Transforms

Transforms move, rotate and mirror geometry that already exists. Each one is a step in the timeline: it takes the solids you name (or the last one built) and places them somewhere else, or adds moved copies.

Transform	Viewport	Code
Translate	Translate dialog: Move / Copy, Solids, Distance (X, Y, Z), driven by the transform gizmo	`translate(x, y, z, ...targets)`
Rotate	Rotate dialog: Move / Copy, Solids, Axis, Angle	`rotate(axis, degrees, ...targets)`
Mirror	Mirror dialog: Add / Remove / New, Solids, Plane	`mirror(plane, ...targets)`

All three take an optional list of targets at the end. Without one they act on the object built last, which keeps the common case short:

extrude(20)
translate(50)          // moves the extrude
rotate("z", 45)        // turns the moved extrude

Patterns — several copies at once — are their own section: Copy and Repeat. Inside a sketch, mirror, copy and rotate have 2D forms that act on sketch geometry: see the sketch tools.

Chaining on primitives

The sketch-free primitives cylinder() and sphere() expose .translate(), .rotate(), .mirror() and .transform() as methods, so a primitive can be placed in one expression:

cylinder(5, 10).translate(20, 0, 0);
sphere(1).translate(5, 0, 0).rotate("z", 90);

Chained calls compose left to right — the first call runs first, each later call is applied on top:

// translate by (5, 0, 0), then rotate 90° around Z → centre ends at (0, 5, 0)
sphere(1).translate(5, 0, 0).rotate("z", 90);

// rotate first (a no-op for a sphere at the origin), then translate → (5, 0, 0)
sphere(1).rotate("z", 90).translate(5, 0, 0);

The method signatures:

transform(matrix: Matrix4): this

translate(x: number): this
translate(x: number, y: number): this
translate(x: number, y: number, z: number): this
translate(offset: PointLike): this

rotate(angle: number): this                   // around world Z through the origin
rotate(axis: AxisLike, angle: number): this   // around any axis

mirror(plane: PlaneLike): this
mirror(axis: AxisLike): this

Every other builder — extrude, cut, fuse, fillet, loft, a loaded STEP file — uses the free functions, which wrap the target and add their own timeline step:

translate(100, extrude(10));

Chained transforms apply to a primitive's finished shape and bypass the history; that is fine for a standalone cylinder but would interact badly with features that take part in fusion, history and interactive picking. Keeping the chain API to primitives avoids those cases.

Chaining on primitives​

Chaining on primitives