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Blender can't rotate

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    Rodney Zamora
    Twitter

If you're trying to rotate an object in Blender and it's not working, it's likely that you're experiencing one of two issues. Either your object is rotated around a different axis than you're expecting, or your object is rotated but the viewport isn't updating to reflect the change. Both of these problems can be solved by adjusting your viewport settings.

The first thing to check is the rotation mode in the viewport settings. By default, Blender uses the XYZ rotation mode, which means that objects will rotate around the X, Y, and Z axes in that order. However, you can change the rotation mode to any of the other six options: YXZ, ZXY, XZY, ZYX, YZX, or XYZ (the same as the default). If your object is rotated around a different axis than you expected, it's likely because you're using a different rotation mode.

The second thing to check is the viewport setting for "Update while Rotating". This setting is found in the viewport settings under the "Display" tab. If this setting is turned off, the viewport will not update to reflect changes in the object's rotation. This can be frustrating if you're trying to rotate an object and the viewport isn't updating, but it can be easily fixed by turning on the "Update while Rotating" setting.

Q: How do you freely rotate in Blender?

A: There is no specific "free rotate" function in Blender, but you can achieve a similar effect by holding down the R key and then moving the mouse.

Q: How do I reset axis rotation in Blender?

A: There is no reset button for the 3D View's rotation, so the only way to reset it is to manually set the values back to 0. To do this, open the Transform panel (press N while in the 3D View) and click on the 3D View's rotation tab. Then, set the X, Y, and Z rotation values back to 0.

Q: How do I rotate sideways in Blender?

A: There are a few ways to rotate an object in Blender. One way is to use the Transform panel in the Tools tab (press T to open). In the panel, you'll see the options for Rotation, Scale, and Location. You can also use the hotkeys R, S, and G to access these options.

To rotate an object, select it and then press R. You'll see a yellow line appear that you can use to rotate the object. To constrain the rotation to a particular axis, press X, Y, or Z after pressing R. To cancel the rotation, press Esc or Right-Click.

Another way to rotate an object is to use the 3D View's Transform Orientation. To do this, go to the Transform panel in the Tools tab and select one of the options under Transform Orientation. For example, if you select Local, the object will rotate around its own axes.

Once you've selected an Transform Orientation, you can press R to rotate the object. Again, you can press X, Y, or Z to constrain the rotation to a particular axis. To cancel the rotation, press Esc or Right-Click.