How to group objects?

tyamatreyl

Is it possible to group objects together when creating a map? (I'd like to easily copy and paste groups of objects.)


Thanks!

waryur

Nope. Sorry. Can't do groups of objects. There's no way to select multiple objects and copy them. Just one object at a time using the copy or duplicate commands. Unless said "object" was a "cluster" detail (a grouping of items like bunch of grass or fallen trees or battlefield debris, etc.), then in your 2D map editor go to upper left corner, change setting from "detail" to "layout", and copy/duplicate that entire cluster.
There is no easy way, unfortunately.

myrkolith

Actually that's not true you can group items in the Foundry.

It only works on the 2D map though, the first thing you have to do is look at the top right of the screen. There is 2 buttons, 1 align to grid for rotation, and 1 for align to grid for movement. Turn those off so that it will keep the exact measurement of your detail such as x 23.45 instead of rounding it off to 23. Now if you did want everything built perfectly on a grid, you could leave that option on so everything is uniform.

Now go into 3D mode and place a few objects where you want them to be, (such as floor pieces built off the ground at a specific height) after you place 3-4 of them in a line, you can then go back to 2D mode to begin grouping them.

Hold down the mouse button and drag your cursor over the 4 floor pieces so that all 4 control boxes are in the drag area then release, it will select all 4 of them at the same time. Now use Ctrl+C to copy them and Ctrl+V to paste another set of 4 down. Then just drag them into place. Just realize if you click anywhere else other then the control box for one of the new 4 pasted down, it will unselect them all and you will need to reselect them. You can also do it again after you place the new 4 down, copy them all so you have 8 and easily turn them into 16 etc. For however many you need.

waryur

O.O
...
Wish I knew this two years ago lol! Wow... Thanks for correcting me, Myrkolith!!! Can't wait to go try it out.

myrkolith

I've just been building for a long time, I usually answer questions in zone chat in Foundry itself, but I have been checking the forums more now that it's been down.

A lot of the stuff I have built has taken a lot of trial and error, to get it to do what I want it to do, for my quests lol...

It also works for copying between maps, however, it will not save their proper y co-ordinate, so you would need to copy paste the height from the other map to fix it. But it's handy if you're doing multiple maps in the same interior you can quickly copy paste the same type of floor for example between maps...

imaginaerum1

Be aware, copying and pasting usually (possibly always) resets the Y-axis. So, if you're copying and pasting a group of objects that are not at 0-Y, you'll need to go in and reset the Y values. This differs from Duplicate, where it keeps the Y and the Z, and offsets the X. Unfortunately, you can't Duplicate multiple items, only copy them.
Also, if you're on an indoor map, selecting with the drag box will also select all of your doors. It gets grumpy when you try to move doors. Your best bet is to ctrl-click the doors to unselect them once you have your group of objects selected, so that you aren't trying to drag your doors around. (I'm talking about room connecting "doors", not details that look like doors.)

essenti

When copying collections of objects, it changes the Y-axis relative to the centroid of all objects in the collection. Basically, it finds the average Y value for all objects in the collection, and uses that as initial Y value that all objects will be offset to. For instance, if you have 4 objects (A, B, C, and D) and their Y values are 1, 2, 3, 4 respectively. The Y value of the centroid (origin of the collection) will be 2.5 so when you paste this collection the Y position of A will be -1.5, B is -0.5, C is 0.5, and D will be 1.5

You can use this knowledge to add in an "Offset" item so that your copy and paste will have the exact values you want, I have a post somewhere on these forums about doing that. Ideally, Cryptic should just get rid of the Y-value averaging for the centroid of the collection, since we only see a top down view in the 2D editor, this averaging just makes copying and pasting collections of times a painful experience...