Object placement/rotation help, please

[Arch]

I'm confused about how to understand/interpret the controls for rotating an object (e.g., cable sections) when placing them. The default bindings are:
- Left: Delete
- Right: PgDn
- Up: Home
- Down: End
- Roll Left: Insert
- Roll Right: PgUp

Here's what confuses me: When the object is selected for placement and shows up in its "holographic" placement box, it seems that the rotation frame of reference is that box, not me. So if the box is to the east of me and I press "Up", the cable section rotates in one direction from my point of view. Then if turn and the box is to the west of me and I press "Up", the cable section appears to rotate in the opposite direction. So from my perspective, the rotation of the box changes, but from the perspective of the box itself, the rotation is the same.

So how am I supposed to know how pressing a rotation key is going to affect the box, since from my perspective it depends on the relative position of the box to me? Is it just a matter of trial and error each time I want to place something to see how a rotation key affects the box based on my position relative to it?

I think I'm not understanding something fundamental about how this works, and would appreciate if someone could explain it so I can properly rotate things with less mistakes or trial and error.

[jon.jps]

I am still stuck on doing the trial by error method most of the time. sometimes a lot of errors and trials before I get it right but I do have better understanding of it now and am faster at getting the right axis rotating the way I want it to. Just takes practice and testing it out.

[Kortak]

If you turn on extended tooltips it displays the buttons which you can use to rotate.

[Arch]

Originally posted by Kortak:

If you turn on extended tooltips it displays the buttons which you can use to rotate.

Yes, I'm using them. But I'm pointing out the "left" button rotates the object in one direction when you're facing east, and the opposite direction when you're facing west. I'd like to know if there's a way to tell which way "left" is going to rotate the object ahead of actually rotating it. and seeing what happens That information is not in the tool tip.