I am having trouble with the array modifier in blender 2.5 beta. I bought a book called Blender Foundations and I am following a tutorial on modeling a table. Anyways, when I read through the steps, the artist applies an array modifer which I have followed every step but never get the same outcome. My array modifer seems to be affecting the position and scale instead of just position.
How do I tell the modifier to only affect the postion?
My results is called “Blender Help”
The book’s results is called “Out of Book”
Using the Object Offset is an unusual approach to learning the Array Modifier. Without me having the book, I’m not sure what the author is trying to achieve by using it… perhaps manipulate rotation so the array works more like a spin? I’ve given that a go, and you can see my results attached, although because of the Empty, I needed no displacement of the X value in the modifier.
I’m pretty much betting you’ve got the XYZ axes different from the example in the book. Instead of X=1, perhaps try Z=1 or Y=1 (reset X=0 while you do this). If you select “Local” from the show manipulator menu (bottom of main window, probably says “Global”) then the coloured arrows can give a clue on the XYZ direction (provided you have them on… small icon to the left of “Global / Local” setting).
I guess that’s not very clear when it’s written down, and I’m probably approaching things different from the book. Here’s my example if it can help;
Relative offset is checked in your image while no offset type is selected in the tutorial. Uncheck relative offset and try again to see if you get the right thing.
I still think you have axis issues, which are very easy to get mixed; you only need to start from a different “front view” than the author of your book to get them mixed.
Try the following…
Select all objects with the [A] key. (or at least select the table leg object and the Empty they use as a reference).
Hit [ALT][R] to clear any rotations.
Finally, move the Empty so that it is displaced somewhat from the table leg. This will make the legs go out in a row.
I suspect that after this, you would then rotate the empty 90 degrees around the Z (up and down) axis: “[R],[Z], [9][0][ENTER]”
In this version of the file, you can see the coloured arrows (XYZ direction) on Local basis (I’ve pre-selected “Local” below the main 3D view) so you can see that the table leg green & red arrows are different from those on the Empty… rotation matters hugely with relative arrays
Please likewise attach blend files you are having problems with - this allows other BlenderArtists to be less theoretical about what we think might be wrong.
Did the book come with no source (example finished) files? I’ve just finished writing a Blender book for Apress and I know they were really insistent on the need for it; if not a CD-Rom (we did not have the time to burn a CD on first edition, and I had originally assumed all my examples would be “obvious enough”), at least a download site.
