Group and Move Multiple Objects

[scyweb]

Is there a way to move multiple objects simultaneously, so that after moving, they retain their positions relative to each other?  I have a scene with 38+ objects and am trying to save myself a lot of rework.
Thanks!

[cyphyr]

Short answer is no. Slightly longer answer would be to move the first object to its new location and then copy its co-ordinates and then individually paste them into all your other objects position fields. This will only work if all your objects are already offset from each other by the right amount.
Richard

[Dune]

Perhaps you could move the land underneath by a transform shader...

---Dune

[Henry Blewer]

The location data has to be re-calculated on each move. Otherwise it would not sit on the terrain correctly.

[Dune]

I realized that after writing the reply. It would only work on relatively flat land. Although, if you move the land, you'd only have to change the Y coordinate, saves 2.

[jaf]

Which is why a "set on terrain" option for individual objects would be nice.  This feature is done with populations, I'm not sure why it couldn't be implemented for individual objects.

I've started to write an "object manipulation" program in C#.  Right now, it's mainly in the "thinking stage" though I did make a form with some basic data readouts, reference dropdown, tgd reader and parser, and a few buttons.  I'm thinking a list of objects in the scene; chose a reference object original position; input the reference object new position; apply the offset to the rest of the selected objects.  Of course there would be the problem with the y axis which we have to play with now when we move objects.  Probably have to save the tgd and load it since I don't think it could be interactive, but maybe it can.

Currently though, when building models, I typically pick one object as my "reference" and then build and position the rest in my modeling program (Lightwave.)  Then, when I import the reference model, I can copy the coordinates and paste that to the rest of the objects that I had arranged in Lightwave, so all the objects will "connect" properly in TG2. 

So if I had two objects, a cube and a sphere and wanted the sphere to be 20m to the right of the cube, , I would first build the cube at 0, 0, 0 in Lightwave.  Then I would build the sphere at 20,0,0.  I can either save both or save each individually.  Run them through Poseray and import the cube into TG2.  Copy the coordinates and import the sphere and paste the coordinates.  This works great for larges networks of objects like roads, bridges, etc.

Anyway, any thoughts on this would be helpful.  Don't know when I'll get the chance to code it, but I think it would be useful (at least for me.) 

[dandelO]

I don't imagine that it should be too hard for the creators to make grouped objects in TG, I don't know anything about programing really, though, so...

It's one of my most wanted features in TG. I imagine that the group should be easily contained within a new bounding box and that this could then be dragged around with its own transform controls.
This would certainly be the icing that my meta-cloud cake is lacking up until now.

[gregsandor]

Set your obects up with populators with .125 x .125 area, and spacing of 1.  THey will show up as single objects.  Check recalculate every frame on.  Now if you move the terrain your objects will be correctly situated.

[bobbystahr]

Set your obects up with populators with .125 x .125 area, and spacing of 1.  THey will show up as single objects.  Check recalculate every frame on.  Now if you move the terrain your objects will be correctly situated.

Unfortunately this will only work for 3 objects in the Free Version for placing objects. If you are not planning on other pops like trees and grass in your scene this will work and have done it as a test but you really need the Deep version to get utility out of this method.. ...