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Moving Objects NEXT to each other.

Griffin AvidGriffin Avid Posts: 3,758
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Today's battle. I want to merge an object into a  scene and have it land in a particular place.

IMPOSSIBLE since it merges to its saved position, relative to 0.0.0.

Okay. If I have a large scene, let's say Stonemason's City...how do I open/merge a character into the scene at the LOCATION of my choosing?

We can't all be all be starting at Zero and then moving the figure across the entire city/landscape, can we?

When I pick a reference point, let's say an object already in the scene. I have copied and pasted its coordinates between the two objects to get them together.

Like put item B in the same place as item A.

BUT when I pick a  landmark or feature in the landscape, I am getting a RELATIVE position, not a set of cooordinates that object B can use.

Each object has it's own 0.0.0.

I need GPS or longitude and Latitude coordinates to mark off the map. lol

I have the position helper tool and it sucks. It's radius is too small for larger set pieces and I find it cumbersome at best.

There must be a way to bring an object to the location of a camera.

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I did several things...

1) Went to the place that I want to get my object in the scene. 

2) Created a camera (called "CAM_PlaceObjectsHere")

3) Copied its location parameter values and pasted them to the object. (it moved closer...)

4) Changed the default NUDGE amount in the xtran/ytraz/ztran to something like 25 to move objects further with the mouse than normal.

5) Moved that object to where I needed it. Copied down it's locational numbers.

6) Merge second object into scene and used Parameter settings from 5) to place object B next to A.

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There has got to be an easier way.

 

 

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,863

    Hold down the alt(Win)/opt(Mac) key and drag the item from the content pane - a target icon will appear, when you release the mouse then the key the item will load relative to that point (at gorund level).

    Another option is to use the Align pane - the first item selected is the anchor, all others will move to align as set in the pane when the Apply button is clicked.

  • Griffin AvidGriffin Avid Posts: 3,758

    When you say content pane, you mean the SCENE tab that lists all the items I have open?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,863

    No, I mean a pane that lets you load content - Content Library or Smart Content.

  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914

    There was a helper object on RDNA (not sure if it made it to DAZ or not)

    Basically it was a large multi-colored disc that had ranges of some kind so you could get a pretty good general idea of where you needed to place things in a large scene.

  • Griffin AvidGriffin Avid Posts: 3,758

    That's the Position Helper tool I mentioned.

    Okay I shall work with these.

  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914

    Ahh I didn't recall it being mentioned.

    Anyways, another thing you can try is select your camera or landmark, holding control key select the figure or prop you want to move from 0,0,0 and go to window->pane->align You can then use the x, y and z settings in the align tab to place the prson on or next to your landmark

  • gederixgederix Posts: 390
    edited March 2017

    I use the Alt drag method that Richard mentioned, just locate your figure or prop or whatever in the content (or smart content) pane and alt/lclick drag its icon into the scene and you will get a highlight circle that moves with your mouse and allows you to place things in specific locations in the scene. Once the object is approximately where you need it release the mouse button and it will load where you dropped it.

    If the object you want to move is already in the scene, I do something similar to your camera trick but with a null primitive, which like a camera allows you to load it selecting 'apply viewport perspective' so the null will load where you are looking rather than at 0 0 0, then manually adjust its position and use its transform info copy pasta as a reference point. Gets me close enough to manually adjust from there.

    I'll have to check out that align tool, never used it.

    Post edited by gederix on
  • kaotkblisskaotkbliss Posts: 2,914

    I sometimes use the alt-drag method as well, however I've found that some products will not load into a scene with this method, or that the items load in a completely different spot because of an optical illusion with the viewport and target. That and alt-drag does not take into consideration the y axis.

  • wheat11283wheat11283 Posts: 4

    You men and women really make the community a great place thanks for the info.

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