Referenced objects in a scene - need help

[rollmops]

Hi I'm actually working on a scene a bit like yours.
The only limitation I know with references is that you cannot change the name of any node in the referenced (like chair) scene; otherwise any transformation returns to zero.

2) duplication? not tested yet:shrug:

[womanonfire]

So when you bring an object into a scene by referencing it you can move it away from its origin point and it stays put?

because that is all i am trying to do. bring the same chair in five times and have them located around a table. so i am just translating them to other places not re-naming anything.

i found out by reading elsewhere that duplicting does not work with references... it makes a copy and kills the reference.

thanks for your reply tho.

[dwalden74]

Hi-

So when you bring an object into a scene by referencing it you can move it away from its origin point and it stays put?

Yes, unless its attributes have incoming connections (ie, belong to a character set, have constraints applied, have keyframed animation, etc). Check the referenced scene to make sure the translate attributes have none of these input connections.

i found out by reading elsewhere that duplicting does not work with references

Correct. This makes a new independant duplicate of the object, which no longer references another file. A solution here would be to simply make a duplicate *instance* of the one referenced object. In this case the instances will still be linked to the reference file.

:beer:
David

[womanonfire]

alright.
i made a test
file A = a cube
file B = a sphere

file C = the main scene

I Referenced A & B into file C
(options: Group is checked, Resolve 'all nodes' with 'the file name')
I moved the cube to the left
I moved the sphere to the right

saved file C and closed Maya

restarted Maya opened file C - everything is the same A & B are still off center.

I moved the sphere down in the world Z axis
save file C and close Maya

when I open C this time both the sphere and the cube have reverted to the center 0,0,0
and they have been moved outside of their groups in the Outliner

:annoyed:

i don't get it.

[tsuru]

I duplicated your AB->C process without the problems you descibe but with the following changes:

A and B are saved using the Maya Binary (.mb) format.
C is saved with Maya ASCII format (.ma)

I was able to transform, save, exit and then reopen and still see all changes made previously. I can't imagine off hand why an ASCII format reference file would matter over a binary in your situation. The only reason I use ASCII is for reference editing convenience.

If for some reason you wanted to change a reference (file name change /location change..etc) , with a maya ascii file you can just open it up in a text editor and then change it without waiting for maya to boot and then load the file.

Hope this helps...

this was done in Maya 4.5 btw.

[womanonfire]

thanks, i did try what you suggest just now.
saving as ascii did not have a different result.
what seems to happen is the first time i save the file i can re-open it and everything is fine but if i make changes, save and open again the objects have moved back to origin.

maybe the files get corrupted on save....
maybe it is a bug (i am using Maya 4.0.1 maybe ybe it gets fixed in 4.5)....
maybe i do something wrong....
...dunno

but this is a big problem for me, i have many rooms to finish setting up and now i have to come up with another way of working :insane:

[sp0rk3d]

all you have to do is to KEYFRAME the offset that you want ... so take the groupNode or whatever the highest part of your tabel hierarchy move the table then press "S" to key the position.... the refference file will save this info and apply it every time you open the file......
hope this helps..... :)

[sethmisek]

i was just gonna say key it.
some times when you reopen you might have to move the time for it to update the position.

[womanonfire]

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft~

okay but
i am finding it kinda sad that this feature does not work as it should.

it would be so useful... if only...

:rolleyes:

[ajk48n]

After you bring the referenced object in, try grouping it. Then move the group. The group itself is not a reference so hopefully it should work.

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