"tricking" reference to work like "block instance"?

[Anonymous]

hi, I have an issue with instancing a cluster of geometry

I have a task to design a building, with lots of column on each side of the wall

first I create the basic shape of the column, made of a collection of geometries. I group them all together under 1 transform node and then use "create reference" tool and save them on my desktop under the name "column1".

then I import the reference file into the model back again and duplicate instance across the side of my wall.

however I wanted to add or append more geometry to the column (in this case I want to "append" a big sphere on top of the column)

with each column set as reference file, I was hoping I Could parent my sphere into 1 of my reference file and see the others updated as well. but I couldnt get it to work.

anyone knows how to solve this issue?

thanks

[_sebastian_f · Accepted solution]

hi,

the trick with a reference is to load it and before you instance it to group it again and then instance this group.
maybe even easier because you can keep it in one scene is to create your column, group it, create an asset from it and instance this. if you want to add or remove geometry just parent it to your initial group. only downside after a quick test is that vp2.0 seems to have problems with this (in ogl and dx11 mode) so you maybe see doubled or still selected geometry when it´s not really there. (legacy viewport or "ogs -reset" command seem to fix it)

[Anonymous]

hi, sebastian, thanks for the quick reply. after a couple of tries and followed your suggestion, Im finally able to figure it out with this workflow=

1. basically I create a set of geometries ( consist of few polys and NURBS srf) and then group it under "Master Group", then export them as reference.(but still keep my original geometry on my scene).

2.then I proceed to import my reference file and duplicate their transform node across the scene. (duplicating transform+shape node seems to wreck havoc my hierarchy, I dunno why, instancing a set of object only works if I duplicate the transform node only. I wonder why is that)

3.continue...since I just want to keep it simple,I just work with my original master group (it has no link to the reference file). and once Im done, simply save as and overwrite my referenced file, and voila, the rest of the instances updated (though I still need to click unload then reload, since they dont reload automatically) with this I can append geometry anytime I like.

or do u think this workflow is not efficient enough?

thanks

[_sebastian_f]

whatever works good for you and feels fast enough should be fine! i´m not deep enough into assets to tell you if there are any pitfalls in this workflow but on a first test it seemed quite promising (except the vp2.0 display glitch - which you can work around) and should be more efficient since you have live update and you don´t need to deal with different scenes. not to much time yet but if needed i can prepare some pics tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

yes I think I prefer your solution since I can see the live update of my group, and also the glitch can be fixed with the command ogs-reset as you have said. it works perfect for me, Ill save that command into my custom shelf :)))

since u seem like Maya Master, can I ask extra question? can we delete a history up to selected attribute? ( for example, there are 10 attribute stack (or nodes) on the channelbox and I want to delete history from the 1st to 7th stack and leave the 8th,9th,10th attribute still in tack, is there a tool to do that?

thanks my friend 🙂

[_sebastian_f]

glad it works!

i´ll answer the other question in your thread.