Seriously, how do you reset the grid pivot / origin to use projectors without fighting them?

[EmberStar]

I am trying to repair an encounter ship. I want to project a copy of the original workshop design over it. I have copied both ships into Creative mode, making sure to aim the crosshairs at the projector block. When I did this before, it *seemed* to cause the projector block to be set as the grid origin / grid pivot for the new blueprint.

But this time, it's not working. The grid pivot is... some random block in the middle(ish) of the ship, although not *actually* the middle of the ship. It is rotated apparently at random from the direction I am facing in basically every direction. When I try to adjust the roll/pitch/yaw and offsets of the projection, *nothing* makes sense.

There has to be a better way to do this, so that I can just LOAD the blueprint and it will be overlaid on the ship, with the correct offsets, facing the correct direction. And without requiring me to write down everything in case the projector ever gets reset and I have to go through all of this AGAIN.

As I said, I added a projector block to both ships in equivalent locations. I aimed at the projector block from about the same distance and facing in the same direction and used Ctrl-B to make blueprints to edit in Creative Mode. (The original Workshop ship used rotors and must be older, because it's got some fairly nasty Phantom Force torque. So the copy I'm using has the rotors removed and a few other changes.) But the instant I paste the blueprint into the projector on either ship, it's upside down, backwards and sideways, and slipped about five blocks to one side.

This is, frankly, beyond just being annoying at this point. I would appreciate any suggestion for what I'm doing wrong when making the blueprints, and how I can correct this.

[Candarian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLVnhk7wzoI

i think that might help u (probably)

[Wimwyn]

To use a projector, go into any control access point that the projector is connected to (assuming the projector is attached to your base, then any control point on your base)

The best way to do it is to put a block near the projector, and a control panel on the block, or use a button panel.

Open the control panel tab after clicking I, F or K on the control panel and search for "projector" or any variant of the word (projec, proje, proj etc, the more letters the less results you get) scroll down to "Blueprint" then click it

Find your blueprint in the blueprint list and double click it.

Then underneath there is Forward, vertical, Horizontal, Yaw, Pitch and (I think "roll") - Play with these settings until the projection has moved where you want it, if you are putting it over a ship, then you have to orient the projection over the ship - A LOT easier if the projector itself if actually ON the ship.

Then start welding. a youtube video would probably help more than reading this :)

[Wimwyn]

Originally posted by Candarian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLVnhk7wzoI

i think that might help u (probably)

What he said.

[EmberStar]

Originally posted by Pojop:

Then start welding. a youtube video would probably help more than reading this :)

Right. Did you read my post at all? I'm trying to set up the blueprints so that I do NOT have to spend ten minutes screwing with offsets and rotation every time I want to project something. You've suggested I do exactly what I'm doing, which is NOT how I want it to work. (Load blueprint, spend ages fighting with random rotation and offset because whoever built the original ship used a landing gear strut attached to the ceiling six blocks behind and to one side.)

[EmberStar]

Originally posted by Candarian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLVnhk7wzoI

i think that might help u (probably)

I've seen it, and no, it doesn't.

[Candarian]

there is a way to fix your problem in that video if i remember it right
thats why i said i might help
something with copy and paste a blueprint(just cant remeber everything)

[Demented]

That video is mostly correct, but it seems the projector now uses the "oldest block", not the grid pivot.

You can change that in pretty much the same way as you adjust the grid pivot, by pasting your blueprint onto another block, because all the pasted blocks will be considered newer than the ones on the existing grid. This might mean you'll want to remove a block from your blueprint, then paste the blueprint onto an existing block so that it replaces the missing block.

[Burstar]

Originally posted by Demented:

That video is mostly correct, but it seems the projector now uses the "oldest block", not the grid pivot.

This is wrong. The projector uses the grid pivot which is itself created (and orientation set) when placing the first block of the grid.

To the OP: The only way I know of to ensure that a projected blueprint appears exactly where you want it is to place the projector block down first. This sets the Grid Pivot on the projector.

You can move a grid pivot by pasting the grid onto another grid. At this point the entire combined grid would use the Grid Pivot of the grid that was pasted on.to. There may also be a way to do this with SE Toolbox but I'm not sure because I understand how the game works and place my Pivots correctly to begin with.

Something else I will do in cases where the Pivot isn't where I want it to be and I can't use the paste technique to change it (because the desired location is buried in the middle somewhere) is to figure out the Projector offset values and use a shorthand of them in the Grid Name.

[Jack Schitt]

You have to set the grid pivot orientation before you build the ship. If it's not how you want it the projection can be moved around and put in the correct position by using the positioning sliders in the projector settings of the terminal. There is no other way to position it how you want to do it without either setting the grid pivot perfectly (which isn't easy, practice practice until you figure out exactly how the pivot works and gets oriented according to how the projector is placed) or moving the offset sliders for the projector around to adjust the blueprint's position until it's where you want it.

Those are the only ways to do it.

[Demented]

Originally posted by Burstar:

This is wrong. The projector uses the grid pivot which is itself created when placing the first block of the grid.

The location of the projection is now based on the location of the oldest block. The orientation of the projection is based on the grid's orientation, which is shown by the pivot, so you're not totally wrong, but I didn't feel like mentioning it since the video already did so.

[EmberStar]

Originally posted by Burstar:

You can move a grid pivot by pasting the grid onto another grid. At this point the entire combined grid would use the Grid Pivot of the grid that was pasted on.to. There may also be a way to do this with SE Toolbox but I'm not sure because I understand how the game works and place my Pivots correctly to begin with.

First: I am working with ships I didn't create. One is one of the "random encounter" wrecks, the other is a modified version of the ship I believe it was derived from. Since I didn't create either ship, I didn't have any control over making sure to "place the Pivots correctly to begin with." That is what I'm *trying* to figure out how to correct.

I had been told previously that when making a new blueprint, whatever block the crosshairs is over when you press Ctrl-B will be set as the new Grid Pivot. It certainly *appeared* to be doing this when I was working with different ships a few days ago. Since it's very clearly NOT doing so now, I can only assume I got lucky and somehow managed to place the repair projectors on top of the grid pivot completely by accident.

What method do you use to control where the grid pivot ends up when you are building a new ship? Since I would like to avoid this frustration in the future.

[Burstar]

Originally posted by EmberStar:

What method do you use to control where the grid pivot ends up when you are building a new ship? Since I would like to avoid this frustration in the future.

In Creative Mode:
-Go into terminal and enable 'Show Grid Pivot'
-Place a projector block. Note you can see it's grid pivot as they are created when the first block is placed.
-Enter blueprint menu and copy the desired BP to clipboard
-Paste the BP elsewhere. Find the grid pivot of this pasted grid and just make a mental note of where it is (not important just so you learn what's going on).
-Aim at the block surface you want the Grid Pivot to be next to on this pasted grid, and Cut (Ctrl+X) it into clipboard
-Looking at the Projector block, paste the cut grid in against it. Note that the anchor point of the grid you are pasting in was set by the block you were looking at on it when you cut it.

When finished you should have 1 grid: the pasted in BP with the extraneous projector block on it. You should see that the grid pivot is now located at this projector block. If you desire you can delete this projector block and the new grid pivot remains. Rename the grid (the game thinks it's now the projector grid), and copy/update the BP.

This describes that
a) Grid Pivots are placed where the first block was placed, and
b) Remain after block is removed (so long as there are still blocks remaining on that grid)
c) you can manipulate where the pivot is after the fact by pasting the grid onto another grid

Edit: Demented is correct. Apparently the Pivot is no longer the projection source, but only indicates direction. I don't know why Keen changed that. The technique still applies if you don't remove that first placed block.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, go to space, add a floor of blocks, paste your ship on it, delete the floor of blocks and create a new Blueprint.

= You have now changed the grid pivot to > under the ship where the "floor of blocks was.

it will use the new added grid pivot so that is a way to change its position.

[Candarian]

12:00 - 16:00 min explain it in the video

[EmberStar]

Originally posted by Burstar:

Originally posted by EmberStar:

What method do you use to control where the grid pivot ends up when you are building a new ship? Since I would like to avoid this frustration in the future.

In Creative Mode:
-Go into terminal and enable 'Show Grid Pivot'
-Place a projector block. Note you can see it's grid pivot as they are created when the first block is placed.
-Enter blueprint menu and copy the desired BP to clipboard
-Paste the BP elsewhere. Find the grid pivot of this pasted grid and just make a mental note of where it is (not important just so you learn what's going on).
-Aim at the block surface you want the Grid Pivot to be next to on this pasted grid, and Cut (Ctrl+X) it into clipboard
-Looking at the Projector block, paste the cut grid in against it. Note that the anchor point of the grid you are pasting in was set by the block you were looking at on it when you cut it.

When finished you should have 1 grid: the pasted in BP with the extraneous projector block on it. You should see that the grid pivot is now located at this projector block. If you desire you can delete this projector block and the new grid pivot remains. Rename the grid (the game thinks it's now the projector grid), and copy/update the BP.

This describes that
a) Grid Pivots are placed where the first block was placed, and
b) Remain after block is removed (so long as there are still blocks remaining on that grid)
c) you can manipulate where the pivot is after the fact by pasting the grid onto another grid

Edit: Demented is correct. Apparently the Pivot is no longer the projection source, but only indicates direction. I don't know why Keen changed that. The technique still applies if you don't remove that first placed block.

Thank you. It sounds like I can accomplish what I've been fighting with by dropping a projector block, copying the ship by pointing at where I want the repair projector to be placed in the finished ship and then pasting it in the correct orientation. Then cutting / copying the ship to clipboard and using it to 'Replace' the one I'm trying to fix under the F10 menu.

And it really does seem weird that they'd change from a fixed origin Grid Pivot to something like "oldest block." It's about the only thing more random and unpredictable that I can think of than the original system. Especially if you're repairing a ship after the fact. (Ship gets shot, armor gets blown off. Congrats, "oldest block" is now a completely random armor block on the edge of the damaged area. >.< ) Good luck figuring out what the origin block is if you're repairing a captured Space Pirate ship.