Rotate Tool

To activate the Rotate Tool, click the Rotate Tool icon

in the Tool Box or press E. See Rotate objects and components for more information.

Note: When working in the UV Editor, this changes to the Rotate UV Tool, which contains only a subset of the following options useful for working with UVs.

Drag the center of the manipulator, or middle drag anywhere on the screen, to rotate in three axes.
Drag a manipulator handle, or middle drag anywhere with a manipulator handle selected, to rotate in a single axis.
Shift + drag in Component Mode to Extrude (see Extrude a polygon face, edge, or vertex).
Shift + drag in Object Mode to duplicate (see Duplicate).
Ctrl + Shift + drag in Component Mode to slide components along their edges (see Slide components along their edges).

Double-click the Rotate Tool icon to display its options in the Tool Settings panel as described here.

Rotate Settings

Axis Orientation: Specifies the coordinate system for the Rotate Tool.
Tip: Middle-click the button to toggle between the last two selected orientation modes.

Object

(Default) Rotates the object about the object space axes.

Note: In Maya 2015 and earlier versions, Object mode was called Local mode.

World

Rotates the object about the world space XYZ axes. In this mode the rings never change.

Component

Rotates selected components along an average local reference frame that is computed using component properties like the normal.

Gimbal

Changes only the X, Y, or Z rotation value. In local and world modes, the XYZ constraint rings may change more than one of the rotation XYZ channels.

Custom

Lets you set a custom axis orientation. Custom axis orientation is automatically selected when you activate custom pivot editing mode. The offset coordinates update as you edit the orientation of the custom pivot. See Activate custom pivot editing mode.

You can orient the Rotate Tool's X-axis to a component in the scene by clicking

beside the Custom axis fields and selecting one of the following options:

Tip: Middle-click the

button to activate the last selected option.

Set to Object: Sets the Rotate tool to rotate the selected object along another object's axis orientation.
Set To Component: Sets the Rotate tool to rotate the selected object along an axis defined by selecting any component.
Set To Point: Sets the Rotate tool to rotate the selected object along an axis defined by selecting a point.
Set To Edge: Sets the Rotate tool to rotate the selected object along an axis defined by selecting an edge.
Set To Face: Sets the Rotate tool to rotate the selected object along an axis defined by selecting a face.
Reset: Resets the custom axis fields to 0.

Pivot

Edit Pivot

Activates pivot editing mode. See Activate custom pivot editing mode.

Reset

Resets the custom pivot's position and orientation. See Change the pivot point.

Position

When on, snaps the pivot position to the selected component. By default, pivot position snapping is turned on.

Orientation

When on, snaps the pivot orientation to the selected component. By default, pivot orientation snapping is turned on.

Pin Component Pivot

When on, locks your edits to the custom pivot in place, letting you use the same custom pivot to transform components on the same mesh or on a different mesh. See Pin the custom pivot.

Pivot pinning remains locked during component selection changes, object selection changes, and when you switch to Object selection mode.

Note: Pivot pinning only works when custom pivot editing mode is turned on. See Change the pivot point.

Bake Pivot Orientation

When on, this saves any pivot orientation changes to the selected object's transform as soon as the change is made.

Show Orientation Handle

Determines whether to display the rotation control in pivot editing mode. Disable this to avoid accidentally re-orienting the pivot if you only want to move it.

Pivot Reset

Determines how the custom pivot's position and orientation is reset when the Reset button is clicked. Select from the following options:

Center Pivot: (Default) Resets the pivot to the center of the object's bounding box.
Zero Pivot: Resets the pivot to the object's origin.

Rotate Center

Lets you rotate object components about the object's pivot.

Default: Lets you rotate the selected objects about each object's individual pivot point.
Note: In component selection mode, all objects rotate about a pivot point in the center of the selection.
Object: Lets you rotate the selected objects about each object's individual pivot point.
Manip: Lets you rotate all selected objects using the manipulator as a pivot point.
Selection: Lets you rotate a group of selected objects about the selection's common center point.

Modify Translation

When on, rotating an object about a common center point affects the object's translation values instead of its rotate pivot values.

Modify Translation works in conjunction with the Rotate Center: Selection setting. An object's translation values are updated whenever it's repositioned while rotating a group of objects about a common center point.

Transform Constraint

Lets you slide components along the edges or the surface of the active mesh.

You can turn on a transform constraint in the Modeling Toolkit or the tool settings for any of the transform tools.

Tip: Middle-click the

button to toggle between the last selected transform constraint and Off.

Off: (Default) Disables transform constraints. Lets you use the Rotate Tool to rotate your components without a constraint.
Edge: Lets you slide the selected components along the edges of the current object. See Slide polygon edges.
Surface: Lets you slide the selected components on the selected object's surface. See Move polygon components along a surface.
Note: You can also use Make Live to constrain tools to a surface. For example, you can use Make Live to constrain the Quad Draw tool to the surface of the mesh you want to retopologize. Transform constraints are disabled when Make Live is active. For more information on retopology, see Retopologize a mesh with Quad Draw.

Along Normals: (Default) When on, the Rotate Tool snaps points onto the surface along the normal direction instead of using the closest point to the surface. Turn on Along Normals for predictable sliding behavior and to prevent points from popping off the surface of your mesh.
Note: Along Normals only applies to the Transform Constraint options.
Closest Point: When on, the Rotate Tool snaps points onto the surface using the closest point on the surface.
Note: Closest Point only applies to the Transform Constraint options.
Step Snap: Lets you maintain relative spacing while rotating an object. Turn this option Off if you don’t want to preserve relative spacing while rotating. Select Relative and enter a value to determine the amount an object is rotated in increments.
In Maya 2015 and previous versions, Step Snap was called Step Size and was only available when Discrete Rotate was turned on.

Tip: Middle-click the button to toggle between Relative and Off.
Preserve Children: When this option is selected, moving a parent object does not move its children.

Note: In Maya 2015 and earlier versions, Preserve Children was called Preserve Child Transform.
Preserve UVs: When this option is selected, moving components in the scene view causes the corresponding UVs to move accordingly in the UV space. The net result is that the texture does not become warped.
Free Rotate: If this option is turned on, dragging the area inside the Rotate manipulator handles rotates the object or component freely. If this option is turned off, you can only rotate the object or component by dragging the manipulator handles. Disabling this option also allows you to select objects or components by clicking through the center area of the Rotate manipulator, which can be useful when making component selections.

Note: In Maya 2015 and earlier versions, Free Rotate was called Center as Virtual Trackball.