Pivot Edit

Pivot Edit fixes the pivots of a kit's parts so that rigging can work out what attaches to what. Each part's pivot should sit at its base, where it joins its parent: a branch where it meets the trunk or a larger branch, a leaf or bud where it meets its stem. Kits exported from other programs often have their pivots somewhere else. The Assembly Resource has this state built in as Edit Pivot; the node does the same job on its own, on a kit from Import Assembly. The rigging steps after it are hidden, so a kit still needs the Assembly Resource to be rigged. It is on the toolbar's Assemblies menu.

Fixing pivots

Parts with bad pivots show red, and the node names them. Press Enter (or Fix Pivots (Enter)) to open the state, which shows only the parts. Left-drag over a part from its base in the direction it points, and the pivot moves to that base. Then drag the gizmo to fine-tune; the drag doesn't handle concave shapes well, so use the gizmo there. The heads-up display lists the other keys, such as C for the drag plane and S to snap to splines. The node shows how many parts it has and how many pivots are valid.

The name attribute, under Settings (name by default), marks instances of the same geometry, which share the same name.

Check Unedited Pivots, under Advanced, is on by default: every part you haven't edited is still checked, so the error lists every bad pivot. Scenes saved before this option open with it off, and then only edited pivots are checked once you've edited any.