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Too many items in my surfaces tab. Can they be grouped?

timrathtimrath Posts: 42
edited December 1969 in Daz Studio Discussion

When you have several dozens of objects and primitives in your scene, scrolling through the surfaces tab becomes tedious. Is there a way to parent some of them, or form groups, like you can do in the scene tab?
I find it very confusing that the object hierarchy I created in the scene doesn't reflect in the surfaces tab.

Comments

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,601
    edited December 1969

    If you select an item in the Scene pane or Viewport, that item will be selected in the Surfaces pane.

  • timrathtimrath Posts: 42
    edited December 1969

    That doesn't happen in my case. What is selected in the scene pane, is 100% independend from what surface is selected. This was always so, throughout all D|S versions I've had in the last 5-6 years. I now have version 4.7, and surface selection is still independend from object selection.

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,601
    edited December 1969

    Yes, but you should only be presented with the surfaces for the object which is selected. In the Surfaces pane, are you in the Presets tab or the Editor tab?

  • timrathtimrath Posts: 42
    edited December 1969

    Editor.
    The Presets tab is always empty, regardless of what is selected, and the drop-down button reads "no selection" and is greyed out.
    I can change the Editor tab in the Surfaces pane to "display selected items only". However, that doesn't actually select the surfaces of the selected item; it only displays them. Besides, I'd rather keep the "display all items" setting, because I don't want to constantly have to jump back and forth from pane to pane, just for selecting different surfaces, when I have to work with many surfaces.
    If it were possible to create surfaces hierarchies analogous to how you can create item hierarchies in the Scene tab, that would be a good solution.

  • RuphussRuphuss Posts: 2,631
    edited December 1969

    fixmypcmike said:
    If you select an item in the Scene pane or Viewport, that item will be selected in the Surfaces pane.

    you have to use the surface tool for it
    then the surface is highlighted yellow and targeted in the surface tab

  • Herald of FireHerald of Fire Posts: 3,504
    edited December 1969

    The mere act of selecting the item is enough to display the surfaces in the surfaces tab, the surface selection tool is for selecting a specific surface by visual means. Make sure you have the surfaces tab set to 'Editor' and it should display two columns. One with the surface names, the other with the surface parameters.

    If you have multiple objects selected, then all of the objects and their respective surfaces will also appear in the surfaces tab. They will be grouped by object automatically and can be minimized to just the object name if desired. You can also individually select what parameters to display under the tab using the same tree.

    Surfaces_Tab.JPG
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  • timrathtimrath Posts: 42
    edited February 2015

    ruphuss said:
    fixmypcmike said:
    If you select an item in the Scene pane or Viewport, that item will be selected in the Surfaces pane.

    you have to use the surface tool for it
    then the surface is highlighted yellow and targeted in the surface tab
    Exactly. Merely selecting an item in the Scene pane or Viewport, does not select its surfaces in the Surfaces pane.

    Post edited by timrath on
  • timrathtimrath Posts: 42
    edited December 1969

    HeraldOfFire said:
    If you have multiple objects selected, then all of the objects and their respective surfaces will also appear in the surfaces tab. They will be grouped by object automatically and can be minimized to just the object name if desired. You can also individually select what parameters to display under the tab using the same tree.

    In other words: It is not possible to group surfaces together, yes?
    The groups you are describing are just the various surfaces of a single object. That's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for ways to freely group several objects (and their corresponding surfaces) together in the Surfaces pane. In your attached image, you have a torus, a cube, a cylinder, etc. What if you had 10 cubes and 20 cylinders in your scene? That would be an awfully long list to scroll through. The ability to create a group for all cubes, and a group for all cylinders, which can be expanded or collapsed, would be a great help in complex scenes.
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,424
    edited December 1969

    I don't think that is possible - you can make a feature request for it to be added by opening a support ticket for Technical Support.

  • alexandersmithalexandersmith Posts: 23
    edited January 2018

    I had the same problem.

    But I solved it.

    1. Open Surface tab > Editor tab, and then click
    2. Click the button which has icon that triangle and 4 lines. (There is the button on left top or right top of Surface pane.)
    3. Select "Display selected item(s) Only" on opend drop down menu.

    Check my attached picture.

    Thanks.

     

    Screen Shot 2018-01-11 at 19.43.09.png
    888 x 475 - 166K
    Post edited by alexandersmith on
  • timrathtimrath Posts: 42
    alexandersmith said:

    I had the same problem.

    But I solved it.

    1. Open Surface tab > Editor tab, and then click
    2. Click the button which has icon that triangle and 4 lines. (There is the button on left top or right top of Surface pane.)
    3. Select "Display selected item(s) Only" on opend drop down menu.

    Check my attached picture.

    Thanks.

     

    Thank you, this is the solution! At last!

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