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I'm a fledging in Blender and I've been monkeying with this amazing software for a few days. When I came around to Modifier -> Array, I got stuck into the option Object offset. With a bunch of tips I learned from Google and Youtube, in order to make a radial array for a selected object, we need to go through these following basic steps below:

  1. Add an Empty Plain Axes system
  2. Move the Cursor to World Origin
  3. Move the center of the selected object to Cursor
  4. Turn off Relative and Constant Offset
  5. Turn on Object Offset and choose the Empty
  6. Add more selected object number
  7. Rotate the Empty Plain Axes system about Z axis.

It didn’t work eventually and resulted in a crazy outcome.

I also turned my problem over to a video and it shows you three situations with the cube: the first is the standard, the second is the 45-degee-rotated, and the third is the resized. It, the radial array, only worked for the standard cube. The video is attached below for my explanation and your consideration.

I thought the answer is somewhere in the Preference of the Edit or otherwise, “I have no idea!” though. So, is there anyone here giving me a hand, my predecessors?

Thank you so much,

enter link description here

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    $\begingroup$ to add to Agnivesh's answer, instead of doing the transformation of your object in Object mode, do it in Edit mode, so that you won't need to apply the scale or rotation $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Commented May 30, 2022 at 7:23
  • $\begingroup$ Like @moonboots said, you wouldn't have the problem if you manipulated the cube in Edit Mode. The thing is, the Object Offset is not moving the instances per each step by the value applied on the empty, but by the difference between the empty and the original object. So even if you don't do anything with the empty, if you rotate the object by e.g. 15° on the X axis, then the cube instances will be rotated 15° on X per each step around the origin point. If you then rotate the empty on the Z, both rotations will be applied for each step of the instances. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Commented May 30, 2022 at 13:19
  • $\begingroup$ And this applies to all transformations. It's not just how the empty is transformed, it's the difference between the objects. Are the origins of the cube and the empty 1 meter apart on the X axis (no matter if the origins are at the world center or anywhere else)? Then each instance will be 1 meter on X away from the previous instance. Is there a Z angle difference of 10°? Then each instance is rotated 10° more on Z. Is the cube scaled to 0.5 on Y and the empty has a scale of 1? Then each instance will be twice as wide in Y direction then the previous instance. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Commented May 30, 2022 at 13:27
  • $\begingroup$ Oh by the way: one last thing, if you manipulate the cube in Edit Mode, another advantage aside from not having to apply transformations would be that the origin stays where it is and you don't have to move the origin to the 3D cursor afterwards. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Commented May 30, 2022 at 13:31
  • $\begingroup$ Also if you move the object in Edit mode the origin will stay where it is, no need to move it afterwards $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Commented May 30, 2022 at 13:52

2 Answers 2

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Possible reason is you haven't applied transformations to the object before using the modifiers, so before using the array modifier press, Ctrl + A and apply Rotation and Scale

Apply Rotation & Scale

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  • $\begingroup$ Your solution is the key. Many thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Lex Le
    Commented May 30, 2022 at 21:03
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Thank you for all your answers. The best solution is to apply the transformations before using modifiers. And the other important thing is remembering to try manipulating the object as much in the Edit Mode as possible.

See the video attached below for more clarification.

Enter link here to see the solution video

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