I use an approach that makes sure to rotate the whole dataspace of the iTool on display. Below is an example based on the built-in IDL example data in file 'head.dat': PRO ex_ivolume_rotate_on_open ; Example data installed in every IDL file = FILEPATH('head.dat', SUBDIRECTORY = ['examples', 'data']) data = READ_BINARY(file, DATA_DIMS = [80, 100, 57]) ivolume, data ; Routine way to access iTools programatically idTool = itgetcurrent(TOOL=oTool) ; In rotating a view most users want to rotate the whole data space ; of the iTool visualization. The safest place to do this is in a ; data space superclass object called the IDLitVisDataspaceRoot. If ; you were to rotate just the IDLitVisVolume object, the axes would ; be left behind, and that would not look so good. temp = oTool->FindIdentifiers('*DATA SPACE',/VISUALIZATIONS) idDataSpace = temp[0] oDataSpace = oTool->GetByIdentifier(idDataSpace) oDataSpace->GetProperty, PARENT=oDataSpaceRoot ; Rotate the whole visualization 20 deg around the Z-axis. oDataSpaceRoot->Rotate, [0,0,1], 20 ; The syntax for method ROTATE is in Online Help for "IDLitVisualization". ; You won't see the above change, if you do not do this. oTool->RefreshCurrentWindow ; The above call will show the rotation, but it still does not render ; the IDLitVisVolume object (unless its AUTO_RENDER property is turned ; on). To render the volume in the display, do the following: temp = oTool->FindIdentifiers('*VOLUME',/VISUALIZATIONS) idVisVolume = temp[0] oVisVolume = oTool->GetByIdentifier(idVisVolume) oVisVolume->RenderVolume END