Transformation Tools

Editing complex shapes can be very cumbersome and often requires a lot of navigating through the 2-D grid. So, properly positioning and/or orientating the shape in the 2-D grid can save a lot of time. BURRTOOLS comes with a set of functions that help you adjust the position and orientation of the shapes. These functions are grouped on the Transform subtab of the Edit panel (Figure TransformationTools). The first thing to see is that the transform tab looks quite different for all 3 available gridtypes. At the top of the figure you see the tab for cubes, below for triangles, and at the bottom for spheres.

Figure: Transformation tools

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Flip - These 'three' functions are merely one single mirroring tool, the only difference is the orientation of the mirrored shape they provide. The first will mirror the shape along the x-axis (or in a plane through the centre of the grid and parallel to the YZ-plane). The others perform the same task, but along the y-axis (XZ-plane) or the z-axis (XY-plane) respectively. Note that each button can undo its own action as well as the actions of the other buttons, since the result of each function can be obtained by simply rotating the outcome of any other. However, there are three buttons to provide some control over the orientation of the mirrored shape in the grid space, which can save time if the shape needs further editing.

and more:

Nudge -These functions provide translations (along the x-axis, y-axis or z-axis for the cubes, or along different axes for other gridtypes) of the shapes in their surrounding grids. These buttons have two parts, of which the left part will shift the shape towards the origin of the grid and the right part will move it away from the origin. Note that shifting a shape beyond the boundaries of the grid will (partially) destroy it. So these nudging operations can also be used to erase unwanted parts on the outer limits of the shapes.

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Rotate - These functions allow you to rotate the shapes around an axis parallel to the x-axis, y-axis or the z-axis. Again, these buttons have two parts, of which the left rotates the shape 90° anti-clockwise (viewed towards the origin) and the right button turns the shape 90° clockwise. To avoid destroying shapes by rotating them, the grid may be rotated as well.

The triangle space has only one rotation button for the x and y-axis because it is possible to rotate only by 180° around these axes.