noobish question

I have just started to build, and try my hand at making my own furniture.. however i have run into a problem, i create..lets say.. a couch.
now when i make it, it all sits really well, then i walk around it, and realise all my different building blocks..prims.. are out, so i readjust, walk around it again some more and find they are out by a few mm/cm in another area.

is there something i am missing, is there a certain camera angle to be in, so that when i line my pieces up, that they are all aligned.

i do hope this made some sense....

IM me this evening and I'll take a look for you, but it sounds like you may need to adjust some sizes on your prims.

A

The first thing is - never build purely by eye! No matter how good you are there will always imperfections.

Use regular sized prims
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Your prims will ideally be simple proportions - 10 x 4 is a lot easier to work with than 9.476 x 3.723. You may wish to be more precise but unless you are building tiny things like jewellery (correct English spelling) you probably won't need precision greater than .5 or .25.

Use the grid
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The world of Second Life is all drawn on a grid. When you click on a movement arrow - initially the prim it moves freely, but if you pull your selection away at right angles you will see it suddenly 'click' to the grid positions... hard to describe so have a play. You can set the grid spacing and visibility at whatever you like (not sure exactly where in the menu) - while you are practicing I suggest you set it at .5 divisions then if you keep all your prims to multiples of .5 (.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 etc) they will always lock to the grid and will be easy to make perfectly adjacent.

Use the numbers
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Keep a check on the coordinates - start with your first block on an exact coordinate (eg. 110, 156, 27 NOT 109.372, 156.008, 27.302) then each one, using the grid, will click into place next to the other. Be aware of the coordinates at all times - unfortunately, even when keeping to the grid, they DO wander - you'll find a coordinate is 300.002 instead of 300 for no good reason - in this case just delete the incorrect fractional part.

I could go on but already this is a lot to take in. Rez some prims with nice simple sizes and practice placing them next to each other using the grid - it really is the bedrock of any building you will do in SL and time well spent!

And then there's rotation and texturing and... another time

May the grid be with you

Cat

oh thanks I will send you an IM in about 7/8 hours, so may end up being an offline, its close to midnight here, and just about to go to bed.

edited to add, Thankyou for that help Cat, I didnt even think about doing it in grid, and using the co-ords.. I will definitely be giving this a try in the morning

Yeah ... what Cat said ... the grid is your friend. After that, just keep an eye on your numbers. Try to build in whole numbers, or at least 1/10 fractionals, so they are easier to keep up with.

Also, swing by Crystal Gadgets and pick up the free Builder's Skybox. Drop the object on the ground, select your desired altitude, and then rez either the floor or the entire skybox. You'll get a nice grid platform to work on. (I typically only rez the floor). It has the added benefit of getting you above the crowd if you are building in a sandbox. While everyone else is building in the sand, you can build at 700 meters, nice and private and away from the chatter.

Finally, you can pick up something like Prim Docker. Pop a script in each of your prims. Then you can use the HUD to align and dock your prims on whatever axis and side you need. Then click one button to strip all the scripts from your prims, pack it up, and you're ready to distribute.