Object knowing which way is forward

This is probably a basic question but I'm fairly new to scripting so please bear with me.

I'm trying to build a cabinet with drawers that open and close when touched. I used llSetPos to move it along the X axis and it works perfectly ... until I turn the cabinet to face another direction. Then they go shooting through the sides or back.

How do I get the drawers to know which way is "forward" and move in that direction no matter how the cabinet is oriented?

you basically need to take into account the rotation of the root prim. To do so multiply by the root prim rotation.

The function to use is llGetRootRotation().

Search these forums for posts containing the words rotation and quaternion. Basically, yu either have to convert from local rotation to world rotation, or you have to use rotations relative to the root prim.

I'd kind of figured that was the right direction to go in, but I don't know how to actually write the code. But at least now I have it confirmed that I'm looking in the right place.

Here's the code. You'll need to wrap some more code around it to make it work, such as creating a touch event, managing the open/close state, declaring the necessary variables and so forth.

The variable pivot takes the values +1 or -1, and controls the direction of swing (clockwise/counterclockwise)

 integer open()
{
    rotation rot = llGetRot();
    rotation delta = llEuler2Rot(<0,0,PI/4*pivot>);
    rot = delta * rot;
    llSetRot(rot);
    llSleep(0.25);
    return TRUE;
}
integer close()
{
    rotation rot = llGetRot();
    rotation delta = ZERO_ROTATION;
    delta = llEuler2Rot(<0,0,PI/4*pivot*-1>);
    rot = delta * rot;
    llSetRot(rot);
    llSleep(0.25);
    return FALSE;
} 

Thanks! The touch event and sequence of states etc., I already have done. This is the part that was not working. I'll try incorporating this.

That script is for a rotating object. It only changes your rotation, not your drawer position. I would not think that you want to change the drawer's rotation.

I do not have access to my code but from memory you need a move vector that gives the distance you want to move when your object has zero rotation (when all the rotation boxes in your edit box are zero), then you multiply that vector by llGetRot () and add that to llGetPos ().

Something like:

vector moveVector = <1,0,0>;  // adjust this for movement when the drawer has 0 rot
llSetPos (llGetPos () + moveVector * llGetRot ();

Not tested, and someone might like to show how to alter this to move a linked drawer.

the script I gave is from a working door script. I should have mentioned however that it needs to go into a hing prim to which a door is attached, or you could get by with a single prim if you cut the door to half its size so the pivot point is down the center.

Oh, no. This is a drawer that needs to slide in and out, not a hinged door. I'll keep the code for future reference, though.

edd44. that got me where I needed to be. Thanks.