Keeping Objects From Getting Away When Decorating

[Purplerain Horowitz]

I am sure I am not the only person this has happened to. I was placing a curtain on a window last night and per usual when using the red arrow(it is always the red arrow, never the others) the item got away and this time I could not find the object to save my life. I looked for an hour using my viewers area object search(two different viewers). Finally I had to message the owner of the land to return it, which I do not want to have to do, because I am sure it will happen again. She is busy enough. Is there any way or any gadget that helps me maintain better control of the placing of my objects? Like I said it only happens with the red arrow, never the others. I have M.S. so my hands are not the steadiest, lol. 

[Rolig Loon]

---

Purplerain Horowitz wrote:

[ .... ]Is there any way or any gadget that helps me maintain better control of the placing of my objects? Like I said it only happens with the red arrow, never the others. [ .... ]

---

No, there's no gadget.  When you are trying to move anything with the colored X, Y, Z arrows, though, you'll always have better luck if you are moving things cleanly left - right or up-down than if you are trying to move them toward you or away from you.  It's very easy to lose control if the arrow you are moving points into or out of the screen.

[Pamela Galli]

Firestorm has a setting where you can limit drag distance. Then you would not be able to throw things very far.

[Dresden]

---

Pamela Galli wrote:

Firestorm has a setting where you can limit drag distance. Then you would not be able to throw things very far.

---

Also, you could use the little arrows next to the position box in the edit window on the Object tab.

...Dres

[arton Rotaru]

And if you lost something again, try Build > Pathfinding > Linksets and filter by the name, or part of the name. There are various options in that floater to get your object back. With the official viewer that is.

[ChinRey]

---

Purplerain Horowitz wrote:

Is there any way or any gadget that helps me maintain better control of the placing of my objects? Like I said it only happens with the red arrow, never the others. I have M.S. so my hands are not the steadiest, lol. 

---

You can type numbers into the position fields in the edit window rather than drag the item in place by hand. Better make sure you type the right numbers though - or at least that you get the decimal point in the right place, type 1234 rather than 12.34 and the result gets even worse than it does with dragging the item into place. (This is especially a problem with Firestorm where you have those "hidden decimals" but typos can happen in any viewer.)

[Yingzi Xue]

As Rolig said, always adjust your camera so it's perpendicular to the direction you want to move.  In other words, a 45 to 90 degree angle from the direction you want to move.  If your camera is facing the same direction as the axis you're moving the object in, it can have a tendency to jump on you, which is why you lose objects.  Camera angle is very important.  If you find it tedious to use the camera control, try learning the shortcuts instead. 

ALT-LEFT CLICK - Refocus camera where you clicked.  MOUSE WHEEL to zoom in/out.

ALT-LEFT CLICK HOLD - Move mouse left and right to rotate around focal point, push and pull to zoom in/out

CTRL-ALT-LEFT CLICK HOLD - Same as above, but instead of zoom on push and pull it rotates up/down.

CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-LEFT CLICK HOLD - Pan up/down/left/right.

These make moving the camera around much easier, because you can do them on the fly.  Mastering the camera control shortcuts is key to building quickly and getting that perpendicular angle so your objects don't jump on you.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

When an object moves out of view, it is still selected. If you press ctrl-Z (for undo) the object will pop back into its previous position. Just make sure you don't click on anything else, which will deselect your lost object.

You might have to deselect the "limit select distance", not 100% sure about that.

Naming your objects in advance will help you find back your object with the techniques already mentioned. It might feel a bit annoying, but it's really 3D modelling basics to do so.