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Need help with custom rotation of hinges - Nite - 2016-09-10

Hi,

I'm trying to reproduce the following assembly with LDCad : http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6803399529_f4166f6a2c.jpg (part of this tutorial http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=60907)
This would require to rotate each half of the hinges by exactly 16.363 degrees (using 11 hinges, it's (360 \ 11)\2).
Unfortunately so far I've only been able to rotate by steps of a minimum of 1 degree, is there a way to rotate by an arbitrary angle ?

The closer I've come to reproduce the model is by using 12 hinges (that comes down to  a 15 degree rotation), but I'd really like to make an 11 hinges one Smile
This is my 12 hinges attempt : http://tinypic.com/3ia4it61

Thanks


RE: Need help with custom rotation of hinges - Philippe Hurbain - 2016-09-10

There is a rotation icon on the toolbar (or you can use Ctrl-R shortcut) that allows to enter an arbitrary angle...


RE: Need help with custom rotation of hinges - Magnus Forsberg - 2016-09-10

(2016-09-10, 12:45)Nite Wrote: is there a way to rotate by an arbitrary angle ?

Yes, there is.
Just right click on the part you want to rotate and select Rotate. Make sure you are in the wanted editing plane first.
(You might also have to offset the rotation center, but not in this hinge, since it has the origin in the middle of the hinge.)


RE: Need help with custom rotation of hinges - Nite - 2016-09-10

Thats embarassing, so far i've been using the bottom left axis menu, where you can select the rotation step, from 1 to 30 Smile

Thanks to everyone !


RE: Need help with custom rotation of hinges - Roland Melkert - 2016-09-10

(2016-09-10, 17:33)Nite Wrote: Thats embarassing, so far i've been using the bottom left axis menu, where you can select the rotation step, from 1 to 30 Smile

Thanks to everyone !

Fun structure.

some tips:

First place all hinge plates in a straight line, then select all but the first two plates starting with the one which will need to bend. After rotating deselect the now correctly placed plates and (if needed) click the next main rotation part using shift+ctrl+lmb.

If you use these kinds of structures often you could also write a macro for it using the 1.6 alpha version.

Also set the relative grid to one of the plates when adding something to it at the same angle as this ensures the home key will always orient new parts at the given angle for that section which will make part snapping act like expected.