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I've got a model that I'd like to duplicate at a variety of locations; at the rectangles here:

enter image description here

I wondered if I could create a parent mesh, with a vertex at each place I want a duplicate:

enter image description here

The problem with this is that there doesn't seem to be a way to customize the rotations at each of the duplicates.

Is there a way to duplicate an object (and its children) at various places, without simply duplicating the object a bunch of times?

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  • $\begingroup$ Instead of a vertex at each location, you could create a face, using either hair particles or dupliface, the face will then give you the direction. Then that seems as much work as duplicating by hand anyway. I guess if you want them to move with the mesh then it would be worth it. $\endgroup$
    – sambler
    Commented Aug 17, 2017 at 5:04
  • $\begingroup$ I'm in over my head trying to make a big animation.. seems to me that it'll be easiest to animate them as a group, if they're generated duplicates $\endgroup$
    – ajwood
    Commented Aug 17, 2017 at 11:59

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If you want to align the objects with the holes that's actually a really tricky problem. Actually finding the holes is going to require a non-trivial algorithm.

You could simplify things if you assign the vertices bordering the holes to a Vertex Group. Then you would have to find edges whose vertices belong to the vertex group, and you would then have to make sure that the edges you find don't together have an existing face.

If you are content to do things a little more manually: Create a group and populate it with the duplicates arranged so they fit in the holes of one of the meshes at zero location and zero rotation.

Once you have that group you can make duplicates of the mesh, and then under the Object tab of the Properties panel you can hunt for the Duplication subsection and set it to Group and choose the group of objects you created.

dupligroups

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This sounds like an XY problem. If you're trying to make an animation and move them all together, it's probably easier to just duplicate them a bunch of times and then parent the objects to a common empty.

  • Duplicate and move them. You can do the rotation by putting the 3D cursor where you want the center and setting the Pivot Center to '3D Cursor'.
  • Add an Empty object at the center point. If you used the 3D cursor rotation method, it will be added at the correct point to start!
  • Select all the objects you want to move together, and then the Empty you just added. Press Ctrl+P to parent them.

Now when you move the Empty around (or rotate it), the other objects will follow it.

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  • $\begingroup$ I think it's a little more complicated than that. The thing I'm duplicating is a group of 5 objects in parent/child relationships; the one I'm animating (for now) is in the middle of the hierarchy. I suppose either copy from constraints or drivers is an option. $\endgroup$
    – ajwood
    Commented Aug 18, 2017 at 11:41
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, OK. I couldn't tell that from the picture. So you want to move the parent of the object you're animating? $\endgroup$
    – SilverWolf
    Commented Aug 18, 2017 at 14:51
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, I should have been more clear in my question. I want a duplicate of the whole hierarchy of objects (parents and all of its children), and animate one of the child objects. $\endgroup$
    – ajwood
    Commented Aug 18, 2017 at 15:22

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