how do I package phantom sculpties

Hi, I have a problem. I have just started using sculpted stairs in my buildings and I am using a jack in the box system to package it up for selling. I thought I couldn't link my phantom object (stairs) to my house. So I placed the large item script in both front and back stairs. When I rezzed the house from the package, the sculpted stairs rezzed right on top of the packaging box, and not where they were supposed to be. I did this a few times and got the same result. So how do other people box up their sculpted stairs with a house in a package. I know it can be done because other people are doing it. I just can't figure out how to fix this. Thanks in advance for any help I can get.

usually you select everything and choose "take copy", and drop that from your inventory to your box

The problem is not getting copies into the box, the problem is getting the box to rez the house correctly. The house itself rezzes fine, it is just the stairs I am having problems with because they are 1 prim, and I am dropping the script into a single prim ietairs, and not the root prim of the house. In other words, I am treating the stairs as a separate root prim and I don't know if this is correct or not. Are you saying I don't need to have a script that records the position and rotation placed in the stairs?

this is the kind of situation Builder Buddy was made for.
Builder works in two ways.

one is the base and two is the component.
place the component script in the linked sets of the prims of your house then make a another prim and insert the base.
if you find the menu driven version then just click and select record position.
it will record the exact position relative to the base prims location and will allow you to take it into the inventory and then insert inside the base prim.
take a copy of the base prim into your inventory and then re-rez and click aghain and select build.
this will rez your house exactly the way you recorded it.
i have used it several time and find it be quite handy when building.

I've been using Rez-Faux and it works perfectly with phantom prims. The only challenges I've faced have been with physical prims.

Lots of people seem to think they do, but sculpty stairs don't have to be phantom. These are non-phantom single prim. Maybe I should make a freebie package of them?

Those stairs are nice Drongle, but I am using half circle stairs from Rhode Design for the front of the house. Is it possible to build half circle shapes where the bounding box is not so large that it requires a phantom prim?
Anyway, I have used rez-faux for my 1st 3 houses but tried switching to jack in the box for this latest one because there is an inworld vendor system that goes with it. I haven't started selling inworld yet, just have my stuff on slexchange so need to go with a good vending system. The Titan vending system looked pretty good to me. I am hopelessly inept at scripting, I just like building, and did not know if the Titan vendor would be compatible with rez-faux. So I thought I would ask those of you out there who are more ept. I tried emailing Jack Hathor a few times but he has not gotten back to me to answer any of my questions.

It is nice to know that rez-faux works with phantom prims though. I have never had any trouble with rez-faux. But I never used phantom prims before this either. I noticed that there is a vendor system that works with rez-faux for sale on slexchange, maybe I should try that.
I also looked up builders buddy on slwiki and thought I might try that as well to see which one works the best. I really appreciate you guys helping me with my puny problems

Ah, now that's a good question and a nice challenge. I'll have to have a look at them and see if I can work out an answer.

Looked. No. I don't think it could be done. Could make it so the top was the corner of the bounding box, but that would not work well, especially at the top. Have to wait until they let us define the bounding shape (i.e, probably never).

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, yaay. (Light bulb went off in head). With Jack in the box you can't change the order or it corrupts the script. but if you do it exactly the way the instructions tell you to do it without any deviations, it works like a dream. whew (breathes a sigh of relief). Happy happy joy joy. Plus it is much easier to use and less confusing than rez-faux. Not that I didn't like rez faux mind you, but there are a few less steps to go through. I think I'm gonna stick with this. Phantom prims went exactly where they were supposed to. Thanks all for helping.

Well, too bad about the circular stairs. It would have made things easier, but the fun of this is the fact that it is so challenging, which keeps it interesting.

Those stairs look awesome, Drongle! Certainly loads better than the freebie ones I got off SLexchange. I for one would really appreciate it if they came in a freebie package

What was the original rationale behind making sculpty stairs phantom? I keep reading that they need to be phantom and we need to place a transparent (invisible) ramp on top of them for avis to walk on. But you've just said that's not true, and certainly spiral sculpty stairs aren't phantom, or at least, I've never found any that are.

Sculpties have a bounding box that behaves like a block*. It can be stretched in all three dimensions. The visible sculpty is specified by the locations of it's vertices within that box, but for collisions it uses the bounding box. So if stairs are made so that they go from one edge of the bounding box diagonally to the opposite edge, the bounding box has a large volume above and below the steps from which the avatar is excluded. Furthermore, it behaves like a box with the height of the stairs and with vertical sides that you can't climb. So it has to be phantom, and the ramp is needed to climb it.

To avoid this, my stairs (and others'), are fitted into the bounding box differently. Think of a thin sloped ramp and stretch it out just thick enough to accomodate the depth of the steps ... and that's the bounding box. So it is already a ramp that you can climb. The protruding edges of the stairs are on the face of the bounding box.

It does still have some minor disadvantages compared to stairs made of unsculpted prims:

(a) It has only one surface texture. So the edges of the steps have to share a texture, or you have to use a huge unrepeated texture that appears at low resolution. (There are pssoble solutions.)
(b) Since it behaves as a slope, you don't get collision sounds from each step, and ...
(c) For the same reason, you are not standing on the steps, but on the sloping bounding box and from some angles, you can see the gap.

*Actually, it's a bit more complicated. The bounding box is a box, but I think the physical presence is that of a sphere.

Well, that surprises me. I have not found a way to make spiral stairs that don't have to be phantom. Anyone?

prim parameters;
physical, phantom, temp, flex
count for the whole linkset.

when linking the setting of the last klicked, new root prim, is used for all.
exception: you can link a flex to a physical and the flex will stay flex.

Thanks for the reply, Drongle, that helped me understand sculpties lots more



Um, I suppose I could be wrong and they weren't sculptie at all. They're 1 prim so I might have *assumed* they were sculptie...