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## Rotation

You can use the Transform operator to rotate plots around an arbitrary axis in 3D and around the Z-axis in 2D. To apply the rotation component of the Transform operator, be sure to check the Rotate check box in the Transform operator attributes window (figure). An origin and normal are needed to specify the axis of rotation. The origin serves as a reference point for the object being rotated. The axis of rotation is a 3D vector that, along with the origin, determines the 3D axis that will serve as the axis of rotation. You must supply an origin and an axis vector to specify an axis of rotation. To change the origin, type a new 3D vector into the top Origin text field. To change the 3D axis, type a new 3D vector into the Axis text field. Both the origin and the axis are represented by three space-separated floating point numbers.

When applying the Transform operator to plots, you probably want to make the origin the same as the center of the plot extents which can be found by looking at the axis annotations. When the Transform operator is applied to 3D plots, the axis of rotation can be set to any unit vector. When the Transform operator is applied to 2D plots, the axis of rotation should always be set to the Z-axis (0 0 1).

Once you specify the axis of rotation, you must supply the angle of rotation. The default angle of rotation is zero degrees, which gives no rotation. To change the angle of rotation, enter a number in degrees or radians into the Amount text field and click the Deg radio button for degrees or the Rad radio button if the angle is measured in radians.