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Hey guys

I'm somewhat new to blender and modeling in general.

I'm trying to find a way to remove some instances in this array without having to apply the modifier. I want to have just the twelve spikes (marked green) but still have the benefit of only having to edit one to change all of them.

Is there a way to do this?

Jellyfish
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    Reducing the array count does not work ? Another possibility : alt+D makes duplicates (different objects with the same mesh) – lemon Aug 23 '16 at 06:18
  • You misunderstand, I don't wish to reduce the number of counts, I want to remove all but the ones marked green.

    I would like to keep those spikes in their current positions and also maintain the effect of the array modifier so only have to make changes to one spike and not all of them at the same time.

     – Jellyfish Aug 23 '16 at 06:19
  • You are using an array and a curve here, right ? – lemon Aug 23 '16 at 06:22
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    the circle was there as a guide and I forgot to remove it. It's just an array modifier with a rotated empty as the offset. – Jellyfish Aug 23 '16 at 06:26
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    So just keep 12 in the array and rotate the empty less – lemon Aug 23 '16 at 06:29
  • but that would alter the positions of the spikes which I don't want to do – Jellyfish Aug 23 '16 at 06:30
  • make a duplicate of the array, apply the array to the duplicate, remove the green-marked spikes from the duplicate. Done. – Anthony Forwood Aug 24 '16 at 00:32

2 Answers2

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How about using the Array modifier for one side (8 of the spikes) and then a Mirror modifier to replicate that on the other side?

Rich Sedman
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This doesn't seem to be possible only with Array modifier with rotation offset. The geometry created by the modifier doesn't exist yet and isn't accessible neither for deleting duplicate which is not needed after arraying nor avoiding duplicating at some point.

However it is achievable with duplifaces. Instead of rotated empty create mesh with basic geometry which will serve as a guide for new duplicated meshes.

  1. Model a new mesh with geometry which respects profile of the end mesh.
  2. Parent one of the spikes to this new mesh.

  3. Enable Duplifaces in Object rollout > Duplication.

    screenshot of modeled parent mesh

    screenshot of duplifaced mesh

    Now to make arbitrary number of duplicated spikes simply delete corresponding part of geometry of the parent mesh. You will have possibility to edit only one object (the original spike) while all the duplicates will receive those updates:

    screenshot of duplifaced meshes

Note:

  1. You can edit geometry of the parent mesh to change distribution of duplicated objects.

  2. Orientation of the duplicated objects does depend on normals of the parent mesh so make sure they're pointed out correctly.

  3. The main object (the parented one) should be in place as location of its origin point and its geometry determine location of duplicated objects. It won't be rendered though.

  4. To make duplicated objects real ones use Make Duplicates Real operator.

Community
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Mr Zak
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  • Something has happened to manual pages about dupliverts and duplifaces as it seems they should be there. – Mr Zak Aug 23 '16 at 12:28
  • Unfortunately this method seems to have some issues with it. The duplicates are rotated 90 degrees and flipped for seemingly no reason. The transforms on the parent mesh are all 0, and the object is still in it's original position. http://i.imgur.com/rPRlcTB.png – Jellyfish Aug 23 '16 at 22:37
  • @Jellyfish could you provide info about how duplicates should be oriented ? I'm not sure what do you mean by "flipped". In general, check origin points of the parent and the duplicate meshes. To control rotation of all of the duplicates rotate parented mesh in Edit mode. – Mr Zak Aug 24 '16 at 07:45