Prim Docker gone?

[Jo Yardley]

I've used prim docker for years and love it.

But recently the group has been disbanded and I can no longer find any trace of it on marketplace or search.

Is it no longer available?

[hibit Spad]

It would not be surprising if Prim Docker was gone. 

 

If you search the old archived forum messages you will find out that the original creator of Prim Docker sold it to the guy that was selling it.   For awhile Prim Docker languished because the new owner knew not how to code and eventually hired someone to update the code.  I would guess it wasn't worth hiring someone to update the code again.

 

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

This is a good opportunity for you to learn how to build without aids like this. Firestorm has a number of handy tools as part of their edit box that you can use.  You can also learn how to build by the numbers and use the snap to grid. 

When I first started to build I used an aid like this.  After I became quite proficient at it, I decided to take the advice of a lot of advanced builders and learn to use the edit tools properly.  I'm glad I did.  I can now built much faster and with a greater degree of accuracy.

[Jo Yardley]

Can you like up textures that fast with the firestorm/regular building tools as well?

That is the main reason I use docker, lining up textures.

[Qie Niangao]

I never used Prim Docker so I don't know that it's a complete replacement, but even the LL viewer has an align textures button now, although it only works on Planar-mapped textures. (There are some cases where it messes up; hollow surfaces is one that comes to mind.)

I don't really know why it doesn't also try to align Default-mapped textures. There are plenty of ways that textures may be impossible to fully align (e.g., on differently warped surfaces), whatever the texture's mapping. So maybe TPVs do their best to align non-Planar mappings, too.

[Mac Shoreman]

"Can you like up textures that fast with the firestorm/regular building tools as well?"

 

Lining up textures in Firestorm building tool-box never been easier.

1. Select "Select face".
2. Select while holding shift the surfaces you want to align.
3. Select "Mapping" "Planar" from texture tab.
4. The texture will change drasticly so adjust the repeats and offset so the main texture surface is ok.
5. Check the checkbox "Align planar face".

Voila!

GOOD TO KNOW: The last selected surface will be the surface the other surfaces will adjust to! So select the "main surface" of your task last!

It is bit cool to know how to calculate manually the repeats and offsets on different prims in planar or default. Automaticaly features cant compare to human perception.

[Mac Shoreman]

"I don't really know why it doesn't also try to align Default-mapped textures. There are plenty of ways that textures may be impossible to fully align (e.g., on differently warped surfaces), whatever the texture's mapping. So maybe TPVs do their best to align non-Planar mappings, too."

I think...

... default texture mapping is direct linked to the prim (its size ratio etc etc). Planar is linked to "point of view" or in SL's case it is linked to the world grid allowing the aligning cross surfaces with one main prim as reference independent of the joint surfaces size ratio etc.

Hmm not sure if this was helpful and made any one weiser but.... I have hope.

[Qie Niangao]

But it's just math -- which brings to mind another thing I've always puzzled about: when flipping a face's mapping from Default to Planar, it picks some repeats-per-meter that bears no apparent relationship to what it was when Default-mapped. In the simplest cases of a nice flat rectangular surface on a prim that hasn't been tapered, cut, sliced, etc., the math is trivial to make the Planar mapping texture repeats and alignments perfectly match those of the previous Default mapping. I've never understood why it doesn't even try to do that.

Even with most prim transformations, it seems a pretty do-able scripting exercise to replicate the kind of math we sometimes do manually to get perfect alignment. I have no idea, however, whether Prim Docker ever did anything like that.