In this paper, we study the vortex formation of spin-orbit coupled (SOC) spin-1 dipolar Bose–Einstein condensates by numerically solving the Gross–Pitaevskii equation. We focus the effects of dipole–dipole interaction (DDI) on vortex structures and dynamics behavior. We find that the symmetry of density profiles in vortex lattice formation process and time evolution of the angular momentum is broken in the presence of DDI. This is due to the symmetry breaking of anisotropy DDI. Also, the total angular momentum decreases with increasing the relative dipole strength. However, it is shown that increasing SOC strength can improve the rotation efficiency. This result reflects the SOC dominates the DDI.