United3dArtists Archive

here I found a little help for a question of mine:

http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/s ... php?t=8346"

But it is not enough for me.

I have an object, and want it to have a special rotation angle.
maybe 20° against an axis but the numbers in the info field should be 0.

Then I want to expand the matrix and start with all 0 for pitch, yaw and roll.
But, you remember, the object is still rotated against an axis.

Then I want to rotate the object by timer.

I always get confused with trying this.

The next problems starts here: If I have encapsulated objects the
confusion is complete.

I know what you mean.. I agree is complex to understand.. During the beta i beg Tomas to build a solution and for that he made the all mighty (Flatten Axis tool)

Let me try to explain..

Imagine you have a cylinder.. if you rotate by the widget or by the matrix the rotation is always by its center.. Right??

Now, Click on the Axis tool to add a pivot point.. Move it to z=0 lvl.
Now, if you rotate by the widget, the cylinder rotates around that z=0 point.. GREAT!!! BUT!! if you expand the matrix and you try to rotate, the things has not changed.. Cos the matrix is not affected by the pivot..

I know...

hahahaha

So how fix this? Again.. Flatten Axis tool

Move the pivot on the right location, and then with the Axis visible click on Flatten Axis.. You will not see any visible difference, but will work for the matrix..

One important tip.. the Flatten Axis ONLY!!! works if the object its on the root scene lvl, with this i mean is not inside any other object or sublvl.

So what's the best workflow?
Make the model, set the matrix pivot on the right position and then encapsulate it..

If you have already a model and you want to rebuild??( Like i do on the Reach stacker) The best way i found is, go to the lvl where the encapsulated object is located, save it.. and load it again on the scene root lvl.. Set the Matrix Pivot on the right location, save it and load it or move it where the original file was located and linked again to its owner..

Sorry for the poor explanation, but is simple once you understand it..

Thank you Prodigy, that was fast
I will try your explanation.

It is really complex, because we have several axis tools
The object widget
The pivot
The pivot widget
The objects matrix
The owners matrix
Grrrr.

yes im agree..

tell me if you need any help..

I am not able to get it done

I move my object to the place I want.
I click an Axis Tool, now I see the pivot(?)widget
I move it to the rotating center.
I click on Axis Tool. The standard widgets appears.
I am able to rotate the object around the pivot with the standard widget.
But now, if I expand the matrix, every tweak is gone.
Sometimes the object jumps to any place and rotates to any direction.
If I use the pitch, roll, yaw, the object rotates around any place I never had
used.
This is not only for one oject. And it is not an encapsulated one.

I find no basic principles of these axis stuff.
Everytime I found some other faults.

I move my object to the place I want.
I click an Axis Tool, now I see the pivot(?)widget
I move it to the rotating center.

Have you tried to click the flatten axes button at that point?

Yes.

In the info box I got every number to 0
My object has its right angle.
But if I open the expand matrix, there are all the old numbers.

How can I know that Flatten Axis is really working as it should?


Edit:
I tried and tried. Now it seems the axis tools worked but I don't know why.
It is so buggy. Is here anyone who can explain this?
What is the reason why axis tool works and what is the reason it don't?

I doubt that you will find somebody that can explain the odd behaviour here. Prodigy maybe

I'll try to make a tutorial..

here is the way I just did it for a door system. had it on timer but only needed 6.25 of time to revolve to and from position so the manual node was all that was required.

I used Dele's offsetter and speed control combining the number in a binary op to get to my value into the in expanded matrix with properly.

to use the timer just hook up the number node instead.

the number node and manual node are just script objects

don't get confused by the watchdog and script that rotated the locks before swinging open doors.

to make the doors rotate while staying flat I used the wldmatrix of lower pivot node, expanding that matrix to export my tx tz out for door motion using the offsetter to get rotation of door panels right.

pivots were flattened before setting up scripts and expanded matrix, once finished everything was encapsulated.