Node Instances Positioning

mikethe3dguy

I've never made great use of node instances, because the logic of how they are positioned and rotated when created escapes me. I'm working on a scene now where I have to create many instances of a textured primitive, but have to create them on-the-fly as I work and get them into position one-by-one. All of them in each area have the same rotation and similar translations. It's extremely convenient to just duplicate the last object I copied, move it into place and then do the same for the next one. I'd like to save memory by using node instances, but there's so much extra work involved in repositioning them that it would take far longer than with simple object duplication. They drop into the scene with zero rotation despite the rot. values of the master.

Are there options for node instance positioning on creation that I'm unaware of? I'd love it if they dropped into the scene with the same rotation values as the master, and very close in proximity. Any way to do this?

Fishtales

When creating the instances there is a pop up menu to name and set numbers as you know, at the bottom there is a section Show Options clicking on it opens two extra settings, try the Copy selected Item and see if that gets what you want.

mikethe3dguy

Thanks for your reply Sandy. So I can "apply default settings" or "copy selected item". If I choose the former, the instance or instances seem to appear in the same translation and rotation the master item was when first created (my original problem).

When I choose the latter (copy selected item), and create just a single instance, all is fine: I get a single node instance in exactly the same position and rotation as the master. I can work with this at least. Better than that though would be if I could create multiple node instances. If I "copy selected item" when creating multiple node instances, I get a node instances group and multiple apparent node instances, but there are no actual items! They have XYZ translations and rotations but no object(s) can actually be seen in the viewport.

 

Can you tell me why that happens? I've got to be missing something, because that's just not useful to anyone.

kaotkbliss

Usually what I do is create node instances in groups of about 10, select the option to parent them to the original.

Then I'll go in and select all of just the instances and reparent them to the original object and delete the null.

I can then re-position each instance as I please (which I could still do without deleting the null but...)

mikethe3dguy

I see no option to parent to the master except when creating a single node instance. For creating instanceS, that option is not there.

I just (sort of) figured out what is happening, even though it still doesn't make sense. The object I'm trying to copy is a primitive 5 1/2" cube that is scaled in two axes to turn it into a 10' long, 1 1/2" thick shape (a 10' long 2x6 framing stud, used in construction). When I copy it in multiple instances and use the copy selected item option, what it is creating seems to be scaling the already-scaled master. In other words, my X-scaled (1846%) and Y-scaled (23%) object is copied into a number of node instances that are (1846*1846)% scaled (so, like 3.4 MILLION%) in the X axis and (23*23)% (about 0.05%) scaled in the Y axis!. They are so razor-thin and tall that they virtually disappear into my scene at that point, which is why I couldn't see them at first. I can fix this by changing the scaling on every node instance to 100%, and then they are the same size as the master. But that's a huge problem for workflow and makes it unusable in this case.

Is that the way Node Instancing is supposed to behave?

kaotkbliss

Wow, I've not seen that happen and when creating multiple instances (the scaling issue)

I could have sworn there was a radio option for multiple instances to parent to original. Even still, expand the null and select/drag the actual instances to your original. Or you could leave them parented to the null and just expand the null and position each instnace individually.

WendyLuvsCatz

I often use Draagonstorm's instances plus script to give some consistency to where the instances appear

https://www.daz3d.com/instances-plus-for-daz-studio

mikethe3dguy

Thanks Wendy! I'll have to check that out. Looks like I might be able to use it to get the correct scaling on all instances at once rather than one at a time.