How do you take multiple objects and turn them into one Prop?

Basis

I've made a head item that's made up of more then twenty items that are articulated. I've got them all parented to a single object.

But every time I try to save all the items as a prop asset, it only saves what ever the last object was clicked.

How do I save the whole tree as a single prop?

Thanks for any help.

Richard Haseltine

Either save each piece as a prop asset, then save a Scene Subset for the complete assembly, or export as OBJ with node names as groups, then import and rig that as a figure.

Basis

Okay, thanks, I'll try the last one.

Basis

The .obj route didn't work. It just bricks the whole assembly.

Trying to save the assembly saves the whole thing but is saves it as a scene, not a prop.

I guess I could try to save all 43 pieces but that would make it cumbersome and fill up the scene and surface tabs with unimportant items..

What I'm trying to do is make a wearable prop that has handles which radiate out from a center point (the parent object).

Line objects are parented to the handles, which have one end of the line at the handle and made to point toward the center piece. So when the handles are moved around the line stays oriented between the handle and the center.

The handles have restricted XYZ translations to keep them from going too far from the center object.

I could weld the lines and center objects into one object to decrease the objects to 15.
But then I'd have to make multiple morphs for each line to keep them pointing toward the handles.

Is there a simpler way to do what I'm attempting to make? Is the only viable way still to the save them as prop assets and subset the assembly?

It would be nice if I could make the whole Item like genesis. One object with multiple selectable regions (bone icons).
But I'm not exactly sure what that process is called to look it up.

I suspect it's got something to do with bones. But I haven't a clue how to make make them outside of changing an objects xyz orientation, or even teaching myself how to make them will get me closer to what I'm trying to make.

Thanks again for any wisdom you all could share.

Basis

Wait...

When in doubt, I flail blindly at a problem like a seven year old vibrating on Ritalin, Skittles and Mountain Dew as he swings away at a pinata. He knows it's there and what he lacks in accuracy he makes up in enthusiasm.
But sooner or later, usually in hindsight, the adult will begin to question the wisdom of giving a child; a weapon, an objective and no clear rules of engagement.
Now the dog wont come out from behind the couch, someone is icing their groin and the video of it all is being uploaded onto YouTube.

I did some exploring around the tabs in DAZ and I think I may have found what I needed. Then did some googling and found the page on setting up bones. I'm using the .obj now and I'll know more shortly if the page on setting up bones is what I need to do to make my creation work...

Richard Haseltine

Yes, the OBJ route would require rigging. You can use point at with bones as you can with props, that's how things like pistons are usually handled - two separate bones set to point at each other.

Basis

Okay, so I made the Obj and made the bones.
I found out accidentally, that I can instantly reapply the textures that were lost by using [Figure -> Geometry -> update Base Geometry...], then reuse the original Obj File.

Then next thing the helper page suggested is using weight mapping. But it's seem to not be doing anything when I use the brushes.

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, missed a step or because there aren't a lot of polygons.

I'm also not sure if I need to use weight mapping.

I don't want anything to bend, I want the handles to move only by XYZ transition. The lines I want to stretch, rotate or what ever is required to keep them pointing between it's target and the handle.

What's happening right now is when I attempt to transition, rotate, or scale anything, the bounding box that surrounds the node moves but selected object stays put.
Here's a picture of how the handles and lines appear... They're small and don't use many vertices.

Also, what is the function of the "Selection Group: 0:" and what is the "Regions" tab under Figure Setup for?

Richard Haseltine

Regions are used with the Region Navigator tool and the Shaping pane to organise morphs - they presumably wouldn't apply here.

Selection groups are the bone groups - in a TriAx figure the geometry is a single entity that belongs to the root of the figure, but groups can optionally be assigned to bones so that you can click on the mesh to select a bone. The :# tells you which mesh (0 being the first loaded, then 1 the second loaded and so on) is being used.

You don't need to use the Weight Painting tool's brushes if you don't want bending, just select the polygons you want to be affected by the selected weight map, right-click and choose Fill Selected Faces and enter a value of 100%

Basis

Finally have some traction going.
It wasn't until I used the Polygon Group Editor Tools in conjunction with the Weight maps tools did using your suggestion about the Fill Selected Facets work. Up until then everything was staying blue.

So in short; pick a facet [+] under polygon editor THEN go into Weight map brush tool to apply the fill. Just clicking on the bone nodes under 'Scene' doesn't do anything.
I guess it's self evident now from your suggestion. At the time, I didn't know you could have more then one tool active at the same time.

I also assigned regions to everything and rigidity groups for the controller icons first, so I don't know if that helped in the end.

The connecting Lines aren't moving with the icon handles yet but I'm still experimenting.

Thanks again for all the help.

Basis

Ok, got the pointing lines to follow the handle.
But it's not doing exactly what I'd hoped.

I want the Handle icon XYZ arrows always pointing at 90 degree angles from the top level Parent.

When I click drag the handles directly the pointer line will follow but all rotation is being done on the line bone, not the Handle

I want to constrain the XYZ handle translation to a value of -2 to 2 but the values given are relative to it's parent bone and not it's own default location.

If I try to move the handle via xyz translation, the pointing line stays motionless.

Any ideas how to solve this problem or what key words I can google that can give a solution?

Basis

Ah HA! I had an idea as I was trying to take a nap.

I figured out how to get the results I wanted by changing the Bone Hierarchy. I originally had the pointing lines as parent to the handles but after placing the handles on the same tier as the pointing lines then have the pointing lines point at the Handle it works perfectly now.

So I think that raps up the bones and weight mapping of my first prop. Now I need to work the ERC Freeze and presets and learn how to manipulate the meta data to show it in the Smart Content.

Richard Haseltine

Yes, the point atting has to be mutual.

Basis

Well, I'm at the last hurtle of this project I'm working on.

Here's the question: How do you link a sub-component morph on one object (the parent node) to Controller morph on a second object (the child prop) in a way that links automatically when the prop is connected to the parent?

I parented the controller prop on the object, then sub-component the parent object's morphs to the handles morph which in turn is controlled by the X Transition.
I move the handle's prop widget and the parents morph moves. Everything works as intended.
I then saved the controller prop as an asset.

I open a completely fresh scene. Load the main object parent, then load the widget controller directly to it.

I move handle widget, parent objects morph doesn't move like it did in the proof of concept scene.

The Handle still has the reference to it's sub-component under properties, but the parent object does not.

I've saved the controller props morphs as a morph asset. I've moved both morph dials into their respective 'sub-components' / 'controllers' in the property hierarchy. Then forced a property change on both morphs so DAZ see it as a modified asset.
I've tried 'Linked' and "Alias." They worked very similar to the normal Sub-component / controller route I'd been taking. Still didn't work.

They still work when I reload the original proof of concept scene.

Could the problem be how I'm saving the prop asset? Currently I've saved the Widget as a 'Head>Prop'

Should I saved it multiple times as different content types (in case the prop needs interconnecting file assets to reference against)? Or save it as a property asset like an injection, script or something?

Thanks for the help so far, I'd still be on the the whole problem with building a single object figure without it.

Richard Haseltine

I think you may need to save both together, as a Scene subset, or possibly save a wearables preset to keep the relationship, having firsts aved as asset for the basic items