translating multiple objects at once

sriesch

What was the trick to selecting multiple objects and moving them all together as one unit? I have forgotten and cannot locate it. At the moment, only one of the selected items is affected.

Szark

just select all the objects and use the Translation sliders in the Parameters Pane

Oops well that woks for most of the axis apart from X so it maybe be better to use the Group function in the Create menu. Again select all the object and Create a Group and then move the Grouping null.

Gone

If you want all the objects to keep the same relative relationship to one another, you need to select all the objects you want to move and then use Create->Group to put them all together as a single item. You can then move, rotate, etc as a single unit.

Don't forget to ungroup the object(s) if you want to reset it/them. If you reset while it is still grouped the result will not be as expected.

sriesch

Hmm. In this case the nodes in question happen to be part of on object (two of the blocks from "Dystopia city blocks 001-010"), so it appears I cannot group them (nor ungroup them from there).

In this particular scene I can simply move the pieces individually without too much trouble, but I'm still curious as to the solution should I encounter this in a case where moving them individually would be significantly harder.

ssweete

try this
after moving them indivudually where you want them, lock there dials in the paremeters pane then move the whole obj.
they should stay put.

sriesch

The issue wasn't having the moved pieces stay put when the entire object containing them was moved, but rather to move select pieces all together as a unit. In this example, the object is a city composed of 36 city blocks (6 rows of 6), all at ground level. What I had originally wanted to do was turn the city into a stair-step arrangement as if it were built on a slope by moving the 2nd row of blocks behind the first row up a little higher, then the 3rd row higher yet, etc. I would therefore need to select and move 6 objects (one row) at a time, but wanted to watch the overall effect during the move so I could stop when they moved to the height I was happy with.

I actually ended up with a different arrangement and moved them manually to get what I wanted, but I could still see myself wanting to do this in the future, and if the city were larger, say 20x20 blocks, then I'd have to manually adjust 400 things rather than just the 20 rows if I am able to group them and move the group.

Stargazey

Gone said:

If you want all the objects to keep the same relative relationship to one another, you need to select all the objects you want to move and then use Create->Group to put them all together as a single item. You can then move, rotate, etc as a single unit.

Don't forget to ungroup the object(s) if you want to reset it/them. If you reset while it is still grouped the result will not be as expected.

Is there a quick way to ungroup all the objects in a group? (Rather than taking them out one at a time.)

JimmyC_2009

Use Multiple select by holding down the Shift key, then drag them all out together.

Or select all the items that you want removed from the group, right click, and select 'Unparent Items'

Stargazey

Thanks for that. 'Never thought of those solutions (- I'm used to using "Group" and "Un-group" commands in another prog,)

johann.hesters_2e9dd0ece9

JimmyC_2009 said:

Use Multiple select by holding down the Shift key, then drag them all out together.

Or select all the items that you want removed from the group, right click, and select 'Unparent Items'

@JimmyC_2009 What do you mean by "drag them all out together"?

Szark

I don't think Jimmy spends time here anymore but what he meant was after selecting the items, literally with the mouse drag then out below the group/object etc. Using Shift to select multiple items only works if the run concurrent. Use the CTRL key instead in they don't run in a line. It is the manual way of Select - Right Click - Unparent items. 

johann.hesters_2e9dd0ece9

@Szark, thank you. That's what I've already tried, but when I select neck and then try to drag it into the group, it rather selects the items below the neck:

 

 

 

Szark

That is a Bone, noted by the bone looking object left of the bone's name and these cannot be removed from the main node of the figure

johann.hesters_2e9dd0ece9

Can you tell me how you would go on if I want to scale head and mouth and teeth and tongue at once so that they also keep their relative positions?

Szark

you can scale parts via the Parameters Pane but most will have a fixed value and you need to unlock the limits using the small Cog wheel, right of the relative body part in the Parameters Pane. From memory some parts don't have scaling options and it does depend on what morph packages you have added whether you can scale them at all. 

johann.hesters_2e9dd0ece9

I don't find that wheel that you're talking about. Do you mean this one?

Ah, yes, I found it. When I click it, it has an "Limits" option which I needed to deactivate. :-)

 

Szark

what base figure are you using and I will show you 

 

johann.hesters_2e9dd0ece9

But I haven't found a way yet to scale multiple objects at once.

When I select multiple items (like the head and all siblings), nothing happens when I scale them in the parameters tab.

Szark

you can't only one at a time. For what you wnat you would need ZBrush and use the GOZ plu-in to back and forth between the two programs

Szark

but you can scale them using the Morphs which can be found in the Shaping or Paramters Pane. This is separate from the main Scaling values

 

johann.hesters_2e9dd0ece9

Ok, thank you.

I was hoping there was a way to scale head and siblings all at once so that they also keep their relative positions.

It's a pity that this isn't possible.

 

Chohole

The Universal, Rotate, Translate and Scale tools all now have an option on the Tool Settings pane (when any of these tools are active) that allow secondary selections to be manipulated (from their respective values) at the same time as the primary selection, using the manipulator in the viewport.