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Well, I know of 3 ways to make a bunch of parts link together.
The first is to use the "Select and Link" command in the toolbar, 3rd from the left next to the Undo/Redo arrows. To use it you drag from Child object to Parent object. When the Parent object moves, the Child object moves with it, but if the Child object moves, the Parent will not move. So if there is a sphere and a cube, and I click on the cube and drag to the sphere, the sphere will become the Parent and the cube will be the Child.
Use the Boolean command in the Create-Compound Objects menu (click the arrow next to Standard Primatives to bring down the list). Here you select an object to become Operand A and you can modify it with another shape, Operand B. If you use Union and the shapes ARE NOT TOUCHING they will just become two separate shapes of the same object. If the objects touch THEY WILL FUSE AT THE POINTS OF CONTACT. Useful in many situations but not if you want them to remain separate.
You can also use the Attach/Detach commands for Editable Poly/Mesh. If you have an object that is an Edit Poly/Mesh, if you select it and click Element selection, you will see some buttons that are Attach and Detach. Click Attach, then click the other shapes you want to add. All shapes will remain separate entities selectible with the Element selection type. Detach, of course, detaches elements into separate shapes.
Hope that helps. Also with rotating, make sure you're clicking the right direction arrow when you want to rotate. The same colored direction arrow rotates different directions in different views.
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