Turning One Object into Multiples Then Propagating Across a Mesh

zombiewhacker

Back a few years ago I set out to create a computer control panel with multiple keyboard buttons as its interface. So I created the mesh for the control panel first, then subdivided it quite a few times so that it was nicely quaded. The quads -- or more specifically, their defining vertices -- served as placeholders for where I wanted the keyboard buttons to eventually be positioned.

Next I created a single keyboard button object and UV mapped it. So far, so good.

Except... this is where my memory fails me.

Somehow I not only cloned and pasted the keyboard button, but with a single command in Hexagon created multiple instances and positioned each of them across the control panel mesh, each button perfectly aligned with a corresponding vertex in the mesh. I say "instances" but in fact each button was its own unique mesh. When I imported my finished object into Studio, all the keyboard buttons showed up at once without resorting to instancing again, Studio-style.

Can anyone jog my memory as to how I might have accomplished this? Also if anyone here has knowledge of Blender, can the same thing be accomplished there?

 

Ascania

Go to the Utilities tab, click the Multiple Copies icon.

Wee Dangerous John

What I would do is to take a photo of your keyboard from above, load this in as a reference (leave a note here if you do not know how to do this).

Draw a line where the top row of keys are. Add smoothing, the one in the Surface Modelling tab, and add a level of 20 (over the top I know).

Take the key you made and use Copy On Support (remember to be in object mode), in the Properties tab click on the Centre point option (looks like a compus with a blue dot in the middle). Then choose a point on your key followed by the first point on the line. If anything goes wrong you are probably not in Object mode, or, the Orientation is wrong - the 5 options, just scroll through the options till you get the correct result.

Once you have the 20 keys sorted, go to the UV menu and move the Key UVs around to make it easier to make the map. 

Copy the top row of keys, and use them to make the rest of the keyboard. Deleting the ones you do not need and moving the UV's as you go.