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When authoring, you may encounter a part that needs to be moved at an odd angle. Whether it’s a bolt on a slanted surface or a set screw in a rotating shaft, knowing the difference between world space and local space can be vital to your instruction.

Let’s begin with world space; what is it and how do I use it?
Surprisingly, you’re most likely familiar with world space already. World space is the unchanging representation of your X,Y, and Z axis’. While in your scene, we use world space much like you would a compass for cardinal directions. There are positive (+) and negative (-) directions for each axis. Below will explain each axis as if you have a selected object and you are looking at it from the Front on the view cube.

X (Red) - X is the horizontal movement. Left and Right.
Y (Green) - Y is the vertical movement. Up and Down.
Z (Blue) - Z is the depth axis. Forward and Backward.

In world space these directions will never change so you know 100% that if you are moving a part in world space on the Z axis, it will only be moving on the Z axis in world space. That is it’s absolute direction in the 3D world. North is always North so Z+ is always Z+ in world space.

Now that we understand world space, let’s take a look at how it differs from local space.
Local space is the direction that a part is facing in the world after being rotated. This rotation causes its local axis’ to change. Just as you can be facing North and then rotate your body to face the East, you’ve now changed your local axis to be facing east. This means that your local Z+ is no longer the unchanging world Z+ of north but rather your local Z+ of East if you were to walk forward.

Please note that the local axis of an object is dependent on the software that the object was created in before import. If a local axis has been changed, reset, or frozen before export, the local axis in Create will reflect that axis.

As an author you get the ability to toggle between world and local space as you need within Create by using the buttons in the Gizmo toolbar below your steps. Use these different spaces as needed while authoring to get the perfect animation axis every time.