Another minor problem, aligning misaligned furniture

I have several pieces of furniture that, unlike almost all the rest of my items, do not orient at all to the 0,0,0 settings. I don't mind if something is upside down or at a 90 degree angle, but these pieces take really odd sets with the surroundings, so that you have to play with the rotation bars until they look right. Is there something that aligns these with the normal grid? I've tried most of the choices, but I must be missing something. I realize that the SL grid has no way to know what is 'normal' for these misbegotten pieces of furniture. But if I have them oriented dead on North and up and down, what do I click to make this the normal alignment?

And why do people not notice this when they sell the stuff? I sent comments to the creators and got no reply.

I hate badly aligned things!!! And omg- places - when u try to hang a picture and the wall is skewed! ARgh- yes u can tweak it an play with it til u get it but damn what a pain!

I'll be watching this thread with interest, since I have a few pieces like this as well. I just cannot figure out why the creator does it, unless it just has something to do with the construction method.

It's usually to do with the item's orientation when the creator takes it into inventory. Your best bet, to zero everything down, is to edit the item, then in the 'object' tab, set all the rotations manually (input the numbers) as zero. Or, if they're something like 6, 91 and 1, then set them to 0, 90 and 0. Round up or down to the nearest 90°, unless the object clearly is intended to be at another angle and is only slightly skewed off that angle.

Alternately, you can check the 'use grid' radio button, and drag the rotation circle around - pulling the mouse 'out' and away from the circle as you rotate the object* - (this is hard to describe, but easy when you know how). You'll know you've got it right when you see a circular grid with compass points surrounding the object. Once you have that, you can keep rotating and the item will snap to the next point as you go around. Easier to align East/West etc that way.

* Further explanation. Try moving the item from left to right using the grab-arrows, but while you move the mouse from left to right, also pull it towards you a little bit. You should see the grid appear that way, and the object will snap to each point as you move it along. The same principle applies when working with rotations.

(Apologies if you already know this method. It might prove useful to others that don't know it, though.)

Yeah. My first four places, before I knew how to align the rez boxes, were done by sight and just enough off that every picture and tapestry had to be adjusted. When I did learn, I couldn't figure out how to get back the wasted hour or so I used up (mis)aligning the pictures...

And the very first place - the builder actually spent almost 30 minutes helping me squeeze his build into a 512, but damn was I clueless. Now I guess I would take it apart and use what I wanted or could. Now if I can just get this question answered, I can take the nOOb sign down from the doorway.

I think you are describing the normal aligning methods. What I am talking about is, in one example, where 0,0,0 gives you a throne pointing nose angled down into the ground and at an odd angle n-s-e-w. It is actually off in all three planes. So now I have it close to where it should be if 0,0,0, but it says something like (making this up, since I am off grid) 18,117,47. What I need is a way to make it now 0,0,0 so if I take it back into inventory and use it later, it will come out so that it can be easily aligned using the methods you are discussing.

Are you guys talking about a furniture item that is not set to exact n,s,e or w? I sell things all the time that are not in my stores...i set them out in displays as i like them and assume someone can position them as they like in their home. Am i missing the point?

Ooh, I hate this! This doesn't affect just furniture, but some prim clothing pieces too! It's really hard to adjust/align them because of the rotations.

So, how to fix this? If it's not a scripted item and you have mod rights, you might want to look for a prim that is center of mass or at the base that's rotation is 0,0,0. Unlink it and then relink the object to that prim. It will help keep the look of the piece and remove the headache of placing it. If it's scripted or no mod/no trans, you might want to contact the creator and see if they're willing to add a root prim.

I learned that lesson the hard way. I really -hate- working with some of my older dresses because of this.

Yep. Newbs don't normally know how to edit things into position.

More importantly, I have a sofa that is weirdly aligned. If I set all rotation points to 0, the sofa ends up upside down and cock-eyed. It's ultimate rotation points are like 42.87, 149.26, etc., and when I rez it, it's not straight at all.

I know how to rotate it back into position, but really, why should I have to? And how does a poor newb know what to do with it. Seems like the creator could take care to make sure his product at least sits level on the floor.

No, again, I am used to putting in 0,0,0 and working from there. Usually this will give you something that only has to be rotated in one plane to give you an aligned item. Sometimes it is upside down or perpendicular, which means you put a 90 degree or 180 degree in the appropriate box and then rotate it n-s-e-w to get it right.

These are the ones that simply are screwy, come out wrong in all three planes (often from a box) and then have to be cajoled into an appropriate alignment in all three planes to look half decent. I also have noted that shifting them in one plane sometimes does odd things in the other two, but that may be something else entirely.

ok but it makes no sense to me that you would make something and align it to a certain rotation since i would hazard a guess that most locations where someone is going to place something will not be aligned the same anyway. or i might want my chair in a certain spot in my home turned at a certain angle. there is no way as a furniture maker that i can align my items to fit everyone's needs for placing the item. Also, many sim builds are not set to the exact coordinates either.

That's true in the n-w-s-e coordinates, but how many times do you have a chair pointed down at an 18 degree angle? Most houses are oriented flat. Most people learn to make them aligned flat in the n-s-w-e planes as well because unless you have an overriding reason to do otherwise, pictures and tapestries among other items align flat when you put them on a wall, or only require a 90-180-270 adjustment to make them flat. Otherwise you do through the minor adjustment process for a minute or so on every picture.

The real problem is, when you get to why it is such a problem, is that the rotation bars that you work with are aligned with the furniture's orientation. So if you have a normal piece of furniture, to get the four feet flat means working with one rotation bar. With the misaligned item, the rotation bar works at angles to the normal orientations, so moving one bar gets it more aligned, but also effects the items apparent orientation to the other planes. I think you have to see it to see how awkward it is to work with. Imagine the three bar orientation sphere with the three circles at flat normal, but with a chair hanging at in a crazy position inside, not square to any of the circles. Then imagine what happens when you rotate any one circle. It does not square the item to any plane - it simply moves it closer and then you work on another adjustment circle.

If I'm not mistaken, the problem is because the root prim of the object isn't aligned at a 90 degree multiple with the rest of the object. It's bad design unless it is absolutely necessary.

If you can mod the furniture, unlink it, relink and set the root prim to something that you CAN orient to the cardinal points.

if you can mod it and can unlink and link again you could just throw a new primary in there like a little cube or sphere.make sure the furniture is where you want it then unlink add a small sphere or cube and make sure it is centerd and the axis are inline with the grid and relink everything making the new primary last in the link...

A possible problem with adding an aligned prim as the root, or reordering the existing prims so that a different one becomes the root prim, is that the original root prim may need to be the root for the piece to function as it does. I'm thinking of it having anims in it and being able click anywhere on the piece to get the menu. Adding a new root prim will mean that the old root prim itself will be the only prim that's clickable. If every prim has a touch passer and the anim script recognises the touch messages, it would be ok.

A problem with realigning the existing root is that, if it contains animations and positions for them, they will all need to be repositioned.

I can see how this can happen. Especially with sculpted or tortured prim furniture. I sell a few things that use only one normal prim(nifty shadow) and the rest tortured or sculpted. This leaves no prims pointing at N S E or West, not even the shadow prim.

My solution has been to both;down vector(to allign the shadow with the ground) and in some cases point in a certain direction, on rez.