I was wondering if anyone knew how to turn an object on a specific axis if the object is already at an angle. For example I wanted to turn a steering wheel by its center point in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. Whenever I try to do this, the wheel always spins around the scene instead of rotating clockwise or counter-clockwise. Does anyone have any advice?

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there are lots of topics about this subject, heres one on the first page of this forum

http://area.autodesk.com/for...ing-something-on-an-axis/

Try centering the pivot of the object.

Edit:

1-click on the object
2-go to the hierarchy panel near the modify panel
3-select the first box (Affect pivot only)
4-move the pivot using the move tool and center it on the object
5-go to the hierarchy panel again and select (Affect pivot only) to disable this mode

This should do the trick

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That works except for the fact that when I try to rotate the object, the object spins around the pivot. I wanted to use the pivot to turn the object so that it rotates around its x axis for example while the object is still at an angle. I was making a steering column for a gokart with the steering rod at an angle and I wanted to turn the column around on its x axis so that the column corresponded to the rotation of the wheel.
Is this possible?

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I dont think i get what are you exactly talking about.
But acording to what i understood, make the pivot above the steering wheel’s center.

I am sorry if i didn’t understand what did you mean...try posting images for us to know what are you talking about :)

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If you are talking of moving the pivot and then using the pivot to rotate the object then use working pivot, you can also adjust the angle of the pivot using rotate tool :

1. Goto Hierarchy tab
2. Expand the Working Pivot Rollout
3. Click Edit Working Pivot
4. Rotate or Move the pivot to the required position and angle
5. Click Use Working Pivot

Now all objects in the scene will use this pivot till it is deselected.

Hope this is what you are looking for. :)

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seems u didnt saw the link i posted.

first go to hierachy, select affect pivot only and select “center to object” , thenu can simply use the local coordinate to rotate on the desired axis, now if u have some rotation issues u need to make a dummy object, align it to the wheel, and use link or link constraint to link the wheel to the dummy(and the dummy to the main object) and then rotate the wheel, the link constraint is in case u need to attach the wheel to the object again.

Here is a picture of what I want to animate rotating around on its axis

Max 2008, Vista Home Premium 32 (SP1)
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AMD Turion 64X2 TL-64 2.2GHz, 2Gb Ram, DX10.0
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	Attachment

if ur using a single axis, and the wheel is linked to the cylinder u shouldnt have problems using local reference, just go to hierachy tab and see where the pivot is and align it to center object