Hi All,

From what I understand, if i want to animate a geometry, that i want to transform first, (like maybe the scale),

I am to import/create the geometry first, and then use an xform SOP to transform it in the geometry level AND NOT go ahead and transform its scale at the scene level, as this will cause animation problems.

Here's the difficulty i'm finding:

I am not able to use the actual SCALE handle to manipulate the xform SOP.

It seems as if i have to

- first stay at the scene level
- resize the “car tire” and make it wider as necessary
- then copy its translate/rotate/scale values into windows notepad
- undo the changes i've made to the tire
- go into the geometry level of the “car tire” and add an xform SOP
- paste in the values from windows notepad into the appropriate fields in the xform SOP

I'm ok with doing this procedure once. But if i'm not satisfied with the change, its taking too long to keep repeating this process.

How can I use the ultra-helpful scale handles to manipulate the xform SOP so I can keep the “car tire's” transformation values (at the scene level) unchanged and ready for animation?

I'm not anywhere near the animation phase of my project right now, I just don't want to be in a position where I have to go back and rework a whole bunch of geometries so that their transformation values at the scene level are animation-ready.

OR

Am I wrong and it doesn't matter if I transform geometries at the scene level as it does not affect the animation procedure?

Thanks in advance for any insight that anyone can provide!

At the GEOMETRY level of your “car tire”, with your mouse in the viewer, hit TAB > Transform. Now switch to scale mode (hotkey e). Scale as desired.

It worked like a charm. Thanks!!! I'm finally free from notepad!

Its not working like a charm anymore. It only worked once. Now when I try to do those same steps, an edit SOP attaches itself to the xform SOP. To the best of my knowledge, i've tried all combinations of putting my mouse cursor in the network viewer and the actual main viewer (where the geomety is located), and the edit SOP always comes into being.

Here's exactly what i've done.

Select the “car tire” in the network viewer
Double-click it to get into the geometry level.
The xform SOP is already there from a previous occasion.
now when i click on the MOVE handle, it says (at the bottom of the screen), “select the geometry”, so when i click on the “car tire” in the main view, it only selects a tiny surface of the tire. If I try instead to click on the Xform SOP in the network view, it adds an edit SOP.

Does an edit SOP get added if i want to MOVE but does not get added if i want to SCALE? Thanks for letting me know!

If an xform SOP is already present just hit Enter to bring up its handle. Otherwise the transform buttons and t, r, e keyboard shortcuts will bring in an Edit SOP. In the SOP context you can select individual polygons, points, edges, and vertecies as you noticed. If you want to select the entire geometry, use the a shortcut or box select with your mouse.

YES i have finally overcome this hurdle i am so happy now! I repeated it many times just to make sure it works all the time and it does. I selected the xform SOP in the network view, moved my cursor into the main view, and hit enter. the handle that came up was the multi handle which seems to do exactly what i want to do. Thanks!