unlinking and relinking prim clothing

Hi all,
Got a little question for y'all
Had a look around; didn't find the answer so here I am...

I bought some prim clothing. It's made up of several linked parts.
Some of the parts have prims on them I wanted to take off.

So I rezzed the collar (which attaches to the chest), unlinked it, deleted some bits, linked it back together again, took it back into my inventory, wore it... fine! Still has the same name, attaches to the neck as it did before.

Next I rezzed the belt (which attaches to the stomach), unlinked it, deleted some bits, linked it back together again, took it back into my inventory... not fine. It has been renamed "object" and has been put back into the objects folder. Now it attaches to my right hand.

I've noticed this happening when I'm building my own bits and pieces too. I've not figured out why sometimes a group of prims will come back with the same name, in the same folder, attaching in the same way to the same place... and other times they will not.

Has anyone figured this out?

Cheers!
LM

One thing you've got to be careful about with stuff like that, is that you keep the same root prim (the one you select last) when you link it back together again. Change which prim is the root, and a lot of the magic (contents that need to be in the root prim, remembered settings, name, possibly the intended creator etc.) will break.

Yep, the root prim is the last one you select, which will be highlighted in YELLOW. Typically root prims should not be rotated at weird angles either. For example, on most skirts, the root prim is a ball at the center, same for hair and necklaces and objects with a lot of prims arranged at angles.

It drives me nuts when creators make the root prim on furniture something other than the base, such as an armrest.. arghhhhhhhhhhh. LOL

you can also choose edit linked prims, then select the ones you want to delete (if multiple hold down shift while selecting each one) then press ctrl shift L

this will unlink those ones from the set

then deselect the whole thing, and select the main parts again (after making sure select linked parts is no longer selected)

and it should all be fine (as long as you do not remove the root (main prim, highlighted in yellow) prim)

So let me understand this 100%... does that mean if the belt had, for example a holster on it, and the holster was the root prim, that if I delete the holster then no matter what I do, when i take the belt back, it will lose its properties?

Yeah, if you delete the root prim, then you'll effectively be linking a brand new object from the remaining prims. The holster by itself will carry the original name etc.

this is correct

root (main) prim holds a lot of info, including the placement when attached

Mostly, yes. The root prim was holding the attach point, so you have to establish a new one. Also, if the item has a script that you do not noitice is *only* in that root prim and you want/need the script in the final object, you can have problems if you did not notice that before deleting that piece. The root prim was also giving it the name, so you have to put the name you want in the piece that will be your new root prim.

The confusing part is that while selecting all of the individual pieces, the 'name' in the object edit window will stay at whatever the first piece selected was *until* you actually link it or take as a cluster into inventory - at that point the object takes the name and such of the last piece selected.

Rule number one - any adjustments to prims, especially major ones, be sure you take a backup copy.

I did not know that you could delete individual prims via 'edit linked parts' without unlinking everything -- this is very, very good to know.

It is, however, fairly unlikely that the root prim of a well-designed prim attachment will ba any part you are at all likely to delete. More often than not, it's an invisible part that is kept at neutral orientation, to make attaching it go much easier.

yep very handy, just make sure you deselect then reselect after you unlink so you do not delete the whole thing by accident
(in some cases after you unlink the pieces, it reselects the whole thing

deleted many a thing by forgetting to unselect after unlinking

Since I don't create, the only time I do things like this is to modify an object someone else created and I always take a copy before doing that. Thanks for this info though - it will really make life easier when dealing with a large number of prims in a linkset.

Only with sensible builders. I've had items where the root prim is a strangely rotated prim nowhere near the geometric centre of the object, making adjustments a nightmare. Not to mention other pieces of genius, like fully transparent, minimum-sized prims that seem to be there purely to stop me scaling something down to fit.

edit: Just noticed you specified "well-designed". I'll get me coat.

This method worked. I want to let you know, though, that I wasn't removing the root prim in the method I posted at the top - I removed the exact same prims here.

As I said I have seen this happen in other circumstances.
Something else is going on...

oh and also... this will not work if the item is attached (the edit linked prims and unlink) as it will not let you unlink anything that is attached

one thing I do though, is wear it, edit linked parts, move the ones I want to remove off to the side, so when I rez it on the ground there is no guesswork which ones I need to remove as they are already pulled away from the mainset

you were not removing the root prim, but when you relinked the item, did you select the same prim for the root as was the originally selected root prim?

Aha you caught me...
I dont know lol

I didn't know I could change the root prim and I dont know how either
Thanks for you tips !!

if you unlink a set of prims, and then relink, but select a different prim as the last selected prim, THAT one becomes the root (or parent) prim...

as long as you select the one that was already the root prim (highlighted in yellow when all prims are linked, has the name of the item in it etc) then you will still have the same root prim

rez some cubes and give it a try

Uncheck linked parts. Shift deselect the (still linked) part you want to keep. Press DEL.
On unlink of a single prim, no need to uncheck linked parts, it unchecks itself.

On unlink of a lot of parts to move/delete, not deselecting them can save ages

what I usually do is work on a locked prim... away from other stuff

then when I do the deselect I take back the still linked parts I wanted to keep
then drag and select the left overs and delete with one go

no time wasted for me LOL

If I were to try to do it the way you described I would be clicking the wrong pieces and messing things up hehe

just goes to show that there are as many ways to do things as there are people to do them

I'm always glad to be of superfluous service, playing the obnoxious knowitall

There are many ways leading to Rome.

I'll just drop in here with a little diplomatic comment, saying thanks to you both for your comments... and depending on the particular task at hand, all useful tips!! Cheers folks

If you have any clothes that are scripted to move or turn invisible and such you will also have to pay attention to the order in which your prims are linked. Every prim has a link number and scripts can change the attributes of each prim according to their link number. Just throwin' that out as a little FYI. Probably best to not modify those types of clothes at all.

oh gosh I am sorry I did not mean it that way

I could have taken your comments the same way, in saying that the way I do it is wrong, but I did not even think you meant it that way

I was simply explaining why I do it the way I do

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