What's New in Director 8.5 > Working with Models and Model Resources > Groups > Group commands

 

Group commands

Use these commands to work with groups:

Command

Description

Returns

addChild(aNode, preserveWorld)

Adds aNode to this group's list of children. An equivalent operation is to set aNode.parent to equal this group.

The preserveWorld argument is optional. It can have two values: #preserveWorld or #preserveParent. If the value is #preserveWorld, the world transform of the child being added remains intact. If the value is #preserveParent, the child's existing transform is interpreted as parent-relative.

Nothing

child[index]

Returns the child at the specified position in the index.

Lingo group object

child(name)

Returns the child named name.

Lingo group object

clone(name)

Clones a group named name, adds it to group's parent's child list, and adds it to world

All children of the group are automatically cloned. This can be avoided by removing the children, performing the cloning operation, and then adding the children back.

If the name is omitted or is "", the clone isn't added to the group palette, has no parent, and has no children. This option lets you quickly create temporary group instances.

Lingo group object

cloneDeep(name)

Clones both the group and the parent used by the group's children. Modifications to the clones' resource don't affect the parent.

This is a more memory-intensive operation than clone(name).

Lingo group object

addtoWorld()

Adds the group to the currently active 3D world, setting its parent as "world."Equivalent to group.parent=member("scene").group("world").

All newly created groups are added to the world by default, without it being necessary to use this command.

Nothing

getWorldTransform()

Sets this group's position and orientation relative to the world group's position and orientation.

Nothing

remove from world

For groups whose parent hierarchy terminates in the world, this sets their parent to void and removes them from the world. Otherwise it does nothing.

Nothing

isInWorld()

For groups whose parent hierarchy terminates in the world, the value is TRUE (1).

TRUE (1) or FALSE (0)

registerScript(eventName, handlerName, scriptInstance)

Registers the handler named handlerName that is found in the script scriptInstance when the member function sendEvent() is called with eventName as an argument.If scriptInstance is 0, a movie script handler is called.

The user defines what eventName is.

TRUE (1) or FALSE (0), with TRUE (1) indicating that the event happened and FALSE (0) that it did not

translate(xIncrement,yIncrement,zIncrement,relativeTo)

Moves the group forward by xIncrement along the X axis, yIncrement along the Y axis, and zIncrement along the Z axis.

The relativeTo parameter is optional. It determines how arguments are interpreted. The possible values are as follows:

#self: the default. Increments are applied relative to the group's local coordinate system.

#parent: increments are relative to the group's parent's coordinate system.

#world: increments are relative to the world coordinate system. Equivalent to #parent if parent is the world.

node (group, light, camera, or group): increments are relative to the coordinate system of the argument object.

Nothing

translate(directionVector, relativeTo)

Moves the group directionVector.length() in the direction of the vector directionVector. The relativeTo argument is optional and defaults to #self.

Nothing

translate(x,y,z,relativeTo)

Moves the group distance x along the X axis, distance y along the Y axis, and distance z along the Z axis. The relativeTo argument is optional and defaults to #self.

This command can also be written astranslate(vector(x,y,z) relativeTo).

Nothing

rotate(x,y,z, relativeTo)

Rotates the group by x degrees around the X axis, y degrees around the Y axis, and z degrees around the Z axis.

The relativeTo argument is optional and defaults to #self. If included, it defines the coordinate space of the axes.

This command can also be written asrotate(vector(x,y,z) relativeTo).

Nothing

rotate (position, axis, angle, relativeTo)

Rotates the group around the axis vector in the specified position the specified number of degrees. The relativeTo argument is optional and defaults to #self.

Nothing

pointAt(worldPosition, worldUp)

Rotates the model until it points at the world-relative position worldPosition. The optional worldUp argument gives the general position of the model's Up axis. The exact position can't be determined using this method.

Both the object-relative axes are defined by the pointAtOrientation property. Default values are an object-relative forward direction of vector (0, 0, -1) and an object-relative up direction of vector (0, 1, 0).

Nothing

getWorldTransform()

Calculates and returns a transform that converts object-relative positions for this group into world-relative positions.

A transform object