Adding objects to a group causes them to change "axis" | Forums

[rlmergeuser]

Hi all,
my question is probably very stupid but here goes:

I have two train wagons glued and grouped together, and currently I'm moving them locally on their local X axis which happens to perfectly "match" the railway.

So far so good!

Then, I want to place a Ramp on one of the wagons, but whenever I do this and I group it together with the wagons, the "Red green blue circles" get mixed up, so the resulting object local X axis changes, messing up the movement animation.

What is the "cleanest" and "best practice" way to handle such situations? I think I would manage to do it one way or the other, but I'd like to memorize the most correct way to do it without messing up the XYZ axis of the whole group. Thanks!

[rlmergeuser]

I think the best way to maintain the same pivot point when adding new objects to a Glued Object is to set the Pivot Type to Manual in the Glued Objects properties.

I don't think you can grab the little Glue icon and rotate though... it seems to be set when you first create the Glued Object. You can, however, grab the objects of the Glued Object and move them independently from the Glue icon.

Hope that helps!

[rlmergeuser]

I don't think you can grab the little Glue icon and rotate though... it seems to be set when you first create the Glued Object. You can, however, grab the objects of the Glued Object and move them independently from the Glue icon.

Hope that helps!

I tried messing around with the manual pivot, but I didn't manage to "rotate it" IIRC and this mirrors more or less what you describe. It's a bit weird that there isn't an option like "keep axis of the grouped object unchanged" while adding new objects to it.

[rlmergeuser]

Oh, sorry forgot to mention - it shouldn't change axis when the Pivot Type is set to manual (aside from doing it from the Properties, it will also set itself to manual if you grab the pivot and move it).

I've definitely added more objects to a Glued Object without changing the axis... I've done it plenty of times! I normally do it by going to the properties of the Glued Object and using the 'Select Glue Members' option - that let's you select additional items to add to the Glued Object. I think selecting the Glued Object, then additional objects and using the 'Glue Objects' option is what is resetting the axis for you.

[rlmergeuser]

Thanks, I'll try that as soon as I get home. Probably I was glueing FIRST and changing to manual LATER, but the first glueing already changed the axis, so I'l try changing the order of these operations to see if anything changes. Thanks a lot

[Oski]

Place any object next to the group. Select this object, then the group. The axes should now align.

The rotation of the axes is determined by the first object you select. In THD it was the LAST object, so it sure is confusing.