Is there an easy way of limiting the poles to 90 degrees by 90 degrees when adding a new tool(eg. sphere3d) to a document ? I waste an awful lot of time realligning the sphere when starting as it aids the symmetry of the model and later texture mapping. If so is it also possible to set the tool so that the poles are north to south not pointing straight at you when first drawn ?
Help greatly appreciated.
:qu:
Yes actually there is Daveyboy. Select the sphere 3D tool then in the TOOLS>MODIFIER menu there is a small picture window showing the 3D sphere (you should see a little red crosshair in it). Hold down the shift key and move the mouse into that window then while holding the shift key click and hold the left mouse button and move the mouse (just a little) up. You should see the little preview window flicker once. This indicates you have moved the sphere 90 degrees upward and now the poles will face north and south. Let go of the mouse button and shift key. Near the bottom left side of that little preview window is a button labeled STORE. Click it. Now the 'relative axis coordinates are stored at the position to which you moved it. Now save the tool with a name you can remember like “Shere3D 90 degree NS”. You can load that tool now and it will always have the poles facing north and south. You can test to see if it worked by turning DOTS mode on in the PREFERENCES menu then rotate the tool. You should see the poles facing north and south. If not then try again. It may take a few attempts until you find the feel for it when you rotate the tool in the PREVIEW pane. Give it a try. 
Hi Daveyboy . . .
Yes . . . Mentat7 has already given great instructions. 
My personal preference is = Once you have selected the Sphere 3D Tool, select “Tool / Modifiers / Deformation / Rotate”, then select the “X axis”, & enter “90”. This way there are no mistakes or further needed attempts to get it exact.
Hope this helps & have a good one . . . 
Mark.
Thanks for the quick response Mentat7. It is easier to go into deformation/rotate and rotate 90 degrees about the x-axis than it is to use the store orientation method but thanks anyhow. I now have a tool with the axis north to south but it is still skewed slightly around the z-axis when I click and drag in the document. Basically what I’m after is an explicit transform similar to the
F12 key in 3dstudio max or something to confine the rotation around the z-axis. I know I can click outside the tool and reallign it later but it would be a nice touch to be able to start modelling with everything exactly in 90 degree allignment.
Hope I make myself clear.
Cheers Dave
Thanks Kruzr I had already sussed the first part out as you can see from my reply to Mentat7. I must have been replying just at the same moment you posted your response. Unfortunately I cannot get your second part to work. I am in edit object/rotate mode but I cannot type any digits into the info area. The info area seems to be updating as I move the cursor about the document. Again any help would be most appreciated.
Cheers Daveyboy
Daveyboy, you cannot be in object edit mode to change the info sliders. You must be in only move, scale, or rotate mode. (You will see the gyro in these modes.) Hope this helps!
Duh !!! I’m a thicko. Thanks for your help guys. That’s exactly what I wanted.