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472 Chapter 7: Creating Copies and Arrays
• Creating Linear Arrays (page 1–487)
• Creating Circular and Spiral Arrays (page 1–489)
Mirroring Objects (page 1–491)
Using the Spacing Tool (page 1–491)
Ov er v iew of Copies, I nsta nces,
an d R efer ences
Toduplicateanobject,youuseoneofthree
methods. For all three methods, the original and
clone (or clones) are identical at the geometry
level.Wherethemethodsvaryisinthewaythey
handle modifiers (for example, Bend or Twist).
An object can be a copy of another.
Copy m e t h o d : Creates a completely separate clone
fromtheoriginal.Modifyingonehasnoeffecton
the other.
Inst ance met hod: Creates a completely
interchangeable clone of the orig inal. Modifying
an instanced object is the same as modifying the
original.
Reference me tho d: Creates a clone dependent
on the ori ginal up to the p oint when the object is
cloned. Changing p arameters for modifiers that
were applied to the object before the object was
referenced, will change both objects. However, a
new modifier can be applied to one of the reference
objects,anditwillaffectonlytheobjecttowhichit
is applied.
Depending on the method used to create them,
cloned objects are called copies, instances,or
references.
The following discussion focuses on how you
might use these methods.
Copies
Copies are the most familiar kind of clone object.
When you copy an object, you create a new,
independent master object and data flow resulting
in a new, named object. The copy duplicates al l
of the data of the original object at the time it is
copied. The copy has no connection to the original
object.
Example of Using Copied Object s
If you modeled a basic head shape and wanted to
create a group of indiv idual characters, you would
probably make a copy of the basic head shape
each t ime you started a new character. You could
thenmodelanindividualnose,mouth,andother
features.
Copying Actively Linked Objec ts
When you copy objects that are actively lin ked
through the File Link Manager (page 3–422),the
software automatically converts the copies to
editable mesh objects. If your selection contains
several objects that instance another object, the
resulting copies also instance the same object.
Instances
Instances are alike not only in geometry, but also
in ever y other way as well. Instancing an object
resultsinmultiplenamedobjectsbasedonasingle
master object. Each named object instance has its
own set of transforms, space warp bindings, and
object prop erties, but it shares the object modifiers