General Questions

[Marein]

Here I shall post questions about Blender that I can't find the answer to, and others can do so as well, so I don't need to start a new topic for each of them...

Quuuuuestion numbeer ooone!
Is it possible to combine two files into one? Like: open file A, add file B, save as file C.

[Marein]

*bumps*

Can someone please answer this? Because I need to see if I amn't outbuilding my shell

[Paradox]

If you have the plugin installed, it is possible.

File->Import->*.blend (Something like that)
Then just click on the .blend file you wish to import.

Otherwise, search for "Blender + Append", but we hope you have the plugin because the other way is not much fun.

[Marein]

Thanks!

The next problem though, is that I only seem able to import .blend files... The error returned was that my .dxf was not a .blend file, anyways.

[Aloys]

The append function is quite usefull but again you'll need to convert your .dxf file into a blend one.

To append something, first open file A, then go to File > Append (or press Shift-F1), a file browser will open. Select File B, then go to "Object". Then you can select the objects you want to import, so you either press 'A' to select every objects and import them all or you select the ones you want by highlighting them (right click) and then pressing 'load library'. Objects you have selected will now be in your scene and you can save all this as a new file if you want.

Make sure to give a look at the buttons at the bottom (Append, link, autosel, Active Layer etc). The default settings should work fine but there are a couple usefull things in there if you want, just read the 'tooltips' (the text that appears when you leave your cursor two seconds over a button).

A note about 'Append' vs 'link'. 'Append' just imports your objects from file B in your current file. 'Link' however actually 'link' them to you current file rather than importing them. That means the objects you have linked appear in your file (and will be export to URu) but they're not really here, you can't edit them, and they will always reflect the original objects in file B; so if you change anything in file B you won't need to re-append the objects in file A to update them.
Here's a quick example: for Ahra I work with 2 files. One with the shells and one with the rest of the city (streets, walls, sky etc). The shells objects are linked into the City scene. That way I can edit all my shells separately and not risk to accidentaly edit one. (that has appened before) Also the scene is quite large and when I load everything my computers starts to choke, but if I remove the shells it much easier then.

So this is very useful when you need to either 'protect' some objects, or when it's easier for you to have them in a separate file.

I admit it's not something that's usefull every day, but when you need it you can't do without it.

[Marein]

What's the maximum number of polys I can/should have?

[Aloys]

In all honnesty this a question I'd very much like to avoid.
The simple truth is: we haven't decided yet. There are many technical unknown factors in this and deciding on a definitive number is impossible for now.
So the rule of thumb is to keep it 'reasonnable'. (if that is any help)

The one thing I like to emphasize, is that the limitation is more on the number of polygons that can be seen from the street. Because when we'll have lots of shells those are the ones that will slow down someone's computer when walking in the street looking at all those shells. Polygons that are hidden from the view shouldn't matter be cause they shouldn't be taken into account.
Polygons that can be seen from the streets are: those that are behind the entrance of your shell and those that can be seen above the walls.

NowI say 'should/shouldn't" because at this point this is mostly technical speculation on my part. There are many things the blender plugin can do, but those kinds of 'rendering optimizations' are not part of those.

So these polygon limitations are more something for the future, when the plugin will have evolved enough to include that, or when we'll get tools from Cyan which use that. So for now let's just make things 'reasonnable' and we should all be fine.