Hi guys,

is there a way to replace groups entities (splines in ths case) with other groups entities (splines too) but keeping the original groups names?

Like selecting the "to copy entities" and paste the aligned (centered) in the "old" groups while deleting the "old" groups entities??

I know I could replace groups (or selection) with components but I need to keep the groups unique names..

Any idea?

Best,
Niko

Hi guys,

I have a similar thread running, related to axes as well, in that case about negative scaling issues when used in other softwares.

In THIS thread its a little different, I searched the whole web up and down and tried several plugins, with no luck.. yet.

I have modeled many objects which need to be rotated upwards by 90° - and now Im left with lots of groups (no components for a specific reason) where the up-axis (z, blue)b is pointing forward.

I cant go through all of those objects to reset the axis manually.

I know about TTs axes tools plugin and I can use it very well later in this case to place the axes at the proper place - but this doesnt change / reset the axis orientation itself..

One way could be to rotate the objects to the right orientation and reset the axes based on the world's axis orientation or some plugin where I could choose from z-up, y-up, x-up or sth alike.

I used the trial version of su4u's axis plugin and I would buy it if it solves the issue, right now it did only change the top level axis orientation, leaving all the nested group's orientation untouched..

ANY IDEA??

Thanks a lot!

Niko

Found TTs "Transformation Inspector" which seems to do something alike.
First showing the transformation matrix and second giving the opportunity to change values, eg. swapping a "-1" for a flipped object with a "1" - resulting in a reset.

Seems like its only possible for one group/component at a time..

IF I was able to globally set the "-1" to "1" (flip along the green axis) I guess Id be totally fine already - in this particular case.

(Strange enough flipped geometry from SU does not come in negatively scale on that axis only, but on all axis.. Don't know if this is relevant or not though..)

Hi guys,

I'm working on a project where I'm exporting spline objects (groups) and polygons (groups) to other 3D packages (3DS Max). Splines will act as parent objects and need to carry over its name and position - and sometimes even rotation transform (spline objects gets rotated in SU, linked child objects will follow that rotation in 3DS).

Unfortunately some of those spline objects have been created by mirroring existing ones - resulting in a negative scale in 3DS Max. And thats kind of bad for the later use...

Question:

Is it possible to reset transforms on selected objects, ideally seperated in reset transform/rotation and reset scale?

(3DS Max it is possible to reset transforms - unfortunately it does some weird stuff, resetting the scale results in rotation of -180 degree around the X axis (and so forth..))

Do you know about an existing plugin that could handle this task - or could it be done with some short ruby code snippet?

Eg. for selection do reset transform/scale (means I'd select the objects to process first by hand)

Happy to hear from you, thanks a lot in advance.

Best,
Niko

Thanks a lot for your super quick support!

I'll try it when I get back to the office.

Another TIG tool that comes right on time..

Hi @TIG,

I'm working on modeling a bunch of objects from photo reference. Therefore I used your plugin to mass import image files.

They come in nicely arranged next to each other - unfortunately they're all in random order..??

Their original filename is DSC_XXX, I tried batch renaming it to incremental numbers but that didnt solve it.

Any idea how to solve this?

Many thanks as usual Niko

Hm,

that did it, working fine SO FAR - but now I'm left with components of that little shape object instead of groups. But I need to rename these shapes individually and kkep them as groups for later. There are several plugins to convert groups > components but I dont know of any that does is vice versa.

Any idea how to solve THAT now?

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Hi,

thanks for your quick reply!

You mean: duplicate the groups, convert those duplicates to components, convert the single object to component too and then swap the duplicates with that component.. that could do it.

I give it a try!

Hi guys,

I did not find the right tool / workflow for this quite simple task:

• A selection of groups, all having their own certain group origin.
• Another object should be selected which then is copied to all pre-selected objects to match the origins position / rotation.

None of the tested or found plugins do that or I'm a bit blind to see..

There are many aligning plugins, alining to line along vertices or spacing, matching the aligned objects axis, or scattering on faces or on vertices - BUT not really the one I'm after yet. If I had several objects in that place and if all were components I could just swap them, but thats not the case too..

Any idea how to solve that?

Thanks in advance, best,
Niko

PS: The selected object on the screenshot should be aligned to all the other's origins.

---

Hey guys,

thank you for your responses and ideas

I guess this wont work for the intended use in the pipeline to 3DS Max..

First, thanks @Dave for clarifying the correct term, great I can get back to guide point as the proper term, just read "construction point" pretty often in SU context and therefor though it should be like this. Better to stick to guide points though

I totally get the point that in a SU context there would be many workarounds - and using a component, e.g. a cross of lines with some "meta"information would be ideal and I would have done it that way.

Wouldn't work in 3DS Max like this - and the programs that follow. I need to set up a certain hierachy in 3DS, linked to guide points. And I have to process a bunch of objects from the same file - ideally e.g. exporting FBX with autmatic naming of the linked elements based on the guide points name. Thats why I was asking for guide point naming informations in SU.. And actually in 3DS all guide points come in in a numerical order, which makes it hard to identify the correct relating guide points.

If I'd use components in SU I maybe could realign guide points in 3DS to those components - but then I'm left with the same: guide points in a numerical order without any name..

Maybe some scripting could help but this is beyond my knowledge, sadly.

So I guess I have to stick with whats given and resort / rename the SU guide points in 3DS as I did it now.

But dont you know of any option to change the viewport representation of guide points in SU, to eg. make them larger? As I need to keep going with the SU guide points workflow this would make the working with them a bit easier.

Just a rough guess: Maybe I could nest a single guide point in a group and name that group - MAYBE that could be used for carrying over some information - but I guess it's not helping as guide points come in loose, no matter if they are inside a group/component or not.. At least through the native .skp file import in 3DS.

Maybe any other ideas?

Best,
Niko

EDIT Ah, shoot, putting a single guide point a group won't work.. If I have eg two lines in a group (+ a guide point, guidepoint + one single line won't work) - as soon as I delete the lines the group disappears, and so does the guide point..

EDITEDIT It DOES work indeed.. The guide point disappeared as it was somehow connected to the line I drew from it. Putting all objects a bit to the side and adding another guide point at the worlds origin worked. Dont know if this helps me in 3DS - but its something.