Cineversity

I can’t share my model (sorry) so I’m hoping you can perhaps divine the underlying conflict from these screenshots (attached).

I have built a roller table using a collection of cloners for the wheels. Two cloners distribute wheels along two axles that are offset from each other. This pair is then itself cloned to form a section of track 3ft long. This 3ft section is then cloned multiple times into a conveyor line. In the first snapshot (Symmetry Off), the wheels appear as desired. Good work! In the second snapshot (Symmetry On) the conveyor line has been put into a symmetry object and replicated. Now only the parent set of cloned axles appear in each 3ft section of track. The rest have disappeared.

I figure I have a setting checked off (or on) that is removing what would be the 3rd tier of clones. It’s so consistent it makes me think I’m violating some kind of hierarchy.

In the past I have solved this problem by going through and making all the cloners editable. If I do this, all the wheels appear as expected. But it really hits my processor because I no longer have generators to turn off when I need to move around. And that’s a killer since I have to move around a lot.

Hopefully there’s a way to do this without sacrificing the cloners on the altar of speed.

Hi fordmar,

Did we discuss this earlier?
https://www.cineversity.com/forums/viewthread/4980/

I assume you have Multi or Render Instances enabled.

The simplest way to work with Multi or Render Instances, while using any kind of Symmetry, prepare a pseudo Matrix. Since its introduction (MoGraph), I have used it many times.

The idea is based on a single segment Polygon object. This will not take a lot of computing power. But it is something that works pretty much all the time. The Polygon objects do not have to be visible but active.

With that, you can place clones on their Polygon-Center. The Clones can now be created as virtual instances, AKA Render or Multi-Instances.

Example
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/Q2Elf4D5iTCUFivRsbSekRJGhTmkbPZRTd0vqjjagrV

Cheers

Yes, you are right - we did discuss this earlier. Rats! The part about turning off generators to speed up processing stuck with me. The instance/multi-instance workaround did not. Sorry about that :(

As predicted, switching from multi-instance to instance returned all the clones as desired (see attached). Thank you!

This is a good example of sloppy version control. With each iteration of this mechanical system, improvements are added based on trial and error and priceless insights from Dr. Sassi (thank you!). However, as I have been working on this particular system for a while now, the number of permutations is extensive and it’s easy to pluck an out of date precursor from the archive and jump into the fray, only to hit a wall later on. Which is what happened in this case - the “corrected” version from our earlier exchange was not incorporated; an older one slipped in instead.

My goal is to someday export a “master set” of components into the Asset Manager so that only the most up to date versions are readily available. Unfortunately, the “master” keeps changing, so that may have to wait for another project.

Thanks for your patience!

Thanks for the detailed reply, fordmar!

My intention with the link to the previous post was mainly to know if I understood your question.

Yes, iteration and then using an older one happens, I know.

A good idea is to use the Annotation Tag or Attribute Manager> Project> Info. There you will find a field to leave some notes.

Besides, as you might have notice, my files follow a naming convention, which has helped me over the decades to identify older files instnatly.

Enjoy your project.