Duplicator Wizard

[bubba]

I am working my way through David Rogers book and I am stuck on creating the windows for the building (page 227.) David says that the Duplicator Wizard to create the grid of bricks but I just can't understand the wizard. Nothing I have tried results in a grid of bricks. Please help. Thanks.

[robcat2075]

model one brick,

make it longest on the X dimension,

select it,

choose the Duplicator wizard

set the X translate to however long your brick is plus some small space

set all other parameters to 0, except leave scale at 100%

set Method to duplicate

set repeat # to something>1

hit oK and you get a row of bricks.

 

then you can select all that and use the Duplicator wiz again to repeat it upward on the vertical axis

[bubba]

Thank you. I tried these steps but I get "garbage." Grid is 1 foot.

 

 

And this what I get after.

 

[HomeSlice]

That looks like a row of bricks to me.

But if you would like to try a different tool, I like the Sweeper wizard better than the Duplicator wizard for most things.

Here are instructions on how to use Sweeper.

http://www.hash.com/sweeper

 

And don't forget about good 'ol Copy/Paste.

[bubba]

Sorry, bad link.

 

I don't think the output is correct. I expected a row of individual bricks - just like the one I started with.

[robcat2075]

I recommend you set your options/units to centimeters rather than feet/inches. I don't believe the duplicator wizard recognizes feet/inches.

 

 

I recommend always working in metric in A:M as that is how all units are stored.

[bubba]

Thank you! The change to centimeters did the trick. Should I report the issue I had with feet as a bug?

[robcat2075]

Should I report the issue I had with feet as a bug?

That would be fair. Explain it as a problem with the duplicator wizard. It appears to be working in cm no matter what units A:M is set to. I don't know if that behavior can be altered, but report it anyway.

[johnl3d]

with duplicate wizard you can copy or extrude so copy will give you individual copies while extrude will just extrude the original shape

[bubba]

[quote And don't forget about good 'ol Copy/Paste.

 

I would like to use copy and paste but I can't find an Align function in A:M - like in vector drawing programs. I can align Control Points, but I don't know how to align objects.

[bubba]

I have investigated more and have found out that the Duplicator Wizard will work with feet but the relationship between the X coordinate, number of iterations escapes me. The window is set to feet, the box is 1 foot a side and yet it takes 32 "feet" to generate separate boxes.

 

[NancyGormezano]

32 cm = approx 12.6 inches I believe if 1" = 2.54 cm

[bubba]

But everything was set to feet - does the wizard reduce everything to centimeters?

[NancyGormezano]

as Robert said - it appears to be expecting input in cm's (as the label in the dialog indicates) - you can still have your rulers, other units set to feet/inches if you like. Unfortunately - you have to do the conversion from inches to cm's to use the wizard at this time (and maybe forever?).

[HomeSlice]

I would like to use copy and paste but I can't find an Align function in A:M - like in vector drawing programs. I can align Control Points, but I don't know how to align objects.

The only way I know of to align objects (other than individual control points) in a Model window is to place your original object so a horizontal or vertical side are on a grid line, then turn on "Snap to Grid" (it's a button in the top toolbar). Then when you drag a pasted object, it will snap to the grid lines. So it isn't really like an "Align" function, but it works once you get used to it.

 

If an object isn't on a grid line (if it lies between two grid lines), then when you activate "Snap to Grid" and drag it, the object will snap to the next place on the grid in relation to where it is between the two grid lines, instead of snapping to a grid line.

[bubba]

I tried you suggestion and in version 16 beta 2 it only works on the horizontal grid lines, not the vertical. Don't know if this is a bug in version 16 or not - right now the application has slowed to a crawl. I have cleaned cashes, restarted the machine - 2009 MacPro, OSX 10.6.4 - but no help.

[Fuchur]

I know I will talk against a wall here, but if it makes so much trouble:

Why not use metric system here? That is used all over the world (not only in science), in most countries etc and it is not really hard to calculate with...

it is based on the number 10, so it should be so much easier to work with.

 

Yes I know, I am an ignorant European

 

*Fuchur*

[HomeSlice]

Yes I know, I am an ignorant European

LOL, that's funny. It reminds me of the attitude of some of my relatives. They grew up in very small towns in the middle of the U.S. I'm not sure if they even know any Europeans....

[robcat2075]

I tried you suggestion and in version 16 beta 2 it only works on the horizontal grid lines, not the vertical.

 

Do you mean in other versions it works fine?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "it only works on the horizontal grid lines"

 

Shoe us what you have after the first row of bricks and what your next dup wiz settings are.

[bubba]

I went back through the reference books and found a description of how the "snap to ..." should work. What I read (and found by experimenting) is that when this is turned on an object is moved a distance (in any direction) equal to one grid square. So, if one edge of an object (say the left-hand edge) is on a grid line (either vertical or horizontal), moving the object will make it seem to "snap" to another grid line. But if no edge is on a grid line, then no matter how much the user wishes it, the object will NEVER automatically move to a grid line. Very confusing. It would seem that this could be improved so that the user COULD force an edge to "snap" to a grid line.

 

Using the contextual menu item "Snap to Grid" changes the shape of an object, so that is not an option either.

[robcat2075]

It would seem that this could be improved so that the user COULD force an edge to "snap" to a grid line.

 

It sounds like you've moved onto a different problem, this isn't a use of the duplicator wizard.

 

If you want to snap CPs to the grid exactly, select them, >Snap to grid.

 

That snaps in all grid dimensions however.

 

If you need to align a group to just one coordinate, select the CPs, set its pivot (found in properties window) to the place you wish to move to (say, x=10), then scale on X to 0%

[HomeSlice]

If you need to align a group to just one coordinate, select the CPs, set its pivot (found in properties window) to the place you wish to move to (say, x=10), then scale on X to 0%

That works very well for a straight line of control points.

 

If you have an object that is not a straight line:

Activate the "Show Manipulator Properties" button in the main toolbar.

Select the whole object.

[shift]-click a CP in the object. The selected CP's position will show in the Manipulator Properties widget.

With the whole object still selected (it will have a yellow bounding box around it), type different values for X, Y and Z in the Manipulator Properties widget.

The selected CP will move to that position, and the rest of the object will follow, while maintaining its shape.

[bubba]

You guys are right, I have did move on to another issue. How about I start a new thread. Can you copy/paste your answer there?