free PrimArray tool - mimics 3DSMax Array

I made a free tool called PrimArray which mimics the Array tool in 3DSMax. It makes copies of objects and increments the position and rotation of each object by an amount specified by the user (in x, y, and z). It also allows you to offset the pivot point from the object's real center point. It makes it easy to do things like create stairways or place a bunch of columns in a circle. (Or weirder things, I haven't messed with it much.)

Let's say you want a spiral stairway and you make a wedge shaped step out of a cut cylinder, .2 meters high and cut from 0 to .05. You'd set the position increment to (0, 0, .2), the rotation increment to (0, 0, 1 and the number of copies to 20. PrimArray would rez 20 copies and arrange each step .2 meters above the last one and rotate each step 18 degrees more than the last, creating a spiral stairway.

Because you drop the block script in the object you want to copy, you can use the tool to arrange any complex objects, not just single prims.

I'm not sure how useful this will be to other people, but I thought I'd share. The Array tool in Max is one of those things I wish was built into SL. You can get a copy of PrimArray at Ohno (91, 78, 96) for L$1, but feel free to give away copies. I'd call this a beta.

Cadroe, you come up with the funnest stuff

There you go again, Cadroe, buildig stuff that should already be in the interface. People like you and Jeffrey make certain departments at LL look sillier every day. You better watch it or they just might have to bomb your house with a RL cage gun or watermellon cannon or something.

Seriously, keep up the good work, and thanks for sharing.

This sounds like another great tool, Cadroe! I am gonna go grab a copy right now. Hmm. it oughta work well with that Gradient on a Prim script by MeLight Korvin...

/15/1d/92561/1.html

I hope you don't mind if I add it to my display of Free tools at the Prim Twisters Workshop. I have some of your other tools available ther. (shapemaker, ringmaker, and tx1). Thanks a lot for sharing your work.

Holy guacamole, is this what I think it is? If it's anything like Jenna for Cinema 4D it's exactly what I've been waiting for.

Here's an idea of the dream feature set, and later I'll go in and check how close the reality is:

'Tween shapes between two like prims. So if one cube is .5m square and another is 10m, you can specify X step between them and you'll get intermediate steps between them. This is basically the Illustrator 'Blend' function in 3D.

Iterate shapes along an axis. Would give you a line of cylinders that create a row of columns, for example, but also would work with linked sets. Also would support incremental rotation, offset and scale along the line of repeated shapes. This is the tool I build with most in 3d modeling (see library of prims, building of a colonnade, for an example of something that could be done much better with this).

Clone shapes across the 'vertices' of another shape, though this won't exactly work with prims.

>>It also allows you to offset the pivot point from the object's real center point. <<

You have to be kidding me! This is someting I missed right off! Now if you could slide the pivot point to the max X or max Y or max Z (or minimum) of a linked set, I'm going to find you, attach my Couples Animator and give you a huge man-hug.

I have writen (i think) a similar tool, i never felt the need to make it user friendly, as all it is, is a rezzer that works of user specified equations.

Thanks, Chosen et al I'd be glad if it's useful to people.

Falcao - I included incremental scale but then removed it because I thought the interface was confusing. I'll add it back in since I know someone will use it. I guess it would be cool if it worked with both meter increments and compounded percentage increments. The rest of what you mentioned sounds right, except for cloning across vertices. We're still in SL

Vlad - Sure, put it anywhere, that'd be cool. I don't really even mind if people sell it, as long as they don't pretend they made it.

Strife - Yeah, for myself I can (and do) just fiddle with code I have. I just got motivated to make something that's less of a pain for myself, that other people could use too.

and thank you cadroe

i was just buildin' somethin' in SL and wishing, geeze, I wish I had somethin' like Max's array tool, cuz this is takin me forever.
awesome!

This tool sounds very usefull, but the tool I realy want is one to mirror a prim or prims.

is this possible with this tool ?

regards Jonathan.

No, but try /54/f4/44183/1.html