How to Copy Duplicate or Clone props / objects?
Heyas! I know this is a terribly newbie question but I've searched every term I can think of and looked high and low.
Surely there is a way to copy a prop or item in Daz and paste a duplicate into the scene. Ex: A rock you've resized a certain way. Sure you can just load another one, but then you'd have to resize it too. There's got to be a way to just create a copy of the one you've already modified.
Thanks so much!
Tali
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Comments
There never was a way to do that until recently. You could only save the rock you have changed as a DAZ Scene file, and then merge it in to any other scene that you are working on.
In the latest version of DS4P, 4.5.0.90 RC3, you can go to Create > New Node Instance, and a copy of the rock you have just altered will be placed in the scene. There is also an option to Create > New Node Instances (plural), and you can decide how many clones that you want, but it does not copy the one you altered, just the original.
Great question, I have been wondering about this too.
Wow I'm seriously shocked that they only just did that! Thanks for the info. I'll give that a try!!
Aw it looks like I don't have the right version. Bummer!
The new instancing is cool :) One other trick is to select the prop with your custom settings, CTL+C to copy, load another rock, select it and hit CTL+V to paste the first rock's settings onto the new rock.
Comes in handy for other things too like moving one camera to match another. I don't think it works on rigged figures though.
Oh that's awesome. I'll give that a try!
I successfully created a new node instance of a prop. I was able to scale it independently of the original and move it around, but I cannot change material settings independently. Is that how it is supposed to work? Is there any documentation on how to use it? Thanks.
The material only shows and is editable for the original. I am not sure if that is how it is supposed to work. It makes it a little less usefull, but at least you can change the size and shape.
You guys saved my life but you didn't go far enough. I was trying to copy a light plane to put into various windows so that they would glow a certain color and intensity of light through every single window. Couldn't for the life of me find copy and paste object in the scene.
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Then I found this thread. So I did what was suggested. I created a new plane. Copied the settings of the original pane and pasted it to the new pane. Of course it puts it on top of the original pane. All I do is move it to the next window but guess what???? It's just copies the Transform settings. OOOHHH NO,,,,,, BUT..... I thought well,,,,, try it with the texture settings too!!!!!
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At first I couldn't do it but then I got it.. If you have the original plane selected AND you must have the Surface Selection Tool selected too. Then you go over to the Surfaces Editor, right click on the Plane name in question, You select "Copy Selected Surfaces". Go select the new plane and right click on the plane name, again, in the surfaces editor. There you will see "Paste to Selected Surfaces". This will copy all of the surface settings to the new plane. Beautiful!!!
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They are exactly the same and they are separate objects. Because it is a new plane (or I assume any object) you can edit anything after the copy and it doesn't change the original at all. Just move it to where ever you want it.
That problem solved.. One hundred more to go.
Thanks You guys.
What is supposed to happen when I create a new instance of something that is parented to something else? Is "new node instance" supposed to create an identical copy, or does it really mean something else and just happens to work as object duplication only under certain circumstances?
At first I though couldn't get instancing to work for the life of me, but after a bunch of testing I finally realized that if I unparent my object, I can create new instances of it without problems. If it is parented (at least in my test case) it appears invisibly tiny and in a different position instead of being an identical copy of the original.
Thanks, great tip!
Gosh its all instances and clones but I don’t see anything about duplicates yet. I was just messing around I stumbled on this…
Select anything, for example a character fully set up if you wish, that’s hair and clothing and so on, that’s already in your scene.
Go to edit - duplicate- duplicate node hierarchies
This duplicates the character and everything associated with the original in your scene.
You can select both characters, original and duplicate and do the same again and you then have four characters.
Not really explored this properly but you can select each copy and pose it differently to the others, change its textures and clothing, the whole thing.
It may be that this might reduce the render time but I don’t know, what I find is that I can quickly create a scene with multiple characters.. although the more characters involved the slower it gets…
Duplicating is the same as loading another copy of the item from disc, they are fully independent. Having two items use the same maps will ave some memory, compared to using different maps, as the data is sent across only once.
Instancing is certainly useful for filling up a background. You can rescale it and reposition it, but because it is an exact clone, you can not change the textures or the pose. Works well in environmnet scenes for adding additional trees and rocks and grass etc, and for urban scenes, adding cars and trucks and buildings, and crowds of people walking in the distance.