Breaking Sets Apart into Pieces?

Deke

I need to kit-bash a set and run into the problem of sets not divided into elements...or elements that are apparently locked together. I can't "unparent" a wall from a floor. I can scale or rotate, but not translate. Is there a way to unlock such grouped parts?  (Should Daz require it's developers to make their sets bashable?)

NorthOf45

If it's a bone, no, but the translation parameters might be hidden, as they would probably not be necessary in the original application. Select the wall, right-click on the Parameters tab -> Preferences -> Show Hidden Properties. Verify that they aren't locked, too. If you don't need it at all, just hide it.

Phatmartino

I don't know of any "quick and easy" method, but the Geometry Editor can be used to break things apart...

You'd basically end up creating a Prop or Scene Subset out of each of the different elements for which you want to have separate control.

For instance, sometimes you'll see a Node called "Room", and it's a Ceiling, Floor and four Walls all together in one set of Geometry. More than likely if you select that Node in the Scene Tab, then take a look at the Surfaces Tab, "Room" will have an expandable hierarchy under it and probably include "Floor", "Ceiling" and either "Walls" or each wall separately. The more broken up the Surfaces are, the easier it can be to use the Geometry Editor to separate those Surfaces into their own sets of Geometry (though even if they weren't separate Surfaces, it's still rather easy).

The most time consuming part would be loading a Scene, doing some Geometry Editing, saving the Floor (for example) as a Prop or Scene Subset, reloading the Scene, editing, saving the Ceiling as a Prop, etc...

I never want to assume anyone knows more or less than I do, so I usually err on the side of too much basic info... Let me know if you're familiar with the Geometry Editor and this gave you the right idea to move forward, of if you'd like a few more bits about starting to use the Geometry Editor in this way (or if anyone else avoided the Geometry Editor far too long like I did and is interested).

Edit: I might have been looking at your question the wrong way... If they are already separate Nodes, I've never seen that situation and I'm not sure if my suggestion would help there... but the Geometry Editor has definitely helped make my Library of stuff far more versatile from Clothing to Environments and Props, etc. Worth looking into for anyone who hasn't.

Deke

Thanks. The hidden properites trick is a big help...revealed the translation commands.  What exactly is a bone anyway..and the little bond icon by the various parts in the Scene tab?

 

NorthOf45

Bones form the moving parts of the figure's skeleton, not just in people and animals, but in any articulated figure. The rigging is what determines how the bones move. Props, on, the other hand, do not have bones, they are static geometry. Morphs can be applied to either props or figures, and are actual mesh deformations. Sometimes they work in conjunction with bone movements. It's complicated...

Bones cannot be separated from the figure without a lot of work, as phatmartino alluded to. Sometimes the various sub-assemblies are added as bones instead of a collection of props. Makes it easier to work with, I guess, since everything is tied together in one big package instead of keeping track of all those separate pieces. Other times all the pieces are separate, or grouped for easy placement, if they are not essential for the basic functionality. You will see various ways the products are put together.

As for the icons in the left margin of the scene tab pane, I can never find that section in the documentation, but I could swear it is written down somewhere...

The Eye is for visibility, does the same as the "Visible in Viewport" parameter. The arrow with the checkmark is for selectability, does the same as the "Selectable (in Viewport)" parameter. The various icons used for the nodes are varied and sometimes more than a little cryptic. Some are easy, (bones, lights, cameras), others are hard to represent in 20x20 pixels (figures, props, groups, and many more, just look at the Create menu) but you don't really need to know the icon for each. You'll see them often enough...

 

Deke

That's what sort of confuses me...why would a room with floor and walls have bones...It's not like the walls are jointed.

Richard Haseltine

Deke said:

That's what sort of confuses me...why would a room with floor and walls have bones...It's not like the walls are jointed.

Bones are an easy way to hide things, or to align them, while keeping a single model for material application (even using Hierarchical Materials requires a figure as the ultimate parent).