Building in SL Help Needed

I -think- I will be a decent builder in SL, I have done work in both Bryce and Poser. But I can't figure out 1 critical thing in SL that maybe is simply so obvious I am missing.

If I put 2 prims together to make a larger shape (say a sphere and a cylinder) how do I then merge/lock/fuse the prims into 1 so I can move them around and manipulate them together?

-- Wolf

In one of the menus, there's a command "Link". Simply select the prims all at the same time (hold down Shift while clicking each prim), and do Link.

Hope it works out.

Keyboard shortcut is Control-L, Control-Shift-L to unlink.

Right now you can link and move prims around together, but to manipulate size, when you change a dimension, it only works on the "parent object" The "parent" being the last item you clicked on prior to linking them together. I do believe I saw script in the scripting library that presents a work-around to this, don't recall what it was titled though.

To clarify, I think Cashmere means if you try to change the dimensions with a script. A size changing script acts on the prim it lives in, so if it's the parent, the parent will change. If it's another prim in the linkset, that prim will change.

However, you can still resize the whole linkset using the building tool. Linksets resize as a whole when you use the building tool. There are ways to resize individual prims in a linkset using the building tool but they sometimes give unpredictable results. It's best to unlink, resize individual prims, then relink.

Only if you drag-scale the linked set.

I believe what Cashmere meant is that you can't type precise dimensions into the text boxes to precision-scale a linked set.

This has always annoyed me to no end, since I try to build with mathematical precision. :-/

*Edit*
Oh, and with a linked set, you can't change a single dimension. You have to scale the entire set up/down in all dimensions. If you try to use the positioning and scaling boxes in the edit dialog, you will only affect the parent prim.

Thats precisely what I was trying to say only my hands got in the way of my brain and it was lost in the translation

Come vist the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives building tutorial in Noyo (180, 180) sometime. Or use the finder to locate it under places. It has information on this subject and much more in its visual exhibits on building and the building interface. Come take a self-paced, self-guided tutorial.

If there's something you want to know about building, and can't find it in the library, I want to know what that thing is!

(the library as I envision it is far from finished, but it does cover all basic information, a lot of intermediate and some advanced topics. In time I'll be covering script building, prim manipulation by scripting, textureing and vehicle building. Not to mention thorough examinations of each prim type's distortion tools...so far I've only done the cube in Module One)

Lumi