Groups and components

Groups and components bundle edges and faces into objects, so they don’t stick to the rest of the model and you can move or hide them in one go.

• A group is a single object. Each copy of a group is independent.
• A component is reusable. Every copy, or instance, shares the same contents, so editing one instance changes them all.

Make a group

Select edges, faces, groups or components and choose Edit → Make Group (Ctrl+G). The new group is selected.

To name it, type in the Name field in Window → Properties and press Enter.

Make a component

Select what you want to reuse and choose Edit → Make Component… (G). Give it a name and click Create. Each component in a model needs its own name.

Explode

Edit → Explode turns a selected group or component back into loose geometry.

Edit a group or component

Double-click a group or component with Select to open it. The rest of the model fades, and a dashed box shows what you’re editing. Double-click again to open a group or component nested inside.

To close it, press Escape with nothing in progress, or click outside the dashed box. Each press goes up one level.

When you open a copied group for the first time, Modlumi makes it independent of the group it was copied from, so your edits only change that copy.

Change a component’s axes

Change Axes moves a component’s origin and turns its axes, without moving its geometry.

1. Select one component.
2. Choose Change Axes in the toolbar.
3. Click the new origin.
4. Click to set the red axis direction, then the green axis direction.

The Outliner

Window → Outliner shows the model’s groups and components as a tree.

• Click a row to select that object. Shift and Ctrl work as they do in the viewport.
• Double-click a row to open that object for editing.
• Click the arrow next to a row to expand or collapse it.
• Click the eye to hide or show an object. A slashed eye means the object is hidden; a dimmed eye means something that contains it is hidden.

The row you’re editing is marked [editing].