In tcw2017 PP (24.0.38.2 ) and anilab v5, in previous animations that Id done where I had objects grouped together I could drill downto a single object and select that object and perform actions on it. Now for some reason I can no longer select an individual object thats within a group, any idea why?

fwiw, it doesnt stop me from performing actions, but when its not highlited it makes it harder to work out if your selected  the right object. Where I say select I mean, be highllited and displayed as selected by the 3D selector on screen by the magenta colour.

Same problem exists in tcw2017 PP (24.0.62.2) All scenario editor settings are checked. Is it a tcw problem of anilab?

I think this is two separate things. 

In the AL palette,  if there is a parent group with children displayed, then clicking on an actor in AL will highlight the object on screen, if a parent group with no children displayed then there is no way in AL to select a child.

In the selection palette,  in GDI mode - selection a child member of a group will highlight the object,

In the selection palette,  in RedSDK mode - selecting a child member of a group does not highlight the object (and I don't know any way round it - others may),  what I do is have concentric selector profile type as simple, and use the CTRL+left mouse button and click on n actual object within the group that I need, I then watch the selection palette which will show which one I've selected.

     

TurboCAD 2017 PP (24.0.38.2)

Older file of the autolaoader design I did some months back.

In the 3 capture files it clearly shows that AniLab Actor LiftGrp has 2 objects within that group:
LiftOuter
LiftInnerGrp ( bad name used here, should have been called LiftInner only )

Capture 1.png shows the LiftGrp selected inside tcw/anilab
Capture 2.png shows the LiftOuter selected inside tcw/anilab
Capture 3.png shows the LiftInnerGrp selected inside tcw/anilab

Point here is that tcw and anilab are working correctly. To confirm look at whats selected in each capture, the clue is the size of the selection rectangle.

Distributor model

In the 3 capture files it clearly shows that AniLab Actor VA Group has 3 objects within that group:
Spring
RubberDiaphram
Cylinder

VA 1.png shows the VA Group selected inside tcw/anilab
VA 2.png shows the VA Group selected inside tcw, but Ive selected the Spring within AniLab
VA 3.png shows the VA Group selected inside tcw, but Ive selected the RubberDiaphram  within AniLab ( not  uploaded as the limit is 6 attachments )
VA 4.png shows the VA Group selected inside tcw, but Ive selected the Cylinder within AniLab
 
Point here is that tcw and anilab are NOT working correctly. When I select the Spring inside anilab the complete group is highlited in tcw and the same goes for the other attached images.

These two files are displaying selected objects in different ways and its now put a HALT to all of my animations. With 4 different animations in progress and with each animation having many objects ( actors), selecting anything with anilab is now frustrating, any idea why?

For the Autoloader design in the previous post AniLAb is behaving correctly by selecting parent objects ( group ) and showing what youve selected in tcw. When selecting the child object it clearly shows the selected object in tcw and not the group object. Correct behaviour.

Not so for the Distributor model. 

Why?

Andy & Tim

If I cant figure this out, I would personally appreciate your assistance with solving these issues?

Maybe by emailing the source files.

Screwy, for some reason anilab is now selecting child objects within a group correctly. Go figure!

Daz,

    yes, the selection problems can sometimes be very puzzling.
    I sympathise. However, I cannot suggest any reasonable solution other than persevering.

    I usually resolve this behaviour by clicking on various actors, until the one I need is selected.
    Not very helpful, I know, but it seems to work.

    For me, it matters not how complex the animation.
    There seems to be some slowness or inefficiency in the code, when the mouse is clicked.
    Once it is selecting okay, it appears keep working!

Regards Tim

Today its selecting properly but getting some weird results. see my other post in http://forums.turbocad.com/index.php/topic,22010.0.html

I think Ive figured this selection issue out but not solved. A couple of hours ago the same problem appeared again where anilab would not select child object inside a parent object ( grouped ). So I decided to delete the built in folder for the 2nd time and retested, but no good so I went back and deleted the active Built In folder and renamed my older folder ( Built Out ) back  to Built In. Hey presto I can now select objects inside groups again. So on my system it appears that the built in folder contents is the key.

Daz,

    ummm, yes.  Although I'm not entirely convinced, if it works for you, that's great.
    Keep us posted on progress.

Regards Tim

Just frustrated now as the selection is ok at the moment but I cant move or rotate or perform other actions on a child object thats in a group, whereas previously I could. All my animation projects are caput.

I'm guessing your using RedSDK mode,   don't know about other people, but for me selecting objects in RedSDK is temperamental, and it very much worse in the selection palette where it never highlights anything within a group, (this is the same for me for me going back to v2015), so I rely on giving things names so I can tell objects apart.

GDI mode is much better at this so -  If using TC 2017 and your struggling to find things, you could try switching to GDI mode for manipulation and see if that's any better for you, it will be slower when working with nested groups, but for me its more consistent,  that said I am currently working with nested groups 5 deep, if I'm only working 1 or 2 deep I just plod on in RedSDK as best I can.

I tried GDI mode and that did not fix the issue. Well Ive finally got animation lab working to the point that its working reliably again, this has been a long process to try and discover the what and why so I will do my best to explain so that others can learn and hopefully prevent further problems. Just before I delve into what I discovered let me remind you that I had a electricity power outage ( brown out ) that essentially ruined my pc and damaged a lot of open files. All my installable backup software was intact except the last 6 days of new files created in tcw or modifications in anilab.

Selecting grouped objects and performing any actions on the child objects caused my many hours of problems and frustrations but I know see anilab working properly, heres what I learnt and discovered:

After buying a new pc and reinstalling all my software and either redesigning lost tcw & anilab files or starting from scratch again on projects that I had already done but lost. The issue that had bugged my system for days has now gone and while I cannot supply full and irrefutable evidence as such, I can only report what I now know. I had 4 different anilab installable versions, 3 came from imsi and 1 came from a purchase through mindscape in australia, Of the 4 versions, 1 was a 32bit file so I put that aside and installed what I thought was the most recent anilab, this version is the most recent based on the file version info and installed ok, When tested for selection issues they resurfaced again, so I promptly uninstalled the software and tried another version. After installing another version of anilab from 2016 updates I got my 1st error message of a possible cabinet file error and the install stopped. see al error.png

I retried the same install twice more hoping that the issue would just vanish ( I know wishful thinking ) but got the same message each time. I figured that there was something still wrong with my pc setup, so before the 3rd attempt I played a bit smarter and decided to verify as best I could each step of the install, I discovered that as the install went through the process that the anilab install prompt says overwrite all with " Yes, Yes to All " etc ( whats happening here is that that as the extracts the cabinet file contents one or more files are not overwritten with newer files by date and time stamps) like I said I cant show proof that this is the case because at the time all I wanted was the problem fixed and I had no idea that this was the fault.

My point is that after the 1st install of any software that has a cabinet file it appears that windows/installer make a copy on the local hard disk and process the files from there, this is were the problems occurred for me, on subsequent installs I got the error message and I suspect that was interfering with windows security and the verify install. I verified that something was wrong when I had 2 file explorer windows open at the same time and compared a copy of the original install with a copy of the new install.

I still dont know for sure what exactly happened but anilab is working ok. If you do a reinstall and its the same software I suggest you check and verify that older files are over written by the newer files 1st.

Good news anilab is fine and working well.

After reinstalling windows 10 and associated software some application switched of windows defender, windows verify ( verify trust ?) and other security options and this now explains why I had install issues with anilab and getting error messages. Fuinny thing is that I never intended to do updates straight after installing win 10 again, I did intend to update about a week from now and windows 10 has only just now reactivated windows defender and other security options! So for about 5 days and numerous windows updates and restarts and other installed components that I got no idea what they are, Ive finally got things fixed.

Daz,

    good to hear you're up and running again.
    Frustrating business, eh?

    If you suspect there are problems with Windows 10, I cannot recommend too highly:

        http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html

     . . . rather than reinstalling Windows 10.
    Just follow the instructions, and donate, if you think it's worth it.

    And, while I'm in lecturing mode, a UPS is a worthwhile long-term investment, for protecting your PC's hardware and files.

    Lecture over. 

Regards Tim