Noob question: Creating a group from selected items

[oramac]

I’m sure there’s a nice, simple way to do this, but for the life of me I can’t find it.

I have a group of about 6 items that I want to stay separate, but I want to move them/hide them together. Is there a simple way to create an “Item Group” that can be fiddled with without screwing up the items themselves?

Thanks!

[JA12]

You can create a group by selecting objects and ctrl+G. You can select that group by selecting one object and shift+G -> group.
After creating the group, you can handle them like that, or put that group somewhere and use a group instance instead. Shift+A -> group instance.
You could also add an empty and parent those objects to it so that you can move all of them by moving the empty, while you still can move the child objects individually.

[Lepelaar]

I think Ctrl-G would do the trick.

[oramac]

@JA12

You can create a group by selecting objects and ctrl+G. You can select that group by selecting one object and shift+G -> group.
After creating the group, you can handle them like that, or put that group somewhere and use a group instance instead. Shift+A -> group instance.
You could also add an empty and parent those objects to it so that you can move all of them by moving the empty, while you still can move the child objects individually.

Thanks! Ctrl-G did the trick. Can you expand on “adding an empty” though? I would like to move them all as one, but I have no idea what an “empty” is.

EDIT: also, would hiding the Empty (clicking the eye on the right-side objects list) hide the whole group? This would be ideal.

[Richard_Marklew]

EDIT: also, would hiding the Empty (clicking the eye on the right-side objects list) hide the whole group? This would be ideal.
Why not try and find out yourself ?

[Orinoco]

An “empty” is one of the objects on the add menu. You add it just like you would add a camera or lamp or armature. It is an object with no mesh, only a location, rotation and scale. They are very useful in rigging and other things.

Turning off visibility for the empty in the Outliner will not affect the object children. However, you can switch the outliner from “All Scenes” to “Groups” and turn off the visibility for the group. Or you could select the group (select one of the objects, then Shift+G and select the entire group, then use H to hide selected. Alt+H to unhide.) I’m not sure which would be quicker, I suppose it depends on how many groups you have in the scene.

[oramac]

@Richard Marklew

Why not try and find out yourself ?

Love to, except I had no idea how. You know, since I didn’t even know what an Empty is.

@Orinoco

An “empty” is one of the objects on the add menu. You add it just like you would add a camera or lamp or armature. It is an object with no mesh, only a location, rotation and scale. They are very useful in rigging and other things.

Turning off visibility for the empty in the Outliner will not affect the object children. However, you can switch the outliner from “All Scenes” to “Groups” and turn off the visibility for the group. Or you could select the group (select one of the objects, then Shift+G and select the entire group, then use H to hide selected. Alt+H to unhide.) I’m not sure which would be quicker, I suppose it depends on how many groups you have in the scene.

Thanks! I’m not sure which way will work better, but I’m sure I can figure it out with what you’ve outlined.

EDIT: so far, the first method works perfectly! I have only 3 groups as yet, but I’m sure I’ll end up with far more once I get it all going smoothly.