Getting used to new software is no picnic, for sure. Although much of what you need it familiarity with the interface, shortcut keys are a BIG part of my personal workflow.
In the example that you give, the XSI Explorer, with the scene root selected, will give you almost any relationship that you are looking for. In the front, top, or any scene view window, pressing the space bar allows you to select your object. Moving the cursor to the XSI Explorer and pressing the "f" key will instantly show the selected object. That way you can see the relationship to any other objects (constraint, parenting, etc). This saves having to manually navigate the hierarchy. Just one tip, but I hope this helps. On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 10:47 AM, Sergio Mucino <[email protected]>wrote: > Hello. I have a very basic question for anyone who might be able to help. > I just got started using Softimage, and I'm having the usual problems > anyone faces when starting to use new software they're not familiar with > (just for background information purposes, I'm coming from Maya and Max. > I state this just so that it gives you an idea of the language I might > be using). One of the things that I'm having a hard time right now is > navigating scene relationships. > > I'm trying to find a tool that will help me to efficiently find scene > relationships, and so far, I haven't found an easy way to navigate these > relationships. I'm trying to find my way through someone else's files, > and finding what's related to each object is a bit of a PITA at this > point. I'm using the Explorer as a starting point, but it doesn't get me > there the entire way. Let me give you an example. > > I've got a mesh selected. In the Explorer, I can see it's being deformed > by a Lattice, and an Envelope Operator. I need to find the actual scene > objects that are driving these deformations. For the Envelope Op, I know > I can go to Deform/Envelope/Select Deformer from Envelope, and it will > select in the scene the objects that are driving the envelope's > deformations (I'd rather not lose my selection, just get a list of the > objects used as deformers, but I'm ok with Softimage working this way). > However, the Lattice is an entirely different story. If I select the > Lattice operator and inspect its properties, the only reference I can > find in the Properties dialog is to its cluster. If I then find that > cluster in the Cluster folder for my object, and check its properties, I > get nothing. There seems to be no way I can get to the actual Lattice > object in the scene deforming this cluster easily. > > The only way I've found so far has been to use the Schematic View. If I > turn on all the Links (for the selected object only, of course. > Otherwise, I just get a noodle soup), with my geo selected I can see > links going to different objects in the scene. I had to track down each > link (which in a scene this size took a lot of scrolling, especially > since zooming out gets rid of the names on the links) until I found the > link that had "Lattice" written on it. Then I could follow it and find > the scene object that the Lattice operator refers to. > > I would like to know if there's a more efficient way of navigating scene > relationships than this. I'm sure than being completely new to the > software, I'm missing a lot. I've tried googling around, and asking > people at work, but haven't been able to uncover much. If someone has > some pointers towards getting stuff done faster, I'll be very glad to > hear them. Just for information purposes only, I'm trying to get the > same information I'd get my graphing an object in the Maya Hypergraph... > a view or list of all relationships for the selected object(s). > If this is not possible (I understand Softimage might have a totally > different way of doing quite a few things), if someone else could > describe how they tend to work to find their way in the scene, I'd love > to hear that too. > I appreciate any help or pointers anyone might have. Thanks a lot for > your time! > > Sergio Mucino > Lead Rigger > Modus FX > > -------------------------- > To unsubscribe: mail [email protected] with subject > "unsubscribe" and reply to the confirmation email. > -- Best Regards, * Stephen P. Davidson** **(954) 552-7956 * [email protected] *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* - Arthur C. Clarke <http://www.3danimationmagic.com>
-------------------------- To unsubscribe: mail [email protected] with subject "unsubscribe" and reply to the confirmation email.
