Linked duplicate of parent/children: how to link transform properties of children?

Question

Let's say I have a cube and a sphere, and I make the cube the parent of the sphere. Then I link-duplicate both the cube and sphere with AltD. Then I start moving/rotating/etc. the duplicates around in object mode, together as a unit.

Later, I discover that I want to change the position of the sphere (child) with respect to the cube (parent). I re-position the original sphere, but the duplicate sphere does not change position.

I can manually copy the transform values from the original to the duplicate, but is there a way to automatically have the transform values be linked?

Answer 1

In Blender 2.8+, this has changed a bit from @sambler's answer.

Changes since older versions:

• Groups are now superseded by something called Collections (see video)
• The "Duplication" setting in an empty is now superseded by a section called "Instancing".

The updated steps are:

• Select the objects you want to duplicate.
• Add them to a new Collection by right clicking or using hotkey M.
• You can rename the Collection so that it is more meaningful.
• Add an empty
• Set the empty's Instancing setting to "Collection" and choose the collection you created.
• Repeat the last two steps as needed.

Answer 2

To duplicate multiple objects in different positions and keep the relationship between each instance, you want to use DupliGroups.

• Select the objects you want to duplicate.
• Add them to a group ⎈ CtrlG
• You can rename the group so that it is more meaningful.
• Add an empty
• Set the empties Duplication setting to group and choose the group you created.
• Repeat the last two steps as needed.