Editable Proxies

[Simon]

You can now make linked copies of an object called Proxies (or Instances)

You can change their material style and position/rotation/scale, while their underlying mesh is shared between all the copies - so changes to one shape effect all the copies.

Proxies also save a lot of memory and save file size.

See below - the only difference between top and bottom is a few edits to a single object's curve.

[Markku]

Can they be converted actual copies? For export, at least? Would be super useful.

[Simon]

Yes, you can turn them into separate unique objects, and they will export as normal meshes.

[Mr.Nemo]

This sounds fantastic. I do have a question. Could we take the instances and convert them into objects with editable curves? Say you make a lathe, instance it, make changes to parent, extract the instance, then modify the instance as it's own object. Hard to explain.

[Simon]

Yes, if you didn't know you were using proxies it would just look like several Lathes. And if you "separate" one it works like a normal lathe still.

[Mr.Nemo]

Sweet. This works as a great work around for arrays and the like.

[drawsattention]

How do we create proxies? I have tried copy and paste but obviously that is not it. Still learning here. Just discovered we have transparency by using fog the other day so any and all tips are welcome. Thanks!

[drawsattention]

Can you please explain proxies and extracting instances? I think I understand that we are making copies without all the lines? How? Thanks!

[drawsattention]

Can you please explain proxies and extracting instances? I think I understand that we are making copies without all the lines? How? Thanks!

[Simon]

Proxies is still in progress and not enabled in the current build.

As it turns out there are lots of subtle complexities making proxies work smoothly with the existing tools. I've been thinking this through and do aim to get them working eventually.

[drawsattention]

Oh! That explains it! Looking forward to that.

[sculptor]

i think proxies are a nice idea but given the difficulty and complexity of making them work well
i doubt if they are really worth the effort. I know in bryce they are a major cause of crashes for me and end up being quite difficult to use. In a gaming world they are indispensable but i'm not so sure in curvy.
only my personal opinion of course.

[Simon]

I can think of a couple of cases where proxies would be really handy, in particular if the proxy is mirrored to the opposite side of a model. But yes they do seem like an extra layer of complexity. If I can't come up with a clean reliable solution now, they might go back on the wish list for another day.

[Simon]

Proxies will be back in 4.0 - abeit in a much more direct form, with a single source object and a number of simple clones that will copy the original if it changes.

Proxies are the simplest kind of "Live Edit" you can do on a model, with more interesting things like creating arrays of copies, or copies over a surface of another object as more advanced proxy techniques.

So now, despite the added complexity it is worth doing as there is lots of related work already in progress for 4.0