Creating an empty <3dnode>

[shivanangel]

Hello,

I read the help file and did a search on the forums but I didn't find an answer to my problem.

I want to set up several spheres around a parent object, however I do not want the parent object to be visible (in essence I want it to seem like they are revolving around nothing).

I was wondering if it is possible to create an empty 3dnode and have that act as the parent. I know I can not simply turn off the visibility of the parent, since this causes the children to also disappear.

I could always make a piece of geometry and scale it to 0,0,0 or make a plane with a transparent texture, but I was hoping there was a more elegant solution built into Vizard.

Thank You,

George L.

[farshizzo]

Use a group node, it is made for exactly this situation:

group = viz.addGroup()

child1 = viz.add('model1.ive',parent=group)
child2 = viz.add('model2.ive',parent=group)
child3 = viz.add('model3.ive',parent=group)

[shivanangel]

Thank you for the help.

I now see the group information in the help file under some lighting group stuff.

~George L.