2D 3D

wyatt

Back to something that Remus & Gaieus said early in this thread...

When creating a new face-me component, I don't have the face-camera option available in the original file that is saved in the Components folder (call this the Base file). I only see that option if I add the component to a new model, explode it, and create a new component in my new model. This is time-consuming to edit each component after I've inserted it into the model. I've looked at components I've downloaded from users on this forum and those that come with SU. These base files are strictly geometry (not components). Some can be inserted correctly as face-me components, others not. There is nothing unique (that I can see) about the files that work as face-me's versus the one's that don't. There's got to be an easy fix for this, but I sure can't remember/find what it is.

Thanks for the help.
Wyatt

Alan Fraser

I'm not sure I follow exactly what you are saying, but my experience is that the 2D Face Me components that come with SU (and similar ones I make for FormFonts) are just that...components. Whereas the Face Me components that people generally post to this forum are embedded components. In other words, the file itself is a component, but it has a duplicate of itself in the component browser.

This is achieved by making a Face Me in the usual way (at which time it appears in the browser, like any other component) then saving the entire file. If you think about it, this is not the way you would save an ordinary component. You wouldn't, for instance, model a chair, then make it a component, then save the file...you'd just save the file. Obviously, if you do this with a Face Me, you have no way of actually specifying that it is a Face Me. The answer is that you do make it a Face Me component, but you don't save the whole file (with the embedded component) you right-click the component in the browser and save that instead...then discard the original file. This will save the component as a Face Me, but it will just be the straight geometry...there won't be a copy of itself in the browser, nor will it actually rotate when opened. Face Me components only rotate when imported into another file.

The only slight bug in this process at the moment is that when Face Me files are saved in this way, then opened, you can't see anything, because the camera zoom appears to default to a position about 1mm away from the origin. So you need to zoom to extents then resave.

wyatt

Thanks Alan. I was trying to edit the component in its base file. When I insert the component into a new file, explode it, and resave it from the component browser I'm able to turn on the face-me features. It seems like there are some added steps there that slow down the workflow, but I'll live with it. Thanks again for the explanation.
Wyatt