Having trouble builing and linking

Hi I'm rather new to SL and to the scripting and building side of SL as well. I've learned how to make a door that opens and closes properly but now that I have tried to link the door to the walls the door will not open.

I'm not so good with the whole scripting process, but I checked to make sure nothing was wrong with that and it still works when it's not linked to the walls. The trouble is when I link them all together the door kinda makes this motion to move but doesn't open. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here. I searched how to do this on the internet but could not find any answers. (Then again I might not know the right terms to search under )

I'm looking to try and build a small house as my first project but I can't figure out how to make the door work and be linked to the walls so that the house, when finished, is complete. I greatly appreciate any help that can be given.

Usually, doors are not linked to walls. What you're witnessing is normal behavior.

Also, just so you know, very few whole builds will ever be just one linkset. There is a distance limit on how big a linkset can be (directly related to the size of the prims involved), and no single linkset can have more than 256 prims in it.

If you want to be able to take the whole house into inventory as a single unit, you can, whether it's all linked or not. Select all the pieces, either by shift-clicking each one, or by dragging a selection box around the whole thing. Then right-click, and select either Take or Take Copy from the pie menu. The whole thing will end up in your inventory as one entry, and you'll see that the icon next to it is a small pile of boxes instead of a single box. The pile of boxes denotes that the item has multiple parts to it.

By the way, when you drag a multi-part item from inventory to the ground to rez it, make sure you've already got your editor window open before you do it. That way, all the parts will automatically be selected as soon as they appear, and you can then move them all at once. Otherwise, you'll have to go through and select them all manually, which can be a pain.


Another option for taking multi-part builds is to use a scripted packaging system. I use one called Rez-Foo. There are several others.

Thanks, I tried this out and figured it out! I was somewhat under the impression that the house had to be linked all together, but now I see how this works and I'm excited to get building.

Also thanks for the tip on rezzing the house, I wouldn't want to have to move each piece individually. The question I have is what about when I decide to go and sell a house or something, how will that affect the person who bought it? When they place the house and have this trouble of having to move each item? I wouldn't wish that on anyone, I can see how it would be a pain to deal with.

What is Rez Foo exactly? What does it do? I'm wondering about your opinion on it and how you have liked/hated using it. It sounds interesting, I'll try and find it and check it out.

Thanks again

I have a large house built 105 prims, usually a house of this size is nearer 200 prims, but i have spent a year working mainly with prims, exploring and understanding cuts of prims, how to make 1 prim do the work of two etc. My house is fully linked, with doors, windows that open and tint and also with TP systems. It can be done, it just takes time to learn the possibilities. For a door that can work attached to the rest of the build search for the Timeless Door in the Script tips or library forum. It takes a little time to understand it fully but once you have, it's very useful to have.

One tip with the timeless door, never put the script in the door or attach it until your absolutely sure the rest of the build is finished, if you have to unlink for any reason you have to start all over again.

Two tip, if you have a linked object like a door or window that opens and all of a sudden it acts strange and starts opening at the wrong angle or in a different direction, check the root prim, if your root prim has the axes going in the wrong direction, this will be the cause of it.

Sorry should be in bed, tired and in the morning that will probably not make sense to me either

Welcome aboard

http://www.secondscripter.com

not entirely correct - only multi-prim doors that rely on hinges are not linked to a wall or floor or whatever.. any regular single or double door can easily be linked into a build using a very reliable and common free door script, to make sure it stays with the build.

Selling a build where the doors do not move along with the structure after its rezzed is a hack job.

That would be why I said "usually" instead of "always".


I couldn't disagree more, for many reasons. Here are a few:

First of all, tons and tons and tons of buildings are made of multiple linksets. Unless you're making just small stuff, that's the only option. Doors are just one component among dozens in any decently sized building. Surely, if the whole thing can be in multiple sections, there's no reason the doors shouldn't each be their own section as well.

Unless you're using a scripted packaging product like Rez-Foo, or wasting resources with lots of follow scripts, components will never move together anyway. So why should doors be any different? Obviously, not everyone uses such scripted systems, and that doesn't mean they're "hacks" as builders.

Personally, I think the use of a good packaging system is very worthwhile for any build, but only when you've got the time to set it up properly. The vast majority of my projects don't include extra hours in the budget. It certainly doesn't mean my work is a "hack job" every time a client doesn't want to pay for the additional time it would take to package up their whole build.

For off-the-shelf prefabs, it might be a different story. But for custom work, which is 99% of what I do, the client gets whatever they're willing to pay for. If they want their stuff all packaged, it's their dime. But if they don't, it's no skin off my nose. Either way, they're still getting a top quality build, never a "hack job".

Second, the purpose of linking is NOT to make it easier to move things around. It's to keep things organized. When I create a building, I'll link it into sections in accordance with what's most practical for organizational/structural purposes. For example, the front facade might be one linkset, the roof might be another, each floor might be its own set, etc.

It almost never happens that I'll seek to make the entire structure one set. Beside the fact that most of my projects are just too big for that, there are a number of reasons why it would be impractical. What if I want to change the carpeting on the second floor, and only second floor, for example? It's a lot faster and easier to do that if the floor is its own linkset than if it's linked to the rest of the structure.

Again, doors are just a component like any other. If an entire building doesn't need to be all one linkset, the doors that go with it don't need to be linked to the whole either.

Third, if realism is the goal, then multi-prim doors are a must. To me, what WOULD be a "hack job" would be a door that doesn't have a knob on it, or a push-bar, or handles, or whatever other hardware its RL counterpart would have. Wither very, very few exceptions, there's no such thing as a one-piece door in RL.

If a door actually has all its parts represented, it has to be a separate linkset from the rest of the building, if it's to function properly. Otherwise, the parts won't all rotate correctly together.

If you really think it's important, you could certainly script the door to follow the structure, but in my opinion, that's really a waste of resources. There's simply no need for it. Rez-Foo and the like are slightly better, in that the scripts will self-delete on command, after the building is put in place. But still, they're not strictly necessary. They're just a convenience.

Selecting all the parts of a build before moving it is a very simple task, and is extremely common practice. It's absolutely to be expected.

Chosen I cannot disagree with anything you say regarding doors. But I quickly came to the conclusions that single prim doors linked to the building was the way to go only because my experience was that 99% of the people who buy houses have no idea how to re-align once a door shifts out of place, or when rezzed most don't understand the concept of having the edit window open to position the whole build into place in one go, and in my experience most of the people who do have the knowledge how to do this, don't often have buildings with doors or even have a home base at all.

When I first started SL most IMs to me were, 'help my door isn't where it should be', however, I don't get that request to help so much these days.

Many people who buy houses (or Doors) do not know where the object tab in the edit window is...



I make and sell a few doors so I know that simple is best - sure, I like the hinged 8 Prim single panel oak door that someone showed me with the cute gold 2 prim door knob and whatever- but selling something that has an invisible part that needs to be edited is asking for a Customer Support Nightmare.

I set my doors up in a way that makes it easiest to set up, move and resize, but it still requires some intermediate basic skills and the willingness to read the instructions.. Hence.. until they give us sub-linking, we will need to deal with the lesser of the evils, and honestly, very few people are impressed by a Door enough to sit there and say .. wow .. this is a cool door, let me admire it for a while. As long as it looks good (has a handle in the pic) and opens when you click it and it does not delay your travels with a menu exploding in your face that will not go away until you stop and interact with it, - most people will have more than they need.


BTW My first house had doors that stayed when I moved the house and I couldn't figure out how to put them back so I deleted them. This was 6 months ago haha

It sounds to me as if there are two conversations going on here. I hear and understand the concerns about simplicity. If you are building a house that will be marketed "off the shelf" to a buyer who will need to install it him/herself, you could be asking for a barrage of service calls if your doors are complicated. I'd probably opt for a one-prim, open-and-shut door myself, if that were my situation. On the other hand, if you are in the custom building business or are building for yourself, it makes sense to opt for a door that has more pizzaz. Personally, I find doors with painted doorknobs and panels MUCH less interesting than multi-prim doors. Generally, except when prim count gets tight, I save simple one-prim doors for less-traveled areas and for storage sheds and outhouses. But then, when I build, I put a structure in place myself and it stays there.

An easy way to move a big build (or any build) is to link it in sections, then use the Builder's Buddy (Free script, and nearly free system. You can get it bundled up on SLEX for 1L$)

Works pretty much like the more expensive rezz systems.

I was just playing with some of the new mega prims and built a 20x20 sky box with a 20x10 walled front yard. Locking double doors and privacy windows as well. It comes in at 12 prims total. The whole thing is linked as one piece.