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[Old Codger]

I'm sorry to have to bother the community but I need some help and I cannot for the life of me see the answers in either of the (excellent) user manuals. Oh, and if you disbelieve in dumb questions, see if there are clips on youtube of the press at the daily briefings SecDef Rumsfeld gave during the 1st Gulf War. I promise those bozos asked some genuinely DUMB questions. Such as (for the umpteenth time) "When will the war be over?" To which Sec Rumsfeld would patiently answer, "When it's over."

1) Can I make a polygon (face) from just a selected group of points? If so how? For example: when you create a cylinder and select end caps, the end caps always have a point in the center. I'd like to be able to delete that point, select the points at the end and generate a new poly/face without a point in the middle. Can I do that?

2) I would like to move the axis of a solid around within the solid. Can I do that? If so how?

3) I need to be able to generate cylinders oriented other than vertically. Yes, I know I can rotate it but I want to keep the axes of the new shape aligned with the axes of the 3D workspace. How do I do that? A simple rotate command results in axes no longer aligned with those of the workspace.

4) Can I rotate an object about its axes without rotating the axes? Conversely, having rotated an object, can I then rotate just the axes such that the axes are once more aligned with the workspace axes? The reason I want to do this is because I have been noticing some odd effects when scaling and moving rotated objects.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer an old man who suddenly has tons of time on his hands.

[Kevin Gales]

1.Well to make a face from points you need to join the points with edges use the "Add edge" (next to UV in edit mode)

tool then after you do that select those edges and use the "Fill holes" (key - J ) tool

also for cylinder caps you can just drag select only the top points and edges then "Fill holes" (key - J) tool
 

2.As far as I know the axis can only be moved to center using "edit > pivot"

3.I have a trick that works for that Let's say you have a cylinder rotate as usual then go to edit mode drag select all

faces,points and edges of that particular object until the entire object is selected then "edit > detach faces" (key - D)

4.Sounds like Number 3 you could just rotate the object then reverse the axis using the trick in 3

[Old Codger]

Thanks for the response, Kevin. I did some tinkering and finally figured out how make a face from a group of edges. Still thinking about and internalizing your other answers. Not arguing, mind you, it's just that my learning disability precludes me operating by rote so I have to "understand" something new (to me) before I can internalize it. Yeah, it was a stone b***h back when I was in elementary school. In some ways I was the smartest kid in the class but in others I was the dumbest. Often I'd start off as the dumbest, hit the knee in my learning curve and end up understanding something better than the teacher. For example: I understood multiplication before the 3rd grade teacher finished explaining but my inability to rote memorize meant that I could not reliably recite the times tables until late in 5th grade. Got a lot of multiplication problems wrong simply because I couldn't remember the times tables at all well. {sigh}People didn't know a heck of a lot about learning disabilities back in the 50s (I started 1st grade - no K or pre-K for me - in '57) and 60s and they're still not all that together on non-verbal learning disabilities. But I suppose we all have our individual crosses to bear.

[Kevin Gales]

I thought you were kidding by the name "Old Codger"..talking of 60s you must be that old(no offence)
Well lucky for you anim8or is pretty easy to learn of course 3d art in itself requires great skills..but anim8or will surely get you close to professional work take it from me I have done some serious work with anim8or.

[Old Codger]

Kevin, my next birthday will be the Biblical 3 score and 10. If I survive past my birthday in '24 I will have lived longer than my Mom. If I make it to the next but one general election ('28) I will have lived longer than my Dad. And if I see the summer of 31 I will have outlived not only my parents but all my grandparents. Heck! Even though I was the firstborn, I have already buried one sibling and may well bury another. I'm old, son. I've felt the Grim Reapers cold, foul breath on my neck several times. Hmph! Back in '10 I was diagnosed with an extremely rare and invariably fatal disease with a 5-year survival rate under 10%. But I'm still here.

Two observations: 1) It IS possible to teach an old dog new tricks. It just requires a lot more time and a WHOLE LOT MORE patience.
2) You remember that old saw "What does not kill me makes me stronger."? HORSE HOCKEY!! I am no stronger for having survived what I did back in 10-14. In many ways, in fact, I am weaker - far weaker. But I AM still alive and making trouble. So my version of that idiotic saying is simply, "What does not kill me leaves me alive."

[RudySchneider]

Old Codger ---
Glad to see I'm not the only old-ish (71 next Saturday) prowler on this forum.  And while I don't use either Anim8or or LightWave 3D apps much since retiring, I was more than pleased to discover and use Anim8or for some of my work back in the 2000's.  But more than that, it's exciting to see that Steve is still tweaking it to make it better.

[johnar]

To move the axis of an object, select the object and set tools to this:


 Use wireframe view.

[Old Codger]

Thanks, johnar. I'll try just that. Now if I could only figure out how to reliably (and easily) realign an object's axes with the workspace axes I would be a long way towards doing some of the things I want to do. But as an old Irishman drilled into my head a couple of decades ago, "Inch by inch everything's a cinch." Then when I said something about "millimeter by millimeter" he'd smack me upside the head the way Gibbs used to do DiNozzo and remind me "You know what I mean." I learned a lot from that old man even though I worked for him less than a year. Even got an all expenses trip to Las Vegas for Comdex in 96. For a computer weenie Comdex was THE show to attend. I spent 5 days in hog heaven. He had an Irish grin that put Brian Dennehy's to shame. Self-made millionaire who liked to play baccarat at $10k minimum ante tables.

[Steve]

You can align an object's axis (also called "pivot") to either the world coordinates or the object's coordinates in the basic Object/Edit mode. Use the Edit->Pivot->AlignWithShape menu command, etc.

Note: Oops! These commands are disabled in the Object/Axis mode for some reason. I'll enable them for the next build.

[Old Codger]

I figured out how to make a cylinder oriented other than vertically. It's so simple I had a flat-forehead moment when I figured it out.

1) make the cylinder
2) double click and set the starting coordinates to zero AND orientation with either the "X" or "Z" axis set to 90 degrees instead of zero. You can also set up the object's starting size and divisions radially and longwise in the same setup window.

That will give you a cylinder with its long axis oriented along the rotated axis instead of the "Y" axis but the object's axes still aligned with the workspace axes.

 Now, if I could only figure out a way to position the cylinder's axes in the middle instead of at one end . . .

[johnar]

 For now, you can do this.

 Notice the difference between this image and the earlier one. Under 'Coord' you'll see a different icon is selected  Using this new image, coord is now selected in the middle icon. This is for object axis.
 
In Wireframe view.  Select object. Set tools as above and drag cursor in screen to move object axis.


 

[Old Codger]

Thanks, John. Now if we could only take my stupid noob questions to private channel (email) we wouldn't have to answer my questions in front of the entire community. 

[johnar]

 Well, are newby questions stupid? No.
 I think that if the answer can be found in the manual, then people can tire of 'simple' questions.
 Also worth typing key words into the search box here on the anim8or forum, as often the same question has been asked before.
 I probably hold the record for one of the 'stupidest' questions, back when i was a 'noob'.
  Something to do with  my complete ignorance of computers and software. I was afraid to push the wrong buttons, in fear of 'breaking' the software.
  Whenever a new version of anim8or was posted, and people would push it to limits for sake of testing for bugs etc, i would cringe. My thinking was, when you buy a car, you don't thrash it, to see how long it would last, or to see what breaks first, so why would you do it here.
 Now, that could be seen as 'stupid'. lol

 So, you're pretty safe so far.
Genuine questions are never actually 'stupid', but can sometimes feel that way once you've  advanced a little and look back at some of the things you asked, which you now know how to do without a second thought.

 Use the manual, old codger, and if you can't find the answer there, or through the search box here, then NO question can be fairly classed as 'stupid'.
  Happy Anim8oring