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Move, turn, unmount and remount molds

Describes RotoSpider Desktop 0.8.13 · checked 2026-09-13 D5

The app gives you a starting layout; you do not have to accept it. In the 3D scene you can select a mold, slide it, turn it, lift it off to the staging area and put it back somewhere else; in the plan views you can also move a mold from one spider of a straight arm to the other. Every position is checked as you go, so what you end with is still a layout the machine can run.

Select

Press Pause rotation under the scene so the arm holds still, then click a mold. It is selected: a square handle appears at its centre for moving it, a yellow ring around it for turning it, and a panel at the top left, Move on mounting plane, shows its position on the plate, X and Z in millimetres and its angle A:

The status line at the top reads Mold selected. Drag it to move; drag the circular arrow to rotate. Click empty space, or press Escape, to deselect. The mold's row in Products and Need is highlighted while it is selected.

Move

Drag the handle and the mold slides across its spider. The app checks the position under the pointer as you move, and the status line follows: Move is legal. Release to commit. over a spot that keeps the clearance to every neighbour, stays inside the plate and inside the rotation envelope, or No room here: with the reason, such as Too close to another mold. Letting go over a legal spot commits it, with Move committed.; letting go elsewhere puts the mold back where it was, with Move rejected.

For a precise move, use the keyboard while the mold is selected: an arrow key nudges it 10 mm, Shift with an arrow 50 mm, Enter applies, Escape cancels, as the panel says.

Turn

Drag the ring and the mold turns about its own centre, freely; hold Shift to turn in steps of 15 degrees. The same checks apply, and Mold position committed. confirms the new angle:

With the mold selected, the arrow keys turn it by one degree, or fifteen with Shift. A box turns to any angle; a built or drawn shape does too. A sphere, an upright cylinder and an upright tapered cylinder have no ring, since turning them changes nothing.

Unmount and remount

Drag a mold out of the scene and into the staging area, and it comes off the spider. The status line says Mold moved to the staging area. Need is unchanged., the staging count rises, and the mold's Load drops by one while its Need stays:

To put it back, click the mold in the staging area, Staged mold selected. Drag it onto the 3D spider to mount it., and drag it onto the plate. While you hold it over the plate the app checks the spot under it, This landing position is clear. Release to mount the mold., and only a clear spot takes the drop: Mold placed on the spider. A spot that fits nowhere says so, The mold does not fit at this position on either spider. Lifting two molds off and returning each to the other's place is how you swap them.

Move a mold to the other spider of a straight arm

On a straight arm the upper and lower spiders are two plates, and the 3D scene keeps a mold on the plate it is on. To move it across, tick 2D so the plan of each spider is shown, then drag the mold from one plan into the other; the status line reads Release to move the mold to this spider., and letting go commits it with Spider move committed. The plan views take the same gestures as the scene otherwise: click to select, then drag to move, drag the ring to turn, drag onto the staging area to unmount.

What the app will not let you do

By default every position that breaks a rule is refused: too close to a neighbour, past the plate's edge, outside the envelope, into the dead height at the hub. When you know your shop better than the rule, the three allowances under the staging area let you keep such a position, marked, as the next page describes. Everything you do by hand can be stepped back with Undo, on the undo page.