By default, the system addresses view coordinates in Absolute mode as indicated by the (ABS) notation as part of the move prompt on the information line. While addressing in absolute mode, an object is moved to the grid position specified, or rotated to the absolute degree value specified for each of the three axes, or scaled based on its original size.

If you want to rotate an object on only one or two axes without affecting the rotational position on the third axis, the current values on the axis you do not want to change must be re-entered.

For example, if an object is currently rotated to 45 degrees on both the x and y axes, and you want to change the rotation on the x axis to 65 degrees, the rotational amounts would be entered as 65, 45, 0 at the prompt line and then press the (Windows) or (Mac) key. Trailing zero values can be omitted, so in this case, 65, 45 followed by pressing the (Windows) or (Mac) key would work as well.

You can switch into relative addressing mode at any time by typing a lower case letter “r” followed by the translation amounts. The notation on the information line changes to (REL) to show that the system is accepting input for relative addressing. When in relative addressing mode, objects are rotated the amount specified for each axis, relative to the current rotation of the object.

If you want to change the current rotation on only one or two of the axes without changing the current rotational position on the other axis, the values on the axis you do not want changed must be entered as zero.

For example, if an object is rotated to 45 degrees on both the x and y axes, and you want to rotate the object an additional 4 degrees on the x axis relative to its current position, the rotational amount would be input as 4, 0, 0 followed by pressing the (Windows) or (Mac) key. The zero values for the y and z axes result in no positional adjustment on these two axes.