Links can transmit transform information from a parent to a child. By default, a child inherits all of the transforms of its parent. To set an object's ability to inherit the move, rotate, and scale transforms of its parent, you use the Inherit rollout of the Hierarchy panel. Use its settings to limit which transforms a child inherits.
The Inherit rollout is available only when you have selected a single object. When multiple objects are selected, the rollout is disabled.
Set the Inherit options to release the link components between a selected object and its parent for any world axis of Move, Rotate, or Scale.
The options that appear when you expand the Inherit rollout are determined by the transform controllers assigned to the selected object.
The Inherit rollout for objects using standard position, rotation, and scale controllers contains three groups: one each for Move, Rotate, and Scale. Each group contains three options, one each for the X, Y, and Z world axes.
Imagine you are animating a Ferris wheel that rotates on the world Y axis. The wheel is the parent and the cars are its children. You want the cars to ignore the Y axis rotation of the wheel. Otherwise, the passengers would all fall out. You use Link Info to turn off the Y axis option on the Rotation group of the Inherit rollout for each car.
The Link Inheritance utility works exactly the same as the Inherit rollout in the Link Info group on the Hierarchy panel, except that you can set link inheritance for multiple objects in a selection set.
For example, on a Ferris wheel, you could select all of the cars and use the Link Inheritance utility to turn off Y axis rotation for all the cars at once.