me see what I can do.

Okay, so I modelled another box for you. I even included a UV map that should give you a good idea on how your cover will look on the finished product. If you want to open the box, here is how to do it.

  1. Switch into edit mode.
  2. Hold down Ctrl and press Tab.
  3. Select “Edges”.
  4. Left click to select the edge on the spine of the box on the side that you want to open.
  5. Hold down Shift and press “S”.
  6. Select “Cursor to Selection”.
  7. Select “3d Cursor” as the pivot point in the 3d window header.
  8. Hold down Ctrl and press Tab.
  9. Select “Vertices”.
  10. Select all the vertices of the side of the box you want to open.
  11. Switch to front mode by pressing “1” in the numpad.
  12. Press “R” to rotate around the cursor to whatever degree you want.
  13. Repeat for the other side.

Download .blend here.

6

A newbie here but I was just wondering about one minor point. So when you select the edge, place the 3D cursor at the edge, change view and then rotate. But the cursor is one point and depending on the orientation of the DVD box, couldn’t it rotate in any given direction?

What I was wondering is that we could specify the axis of the box and do the same as mentioned, but rotate it about the 3D cursor about the specific local axis - of the DVD Box?

What works better? Or is it the same thing?

7

You’ve got two things, the point where it turns around (pivot point) and the rotation axis.

If you have a line, and you want to rotate the begining, and you want it to turn around the end, you place your cursor at the end and select the “3D cursor” in the rotation/scaling combobox.

That’s there, the pivot point is set. Now you switch to the view where you wanna turn it from. Ofc use NP1, NP3 & NP7 for that. Now you can turn it around the y, x or z axis.

Hf.
Nick

Btw, here’s my blend for the opened box, i’m gonna add details later. For now it’s a closed box cuz that’s all I wanted. I rather have the cover and the box to be two objects, so I can give the cover a nice UV map image, and I can just select a material for the box, just like irl.

Cheers.

8

This all makes sense - there is a pivot point and all that is required is the axis of rotation. My question is - when we press NP1, NP3 or NP7 - we switch to x,y or z-axis - However, these are the global axes - not local - is it not so?

Say the box is at a 45degree angle to the x-y plane and we rotate the cover about x-axis, we will not get the right rotation (considering what im saying is making sense)

What I am thinking is that the axis of rotation should be the local axis of the box! What do you think?

9

X_X Screen froze, read next post.

10

:o

Say what? I don’t really get your point, you can turn the object center so that the axis are not lining up with the global ones, but it doesn’t make sense. You can turn it any way you want with having them properly aligned.

11

Since I am new to Blender, maybe I don’t completely understand the concept.

I know we could align the axis of the box with the global axes and do the rotations - that is easy and straightforward.

However, why is this alignment required if we can rotate the cover about the local axis of the box?

Maybe I am getting confused with some basics. When we press NP1,3 or 7 - do we view the global axes or the local axes of the selected object?

Guess I am still confused? Need to spend more time on Blender!

If I still dont make sense, then I need to rephrase my argument! :expressionless:

12

Doesn’t get the prob

I’ll leave this to someone else, maybe you are formulating it good, but my english’s just bad. :expressionless: