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Alright, so, I've modeled a wing-like object, and I want it to rotate at the angle of the selected edge:

white edge = selected edge

I tried snapping the cursor to the selected and then moving its origin to the cursor. However, the pivot/transform still rotates in the general (X,Y,Z) world directions.

Rotation gizmo

This is what the rotation looks like: How it rotates

But I want it to rotate along the edge, like a hinge.

This is sort of what I would like to accomplish (it took me a while to manage to place it at the right angle). how the rotation I want to accomplish would look like

I'm new to blender, I'd really appreciate your help :)

Chris
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Ren
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  • The quickest, easiest way would be to add an empty. Place it and rotate it so one axis-edge lines up with your desired axis of rotation. Make your wing a child of the empty. Rotate the system in local mode around that axis. – Ron Jensen Oct 09 '21 at 02:01
  • if you plan to animate maybe read my answer here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/129834/how-do-i-rotate-an-object-along-its-own-axis-windmill?noredirect=1&lq=1 – moonboots Oct 09 '21 at 12:40

2 Answers2

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you can select the edge and then in the N pane in "transform orientation" you can press the + symbol to add a new orientation, it will appear as "edge" in the select box. enter image description here enter image description here

You can also use alt+space shortcut to access all the available orientations: enter image description here

Then you can rotate anything following the edge orientation.

GIPeN
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If you model the object with the axis aligned to a standard axis, and then rotate it into place, the local axes will match the rotation.

Global Y-axis:

enter image description here

Local Y-axis:

enter image description here

If you've already modeled your object, then what Ron Jensen describes above might be easiest.

Here I created an Empty (I chose the "Single Arrow" type just for clarity), and then lined it up with the rotation axis I want:

enter image description here

Then select the wing FIRST, and the arrow SECOND. Hit Ctrl+P, and choose the first option (Set Parent to Object):

enter image description here

Then rotate along whichever local axis points in the direction of your arrow. In my case it's local Z, because of the way I rotated my arrow. Yours may be different:

enter image description here

In case you don't know how to rotate locally, from the keyboard it's 'R', then 'Z', then 'Z' again (to rotate in local Z; 'R', 'X', 'X' for local X, etc.). You should see the axis line change so you can see if it's the axis you want.

The neat thing is that you should be able to rotate the empty or move it around and the local axis should still work:

enter image description here

In your case you'd want to parent it to the main body/fuselage so wherever you move that, the wing follows.

Dale Cieslak
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