Dupligroups question

Hello,

I have 4 objects in a Group which is in turn instanced 7 times and moved to different positions in the scene (Dupligroups?).

Problem that i face is that if i transform the ORIGINAL OBJECT/GROUP then all 7 instance will update their position in scene as well. In max/maya instances have their own unique transformation attributes that are not relative to original instance. As such i would like the individual group transformation not to be LINKED but only the data within groups ( such as meshes).

Question is - how can i transform the base Group to another part of the scene while retaining positions of already placed objects?

Thank You

Put the group of objects on a hidden layer and only use dupligroups in your scene. Only position the dupligroups, keep the originals out of the picture just as a data source, don’t mix one with the other

Select your duplicates, hit U and select Object Animation.

I am very grateful to both of you and I am sorry for not answering earlier, I learned and tried

However I still struggle with 1 base problem while using any GROUPS - Why must the main GROUP object be at location (0,0,0)?
Anything else causes all the other Groups to be severely offset of all group instances.

Why is this a problem?:
- When you have MANY groups in scene, then you will have a lot of groups at 0,0,0 overlapping one another. I can put them in layers but my scene is running out of layers.

  • As you cannot edit Group instances, then it would be nice to move the editable parent somewhere near where group instances are used so you can see what changes are happening as you edit.

I’d like GROUPS to act like LINKED objects except they would contain multiple meshes… but it does not seem possible without location being at 0 0 0?

Again, main question: Is there any way to create GROUPS that do not require GROUP instance being at 0,0,0.

Thank you!

Do you have a blend file we could look at?

Simple blend file to demonstrate issue:
http://www.cgstrive.com/grouping_problem.blend

PROBLEM: I would like to OFFSET/MOVE/REPOSITION main GROUP objects so they would not be at position 0,0,0… WITHOUT the children of that group MOVING in scene.




Thank YOU!

Do you mean like this?
grouping_problem.blend (626 KB)

I moved the spikebase to the right, and then copied and pasted the amount I moved it into group’s origin offset values.

No clue how to do this with the helmet, though.

If you click the little black arrow next to the group name, there’s an option to “set offset from cursor”. Move your group, position the cursor where you want the new “center” to be, and hit this command. Easiest way to position the cursor is to usually just to select the group items (select > linked > “grouped” to do it in one shot) then hit shift+S and “cursor to selection”.

Also, while this isn’t a very helpful solution for your armor example (where the groups are elements of a single model) in some cases it’s handy to stuff the originals in their own files, and just link the group.

Sincerely, THANK YOU BOTH! These solutions are precisely what was needed!