At around 11:45 Grant says you “could use the mirror command” - but how would you do this with multiple objects selected? When I try, it only applies the Mirror modifier to the last object I selected. I tried creating a group, as well as parent links, but quickly got lost…
Do you need to apply a separate Mirror modifier to each and every object you wish to mirror?
I think if you Shift-Select all the objects without the Mirror modifier, then Shift-Select the object with the Mirror modifier (so that it is the last object selected and appears with a yellow outline) you can then hit Control or Command - L to ‘Link/Transfer Data’, and choose ‘Copy Modifiers’ to copy the Mirror modifier to all the objects without it.
Hopefully this should work regardless of whether objects are in a Group or Collection.
See how you go.
You can use the copy modifiers linking.
Select the items you want to have the mirror on, Lastly select the item with the mirror modifier on it, then press Ctrl L and choose modifiers.
If you make one item like one beam, if you duplicate it in object mode, then move and change it as needed, it will duplicate with the modifier already on it, which is another way of doing many similar items.
Ah, “copy modifiers” isn’t really “linked” though, since if I change the mirror on the original object it doesn’t automatically “reflect” (heh heh) in the copied ones - they aren’t linked at all, just copied.
Ok, this pretty much answers my question though - there’s no such thing as mirroring a group of objects with the modifier, you essentially have to apply separate modifiers to every object. It is a shame (I’m used to parametric modeling), but I can work with that. Thank you for your reply, and to @Rory_B also.
Is parametric modelling how something like Houdini works?
@Rory_B I’m sorry I really wouldn’t know about Houdini - my experience is with Fusion 360. Essentially you have a long chain of non-destructive operations that create a timeline, allowing you to roll back and insert changes and then roll forward again to have those changes integrated into future ones. It basically means you never really have to “apply” anything, it’s always a chain of operations where the next operation is performed on the final outcome of the entire chain before it.
E.g. you can usually do something like combine a bunch of features into a single group and then apply a modifier like “mirror” to that group, then later split out the group and make individual changes, but retain the entire history so that the mirroring continues to work even after you break the group apart. Hard to explain, but Blender makes you commit to things every so often in order to progress, and applying things is often destructive.
Hey, cool. Yes that’s my understanding of how Houdini works. And I didn’t know Fusion 360 worked like that.
Just had another look and no, it doesn’t look like you can make Collection or Parent the objects to something to then apply a Mirror modifier. You would have to join them together as one mesh, apply a modifier to that mesh then move the individual components / parts as needed.
Blender is currently implementing GEO-NODES, also non destructive operations on objects.
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