How do you save a prop?

wildbillnash

How do you save a prop into Daz Studio 4.10?  I made one and need to save it without saving as a scene.  Saving as a scene has problems and I thought if I could save it as a prop it might bypass the problem.

Richard Haseltine

What problems? File>Save As>Scene Subset would be the obvious route to take.

wildbillnash

Scene Subset is for props?  Go figure.

The problem I have is I made a flying saucer in another program and imported the object file into Daz.  The saucer is a lot smaller than what I had orginally designed so I increased the size.  The problems are...

1.  The Rotate X, X, & Z is based on the edge of the rim of the saucer, not the center.

2.  It doen't use the center of the saucer for measurements.  For instance, 800 units of 'Y' is higher for the jets than for the saucer.

3.  Even though I designed the saucer upright (dome on top), when imported it's standing on its rim with the dome to the side.

I've rotated it and increased its size and its XYZ coordinates are off compare to other props.

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

Richard Haseltine

The scaling/orientation are down to the preset you used in the OBJ import options dialogue.

You can use the Joint Editor tool to move the items centre point - the green crosshairs.

wildbillnash

Thanks for the info, Richard.  I'll look into that option.

 

wildbillnash

Just tried it.  Thanks, I can see how it works.  But are you only able to eye it hoping to get it into the middle or is there a way to use the transitional coordinates to move it into place?

Richard Haseltine

The coordinmates are displayed in the Tool Settings pane, and can be typed there.

wildbillnash

Thanks, found it.  Now if there was a way to compare the coordinates to the actual object for measuring.  You're still eyeing it in place.

I also noticed its XYZ positioning is different from the XYZ positioning for transitioning.  Was a little tricky at first.

Richard Haseltine

You could try adding a null, then using the Align pane to bring them into alignment and - depending on how the shape worked (Align works on bounding boxes) you might be able to read the values from the Parameters pane.

wildbillnash

I'm sorry, Richard, I have no idea what you are talking about.  Null?  Align pane?  Bounding boxes?  Is there someplace I can read or watch to learn these terms and what they are or do?

Richard Haseltine

Create>New Null - it gives you aan empty thing to use as a guide.

Window>Panes(Tabs)>Align, you then select your items (the first one selected is treated as the anchor point), in the pane you set the option you want for each axis, and click Apply.

The Align pane doesn't look at the actual shape, it just looks at a box that barely encloses the model. To see why that matters think of propeller shapes - if it has two or four blades then the middle of the box that just encloses the model will be the middle of the spindle, but if it has three blades then the middel of the enclosing box will be offset from the spindle along the blade that sticks out parallel to the edges of the box.

McGyver

@wildbillnash

Some of the terms Richard Haseltine used can be found here in this thread... 

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/46/glossary-of-terms-for-those-new-to-digital-art-and-daz-3d#latest

There are a lot of terms defined there that could aid in you model making ventures... As far as bounding boxes... here is one example of a bounding box (the blue box around the selected group) in action in a different program...

Or a DAZ Studio example... it doesn’t show up the same, more like only the corners of the box show in DS...