Copy or duplicate an object?

Griffin Avid

So I made something and want to have multiple copies of it- in the scene.

I'd like to do the instancing thing where it's eating less resources.

But I'd settle for an exact copy + its morphs/settings.

Every bit of googled knowledge on this is from 2012.

What's new in this arena since then?

Thanks in advance.

Griffin Avid

Duplicate node worked. Not sure if that's what it's supposed to do - since that was suggested as NOT working in one of my result hits.

HAhahahahh it's a wall and it had some funny "alien text" on it for decoration. Until I noticed it was flipped and was reading backwards.

I had to use the opposite side of the wall to face inward.

Would have been great to see that in my render.

Griffin Avid

Ande long as we're here, how do you break apart a group?

Richard Haseltine

A regular group? Select the items and drag them out, or use the Change parent command and set it to None.

Griffin Avid

Drag them in the SCENE tab? So on top is the big circle that has the name of the group. Below that is the names of the individual parts. You're saying drag the items away from that list- to where? Some other order in the same scene window? I'd use the parent method technique, but it probably has to be done 1 item at a time.

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The only other niggle is I can't apply poses to the group and have it work, I still have to expand the group and target the individual person's figure.

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Also, aside from dragging the red section back to the whiet/green, is there any way to RESET the joint editing/center of gravity-spin at the hip marker?

I'm thinking there must be a ZERO figure or reset somehow to get the figure to spin back around its default or included axis.

Right now, (and especially since Daz has no real undo setting) I still separate the figure from its center of gravity and get wild spins and rotations which are difficult to repair. I need something that doesn't require micro-clicking and dragging stuff around. It's as painful as trying to create a riding-a-mortorcycle-like-pose for vehicles without driver poses or placing guns/swords/knives in a figures hand. Painful. Help.

Richard Haseltine

Yes, drag them out of the group in the Scene pane and justdrop them on an empty area of te pane.

The nearest would be hierarchical pose presets, but they require a figure to be the root of the hierarchy.

The issue here is that you are moving the figure using the hip and rotating using the figure node - zero the hip tanslation, or rotate using the hip, and you shouldn't have the issue.

Griffin Avid

Yes, that is what I do. I use the figure for everything. Also does it matter the order that items are listed under a figure?

Sometimes I drag something and it moves up and down the list. Hasn't caused a problem so far.

I've been using your ALIGN pane method and last night my figure moved, but that center of gravity triagle didn't folow him - it stayed where he was and I couldn't find a way to reset it.

Thanks man, you are the best.

Richard Haseltine

Maybe I misunderstand what you mean by centre of gravity triangle.

Griffin Avid

It's the center of gravity for the figure, which is the hip area - so HIP is probably what the center point of a figure is.

I have a motorcycle and it's the front wheel. I can't open Daz right now to check, but it's that combination of white triangle, green triangle and red little ball with arrows that decides what point a character spins around or rotates by. I know to place those points together to make my character "spin in place".

Sometimes the figure doesn't move, but those points do. That was the issue we dealt with previously.

Other times, the figure moves across the landscape but those indicators stay where the figure was and now it spins in wide arcs.

I was looking for a way to reset the center point to being how the figure started (usually lcoated at the hip) without manually trying to move all those balls and arrows around. Daz has no undo so I can't simply go backwards through edits until I erase that Universal Tool blunder.

 

So imagine I open a figure. How would I reset or SET those pints froms cratch to be at the HIP area or dead center to my figure?

That would a heavy time saver if I knew that.

Richard Haseltine

Those are the node centre points indicated by the tool widget - if you select the figure and the centre point is offset it's because the hip (or whatever bone is at the root of the hierarchy) has been moved. The fix is not to move with the hip (or at least, not to make alrge position adjustments with the hip) but to use the figure node itself, or alternatively to move and rotate with the hip (which will always move with the geometry). If the figure centre point is still at the origin you should be able to copy the settings from the hip, paste to the figure noide, and then alt-click on the hip parameters to zero them.