Anim8or Community

(Build 1269)

So it's a bit hard to work out exactly what's going on with this one, but I think the crux of it is that when grouping objects it seems that the group is always sent to layer 0 (even when the grouped objects are initially all in the same layer).
If Layer 0 is hidden then the newly grouped object disappears from view ... in which case I can re-enable Layer 0 and re-assign the grouped object back to the original Layer, however if Layer 0 is visible, then it's not immediately apparent that the Layer has changed.
I understand that when the objects being grouped are individually in different layers before grouping, then the only logical decision I guess is to put the group in Layer 0, however when they're all already in the same Layer, then perhaps it is more appropriate for the group to remain in that Layer.

This opinion is based upon the way that I work --- I tend to use Layers to group multiple objects which are used to compose an assembly or assemblies, but I often need to temporarily un-group assemblies to make changes to individual elements, and then re-group the assembly or assemblies, at which point the assembly and it's components gets re-assigned to Layer 0 (and this fact often goes un-noticed by me if Layer 0 is also visible.)
I imagine that if I was to make changes in all Layers and forget to re-assign the Layer on every occasion after re-grouping, then eventually everything would just end in Layer 0 ...  so I think you can see the problem.

As I can have multiple assemblies which I may want to view and work upon independently, I tend to organize each assembly and it's components into it's own Layer. I then want it to remain in this Layer unless I choose to move it elsewhere. The constant re-assignment to Layer 0 causes a bit of chaos which affects my workflow.

Other people may have a different opinion about this if they perhaps use Layers in a different way to me, but this is how it affects my workflow.

CC

This post referenced in: Version 1.0 Bugs and Suggestions

In my very best David Attenborough voice....

"This is a rare treat indeed. It's very unusual for the lesser spotted software developer to venture this far from the cave entrance (except to top up on his staple diet of coffee and energy drinks). It's an even more rare event for him to engage in actual conversation with humans, let alone about strategy ... unless it's the Strategy Pattern of course."

Will do.

One thing I do recall is that at the time that this occurred, I had just discovered the alt-RMB function no longer worked and I was trying to find out (by trial and error) what key combination would de-select faces. So it may be possible that some random combination of CTRL / SHIFT / ALT and RMB caused this issue, as well as the issue with the diacritic characters on the keyboard (as both issues occurred around the same time).

I do think it more likely that whatever I did put the OS into some strange state, rather than Anim8or, but this might just give you an avenue to replicate it.

CC

I was adjusting texture alignment on selected faces at the time, so point edit mode.
(ie. the yellow UV tool was visible, however once maximized I couldn't get rid of it because none of the controls were clickable due to whatever the iossue was.)
OS=WIN7 SP1 64bit
Graphics= Intel HD4000 (integrated)

I can't replicate the problem now either, so I wouldn't worry too much about it Steve. Probably not a bug, but due to whatever was going on with my machine at the time (remember I also had those keyboard issues around the same time -- which have also not re-occurred).

I think it's safe to assume this is not a bug, but if it happens again I'll try to get a handle on the exact cause / circumstances, and I'll let you know.

CC

While UV mapping a texture I needed to maximize Anim8or.
After maximizing, the viewport failed to redraw.  After returning to windowed mode it came right.

Around about the same time this happened, I also tried to save the project but when trying to enter a filename to save as, I found that my keyboard was giving the wrong chars.
eg. I would press the "-" key and get a single quote. The ";" key would give md something like an "a" with some sort of umlat decoration.

Note that around the time these issues appeared, I had also downloaded a couple of random textues, so this behaviour may be indicative of a virus rather than an actual Anim8or bug, but it would ne interesting to see if anyone else can replicate these issues.

In earlier versions, the current object window has always been indicated by a "tick mark".
Now that we have the ability to organize object windows into folders, on re-opening a saved project, it can sometimes be a little difficult (when there's a large number of objects and folders) to locate the folder in which the current object window resides.

Perhaps a tick could be maintained on the parent folder of the current object as well as the object itself.

This post referenced in: Version 1.0 Bugs and Suggestions

It appears that the function performed by the ALT key has been reassigned in this build.
Previously (0.98) it was used in combination with the Right-Mouse button to allow de-selection of faces, lines, vertex's in Object/Point editing mode.
Now it appears to bring up the rotate tool instead. (Not sure if this is an intended change or simply a bug.)

This is a problem because I can see no way now to deselect faces, etc. when accidentally selected.
For example, after selecting 50 faces, if the 51'st face is incorrectly selected, there is no way to undo that last selection, and you have to start from scratch every time you make an accidental selection.

This post referenced in: Version 1.0 Bugs and Suggestions

So,

In my initial investigations, I've found a few example scirpts here: http://anim8or.com/scripts/index.html
However neither of the scripts which involve rendering actually succeeds in producing any output (to the screen or anywhere else), (eg. for_3.a8s, and sphere.txt ... and the first one actually causes Anim8tor to hang/crash.

Note that I'm using the latest build 1269, so maybe there's a backwards compatibility issue with these presumedly quite old scripts.  I'll test these out with an older stable build like 0.98 and see if they work there.

Any thoughts from any scripting experts?

CC