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Part II: Working with Objects

Ungrouping objects
The Ungroup command enables you to break up a group (kind of like a poor music album). To do so, sim-
ply select the desired group and choose Group ➪ Ungroup. This menu command dissolves the group, and
all the objects within the group revert to separate objects. The Ungroup command breaks up only the cur-
rently selected group. All nested groups within a group stay intact.

Caution
If you animate a group and then later use the ungroup command, then all the keys created for the whole group
are lost when you ungroup. n
The easiest way to dissolve an entire group, including any nested groups, is with the Explode command.
This command eliminates the group and the groups within the group and makes each object separate.

Opening and closing groups

The Open command enables you to access the objects within a group. Grouped objects move, scale, and
rotate as a unit when transformed, but individual objects within a group can be transformed independently
after you open a group with the Open command.
To move an individual object in a group, select the group and choose Group ➪ Open. The white bounding
box changes to a pink box. Then select an object within the group, and move it with the Select and Move
button (keyboard shortcut, W). Choose Group ➪ Close to reinstate the group.

Attaching and detaching objects
The Attach and Detach commands enable you to insert or remove objects from an opened group without
dissolving the group. To attach objects to an existing group, you select an object, select the Attach menu
command, and then click on the group to which you want to add the object. To detach an object from a
group, you need to open the group and select the Detach menu command. Remember to close the group
when finished.

Cross-Ref
Editable objects, like the Editable Poly, also can make use of an Attach feature, but attaching objects to an editable
object permanently combines the objects together. You can learn more about the Editable Poly objects in Chapter 13,
“Modeling with Polygons and Patches.” n

Cross-Ref
Another convenient way to make a set of objects portable is to combine them into a Container. Containers are dis-
cussed in Chapter 24, “Building Complex Scenes with Containers and XRefs and Using Asset Tracking.” n

Tutorial: Grouping a plane’s parts together
Positioning objects relative to one another takes careful and precise work. After spending the time to place
the wings, tail, and prop on a plane exactly where they need to be, transforming each object by itself can
misalign all the parts. By grouping all the objects together, you can move all the objects at once.
For this tutorial, you can get some practice grouping all the parts of an airplane together. Follow these steps:

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