Hot key for placing an object on a surface?

[sitagi]

Hi all,

 

I'm just starting with GECK and got this question when working my way through the tutorial.

 

I did the Object palette part and learned that you can place items from the Object Palette on the surface by simply clicking the place where you want them to be while holding Ctrl+Alt. So, for example, if I want to put a teddy bear on a bench, I just select the teddy bear in the object palette, hold Ctrl+Alt and left click the bench, and that's it. I found it to be a very simple and intuitive way to put objects, because usually the object lands exactly where I want it to be.

 

This isn't working when placing objects from the Object Window, however. When I drag&drop any object from the Object Window, they usually end up hovering somewhere in the air, far away from the surface where I intended to put them. I could press 'F' to drop them on the ground and then re-adjust the placement with 'X', 'Y' and 'Z', or I could clone a nearby object and later replace its type, but both ways seem to be more tedious.

 

So, is there a way to put objects from the Object Window onto the surface under the mouse cursor? What would be the most efficient way to place lots of objects without having to manually adjust their x-s, y-s and z-s? I'm almost thinking of making my own clutter palette, just to use this feature...

 

 

Edited July 26, 2015 by sitagi

[ManehattanProject]

Hi all,

 

I'm just starting with GECK and got this question when working my way through the tutorial.

 

I did the Object palette part and learned that you can place items from the Object Palette on the surface by simply clicking the place where you want them to be while holding Ctrl+Alt. So, for example, if I want to put a teddy bear on a bench, I just select the teddy bear in the object palette, hold Ctrl+Alt and left click the bench, and that's it. I found it to be a very simple and intuitive way to put objects, because usually the object lands exactly where I want it to be.

 

This isn't working when placing objects from the Object Window, however. When I drag&drop any object from the Object Window, they usually end up hovering somewhere in the air, far away from the surface where I intended to put them. I could press 'F' to drop them on the ground and then re-adjust the placement with 'X', 'Y' and 'Z', or I could clone a nearby object and later replace its type, but both ways seem to be more tedious.

 

So, is there a way to put objects from the Object Window onto the surface under the mouse cursor? What would be the most efficient way to place lots of objects without having to manually adjust their x-s, y-s and z-s? I'm almost thinking of making my own clutter palette, just to use this feature...

 

 

I've struggled with this problem myself quite often. In the end, I decided to simply make a new Object Palette for whatever I want by dragging and dropping various items from the Object Window into the Object Palette. I know this isn't likely what you wanted to hear. I wish there was a command (and if there is, someone needs to share it!)

 

I ended up doing exactly what you said in the end, by making at least a dozen different palettes for the needed project I was on. I'll probably end up making a few dozen more.

 

The one cool thing about Object Palettes, especially if you're doing with movable static objects, landscape objects or "random" objects, is that you can tell it to do a RNG for size, orientation/rotation and even sink. You can tell every tree to sink one unit into the ground. Or have every rock you place randomly rotate between 360 degrees. Or set all the cacti to grow/shrink +/- 10%. This is wonderful in making the landscape feel so much more natural.

 

Protip (that took me forever to figure out). Copy/paste "360" continually into the rotation, but make sure to click on another object and then back on the original object so the changes save. Otherwise, whatever you entered in the variants won't kick in. Object Palettes are really funky, but once you get a feel for it, they make building levels so very much easier.