Translate, Rotate, and Position Entities

Use the Move tool to translate, rotate, and position selected entities.

Certain types of entities, like assemblies, cannot be moved with the Move tool. Entities like pressures cannot be moved because their position and orientation are determined by the entity to which they are applied.
  1. From the Home tools, click the Move tool.
    Figure 1.


    In the external aero setup environment, you can also press M or T.

    In the general environment, the default move mode is set to Interactive.

  2. Optional: In the general environment, click on the guide bar to define movement options.
  3. In the general environment, select an entity type using the guide bar selector.
  4. Select entities to move.
    The Move tool is placed the center of selected entities.
  5. Click a graphical manipulator then do one of the following:
    • Drag the graphical manipulator to translate or rotate entities in the selected direction(s).
    • Enter a precise value in the microdialog and press Enter.
    To Do This
    Translate along an axis Click the X, Y, or Z arrow.
    Figure 2.


    Translate along a plane Click the XY, XZ, or YX plane square.
    Figure 3.


    Translate freely in 3D space Click the origin of the Move tool.
    Figure 4.


    Tip: Use the icons in the microdialog to align the tool to a part or the global axes.
    Rotate around an axis Click a curved arrow.
    Figure 5.


    Rotate freely Click at the tip of the X, Y, or Z arrow and drag. In the external aero setup environment, an axis line appears and the unresolved rotation is prompted on release.
    Figure 6.


Figure 7.


Tip: Use snap points to align entities by clicking-and-dragging a snap point on one entity to the snap point on a second entity.

Reposition the Move Tool

Reposition the Move tool along an axis, within a plane, or in 3D space to change the center of rotation.

  1. From the Home tools, click the Move tool.
    Figure 8.


    In the external aero setup environment, you can also press M or T.

    In the general environment, the default move mode is set to Interactive.

  2. Enter editing mode in the following ways:
    • Hold Shift.
    • Double-click one of the graphical manipulators.
    The Move tool becomes orange, indicating that it is ready to be repositioned.
  3. Similar to translating and rotating, use the graphical manipulators and microdialogs to reposition the tool.
  4. Let go of Shift or left-click in empty space to exit editing mode.
    The Move tool displays in white.

Microdialog Options

When clicking the Move tool origin:

Align the Move tool its default orientation and position:
  • Click once to reset its orientation to match the global coordinate system, or local system if one is assigned.
  • Click twice to also reset its position to the centroid of your selection, or the local system origin if one is assigned.
Align the Move tool along an edge or face. If the Move tool is being repositioned (highlighted orange), clicking this button will force the Move tool to be aligned automatically as you drag it around the model.
Select and assign a local coordinate system to the Move tool. After a new system is assigned, the Move tool automatically repositions to its origin.
Note: Currently, the Move tool only supports assigning rectangular coordinate systems.
Tip: When a local system is assigned to the Move tool, the system button is shown with a tick mark , indicating that the manipulator is now in local system mode. Clicking this button again to change the assigned system or reset it to go back to global system mode.

When clicking a translation or rotation arrow:

Orient the selected direction using the Vector tool.
Δ
Use the buttons to apply an incremental translation or rotation in the selected direction.
Tip: When using the Vector tool to define an orientation between two snaps, the Δ increment field is also automatically populated with the corresponding distance.

Collision Detection

Prevent components from passing through other components.

Restriction: Only available for components in the general environment.
The default behavior of the Move tool allows components to pass through each other and overlap uninhibited.
Figure 9.


When the collision detection option is activated, an attempt to collide two components by moving one of them results in the component stopping at or before the point of collision. If you attempt to drag the component past this position, it remains in the non-penetrating position and the feature edges of the component that is blocking the motion are highlighted orange. If you continue to drag the component all the way through the blocking component, the dragged component will move once again until it encounters another collision.
Figure 10.


Position Entities using Position Mode

Position entities by specifying source and target locations.

Change the position of the selected entities by picking one, two, or three source and target location pairs. The source locations represent starting reference points, which will be matched with their corresponding targets to produce a transformation. The transformation performed is a combination of translation and rotation procedures that is applied to the selected entities until they are relocated.
Restriction: Only available in the general environment.
  1. From the Home tools, click the Move tool.
    Figure 11.


  2. From the guide bar, change the mode from Interactive to Position.
  3. From the guide bar, click Source and select up to three source locations in the modeling window.
  4. Select Target and select an equivalent number of target locations in the modeling window.
  5. Optional: Click and select Show preview to preview the updated position.
  6. On the guide bar, complete one of the following:
    • Click to apply and stay in the tool.
    • Click to apply and close the tool.
    • Click to exit the tool without applying.
Selecting one pair of source and target locations directly translates the selected entities from S1 to T1.
Figure 12.


Selecting two pairs of source and target locations translates the selected entities from S1 to T1. The entities are then rotated around S1, until S2 and T2 are aligned along the same vector (Using S1 as the vector’s origin).
Figure 13.


Selecting three pairs of source and target locations translates the selected entities from S1 to T1. The entities are then rotated around S1, until S2 matches with T2. Lastly, the entities are rotated around the (T1, T2) axis until the S3 and T3 locations are in the same plane.
Figure 14.


Figure 15. Result


Example: Align Two Solids

The following example takes a look at two cylinders with the goal of aligning their faces.
Figure 16.


  1. From the Home tools, click the Move tool.
    Figure 17.


  2. Set the selector to Solids then pick the cylinder on the left.
  3. Align the tool with the cylinder's face.
    1. Double-click on the origin of the axis to enter editing mode and reposition the tool.
    2. Drag the origin of the axis to the snap point on the center of the cylinder's face.
      Figure 18.


    3. Click at the tip of the X arrow and drag to a snap point on the face's edge.
      Figure 19.


    4. Drag the Z axis' curved arrow to a similar snap point on the face's edge.

      By rotating this axis, you lock the other two degrees of freedom.

      Figure 20.


    5. Left-click in empty space to exit editing mode.
    Tip: It is also possible to automatically align the tool to the selected part by clicking in the microdialog. This works well in many cases, but the result depends on the position and geometry of the selected parts; so for complex scenarios, manually repositioning the origin and axes (as shown above) is a more dependable way of aligning the Move tool.
  4. Translate and rotate the cylinder so it aligns with the other.
    1. Drag the origin of the axis to the snap point on the surface center of the other cylinder.
      Figure 21.


    2. Click at the tip of the X arrow and drag to a snap point on the target face's edge.
      Figure 22.


    3. Drag the Z axis' curved arrow to a similar snap point on the target face to finish the alignment.
      Figure 23.


      Figure 24.