Object Layers in Layout: Newbie question

[tshillig]

I've been tinkering around with LW for a bit, and Layout has been frustrating me immensely. Is there a way to just load an entire object into Layout and ignore the layers so I can edit the entire object? I hate parenting all the layers for 15 different multilayer objects. I would just copy all the object's layers in modeler into a single layer, but then I can't edit the model very well anymore. Is there a "Edit Object as a Whole" button :) Any suggestions?

Thank you for the help,
Tyler Shillig

[Macet01]

tshillig,

I am not sure what you are referring to as "editing" an object in layout. If you are talking about animating a multilayer object or using surface editor then that will be the direction I am coming from in my answer. Open your object in Modeler and open the Layer browser (Ctrl+F5). Double click on one of the layers, give it a name if you haven't done that already. Below where you enter the name you will see the button labeled Parent with none as its selection. Click on the drop down and chose the layer you want to parent the current selection to. Rinse, lather and repeat until you have completed all of the layers until you feel that you have the arrangement that you are looking for. Now save the object and send it to Layout. You should find that the all of the layers behave as if you modeled them all in one layer. You will not be able to move each individual layer independently under this arrangement, unless you are utilizing bones, but that is another tutorial for another time.

Hope this helps you.

[tshillig]

Thank you Macet,
This solution worked superbly. I was modeling a bouquet of flowers, and I hated having to parent the leaves/petals/stem for every flower in order to rotate the entire thing. It definitely helped a lot.

Thanks again,
Tyler

[txbob]

once you get the hang of modeling, you'll discover that it's really easy to disect a model that's saved out in a single layer... Selecting by surface.... Select connected... The "W" key gives you plenty of ways to select stuff based on various criteria... Look in the manual under Statistics panel.

I wouldn't dream of making a bouquet in 15 layers either...