ac3d and colouring

[soda72]

Let me frist start off by saying it is easier to export a shp form the OE and use the .ac from that but if you want to create a project from scratch you can do the following.  To Create object heirarchies in AC3d you'll need to be familar with a few controls :

The first one is the heirarchy view control located here:


The next control used is the 'select ' control:


The select control has four options but you will only need the frist two(group and obejct select) to change object/group heirarchies and names.

The last control to be familar with is the name control down at the lower left hand conner..



So as an example I created a simple box that uses the skidmark.bmp for texture that looks like the following:


Now to create the object heirarchy for it I open the "heirarchy view" control. As you can see in the pic below it starts out with the group name world followed by a child object called 'box'.  This is the default heirarchy ac3d assigns...



I first begin by changing the name of my box obect to a name that is preferred and recommended in the AC3d.txt help file.

To do this go to the "select" control and make sure object selection is enabled..



once that is enabled, select your object you wish to change the name to. AFter you have selected an object look at the "name" control down in the lower left.  It should show you the current name of the object and will let you change the name...

so as you can see in the pic below my object is named box..


I then change the name to str0..


Once you renamed your new object, go back to the heirarchy view...
It should now look like this...

[soda72]

Now the hard part... grouping objects..

What makes this hard is if you create a single object.  AC3d does not allow you to group objects unless there is more than one.  However there is a way to work around that, by creating temporary objects that will allow you create multiple groupings.  Once the heirarchy is finished you can then delete them...

So for the first one I create my 'objects' group


Here i Create two more to create the upper grouping 'model'


Here is what it looks like after creating multiple temp groupings.


Now that I have the heirarchy needed I delete the temporary objects...
you can do this by selecting the temp objects you created and press the delete key


Here is what the heirarchy looks like after deleting the temp objects.



Once the heirarchy is completed you can save the project and import into the OE..

here is what the cbox looks like in the OE...

[rogerdee]

soda thankyou for taking the time and effort to explane this i do aprecaite it

 ive followed what you said but how did you get the model part in the
hierarchy. ive tried  what you did but i dont get the group model part in it.

 mine always comes up

world
group objects
objects str0


how did you get group model in it?so it says
world
group model
grop objects
objects str0

ive followed your instructions as youve writtern it but it doesnt come up for me

[soda72]

Originally posted by rogerdee
soda thankyou for taking the time and effort to explane this i do aprecaite it
 

No problem..

Yeah at the end I kind of rushed through, I didn't realize what I was getting myself into tryn to explain it...    

To get the 'model' group, you have to create a temp group by creating two more new temp objects, and grouping them together. don't include them with your group 'objects'.  This temp group should be on the same level as your group 'objects'..  Then group the groups together and name it 'model'...  If you look at the heirarchy images in the above post each one kindof represents the steps a little...

hope this makes sense....

[rogerdee]

ok if i got it right i make another group in a sepert bit then put the two groups togeather  then i can delete the temp group b and reame the thing model.

i think i understand it better then i wrote it.

 thankyou again for taking the time to help me out

[Xjazz]

New version will have some improvements for the hierarchys.  No details about it yet.

Lets hope the developer dump the current work-s-l-o-w method with shiny workflow method.

[Denholm]

I like the blender method.