Separating part of an object (which has a separate "surface")?

vincentblackwood

Okay, I'm probably using the terms incorrectly here which will make things more confusing, but please bear with me... (I think I'm doing alright with Daz at this point, but geometry and physics are definitely my weak spot)

I have encountered several times, and now it is actually important, a situation where one "object" (not a parent including several objects, but supposedly just one object) is actually a whole bunch of elements in one, and I would like to hide/rescale one of them. The thing is, the separate items "within" the object are separated under Surfaces, but I cannot see any way to modify them (translate, scale etc.) separately otherwise.

In this case, there is a lamp which is pretty huge in the angle I want, and I just want to resize it to be smaller. However, it's just part of "WB Ceiling" and there is nothing I can do to it outside of Surfaces, where it is a separate surface. (I can hide it via Cutout Opacity as a workaround, but I'd like to keep it, just smaller or at least move it higher up - but that affects the entire WB Ceiling "object")

I attached the screenshot which shows exactly what I'm trying to do, any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

(for reference, it's this Wood Bedroom and it's gorgeous https://www.daz3d.com/wood-bedroom )

Richard Haseltine

The simplest method might be, depending on whether or not it is welded in place, to apply a dForm (from the Create menu). Activate the Node Weightmap BVrush tool (tools menu) and in Tool Settings pane select the Influence Weights map from the list of unused maps and apply it. Right-click>Geometry Selection>Select All, right-click>Weight Editing>Fill Selected and enter 0, right-click>Geometry Selection>Deslect, Now use right-click>G, then right-Click Geometry Selection>Select By>Suface to select the light, then right-click>Weight Editing>Fill Selected and enter 100%. Now anything you do to the dForm will apply uniformly to the light

crosswind

I also prefer to the way Richard suggested. Only if you select the whole light surface, the whole light will be resized then (incl. its wires, bulb, cover, metal, etc.).

So better just select the "Cover" of that light (be noted that the cover has 55K polygons... so wisely use lasso+drag selection, and Ctrl ++). Better create a Selection Set just in case... then fill the weight on the cover only (ss 1 ~ 2) Finally, change Scale value of the D-Former node. (ss3)

Scene file is attached as below.

handel_035c4ce6

Or use Tool - Geometry editor

It may complicated at the first use but reading the available command and a little bit of experimenting and you will see how many possibilities it has; not only this - you may use it on the suirfaces you DON'T want, delete tham wah tis left is only the lamp surfaces. Then simply save those surfaces as a new object and you can do what you want with it AND use it everywhere you want such lamp (or whatever you save liek a separate object in this way).

vincentblackwood

Huge thanks for the detailed replies! I went with Richard's instructions and it worked the way I wanted, this is definitely a good starting point to learn more in the future :)

alan bard newcomer

do a save scene subset with just the WB ceiling. 
open a new empty scene 
load the scene subset
select it > choose geometry editor
turn off all the surfaces but the lamp
the export object with save surfaces but make sure ignore hidden nodes is checked 
export object as lamp
turn all surfaces back on then turn off the surfaces for the lamp 
and export object ceiling with surfaces
delete everything in scene 
import each one separately and save each as a scene subset
)change the names to ceiling lamp and ceiling no lamp)
into the folder with the wb ceiling 
Now you have two new props in the folder and you can change the size of the lamp as needed. 
note the bounding box on the lamp will probably retain the size of the entire ceiling but you can still drag it around