Practice Exercise | Rotate Objects

In this practice exercise, you draw a rectangle and rotate it using grips, the Rotate command, and the Reference option.

1. Draw a rectangle of any size.
2. To use the grips to rotate the object:
   • With the command line blank, select the object.
   • Select one of the grips.
   • Right-click the active grip. Click Rotate.

     

   • Drag the mouse around the rotation point, which is the grip that you selected.

     

   • Click in the drawing window to rotate the rectangle. This is a random rotation angle.
   • Press ESC to deactivate the grip selection.
3. Rotate the object again using the Rotate command this time.
   • On the Home tab, click Modify Panel > Rotate.
   • At the Select object prompt, select the rectangle and press ENTER.
   • At the prompt, specify the lower left corner as the base point.
   • Enter a rotation angle of 10. Press ENTER.
   • Notice that the object is rotated 10 degrees counterclockwise.

     

4. Rotate using the Reference option and orient the rectangle back to angle 0:
   • On the Home tab, click Modify Panel > Rotate.
   • Select the rectangle. Press ENTER.
   • Specify the lower left corner as the base point.
   • Right-click and click Reference.

     

5. Specify the reference angle by selecting the following points on the angle of reference:
   • Click the lower left corner endpoint (1).
   • Click the endpoint at (2) for the second point (any point along that line will work).
   • To specify the new angle, enter 0, or press ENTER to accept the default <0>.

     

6. The rectangle is now straight.

   

   Note the following:

   • When using the Reference option, clicking points on the line of reference using object snap is the most accurate method.
   • The order in which you click the points on the line of reference determines what you enter for the new angle. For instance, if point (2) was selected before point (1), the new angle would have been 180.