solid construct menu

get solid tag


Purpose
To access individual parts of the tree directly, bypassing the edit menu. This is done by using a tag name.

Usage
Click the get solid tag button to activate it. The selection submenu will be displayed where you can make your selection.

Comments
If the currently active part of the tree has a tag assigned to it, you will see it listed in the tag input box in the status area. If there is no tag name visible, you can assign a tag. To do so, click the tag input box to activate it, then enter the tag name. Objects already tagged are listed in the tags submenu. Objects without a tag can be accessed by using up, left, and right buttons in the edit menu or using the u, l, r keyboard shortcuts. However, it is advisable to always tag objects to prevent lengthy searches through the hierarchical tree.
Only one tagged part of the tree can be activated with get solid tag. If you wish to activate more than one part (for transformation only), use the multiple tags button on the edit menu. Then, any number of tagged parts of the tree may be selected and transformed together. multiple tags can be used only for transformations (not for animation or attribute assignment).

Example
Suppose you are building an animated robot arm that consists of many different moving parts. You can give the entire arm one tag, the section from the elbow down another tag, the hand (including the fingers) another tag, and each finger a separate tag as well. When it is time to animate the arm, each part of the arm is easily referred to by the tag assigned to it.

See also
solid construct input boxes all tags: edit menu section