View Axis Rotation Locked Bug

When rotating in the perspective viewport, one axis is completely locked.
This is similar to when you right click, drag, then hold down shift.
However it is continuously locked no matter how much you click and drag or use other commands.
If you close Rhino and reopen the file, it is still locked to rotate around one axis.
The only method I have found to get out of this lock is to reset the viewport to perspective.
This problem seems to show up every now and then, being annoying and slightly problematic.

Could this be a hotkey or setting I don’t know about? Is it a bug/glitch?

Hi Corrine - is the view set to ‘Plan’ when this happens (i.e. looking straight on at the CPlane) ? can you verify in Properties that the view is in fact in a perspective projection?

-Pascal

Hello Pascal,

Thank you for the quick response!

Correct, this is in perspective mode, not Plan.
The view does rotate, but one axis is stuck locked. Similar to holding down shift after rightclick+drag, vs shift+rightclick+drag

Hi Corrine - do you use a regular mouse or some other input device? Can you try a different mouse, just to see?

-Pascal

Hello Pascal,

This does seem to only occur with a regular mouse, but a 3D Space Mouse will work fine. If we go back to the regular mouse, the locked axis takes over again.

My coworkers and I experience this “bug” or setting from time to time on different computers and different mice. Once it happens in one file and that file is saved to our server, we can all test this “locked axis bug” on our separate computers. We do know know how or why it initially occurs though, and some of us do not use the space mouse.

Hi Corrine - does this occur if you start Rhino in Safe Mode (Windows Start menu > type ‘Rhinoceros’ and look for Rhinoceros 64 bit in Safe Mode)

-Pascal

Hello Pascal,

The Safe Mode version does not seem to help this issue. The file still seems to rotate around a single axis only.

Wow, I am mystified then… I’ll see what I can find out.

-Pascal

Hello Pascal,

Thank you for you help! We appreciate it!

Our current theory is that if one of us uses the space mouse to rotate the view and then save it, and some one else opens the file on a different computer, rhino seems to get stuck between the space mouse’s last axis of rotation and the world rotation.

Hi Corinne-

So, saving the view as a named view?

-Pascal

Hello Pascal,

No, save the file to our server. Then someone else without a space mouse opens the file. Rhino seems to occasionally get stuck in a hard to reach space that a normal mouse cannot access or something. Therefore it can only rotate around that one axis? Changing the properties->view->Rotate To Relative View seems to fix this issue too.

This post is from 2016, but I seem to be experiencing the same phenomenon still in, Rhino 6 in 2020. @pascal did you find out what this phenomenon is about?

With a more complex project it was a little challenging to come to grips with what the problem actually is. So I made a project with a simple box with colored faces. One face is green, the opposite face is red, rest are black. It’s best I show this in images:

This is a healthy project where everything works normally

If I place the cursor mid left on the viewport, hold right mouse button and drag to the center of the viewport, the box rotates counter clockwise around a vertical axis and now shows the red side towards me

Now this is a project where the discussed problem occurs, same kind of starting position for the box

If I place the cursor mid left on the viewport, hold right mouse button and drag to the center of the viewport, the box rotates counter clockwise around an axis that points out from the screen, with the green face towards me all along.

Does that help? What’s causing this? I’m open to that I might be accidentally toggling some hotkey, but if so, to my detriment I happen to have accidentally toggled that same hotkey many times.

Thanks,

Mats

Hi Mats - there are controls in Options > View for how the view rotates -

Check those and see if the current setting ‘explains’ what you are seeing.

-Pascal

Hi Pascal, looks like this for me as well

I gather those are the defaults? Also the options would not explain different behavior over two Rhino projects, right?

Thanks,

Mats

Hi Mats - is the view and the box itself oriented the same relative to the world in both of your test files?

-Pascal

Another way to state the issue is that with this simplified room in the image below - floor in cyan, windows in magenta - no matter how I rotate the objects, it’s impossible for me to get the windows to face me with the floor facing down.


The objects rotate kinda freely but always avoid that position. It’s hard to describe but seems exactly like what Sorhain was experiencing. Also in the sense that replacing the camera target or zooming to objects has no effect on this.

Hi Mats - please send us that file if you can, either here, or to tech@mcneel.com if it is confidential, with a link back here in your comments…

-Pascal

Ok, I emailed the file to tech@mcneel.com

Many thanks for your quick replies on a sunday by the way :pray:

Hi Mats - the floor (cyan) in the file you sent is oriented to the world XZ plane, not the XY. i.e. you have a Y-Up file, possibly from Solidworks or some other Y-Up software.

-Pascal

Right okay, yes indeed the geometry was brought over from Ansys software where positive Y is up by default but is that why it’s impossible to get the windows to face out from the screen with the floor facing down? For the time being the orientation of the room relative to Rhino world axes is irrelevant to what I’m doing, but the limitation in rotating the objects is obstructive to subsequent modelling tasks.