Gaia's Turtle Inn

Building Tips

Precision, Part 2

In the June edition of the Gazette we talked about precision, particularly in using waypoint movers, warp and teleport. We looked at the use of the X Y & Z coordinates, and some of the tricks needed to successfully use them for various commands. This month we continue the discussion on precision, and this time we will look at the Rotation numbers. These are located below the Location coordinates in the Object Properties box, and they tell you how the object is aligned in relation to its X Y & Z coordinates.

object properties box Tilt shows how an object is tilted on its X axis.
Yaw shows how an object is angled on its Y axis. Yaw is particularly important because as you rotate an object, say, to make a right angle, the yaw will change by 90 degrees. Try it and see.
Roll shows how an an object is angled on its Z axis.

These rotation coordinates are shown in degrees, like in a circle. When you decide to rotate an object you will probably use your mouse, and it can be fussy aligning up objects, like doing a dome, or an arc. Here are some basic tips:

  • One LEFT BUTTON mouse click on the X Y or Z coordinates will move the object 15 degrees.
  • SHIFT + LEFT BUTTON mouse click on X Y or Z coordinates will move the object 1.5 degrees.
  • CTRL + SHIFT + LEFT BUTTON mouse click on X Y or Z coordinates will move the object 0.1 degree.
This means that you have some fine controls for rotating objects.

If you want to try another, rather rough approach, you can select an object, then hold down the RIGHT mouse button and move the object (or objects if you have selected more than one) and things will move -- very quickly!

Then, if you want to rotate objects, select an object(s), then hold down the LEFT mouse button and you can rotate, again quickly and not necessarily accurately.

To see all this in action, you should do the dome and sphere tutorial in AWSchool. It is very good, clearly laid out, and easy to follow. Its coordinates are AWSchool 62N 81W 0.0a 90.
Now, look at the screenshots below to get an idea of tilt, pitch and yaw. Alternatively, you can use the Yellow Wiki to find out the finer details on lots of building points.
Tilted object Yawed object rolled object

Another trick...

Finally, a quick trick for people using the XAW series of objects. We have used xaw26.rwx a lot in putting pictures of plants and trees on it. To make the effect a bit denser, add the picture of the plant to the first xaw26.rwx, then duplicate it. Rotate the duplicate 3 clicks. Instead of 4 you will then have 8 corners. The downside is, of course, that it takes up more bytes, so if you are fighting the Building Inspector for space, be cautious!

Next month -- does anyone have any building questions they want answered? Please contact Ozman for any comments or feedback on this article, particularly if there are any mistakes. He is doing this from experience. And as always, be sure to check the AW Help page and the related AW wiki pages for further help.

Do you have any questions on building?

Send us your questions on building. The more you learn the techniques, the better and more fun your builds can be. Mail your requests to Ozman. .

For new builders, be sure to visit AWNewbie, and AWSchool worlds for very good tutorials, on-line help from qualified teachers, and lots of very good objects.