thanks guys. it looks like the reset all option did it. i never would have thought that's what that did. i appreciate it. the free rotation didn't seem to work on this particular issue. i'll look at assigning a hot key. so far i got the xyz points import working and the custom lighting. the custom lighting is really awesome. the oil slick option looks really good with my type of models. i still have a long way to go with figuring out moi, but so far i'm impressed. it seems to do a lot of things way better than i'm used to.