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[Old Codger]

I downloaded and imported a very pretty model today. Then I imported it into Anim8or. No apparent problems. Beautiful model but Anim8or thinks it is composed of a couple of dozen meshes. Then I deconstructed the model with an eye towards using some of the parts in a sort of kit-bashing way to make some pretty images and prepare some models for learning how to set up and render a scene - not only in Anim8or but (eventually) also in Daz Studio.

Unfortunately, what shows up in Amin8or's "front" view is clearly the model's left side. That might work - kinda sorta - but I'd really like to see the front of the model in "front" view. Also, all the parts are positioned away from the viewport's origin the it appears that they THINK they're located at the origin.

Below I have two screenshots to illustrate. The first shot is where the mesh (actually a group of 4 meshes) naturally wants to be. I brought up one of the meshes' properties to show where it thinks it is. Note that the mesh thinks it is centered around the origin with 0 degrees orientation in all 3 axes. But if you look at what shows up while the view is clearly "right" what you're seeing is the frontal aspect of that mesh.

The 2nd screen shot is one of those meshes (the biggest one) after a edit-locate command to center it about the viewport's axes. We're still seeing the frontal aspect of the mesh and it's clearly centered around the viewport axes but the mesh's coordinates now are anything but 0. X is kinda close, Y is not too far but Z is way non-zero! And yet you can see the viewport coords.

So, is there a way to "reconcile" these meshes' coordinates and axes such that what is reported in the properties window matches what the viewport displays? I mean I can probably work with what I have but it'd be a whole lot cleaner to be able straighten out the coords and axes.

[Steve]

The coordinates that Anim8or uses for the model are those that are specified in the input file. Within each separate mesh they are relative to that mesh's coordinate system (the Axis or Pivot in Anim8or terms). Hee are some things that you might try doing to convert them into coordintes more like what you want:

1. Select all the separate meshes. Apply the Build->JoinSolids command. This will convert all coordinates to workd coordinates.

You can also orient the model to face the front first. To do that, BEFORE you do Build->JoinSolids do the following:

1. Select everything and apply the Build->Group command.
2. Use Edit->Rotate->RotateY90 to make the model face the front. (You may need to do ->RotateCustomY=-90)
3. Optional: Edit->Locate->StandOnOrigin
4. Edit->Ungroup
5. Build->JoinSolids.

[Old Codger]

Thank you, Mr G. The "Group" command worked like a charm. Always wondered what that was there for. Just a note: when I did the rotate, the resulting group was just a tad offset from center in X. I double clicked, set the X coordinate to zero and it jumped to center exactly as I wanted it to. Have to explore the "Group" and "Ungroup" commands. I can see some use for them in building complex models.