What's the Best Way to "Re-snap" Part of a Level to a Grid?

[ManehattanProject]

I don't really understand the whole "Snap to Grid" thing entirely. For my levels, I try to keep it on as much as possible, but there are often elements that need a bit of fine tuning. However, that means if I discover down the line that I need to shift an entire section of the level, it doesn't snap correctly with the "other side" reference. Whenever I select all of it, it's always off from where it should be.

 

I usually use doors as the link points. Have you folks run into an issue like this and found any good tricks? Or is there a way to hide everything in a level except for the main structure without Ctrl-Clicking half the items in the level?

 

I'm tired of having to adjust enormous levels tile by tile because I didn't see that is was a few millimeters off and now either have a gap or one of those horrid texture/mesh overlaps.

 

 

[Deleted1205226User]

Main adjustment (of building elements) is done with Snap On. All the elements meant to go together will align properly.

Static clutter, I place them with snap On, if they align good it's done, if they don't, I snap Off and adjust manually.

If later with snap On, I'll move something placed previously manually with the snap Off, it will go Off and I'll need to readjust manually (snap Off)

You can select multiple elements and move several at once. (ctrl + select)

So, it's a constant switch between Snap On & Off, depending of the type of objects moved.

 

The size of the grid is adjustable.

 

 

 

When an object/group of objects is selected, if you hold Z, X, or Y it will lock the object(s) into only one axis of movement. Holding Z locks the object so you can only move it up or down. X locks it so it can only be moved on the Y axis, and Y locks it to only move in the X axis. Releasing the key your holding allows you to again move it freely in all direction.

 

You can "lock" objects.

 

If you select an object, or objects in the GECK then hit the 1 key, they will turn partially transparent and can no longer be selected or moved. Hitting 1 twice in a row instead of once, makes them entirely invisible, so do this if they are going to be in your way visibly as well. Hitting F5 forces the geck to re-render the cell, making all objects visible, selectable, and movable once again.

 

I think it is good practice, when building an interior cell, to have the first (central) piece placed at XYZ =0,0,0 manually, then having other pieces snapping to it. Later on if some pieces are Off, it'll be easy to adjust via the Edit window.

 

Hope it helps!

Edited July 17, 2015 by Guest

[RoyBatterian]

A good trick is to place your first room piece then double click it to adjust it so that the x,y,z placement are even integers. Then open the renderwindow settings and move the dialogue off the piece you placed if it's over top of it, and select "select snap reference" and chose that piece you placed. Then everything else you place will snap relative that piece also. From then on as long as you pay attention to your alignment you won't have to do any tedious realignment later. ;)

[ManehattanProject]

Thanks for the tips folks. Sounds like you need to do it right from the get go. So I'll just make sure I do that from now on. And if I'd paid more attention to the 0^3 axis, I wouldn't have had other problems with my levels. :P (Funny, because I start all my levels like that, but these levels used other levels as starting points, so yeah.)

[chucksteel]

You can also use shift = Q at any point in cell design to select a new snap point so if you find a snap error you can select all the pieces you need to fix and hit Shift + Q on the tile you need them to snap to.

 

this also works when you intentionally have tiles that are set off of your main grid making them a pain when using standard snap.