Basic Building Help Please

[Red52]

Hello, can someone please explain or send a link showing how to line walls up  so they are straight for building a house?  I unlinked my house to edit it, and am trying to learn how to put walls back up so they are straight.  I do know how to copy objects, but want to know how to straighten objects (like walls, foundation, etc.) once they have been rotated/ manipulated.

 

Thank you!

[ChinRey]

1 hour ago, Red52 said:

Hello, can someone please explain or send a link showing how to line walls up  so they are straight for building a house?  I unlinked my house to edit it, and am trying to learn how to put walls back up so they are straight.  I do know how to copy objects, but want to know how to straighten objects (like walls, foundation, etc.) once they have been rotated/ manipulated.

Therer are several methods but I think the easiest way to explain is how to do it by numbers

RIght-click on the object and select "Edit". Then in the edit window, click on the Object tab and you get this:

Just enter numbers in the fields there and you can reposition and rotate to your heart's content with as much precision as is possible in Second Life. You can even do math there. Type 7+3 in one of the field and the viewer automatically changes it to 10.

One warning though: Watch out for typos in the Position field. If for example you type 1025 instead of 10.25 the item vanishes off beyond the horizon. THis is especially a problem with Firestorm since for somer eason it has these long strings of meangless decimals overflowing the entry fields.

[Red52]

Interesting, ChinRey- thank you!  Are these numbers pictured in the Position and Rotation sections, the 'standard' for getting the correct angles for upright walls?  Also- is there a way to straighten walls, foundation, etc. by using the 'snap to grid' option?  ( I still don't quite understand that option.)  Thank you again :-)

 

[ChinRey]

1 hour ago, Red52 said:

Are these numbers pictured in the Position and Rotation sections, the 'standard' for getting the correct angles for upright walls?

The numbers in my illustration are jsut for a prim I rezzed on a random spot, there is no standard. But for walls, usually you'll see 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees rotations, rarely anything else.

1 hour ago, Red52 said:

Also- is there a way to straighten walls, foundation, etc. by using the 'snap to grid' option?

With the snap to grid option the item will jump between and lock onto "steps" of a predefined size. The default "step sizes" are 0.5 m for distances and 5.625 degrees (1/64th of a full circle) for rotation but you can change those in you preferences if you like. Using snap to grid to align objects can be a good idea if - and only if - everything happens to fit the grid.

[Anna Nova]

What I do in your situation is to decide which object is the 'Root object'.  Go into that with edit - you'll see the edit window as in ChinRey's post.  Go to the Object tab, like she did and write down all the position and rotation numbers.

Now go and edit the first 'subordinate object' (second wall?) and make all of it's numbers the same.  Now that object is in the same place as the 'root object', with the same rotation.  Now you can either change the numbers gradually until you get it's position right, or even click the regular SL edit arrows, and the Ctrl key, to move and rotate using the snap.

This is MUCH easier in Firestorm as it has a copy and paste built in. (even though it has a tendency to add random very small numbers to the 8th decimal place....)

If you need to rotate lots of bits around a common point, rez a prim there as 'pivot', link it as root to an object, rotate the linkset.  Unlink the pivot, link to the next part, rotate etc...

I'm not much good with pictures, but I hope my descriptions are useful.

Edited August 11, 2017 by anna2358
typo

[Pamela Galli]

To reiterate what ChinRey says, the best alternative: you have to type in rotation numbers. A shortcut is to copy and paste rotations with the Firestorm buttons, if you want the same rotation numbers for several walls.

Make sure all are exact multiples of 90. 

 

And if you build up high and then rez on the ground, some of the numbers may become slightly changed. You have to ride the house down to the ground to keep the rotations the same.

Another thing not in the non existent manual.

Edited August 11, 2017 by Pamela Galli

[Red52]

Ladies- many thanks to all of you for the great information!  I will try these methods :-)