EDIT: Ooops, I think I misunderstood what you were asking when I wrote this one, please see the next message instead for view rotation info.
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Hi Mark,

> Is there a way to get it to rotate around any of
> the axes when I want it to?

Yes it's possible to rotate around any particular axis that you want by using the Rotate Axis command, which is located next to the regular 2D rotate command here:



When you use Rotate axis, it will prompt you to pick 2 points to define the rotation axis. The line between those 2 points you pick will be the rotation axis. So if you want to rotate around the xaxis for instance, pick 2 points that are lined up in the x axis direction. It can be helpful to turn on Straight snap to make it easier to pick aligned points like that.

But you can also snap the axis points on to existing geometry if you want something to rotate around a line in your model like a hinge. Here's an example where rotate axis is being used like that to pivot a polygon up around one of its edges:

http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/moi_command_reference8.htm#rotateaxis


It can be kind of easier to do rotations around world axis directions by using the 2D rotation method and going to the particular view (like Top, Front, or Right views) to get the rotation you want.

- Michael