illustrator rotation tool 1

[filippot]

hi there,, wonderful forum.
i need to draw a gear. i thought to make it by cutting out small ellipses from the edge of bigger ellips (repeating with Ctr-D). so i was wondering if illustrator rotate tool allows rotation relatively to the centerpoint of another object? i have tried the shift- the alt and the ctrl but it just seems to not work.
another question relates to illustrator 3D effect-revolve. i need to make a 3D spiral (for imitating snake around the tree branch). and i cant figure out the way to do it? thank you ina dvance.

 

[itchybug]

Boris:

To move the center of rotation to any location (like the center of your bigger circle) you position the pointer exactly where you want the center of rotation to be, then Alt-click, and the rotate dialog will pop up. Enter the desired angle, and hit "copy", then Ctrl-D the rest of the little ellipses.

I'm going to put together a couple of small tutorials (one for drawing gears, one for drawing a 3-d spring) as soon as I have time. I'll let you know.

Bert

Bert Philippus

http://www.itchybug.com

http://www.amenpackaging.com

 

[filippot]

finally got it. previosly while trying to rotate one object around the center of another object i was not able to locate the exact center of another object. now what i did, I switched on the smart guides (from the view menu) and now it shows me the paths,centerpoints and curve handles. amazing thing. i wish i had discovered it earlier .