You cannot UNLINK one item from a group can you?

Just checking, as this is a pain in the butt

Say you have 50 items all linked together (I just plucked that figure out of the air) and you wish to edit just 1 of them a tiny bit.

There is no way of breaking this 1 item away from the group, leaving the other 49 still grouped is there, so you can edit it, and re-link it back to the group?

As far as I know you have to blow the whole 50 items apart, edit the one object and then go around selecting the whole 50 again from scratch.

Am I right, or am I missing a trick?

Thanks

You can. Go into "Edit Linked Parts", select the prim you want to unlink, and then unlink as usual. (CMD-Shift-L ... I'm on a Mac... I assume on PC, CTRL-Shift-L?)

Fantastic

I've had the problem in the past of blowing into pieces linked groups just to get at the one I want.

Thanks, will try that later......

Just remember that when you link it back together, the part that contains the root prim should be selected last. In most cases, that means selecting the original linkset last, then linking things back together. The exception is when the one prim you unlinked WAS the original root prim. Then you select it last prior to relinking.

The only time the unlinking and relinking of individual prims will cause problems is when a complex script uses link order to store data in the linkset's prims. Most linksets that you would be editing pieces of do NOT do things like that.

Would using edit linked parts to edit it without unlinking it be a possible option?

Usually I just edit linked parts. Occasionally I unlink and move prims away from the linkset just to edit them if I want to do a few different operations and want NO risk of my forgetting to recheck the edit linked parts box at some stage.

You can unlink sets of prims from a linkset all at once by shift-selecting a group and then unlinking.

Remember, if you unlink a root prim, the entire thing will unlink. So, if you need to edit a root, first unlink some innocuous prim on the edge, then relink to make IT the root prim (select it last).
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You do know, that you can move a linked part away from its position, edit it, then with CTRL-Z let it snap back where it belongs, do you ?

I think this CTRL-Z trick survives as long as you are not logging off. So you could release the whole object, then later get back, select the linked part, press CTRL-Z and it still knows where it shall go ... This is a very handy feature, but beware... When you find yourself starting to pull out your hair, because it does not work as you where used to, then its time to close your local chat line. Then CTRL-Z is again working on the linked part instead of getting sucked up fr0m the chat box.

happy building

There are some cases where that won't work. You try to re-size the selected single prim, and it snaps back to the size it was. If that happens, unlinking it is the only alternative.

You must be very careful doing this.

If it is the Root prim you want to edit and move then you 'MUST' unlink it. If you try editing the root prim and move it then using edit-undo to re-position it, the root prim will go back to its original place but the linkset will move the exact distance to which you originally moved the root prim.

You can resize the root prim as part of the linkset but you cannot move it using 'edit linked parts'.

Using edit redo in most cases remembers everything even after logging off but this cannot always be gauranteed.

Thank you for this hint. I was not aware of this aehm ...feature ...

I just have verified that indeed you can undo a resize and a rotation of the root prim, but as you say, undo a move of the root prim lets all children jump away from their positions.

I have the impression that this is more a bug than a feature though.

That's odd; I often remove just the root prim of a link set, and the second prim becomes the new root. Did you maybe learn this bit more than a year or two ago?

Maybe there's a problem if you unlink a set of prims including the root prim. I suspect I've done this without problem, but maybe I've never done it at all.

Excellent tip, and also note that each object AND prim keeps its own "undo" history, so you can do stuff to different objects or prims individually and then undo them individually. However, you can totally muff things up if you try to get too clever with this, especially if you don't have just the right prims selected when you use undo! Also, some times it seems to just do the wrong thing, which might be operator error on my part, or could be an SL bug. But I've managed to do some adjustments that otherwise would have been very difficult, especially when making high-prim-count jewelry or cases where it's very difficult to select just the prim you need to move. So, I can move some prims out of the way, adjust the ornery prim, and then undo the changes to the ones I moved out of the way.

IMPORTANT: take a copy to save your work before doing this!

I'll have to retest, but I'm pretty darn sure this isn't true for me. I edit linked parts very frequently, including the root prim, and I believe I would have noticed this. However, UNDO may work oddly for the root prim, as you mentioned. I'll have to double check that.

[edit -- I see now that Gaia has already confirmed the UNDO bug, and thanks! This may account for my statement above that sometimes undo goes all wrong, and if so will be a big help in the future!]

A couple more tips.

If an avatar is sitting on a prim being moved using 'edit linked parts'

- The avatar won't move.
- If the av stands and sits again, the sit target will have moved with a prim.

So for example, when adjusting poseball sets, note which one is the root, unlink them, sit and adust, and then relink, selecting the root prim last.


To change the root prim in a link set:

- unlink he desired root prim, using edit linked parts
- select the link set
- shift-click on the desired prim (adding it to the selection)
- link

To link a big set together where it's hard to select all but the root prim:

- select all the prims
- unselect (shift-click on) the desired root prim
- reselect (shift-click on) the desired root prim.
- link

Hmmm I'm sure I learned this in late 06, when I learned the little I know about building. I'll try it again, thanks!
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That's when I joined, and it was a while before I was building enough to have noticed this kind of subtlety. /me salutes your seniority.

Lear

if you sit an Avatar on a prim and you have edit linked parts checked and you move the prim, select edit undo so the prim goes back to its original position your Av will move the opposite direction the same distance you moved the prim.

If you move the prim and edit linked parts is not selected then your Av will move with it and back with it when selecting undo.

This is exactly the same as moving a root prim using edit linked parts and using the edit undo feature.

Is this a bug or not I just cannot remember what use to happen but I know its been this way for a long time.