Posted by ericg on Oct 09, 2014; 3:08am
URL: https://forum.jogamp.org/Translating-a-rotated-model-tp4033250p4033290.html

Just to close out this thread I have the solution.  First I have to say that using Quaternions for rotation is a no brainer - the jogamp Quaternion class is perfect as the rotations seemed to be much smoother than using my own rotation calculations.  Also used the FloatUtils for creating a lookAt matrix.
The core of my problem was that I was focusing on transforming only one axis at a time.  I needed to transform both x and z simultaneously.

    //draw a field of planes adjacent to Y
    for ( x = -10  ;x < 10 ; x+=2){
    for ( z = -10  ; z < 10 ; z+=2){

            //init matrices (thanks FloatUtil!!)
        FloatUtil.makeIdentity(view2);
        FloatUtil.makeIdentity(vw2);


            //set eye, centre and Up (these can be modified via keyboard input etc..)
        float[] eye = {0, 10, -30};
        float[] center = {0,0,0};
        float[] up = {0,1,0};
        float[] mat4Tmp = new float[16];

            //create lookAt matrix (FloatUtil, what would I do without you?)
       FloatUtil.makeLookAt(view2, 0, eye, 0, center, 0, up, 0, mat4Tmp);
       
       //rotate the scene using quaternion. rotangle always +tive 0-360.
        q = q.setIdentity();
        q = q.rotateByAngleNormalAxis( (float) Math.toRadians(rotAngle), 0, 1, 0);
        q = q.normalize();

            //load mx to float array
        q.toMatrix(vw2, 0);
           
            //mult rotation and perspective (can be done in shader, here for testing purposes)
             view2 = multiply( view2, vw2);

             //apply the updated translation co-ords to vertices
        view2 = translate(view2, (float)-transX-x, transY, -(transZ-z));

            gl.glUniformMatrix4fv(iModelView, 1, false, view2, 0);

           //link projection matrix to 'mat4 projection' on vertex shader.
           gl.glUniformMatrix4fv(iProjection, 1, false, projection, 0);

          gl.glDrawArrays(GL3.GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 6); //draw 2 triangles (6 vertices).
                   
    }
    }

//The values for transX, transY and transZ make it all come together.
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent arg0) {
       
        //get camera angle on y axis.
        double convA = Math.toRadians( -rotAngle  + 90);

        switch (arg0.getKeyCode()){
        case KeyEvent.VK_D:
                transZ += Math.sin( convA - Math.PI / 2 );
                transX -= Math.cos( convA - Math.PI / 2 );
                break;
        case KeyEvent.VK_A:
                transZ -= Math.sin( convA - Math.PI / 2 );
                transX += Math.cos( convA - Math.PI / 2 );
                break;
        case KeyEvent.VK_W:
                transZ += Math.sin( convA );
                transX -= Math.cos( convA );
                break;
        case KeyEvent.VK_S:
                transZ -= Math.sin( convA );
                transX += Math.cos( convA );
                break;
        case KeyEvent.VK_Z:
                 rotAngle -= (4);
                 if (rotAngle < 0){
                         rotAngle += 360;
                 }

                break;
        case KeyEvent.VK_X:
                rotAngle += (4);

                break;
        default:
                break;
        }
       
        rotAngle %= 360; //mod 360

}

Works like a charm!  Two weeks later...