Is there a custom plane for instancing objects in Softimage?

Inhert

Hello there fellow polycounters. I have question regarding custom planes in Softimage. Is there a custom plane options menu for "cloning" or instancing objects that you can use transformations locally? Basically what I am trying to do is similar to when you "symmetrize" an object and you have the option of using the reference plane as a guide to mirror the other object's half locally instead of the world transformation. The reference plane has helped me mirrored objects that have their own specific position in space without having to realign objects to the world transformation in order to get proper symmetry.

pasha_sevez

No, you can't go such a straightforward way in XSI. The symmetry in Softimage works only in object or world coordinates. The only way is to reallign objects so that you mirror plane becomes ortogonal to one of axes in new object space.

cryrid

I'd grab one of the aligning tools such as 'Architectural Modeling Tool' from http://rray.de/xsi/

Select the model null, turn on child comp, and then you can quickly and easily align it to your custom reference plane and snap it to the center. Freeze the transform on the child, and your instance is good to go.

Inhert

Thanks cryrid I'll be sure to try out Architectural Modeling Tool. When you say "model null" do you mean the cloned object? Also what do you mean when you say "turn on child comp"?

cryrid

When you add an object to a model container, the model container should have a root null just to let you see where it is.

As for Child Transform Compensation (Child Comp), when it is turned on it allows you to move a parent object around without affecting the position of any child objects. This can be found on the Main Command Panel to the right, under the Constrain menu.

So what you'd basically would be doing is aligning the orientation of the model's root/pivot in order to match a custom plane, and snapping it to where you want the plane to be. Then when you freeze the mesh's transforms and create an instance, the instance's center will also be along that plane.

Inhert

I'm sorry for asking again cryrid but I can't seem to find the root null of an object. Is there a display toggle to view the root null object? However I have found the Child Transformation Compensation menu.

cryrid

You have to add the Gun_Holster_Pouch object into a new model first (which is required to instance it). This model container will be represented by a null.

As for ChildComp, that is all you need. A quicker way to get access to it is to expand the Constrain menu by right-clicking on it. ChildComp will be one of the buttons it displays.

Inhert

Cryrid it took me a while to understand what you were trying to say about adding the object to a new one. I didn't know that once you tried to add a new object by dragging the new on top of it that you would have to delete the parent object in order to get the null. I may have done it wrong but I think I got the null.

I got confused about moving the null around as I tried to move around the pivot of the null instead of actually just translating the null itself. I know you mentioned that you could snap the null to the reference plane but I could find the option to do so. Was I suppose to snap the null to the polygon by using the Architectural Modeling Tool similar to where I picked the polygon reference for my reference plane? There was a lot of stuff I didn't even know what I was doing. Maybe a step by step would be helpful in terms of what to do next since I didn't even know what I was doing half the time to get it to work. Thank you for replying and helping out.

cryrid

1. Have your object pic
2. Create your custom plane pic
3. Turn it into a model pic
4. This model container is represented by a null. Select it and turn on Child Comp pic
5. Align model's null to polygon (the plane pic
6. Snap it to the plane pic
7. Freeze transformation of object pic
8. Instance and scale pic