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andrewillingworth
06-12-2008, 03:06 PM
I have a model of a building - North is straight up, So I rotate the model to give it its correct orientation for use with sky - which provides highly accurate renders at diffrenet times of the day. Is there any way I can more the orientation of north?

Thanks Guys

Zmurowski
06-12-2008, 03:14 PM
In my experience the z axis always pointed north, the -Z pointed south, X pointed east and -X pointed WEST

Darter
06-12-2008, 03:16 PM
If you're trying to set up lighting for different dates and times of the day, you can use the Sun expression tag. It loads automatically with the Sun object or can be loaded from the OM tags menu.

andrewillingworth
06-12-2008, 03:27 PM
Thanks - I know all that, the point is The model must be orientated in the scene to it real world co-ordinates to ensure accuracy with the time of day. Well I don't want to orientate the building I want to orientate the direction of north (the z axis) - The reason I want to do this is because the when you change the orientation of the building to match its real life co-ordinates changing and working on the model becomes more complicated because the angles all the elements are at. By keeping the model orthographic and moving the orientation of north relative to the model makes working on the model easier. This is a fairly common feature of other 3d modeling and rendering packages....There must be a setting somewhere that sets North as the z axis.

Zmurowski
06-12-2008, 03:39 PM
Well as I said the z axis is north by default. I have a bit of an issue understanding where your problem lies. However if you rotate the sky object around the world center you can set North to wherever you want I suppose.

andrewillingworth
06-12-2008, 03:43 PM
I hate to think you have issues - Its simple really my post I think explains my question, which you have inadvertently answered so it seems. Thanks

georgedrakakis
06-12-2008, 06:13 PM
you can even add an object to act as a compass and with xpresso to relate it's rotation around z axis with the rotation of the sky object.
this way you'll have a visual feedback of the north vector.

andrewillingworth
06-12-2008, 06:28 PM
I just knew it had to be that simple.

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