Blender Scene Setup

[cnwfan]

I took the dive into Blender this weekend. Having used 3DC before, I was prepared for the worst as I sat down with the latest Blender install, some tutorials I found through this forum and Google, and a cold adult beverage. Maybe it was my prior experience with 3DC, or the liberal percentage of Captain to cola, but I found myself actually somewhat understanding the interface. Not only could I follow the tutorial, but also understand the concepts the tutorial was presenting without self creating an FRA condemnable flat spot on my skull.

With all that said, I do have some quick questions that are more specific to railworks modeling in Blender than the generic tutorials seem to address. In 3DC, I would normally model in feet, with the grid being laid out in feet. I have read in various Blender forums that I can set the Scene to Imperial (feet). When I set this, will all objects added in the scene inherit the imperial unit of measure? Or do I need to set imperial on each object I add?

I found where I can set the grid lines (N key), which I believe equate to the unit of measure. However I'm fussy on the subdivisions. Assuming I use feet for the unit of measure, what would be a good number to use for subdivisions?

In 3DC, there is a shift center operation to move an object so it is not buried half way down. How do I perform the same function in Blender? In the one tutorial I'm following, it just had me move the cube with the arrow widget. Is it that simple, or is there something else that needs to be done?

I think that's it for now. Thank you!

[JerryC]

If you set the units of measurement to Imperial at the beginning of your project, all objects placed afterwards inherit that.

Moving the object with the arrows is simple enough. If you want to set up the cube so that the bottom of it is sitting on the "ground" (grid plane):
- in Edit Mode, select the face on the bottom of the cube.
- from the Meshes pop up menu, select "Snap" and "Cursor to Selected".
- Go to Object Mode, and from the pop-up menu select "Origin" and "Geometry to Cursor". That will put the select point of your cube on the bottom face.
- Set the coordinatea in the N menus to 0,0,0. Your cube will then be setting on the ground instead of buried halfway into it.

Welcome to Blender. You will find it more powerful and easier to use than 3DCrafter ever could be.

[cnwfan]

Thank you. That did the trick for getting the cube on the plane. One other quick question. For units, do you set the units to feet and the unit scale to 1.0? If I understand how the units work, using a 1.0 for unit scale is saying that 1 Blender unit is equal to 1 foot. Will this export correctly to railworks? If not, what are the correct settings? Thanks!

[JerryC]

I've never set the scale for anything, just changed the setting to Imperial. Everything has come out fine so far :) ! Now some literature says you have to do some things for scale when you export to Unreal, but I haven't had to do this yet.

Btw, that little trick that I spoke of earlier is also very useful in making parts butt together exactly.