How to rotate items in The Sims 4

The Sims 4 - a desk being selected and rotated in build mode.
(Image credit: Maxis, Electronic Arts)

If you want to build your dream home you'll need to know how to rotate items in The Sims 4. Placing all those lovely couches, tables, chairs, and bookcases into your rooms in a pleasing fashion is easy when you know how it's done, and if something isn't placed quite right it may look awkward or cause trouble for your Sims as they navigate the house. So, you may need to rotate and turn the item to find the perfect fit.

You'll need to be in Build Mode to be able to select items in your house or buy new items from the menu. Left-clicking an item, object, piece of furniture, or decoration will select it so you can move it around the room.

Once you're in build mode and have selected an item, there are three different ways to rotate items and objects in The Sims 4.

Rotate objects 45 degrees in The Sims 4

To rotate an item by 45 deegree increments, left-click to select an object and right-click to rotate it clockwise in increments. This method works while you are using the default Sims 4 camera setting. You can slo use the < and > keys (comma and period) to rotate 45 degrees in either direction.

If you are using the Sims 3 camera mode, you can rotate by 45 degrees by left-clicking and holding an object while dragging your mouse to rotate in increments.

Free rotate objects in The Sims 4

If you have your Camera Controls set to Sims 3 camera in the top right menu, you can press and hold Alt while an object is selected then click and drag your mouse to rotate to any exact degree you want.

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Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

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