Rotation points

Thanks Calvin, I’ll give ’em a try

Paul

I have been working on this crane type thingy. I will have to re-do it so that it looks more streamlined plus the grab has to be able to swivel.

Once thats done all (all?) I have to do is add some textures then animate it.

To help me in my quest can anyone tell me:

1) is there an easy way to (accurately) set rotation points?

2) I sometimes make the mistake of trying out a test render then having to wait 10 mins for Povray to do its stuff. Is there a way of aborting a render or do I just have to wait?

Many thanks

Paul

I know it’s bad, but it seems that 3DC copes OK if you kill the POV-Ray process (from the Task Manager). I am not sure how much (if any) of a memory leak this will create. If you’re on a long render, it might be worth it.

Cal.

Looking a bit better…….

For the animated GIF creation, I think that possibly IrfanView or VirtuaDub might be able to do it.

hi
can’t help you with stability and avi, but I took your suggestion and fixed the script so it averages selected points andnbsp;before resetting group position for location. andnbsp;My only hint is use maximum colour resolution on your display. andnbsp;That helps me I think.

I’ll post it in script discussion.
George

Thanks George,

I do use the shift tool as you said but I have one or two problems. For example I can move the rotation point if it is withing the shaded area of the object selected (if you see what I mean), but if the rotation point is somewhere else in the scene it just disappears if I click on it.

3DC doesn’t like my computer, it just seems to stop responding at regular intervals.

I suppose in an ideal world I would like to use the group selection tool (with a ‘lassoo’ not just a selection box) to select the relevant points then press a key to get the centre point, andnbsp;I hope this makes sense.

Yes, please post your script – will be useful.

I have animated my crane model but I need to convert it from avi to animated gif format – anyone recommend a free conversion prog?

Thanks for your help.

Paul

you can change the rotation point using the shift tool on the right of the screen (hold the ctrl button down to shift the rotation point).

alternatively I’ve written a script that allows you to select a point on your object to use as the rotation point. andnbsp;it’s not perfect as it may shift an object that has already been rotated , but it works for me. andnbsp;I’ll post it in the scripting forum if you’re interested.

George

OK. Good to hear. If that was indeed happening it would be really hard to fix andnbsp;???

Richard

Dont worry, I have found out what I was doing wrong – too embarrasing to say what…….

Who else is having this problem where the the axis disappears when using the Shift tool? I try and try but this never happens to me. A couple of people have noted the problem. (or perhaps the same person twice?)

Richard