I have 3 x 3 little cubes put together, so they form a bigger cube ( like Rubics Cube).
Now I want to increase/decrease the spacing between the little cubes arbitrarily.
So I put an Empty in the center of the little cubes. Then I made the Empty parent to the little cubes.
When I scale the empty, the spacing between the little cubes change as needed.
But the cubes change in size, too. Is it possible to remove the scaling effect?
What I want is: Parent scales an amount, children translate a proportional amount.
May be it is possible to rewire scaling to translation?
I’d use vertex parenting, even though there might be a way to do it with constraints.
Look at this example file. When you scale the master.cube object, the smaller cubes follow it like you describe. Obviously, there are only three of those smaller cubes, but the idea is there.
here’s how you set it up: Create your master object, then go into edit mode. Then, select just one vertex. While holding ctrl, select one of the other cube objects. Hit ctrl+P and confirm. Do this for each smaller cube.
After that, you’ll want to make the master cube invisible to rendering, via the outliner or a material. You can also go to the Object buttons and select drawtype “wire”, so you can see the other cubes better.