Completely new to this. I have a series of points in a 3D graph and I am trying to either replace all the points with points with Spheres or make the points visible during graphing (whichever is possible/easier). How would I go about making this happen?
Thank you in advance for your help.
If the vertices are all one object, you could also use Dupliverts:
If the vertices are separate objects, join them with ⎈ CtrlJ
Parent the object to the vertices object.
Select the object you want to replace the vertices with and then the vertices object, then press ⎈ CtrlP> Object.
Enable Dupliverts in Properties > Object > Duplication on the vertices object:
If you want the duplicates to be on top of the vertices, make sure the object origins of both objects are in the same place. Use ⇧ ShiftS to snap the 3D cursor to an object and ⎈ Ctrl⎇ Alt⇧ ShiftC to snap the origin to the cursor.
Using dupliverts has the advantage that the object is instanced to each vertex, with in very efficient memory usage.
I just tested this by instancing a UV sphere to a > 20,000 vertex object with no trouble.
If your points are all a single object you can add a particle system.
Use Verts, No Physics, Objcect as render. select your sphere as Dupli object and adjust the size.
An alternative to cegaton's answer is to make links to another object in the scene. To do this, also make sure that your points are separate objects and that they all have their origins at their center (select all of the points and run CtrlAltShift + C > Origin To Geometry).
Next, with all the points selected, select the object you want to replace them with (make sure this is the last object selected) and run Ctrl + L > Object Data. Now all instances are linked to the one main object so you can jump into edit mode and scale or transform it as desired and it update all the others.
If for any reason after, you need them as unique objects again, select them all and press U > Object & Data.
