Okay.
So in today's lesson we're going to have a look at how to group objects together.
Now before we do that we first need to have a look at some different selection methods.
Um, we know that if we have a part in our game like this here, that we left click to select a part.
However, if we have multiple parts, how to select those the couple of different ways to do it.
So I'm going to duplicate this part um quite a few times.
And just move all these out just by dragging them over.
Might take a minute, but we can have a look at how to select some of these parts.
Sometimes you will need to select multiple parts at once.
So you have two options.
Basically you can select them through the explorer or you can select them through your screen here.
If you want to select them through your screen, you can just left click one.
Hold down shift and keep selecting like that there.
Okay.
And if you keep selecting your select path selection will be saved.
Whereas if you if you were just left clicking normally you see the previous one will be unselected.
So if you want to select um let's say these four over here, you can just hold down left click.
So hold down shift as your left clicking like that there.
And the good thing about this is once you have multiple selected you can then use any of the tools normally.
However, instead of just affecting one it affects all all of them that you selected.
In this case, if all four that we selected.
Another method to select them is to use the box select.
So to box select you hold down left click and move your mouse and a little box appears and anything
in that box will be selected.
So we've selected another five parts here.
And let's move them over here.
So now we have um three kind of distinct groups of parts.
Maybe I might move that one a bit closer.
Um, like that there.
The other method is using the explorer, and you might want to use that maybe when there's other parts
in the way, if you're using the box select or it's just a bit easier to do, maybe because you're far
away from the parts or they're invisible.
That kind of stuff.
Same kind of thing you can hold down in this case.
For me it is command click.
Um, I'm not sure.
Is that a, um, shortcut?
Um, so for me is command click.
It might be different for you if you're not on a mac.
Um, I believe it would be tab click.
Um, but I would just kind of experiment and see which one it is.
I'm not 100% sure.
Um, but I know it's command click for me to select individually like that there.
And it saves your previous selection.
Or if you want to save, um, or if you want to select between two parts or two objects, you can select
your first object and shift, click your second object and it will select everything in between.
Okay.
Um, you don't need to know all those selection methods as long as you've got a couple of them that
you're comfortable with using, that will be fine.
Cool.
So now we know the different selection methods, we're going to have a look at how to group objects
together.
Now the reason why you might want to group objects together is it makes your game a lot easier to work
with.
Okay, if you have a very large map, it will have thousands of parts.
And chances are all these parts, all these objects are going to be called parts with the name part.
So it's very difficult to figure out which one's which.
Whereas if you put them in a, if you grouped them together either in a module or a folder, um, it
they're much easier to find.
And also it means that you can select parts as a whole.
So there are a couple of different ways to group these parts together or any objects you can do this
for.
We just looking at parts for an example, first you need to select all of the objects you want included.
So I'm going to use a box.
Select and select those for here okay.
You can then right click on one of the selected parts.
And we can press Group as a model which has a shortcut for me of command G.
And that will group these objects together as a model.
I'm going to do the same for these ones.
So I'm going to select all of these right click.
And this time I'm going to select group as a folder.
Okay.
So these parts here have been grouped as a model.
And these ones here have been grouped as a folder.
Now.
Hopefully you can tell the difference now.
These ones here, when I hover over one, it hovers over all of them.
And let's say I select one.
It also selects all of them.
And when I move one it moves all of them.
So when you group something together, things together as a model, they all act as one.
However, when we grouped them together via a folder, we can individually select each one.
Completely fine, just like if they weren't grouped together at all.
So for model kind of has two uses it one makes objects act together as one, and two also makes your
explorer a bit easier to work with and in the folder just makes it easier to work with.
So about which one to use.
I would recommend.
If you have finished creating a building or a structure, I'd use a model for it.
Okay.
However, say you have I don't know, your map has ten houses.
Okay.
Put all those houses, house models or home models into your folder.
In that case, because it wouldn't make too much sense for ten houses which might not be connected,
they might be in different areas of the map to be act to act as one house.
Doesn't make too much sense.
So anything that should act as one put it, as a model, anything that you're just grouping together
because they're similar, or because just to make your game a bit more organized, you'd use a folder
instead.
Let's have a look at some of the properties of models and folders.
So if I select the model object in the explorer, you can see that if I open up the arrow, you can
see all my parts in here.
So I can still individually select these parts and move each one like that there.
It's just a bit more difficult to do than compared with a folder, where you can just do it automatically
like that.
There.
Okay, so yeah, all the objects included in that model are listed inside of it here.
And if we select the model it has some properties that are similar okay.
You have the name which we can maybe call um part group one.
It has a parent which it's a workspace.
In this case it also has the origin position and orientation which I said not really need to worry about
too much.
It has a primary part, um, a scale and a world pivot.
I wouldn't worry about any of those properties.
Um, primary parts we might look at when it comes to scripting.
But for now, you don't really need to know that.
And then if we click on the folder, it has just the basics name and parent, which we need to know
about.
And we can change this to maybe um, part folder one.
Okay, so we have our folder full of parts and our model full of parts, but we still have a couple
left over here.
Okay.
So we can move these into the models and the folders.
So let's say I want these two to go over to here.
Um there we go.
And these two to go over here.
So I need to select this one.
And this is our model here.
So what we can do is we can hold down on this part in the explorer.
And you can actually move it around like this here.
And this is how you change its parent.
You can do it via the property.
But this is also a method that you can use.
So I'll keep holding down on it.
Hover over the parts group that you've created and let go.
And it now drops in there and it's now part of that group.
Let's do the same for the other one.
So let's hold down move it over.
And now these two are together and we're just going to move them over.
So a bit closer.
So so they look like they were connected as one.
Cool.
And works the exact same way for the folders.
We can just move them over a bit more like this.
And then just put them both into the folder like that there.
Okay, so folders and models are really, really useful for your game.
Okay.
I would highly recommend whatever model or whatever building or structure you make.
You either use a model or a folder to organize it all together as it makes it very difficult.
Once you've got a very large game, how to select a certain object or to find a certain building, for
example.
So not everyone does this.
Not everyone groups their parts together, so I'd highly recommend you do that to make your game a lot
more easier to work with and kind of navigate through as you kind of make your map larger and make your
game, um, include more parts and stuff like that.
So have a go at um, the um, creating some models and folders.
Okay.
Note that for any shortcuts and buttons I've used might be slightly different on your device.
So if you do have a different device, um, have a look and see what those are.
And, um, once you're happy with those, you can join me in the next lesson.