Add object to group using the scene explorer?

[markus]

Hi,

There is a thing with groups that has been bugging me for a really long time, and I think it is time to bring it up and get some answers. Hopefully, someone here will know if there is a solution already:

I would like to know how/if it is possible to add an object to a group using the scene explorer. Afaik I can only attach an object to a group by using the menu -> attach -> clicking the pink group gizmo in the viewport. Sometimes it can be difficult to pick exactly the right object/group in the viewport, especially when you have many nested groups. If I try to click in the scene explorer instead on the exact group I want, that doesn't work.

In the scene explorer, there is a function to "add selection to -> new parent (pick)". This way you can link the object to the group, but it is not actually grouped (because if you close the group, the linked object is still selected separately from the group, and the pink gizmo is not updating to show that the linked object is contained inside the group). There is afaik no way to see in the scene explorer if an object is grouped or just linked, which is a weakness in my opinion.

So if anyone can tell me if there is a better method, and more specifically if you can do it in the scene explorer, that would be nice. If not I think this is something I will add to the feature requests.

[leeminardi]

Not sure if the following yields something you can use.

After creating the group go to the Scene Explorer and select the instances of the objects in the group (but not the group name itself).  Hold down the Ctrl key and select the objects you want to add to the group. Then use Group.  You will now have a group that consists of a group and other objects.  Selecting any object of the "super" group will select all the grouped objects.

[markus]

@leeminardi When I try your suggestion (select the children of the group, but not the group itself, then ctrl-click the new object I want to add. Now group is greyed out, so what you suggest is not possible.

If I close the first group, then yes, I can select the group or any of the group children, and then select the new object and create a new "supergroup". That's not what I want. I want to add the object to the current group, but I would like a way to do so in the scene explorer so I have better control over what I select.

[markus]

Just to be more precise, when I wrote "add object to group", I meant attaching it to an existing group in the scene. 🙂