Digital Art Zone

It would be most helpful if Bryce could show the X and Y and Z coords of an object in the spare space on the left of the main screen.

For instance - If I am aligning objects to a wall - say different sized windows - it would be handy to know when the window is at the same Z position as another one.

I Know it would be hard if several objects were selected in which case the coords of the exterior points of the group could be provided as a guide.

I know the people in this forum cannot influence the programmers of the product and I only want to make this comment to stick my pennys worth in. You never know - the developers could brose these forums for ideas do you!

Unfortunately, us old buggers DO know that the developers do not participate in this forum. Yes, one or two staff members might moderate a post or two. That’s not the same thing.

Live co-ordinate readouts are a common device in several 3D apps. Because Bryce doesn’t use them, my inference is that this feature is either too hard to do or undesirable for people in Bryce’s market.

Oroboros - 21 September 2012 10:45 PM

Unfortunately, us old buggers DO know that the developers do not participate in this forum.

Isn’t that because at the moment, Daz doesn’t actually have any Bryce developers?
They all got on their development cycles and rode off into the sunset.

The next best thing would be the Attributes dialog.  It does show the X,Y,Z position of an object as well as the X,Y, and Z size of an object, and the X,Y, and Z rotations of an object.  Access it by clicking on the “A” icon in the little column of icons next to any selected object.  Instead of moving something to the same position of another object, note the first object’s Z position and then type that number into the Z position field of any other selected object.  The object will move to the same position.  This method is invaluable for moving things to exactly the same position or making sure that their size is exactly the same or that they’ve been rotated exactly the same.

You can also use it to make very fine adjustments.  For instance, say I’m making a planet.  I’ve made the planet from a sphere and now I want another sphere a tiny bit bigger than the first one to be a layer of clouds.  I can try and make it microscopically bigger by hand, but not as well as if I used the Attributes dialog.  Say my first sphere is 105 in size in the X, Y, and Z fields.  I can duplicate that sphere (that way I know it’s exactly centered with the first) and then just change its size numbers to 105.01.  Now the new sphere is bigger, but by an incredibly small amount, an amount I could never achieve by hand.

Clearly one can click on the Attributes tab, but in this case I think the poster is saying that it would be nice if the Attributes window was always open. I agree, it would be nice not to have to click on the A just to make adjustments.

Not that I would not agree, but which tab should be open, there are 3? There are so many options in that small button column that appears when an object is selected that it becomes difficult to decide which one is the most important. If you start to think about it, this button column is a very efficient way to present all options in a minimum of screen real estate.

Rashad Carter - 23 September 2012 12:23 AM

Clearly one can click on the Attributes tab, but in this case I think the poster is saying that it would be nice if the Attributes window was always open. I agree, it would be nice not to have to click on the A just to make adjustments.

I know.  And I agree with him.  However, since the OP is new to the program, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the A dialog should he be unfamiliar, or even unaware of it, and to imply that it was the next best thing to having that information always visible.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could designate which, if any, tabs or palettes we wanted to be visible in that space on the left, or along the bottom margin? I say “if any” because I personally would have to weigh that option against Bryce’s classic uncluttered interface.  The choice would be nice though.  Oh well.  Maybe someday

ManOfSteel - 23 September 2012 09:13 AM

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could designate which, if any, tabs or palettes we wanted to be visible in that space on the left, or along the bottom margin? I say “if any” because I personally would have to weigh that option against Bryce’s classic uncluttered interface.  The choice would be nice though.  Oh well.  Maybe someday

That is a cool idea. If it could be swapped on the fly, depending on which part of the scene you work.