I cannot seem to export the animation of ny rotating radar antenna. It works perfectly in gmax, and I can export a simple rotating box but not my more complex antenna. I tried Grouping the components of the antenna, and tried Boolean union, Neither worked. I read the animation SDK but it is not a model of technical writing. Nevertheless, I took all the precautions I could from it. Both the rotating part and the total bgl have prefixes of tick18_name.Additionally, when I Booleaned them together the vertical axis of rotation changed. Is there a way to set the (vertical) axis of rotation of a complex structure?

Hi,For the export problem I do not have a clear answer. In general group parts is a cause of trouble, so it is better not to group them. But you write that also without grouping it does not work (and that should work).About the rotation axis, that is determined by the pivot point of your animation. You can set this point in GMax.

Arno...thanks for the pivot point hint. I was sure a Boolean would do the trick with regard to animation but so far no luck. I left my GMAX Bible in Florida so I am temporarily stuck. The fact that the animation always works in GMAX and that I can animate a single box has a clue in there somewhere.

Arno, I was told on Turbo Squid to make the rotating part a child linked to a dummy box. I originally was able to rotate a simple box without doing this but a complex radar dish Booleaned together apparently needs this. In any case it worked. He (Fr Bill) warned me about grouping too, so I will use grouping only as a temporary construction aid. Thanks again.

Thanks for the reporting the dummy link tip. I never needed it myself (yet), but it is good to remember this one if I encounter a problem like this :).

You're welcome. With regards to grouping though, I can't see any other way to link a particular "bunch" of buildings to a dummy box when setting up several LOD's. Grouping DOES work there, for sure.

Why not just link them all to the dummy one by one? That is how I normally do it. Or combine certain parts with boolean first.I used groups quite a lot when I started with GMax, but in the end I think it gives more trouble with MakeMDL then it solves.

Hi Arno....I don't want to appear pigheaded, butI have 445 objects I would have to link to a dummy. Then, suppose I wanted to do a different LOD with a simpler structure, say 100 objects. I have to name the two "groups" anyway with different names and a different suffix....say x_LOD_100 and x_LOD_050. The only way I know to link two separate entities to one dummy at 0,0,0 is to group them, then link the groups. I may be missing something obvious here. It won't be the first time............

Hi John,With that many objects my approach does not sound that good indeed :). But you could of course all give them the LOD name and link them to the same dummy. But as I said, with that many parts I wouldn't choose that approach.

Thanks for your insight and patience. I have learned much from your experience.

..one last point howerver...if you have two separate groups of hundred of objects, and you ungroup them both.........you are stuck with a hopeless jumble.

Very true, but how did you manage to get that many objects into one 3D objects? My buildings hardly ever use that many different parts.

I have a very detailed set of structures built up over 2 years while I was learning GMAX. If I had been more experienced, I would have taken a different approach to this complex, but it is what it is now. It's a 604k bgl without a lower LOD. Maybe you would like to see some screenshots?