Same here, invested on a high end iPad just for Shapr3D, and this is driving me nuts too, improvements need to be made with selection features also. With your user interface item locations you are breaking so many ergonomics rules, lots of user will have neck and wrist pain from unnecessary head and hand movement. The tool is awesome, hope these features become available soon. Thank you.
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Would love to understand these issues better. Can you elaborate a bit further?
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I’ve had Shapr3d for about 3 years, but barely used it, which is a pity. I’m now changing that. 
I have the same experience as the OP, about how the rotation works. However, for me it’s not always the same. Sometimes it works perfectly as I’d want it, and at other times in the same design and same session seen from the same angle, the rotation is totally different.
If I view the object from the right side, oriented by using the cube, vertical one finger swipe will rotate the object around a horizontal axis perpendicular to my view (parallel to the screen surface), just as I’d logically expect it to. This happens no matter where on the screen I put my finger. Great.
If I swipe horizontally, I would want the equivalent to happen. That the object would rotate around a vertical axis perpendicular to my view (parallel to the screen surface). Sometimes it does exactly that. Great!
However, most of the time it doesn’t. A horizontal swipe will only rotate the object around a horizontal axis parallel to my view, (perpendicular to the screen surface). This rotation is almost useless, as it’s unpredictable and mostly gives a very large rotation, depending on where I put my finger.
I’m at loss about why the same input works in different ways. I suspect there is something I do to cause it, but it changes during a single session on the same design. I use the exact same viewing position and get a totally different behaviour. Strange.
Another related issue that has no practical influence, but still might be a useful point, is the names of the sides of the orientation cube. If I tap the “Right” side, a bit of rotation will reveal that the “Top” is as one would logically expect up and the “Bottom” just as logically down.
If we name all sides of the designed object as they are related to us looking at the screen, the “Front” and “Back” sides are correct. However, this is perhaps not the best principle. A design object is worked on from all orientations. Most of the time the “right” and “left” we experience in our chair by the screen are not the one we see on the screen.
A much more logical and in my opinion more functional denomination system would be to use the same principles as on boats and similar. Boats, cars and many other objects have specific logical sides. Designing one in Shapr you will have to accept a reversal in either left/right or front/back.
Looking at the right side of a car standing normally on the road, the front is to your right and the back is to your left. If you start designing the car from its right side, the orientation cube will claim that its front is to the left, where the trunk should be. As mentioned, I know why this happens, and of course it also really doesn’t matter, but I think changing it, or making it a settable option, would be a (tiny) improvement.
The unstable horizontal rotation, however, is an important nuisance for me. Sooner or later, I guess I’ll find out that the reason is something I do, but whatever it is, it’s not intuitive, which is at least one topic to address.
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If it matters, I have a 2017 iPad Pro 12,9 inch and all is kept updated to the latest versions.
Currently the cam rotates around the Z axis. We had several different implementations before, some of them worked exactly as you described, but eventually we ended up with this behaviour, because this was the least confusing for most users. Is there an app where you like a lot how the 3D cam works?
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I’ve used Rhino some years ago. That did the rotation mostly as I liked it. There were some issues with where the rotation point distance while zooming, but otherwise good.
What I wonder about is why my seemingly exactly equal input gets totally different results. I assume that I rotate from a different parameter without knowing it. You mention the Camera. Is there another viewport that can also be rotated, perhaps with the other behaviour as mentioned? Could it be that I switch between them without knowing it?
I think another issue can be that the grid stays on the yz plane when you switch to Right view for example, and then the cam’s orbit axis changes. In this case just double tap on the cube to reset the view.
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Thanks! That fixed it! If I start from tapping any of the side views, I get the behaviour I don’t like, the rotation around the horizontal axis perpendicular to the screen. If I double tap the orientation square, (great function that I use much) it goes to a perspective view, of course. Then the model rotates logically, just as I want it. It stays that way until I tap any of the sides of the cube. That fixes the problem well enough for me. Great! Still, I don’t see the use of having it react differently when in any of the plan views… That rotation just doesn’t do anything useful? If I want to rotate a 2D drawing, I’d use 2 finger rotate. With the present behaviour the drawing goes into the 3D view anyway, and then without any logic motion.
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So the orbit axis is actually the grid’s normal axis. We found that quite intuitive by the time, but it might make sense to revisit this.
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I’d think so. I believe the most intuitive and predictable behaviour would be to use an axis parallel to the screen and normal to the finger swipe direction. I guess you have to blend the rotation on both the horizontal and vertical axis?
Or perhaps continuously generate a single rotational axis that is always normal to the finger motion at the moment, and always parallel to the screen. How to define how far “inside” of the screen that axis should be, is an issue I can’t “help” with. Coming from an ultra besserwisser like me, that’s quite an admission! 
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To me, the Up/Down swipe interaction is intuitive in Shapr3D. But the Left/Right is not at all intuitive. I think the two-finger rotate should be on by default and Left/Right should rotate the object around the current vertical axis. And two-finger pinch should zoom (like it does already). And two-finger drag should do like it does today.
I saw some demo iPad AR code somewhere that I felt has an intuitive interaction (but can’t find it yet). If you open this in Safari on your iPad I feel like this interaction is intuitive (to me) if it had two-finger to rotate.
Hi again Istvan,
Sorry for going on with this, but I just feel I might be able to describe the core problem shorter, in case you have any use for that in presenting it to others? At least others on the forum might get a clearer opinion:
One would expect that the same swipe action in the same situation would give the same response. This causes two experiences of inconsistency:
- If starting from a plane view, a vertical swipe gives one type of response, while a horizontal swipe gives an entirely different and dysfunctional response. Other swipe angles give an unpredictable mix.
- In a given perspective view, the swipe response can be entirely different, depending on a random factor: How the orientation cube was used the last time.
As mentioned, I can live with this, now that I know how to avoid the erratic horizontal swipe behaviour. I’ll need to always go to perspective views from the reset view option. That’s a bit of a hassle, though, especially when working zoomed in.
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Istvan, Thank you for answering, I got a reply back on one of the issues I was having regarding the view rotation of objects. Double clicking on the view cube did the trick for me, for now. I learned about it on a reply message from one of your official youtube videos. It is amazing the wealth of content that is available, for learning new stuff with Shapr3D. I brought up the topic of the interface because of the time I spend rolling my eyes to a set position away from the center of the screen. Flexibility for positioning your menu icons would be great. Also here is an idea from Catia a floating menu toolbar that follows the cursor, something you can activate or deactivate, 50 percent transparent, also make the pencil transparent, it gets in the way sometimes. Regarding the view cube, Check out the Orbit options in AutoCAD, its constrained orbit, swivel, and its continuous orbit about center of mass of object(s).
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Or you could just let us LOCK THE GRID POSITION, this would allow the desired motion to stay consistent but still allow quick changing of view.
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I agree completely. I love Shapr3D for the complex things it does with ease, but this issue had me cursing at my iPad. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, why it wasn’t behaving the way I expected. It does help to understand that it is preserving the orbit axis so that I don’t get lost. I wonder what kinds of visual cues could better indicate what is going on to help me quit saying such nasty and disparaging things to my dear iPad.
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Hi there,
I am interested in continuing the discussion on this topic. I had previously made a post but can no longer find it. I work as a professional mechanical engineer and am an expert with SolidWorks and CATIA V5. In my free time, I love testing Shapr3D, as I find it intuitive and fluid for generating designs. However, I have encountered a problem with the navigation when building larger assemblies.
As a designer, it feels completely unnatural not to navigate freely around a 3D object. In a previous version of Shapr3D, I could start a basic scene, build a block, and the navigation was intuitive:
- Touching up and down rotated around the Y or X axis.
- Touching left or right rotated around the Z axis.
This was exactly as expected. However, after rotating the view by 90° with two fingers, the touch navigation became disoriented:
- Up and down now rotated the view incorrectly.
- Left and right also rotated the view incorrectly.
It was no longer possible to tilt the view correctly. You mentioned fixing this by fixing the raster position and not allowing rotation by two fingers, which is a bit disappointing. Experts with a lot of 3D experience are accustomed to changing positions around a 3D object flexibly and choosing new rotating anchors.
I would feel completely comfortable if the rotation pivot were always parallel to the screen, regardless of the raster position. Especially when working on machines with 6 DOF installations and mechanical parts, it’s crucial to navigate around a specific point and rotate parallel to the screen.
If needed, I can upload a video demonstrating how it works in other software like CATIA V5 and how I wish to use it in Shapr3D. To make this as easy as possible, I would request an expert mode where I can choose a free pivot position and rotate and tilt around a parallel screen, instead of being limited to the three fixed positions on the iPad.
Thank you for considering this feedback.
Best regards,
Vitos
Hi @Vitos
Did you try to select the ZX plane in the View → Grid Position for your specific orientation?
When I rotate the view like you do, I need to do that in order to control the position easily.
Yes i do, but this not solfe the Problem of it 
i actually want to move around an object not only in the view of the Z axis. i will generate a video soon to show what i mean.
Hi Istvan
I really don’t understand why we can’t constrain the view rotation. Maybe we can just double click on a axis and then move the view as normal. This could work for either translation or rotation.
Currently the view swings about like a drunken bull in a china shop.
This is my only criticism of this otherwise amazing app.
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INFURIATING at times. I suggested keyboard constraints on rotation a long time ago In “Feature requests”. 
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