How to rotate multiple items at the same time

[pogonoforysci]

Hi, I'm trying to make a house interior for me to use in game. After some trial and error I think that the easiest way to make the interior would be to copy an existing cell and move around rooms to get a layout that I like. Here's where I get a problem: when I move the rooms around I often have to rotate them (I mean the whole room: walls, floor, ceiling and all the items inside). That rotation has to be done with angles like 90, 180, 360 degrees to keep everything straight so the doorways would match. I can do that easily with single items by right clicking and going to EDIT. I can't do that when I have a whole group of items selected. I can only use W and mouse to rotate using the rotation gizmo, which is very inaccurate and clunky and I'm never able to rotate with it in nice 90 degree increments. Is there some more clever way to rotate multiple items together? Any help will be appreciated

[fg109]

Instead of using the rotation gizmo, I just right-click and drag. But selecting multiple items together and moving it around means that only the collective center snaps to grid, so each individual item might be a little off.

[Tamb0]

There are a few ways to do it. Left click and drag a box around all the items you want to rotate. This will inevitably select some items that you don't want to rotate. What you now do is hold down the Ctrl button (while all items are selected) and then left click the items that you don't want to rotate.

 

This too has its limitations. Some items may be surrounded by a marker, activator or trigger box. If you left click whilst holding Ctrl, you will onlly de-select that box, not the items beneath it. In this case, while still holding Ctrl, left click and drag another box around the items you want to de-select. Your original selection will still be highlighted. To rotate them, hover the mouse over 1 of the selected items (the cursor will change) and then click and drag the right mouse button until your items are at the angle you want.

 

Another method is just click 1 item and then, whilst holding Ctrl, click another, then another,etc... Agian, this will only select the outermost item or box.

 

The way I do it is left click, drag a box around 1 item. This makes sure you also pick up all triggers, activators, etc. Then hold Ctrl and drag a box around the next item and triggers etc. When all the items are selected that you want to rotate, right click while hovering over 1 of the selected items and just rotate them to suit your needs.

 

One thing to look out for is, without realising, you may also have selected a wall. I just zoom out a bit and check that no walls are selected before I rotate the items. If walls are also selected, hold Ctrl again and left click on the wall. Then rotate.

 

[/tutorial] :biggrin:

Edited March 3, 2012 by Tamb0

[pogonoforysci]

Hi, thanks for the advice. Actually I've been already using the techniques that you guys describe. Still CK proves to be clunky and simply an incredible *censored* to use. I don't understand how someone could make a game like skyrim using tools that are so infuriating to operate. I'm mostly interested in creating custom interiors and find in really REALLY annoying that I can't make a room (walls, floor + furniture and clutter) and then group that stuff so then I could manipulate each room like a single building block rotating the block around it's center but keeping relative angles between elements of the block constant. My problem is as one of you described: when I select the whole room and try to rotate it it moves around some common 'gravity center' for all the items that comprise it so after turning the whole thing is mostly in the right position but each of the components is slightly skewed and doesn't line up with the others any more witch makes the whole operation pointless because now I have to spend more time on straightening up everything than it would take to build a room from scratch....moronic system in my opinion. Also I have a problem with understanding what the grid snapping is all about. Can anyone explain? What numbers should I set for the snap to grid and snap to angle parameters? For example I would think that if I set the snap to angle value to 90 any item will rotate only in 90 degree increments. Is that correct? Actually I tried that just now and it looks I was correct. Great success!! So the remaining thing is the snap to grid. What value should I use for that. In the tutorial they set up a value that I quote 'is best for the nordic ruins kit' and roll from there with everything beautifully snapping into place. How do I achieve this effortless snapping for other kits? Does each kit has it's own preferred value? If so where do i get it from?

[pogonoforysci]

After some meddling setting up snap to grid value to 8 and snap to angle to 90 seems to give the best results

[Tamb0]

After some meddling setting up snap to grid value to 8 and snap to angle to 90 seems to give the best results

Keep your grid snap in 2^2 numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128. When making the rooms, keep it high, 64 or 128 (better). When placing smaller items, use the low numbers, 2, 4 and 8.

I keep me angle snap at 15. This gives you 5 steps between 0 and 90. Handy for dungeons and caves, where you don't want everything at right angles.

[flobalob]

And heres another hot tip for moving or rotating multiple items.

The last item selected (the one shown in the status bar at the bottom left) is the object that will control the snapping, so if you want to ensure that the snapping is based on a room section (rather than a misc object) then what you want to do is select all of the stuff you want to move/rotate then Ctrl+Left click on the object that you want to control the snap (to de-select it) and then Ctrl+Left click again (to re-select it)

Edited March 4, 2012 by flobalob

[fg109]

Nice, didn't know that it was the last selected object that controls the snapping. I always assumed that the program just calculates a new central point from all the selected objects and use that instead.

 

Another tip for selecting objects is to use the the cell view window. Highlighting items in the list will do the same thing as selecting it in the render window. I find selecting objects this way much easier for me, although I suppose that's because I list items by form IDs and place the items I want to copy at relatively the same time.

[acidfrog]

Having similair problems none of these really help me though.

 

I have a noble divder in the middle of a room and woud like to put a weapon rack on it. the only way to line it up perfect is by doing the pieces one by one, can i do this by doing them all together. or is it just not possible?

[flobalob]

My advice for something that consists of multiple objects is to assemble it using an appropriate snap somewhere out in the void so you don't mess with the rest of the room. When you are happy that you have all of the pieces linked up and aligned correctly, then bandbox select the collection of objects and than drag the whole lot into position.

You may very well have to use a very small snap grid value to line it up with a mid room piece, or even turn the grid snapping off altogether.