seperating items and using them in other scenes

mackeymod_ddde3f3c

I've got the A-deck model and I want to add extra chairs. How can I duplicate the two chairs and move them around to other spots in the  scene.

NorthOf45

There are probably some very good tutorials and threads explaining how to do that, but finding them could be almost as much work. I've wanted to know how to do this, too, so I did it myself.

So, load your A-Deck. Zoom in to one of the seats to make it easier to work on. The left and right chairs appear to be identical except for the displays on the arms, so you might want to do each one to have a little variety. All the movable parts are bones of the main structure, so teasing out individual pieces will require a different approach from, say, saving out a prop from a large scene.

Select the Geometry Editor tool (Tools menu -> Geometry Editor) and open the Tool Settings tab pane. (I'll refer to the left chair, just replace "left" with "right" for the other). The goal here is to keep all the polygons that make up the chair and chair base and delete the rest. There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest in this case is to do it by Face Groups, which only need two to make up the chair: ADKleftseatbase and ADKleftseat. The Surfaces group could also be used, but it isn't always obvious which surfaces to include, or exclude.

Since we are removing much more than we are keeping, it will be easier to select all geometry and then exclude the seat. There are a couple of ways to do this. With the Geometry Tool active, right-click in the viewport and go to "Geometry Selection -> Select All", then right-click again and go to "Geometry Selection -> Deselect By -> Face Groups -> ADKleftseat" and again for ADKleftseatbase. Alternatively, in the Tool Settings tab pane, in the Face Groups section, click the + sign under the Add column for all except ADKleftseatbase and ADKleftseat.

To remove the unwanted geometry, we have to hide the selected polygons and then delete the hidden polygons. That last part is irreversible, so if you've made a mistake, you'll have to start over. Right-click on the viewport and go to "Geometry Visibility -> Hide Selected Polygon(s)", then right-click again and go to "Geometry Editing -> Delete Hidden Polygon(s)".

Alternatively, go to the Tool Settings tab pane and click the eye icon in the Vis column next to each Face Group except ADKleftseatbase and ADKleftseat. Right-click in the viewport and go to "Geometry Editing -> Delete Hidden Polygon(s)". (I don't see a way to delete polygons from the Tool Settings tab pane). This method is actually quicker since you don't actually have to select the sections and hide them, just hiding them will allow them to be deleted from the viewport.

So, now you should just have the seat and the seat base, but it needs some cleaning up. All of the original bones are still included and the seat is way up to the left. Now we turn to the Joint Editor tool. Select it (from the menu, or the Active Tool drop-down list at the top of the Tool Settings pane). Zoom out and you will see all the bones for all the elements still in place. It is a simple matter of deleting all the bones except the two on the seat. You can only delete one at a time, so select one and right-click "Delete -> Bone". Leave the two on the seat and seat base!

When you're done, the scene should only have one base "a-deck" node with two bones, ADKleftseatbase and ADKleftseat, and no stray polygons. Before saving, we have to get the parts in proper "zero position". With the joint editor tool still active, select the "a-deck" node you will notice that the center and endpoints (the little red and green axis widgets) are way back at the origin of the scene, but the seat is way forward and to the left.

You will probably want to load the extra seats at a zero position and move them where you want, so change to the Universal Tool (or Translate Tool), select the seat base (not the seat) and drag it to the scene origin. Take a moment to align it properly with the axes so that you don't have to fiddle with it every time you load.

Almost done. One peeve of mine for some products is the location of a prop's zero point. As it is now, the A-Deck zero point is some six feet above the floor (180 cm), which is now the chair's zero point. So, back to the Joint Editor. Select A-Deck node and change the Center Point: Y-Position to zero, and the End Point: Y-Position to zero. Now the manipulator widget thingy will be on the floor, where it is much easier to use.

Okay, one last thing to clean up. Rename the node from A-Deck to something more appropriate, like "XtraLeftSeat", or something. The seat has retained all textures and rigging, so now you can save it as a scene subset, or export as .cr2. Repeat for the right seat if you want.

If you want to save as Figure or Prop asset, it won't work as this was a Poser format, and would have to be converted to TriAx before starting, but I don't see the benefit of that, seeing as there is no conforming or weight-mapping needed. Let me know if you need pictures...

NorthOf45

Reviewing the results of this little exercise, I see the Scene Subset (.duf) loads pretty clean, no extraneous elements, but the .cr2 loads back all the Surfaces and Face Groups (with a 0 polygon count), and loads all the materials (along with the memory required for them) for the supposedly absent surfaces. I notice that the original A-Deck.obj file is still referenced in the new seat figure, by both .duf and .cr2 versions, which is not surprising, it has to come from somewhere.

Also, Scene_ID is still "A-Deck_96712". How is that changed, without editing the files directly? Or can it, seeing as the original .obj is still used?

mackeymod_ddde3f3c

Thanks Northof45 

This is going to be something new for me to try.

3WC

You could just create a new node instance of each chair within Daz Studio.

NorthOf45

Unfortunately, the chairs are bones, node nodes, so a new instance (or duplicate) makes a copy of the whole figure. Would that it were that easy...

WendyLuvsCatz

you could however likely hide the other bones and export an obj with not hidden checked

NorthOf45

Yeah, that is a lot quicker. Hadn't thought of it, but you lose the chair rigging (next lesson). Not so bad if it will be a static prop, though.

mackeymod_ddde3f3c

yes any pictures would help

Ive pretty much just stuck to the basics.

mackeymod_ddde3f3c

yes they will be static props.

NorthOf45

Okay, as .obj export. Load your A-Deck. In the Scene tab, Right-click and select "Expand -> Expand All", then click the eye icon next to each bone, except the two for one chair, and the root node (otherwise they all go away). Select the seat base and drag it to the scene origin, or it will load in the position it is in now. Take that moment to align it properly to the axes.

Again, if you want the new object's origin to be on the ground, use the Joint Editor Tool to set the A-Deck Center and End Points YPositions to 0.0.

Once done, go to File menu -> Export. In the dialog box, select the Save As Type -> "Wavefront Object (*.obj)" from the drop-down list. Navigate to the destination folder (it always goes to the last used). If you aren't sure, you can always move it later. Enter a name for the new file, i.e., ADeckXtraLeftSeat.obj. This will open the Object Export options dialog. This dialog retains previous settings, so first select Convert From DAZ Studio To: "DAZ Studio (1 unit = 1 cm)" from the drop-down list. This will give the base settings to use. The only one I see that needs changing is "Remove Unused Vertices" to drop all the unnecessary geometry. (The conversion type will change to "Custom" since we changed something, not to worry). Click Accept and you are done.

To import, File menu -> Import. Navigate to your new file and click Open. The Object Import Dialog will open, then select Convert To DAZ Studio from: "DAZ Studio (1 unit = 1 cm)" and Accept.

Now would be a good time to save it again as a Scene Subset or as a Figure/Prop Asset (a bit more involved) so that you can have an icon in your content library to load it with one double-click. You can also change and save material settings, if you want.