Export mesh with pivot point at origin

[qqdarren]

Not sure if this is a Babylon or Blender question. I've made a single mesh (an extruded letter) in Blender, exported it, and imported it into my BabylonJS script. I then have an ArcRotateCamera which rotates round it. by setting `camera.target` to be the imported mesh.

 

       Q = newMeshes[0];

       Q.position = new BABYLON.Vector3(5, -9, -15);

       camera.target = Q;
       camera.radius = 1.2;

 

It works, but the camera is sometimes further away from the letter, sometimes crashing through it. I.e. the reference point it is rotating around is the bottom-left of the glyph mesh.

 

In Blender I'd positioned the bottom left of the mesh at the origin. So I moved it, so that the centre of the mesh is at the origin, and exported again. But that made no difference at all. I think all I've done is move the position of the mesh in the blender scene, whereas I want to alter the internal reference point of just the mesh?

 

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BTW, I found this http://www.html5gamedevs.com/topic/10118-set-origin-or-pivot-of-mesh/  But when I tried that:

 

    var matrix = new BABYLON.Matrix.TranslationToRef(0.23, 0, 0.15, Q.getPivotMatrix());
    Q.setPivotMatrix(matrix);
 

I get an error from inside the Babylon.js file itself:

 

    TypeError: this._pivotMatrix.multiplyToRef is not a function
    ...s.position.z,this._localTranslation);if(this._pivotMatrix.multiplyToRef(this._lo...

 

(But, anyway, I really want to fix the model, not have to hack solutions over in the JavaScript.)

[qqdarren]

This fixed the setPivotMatrix() problem:

 

    var matrix = BABYLON.Matrix.Translation(-0.46, 0, -0.30);
    Q.setPivotMatrix(matrix);

 

The magic numbers there came from the babylon file:

 

      "position":[-0.4571,0,-0.295]

[gryff]

So I moved it, so that the centre of the mesh is at the origin,

 

How did you move it qq? Just dragged it ? Or Object->Transform->Geometry to Origin?

 

cheers, gryff

[qqdarren]

Aha, I'd just dragged it.

 

My first attempt, just now, to use "Object->Transform->Geometry to Origin" did nothing, as I did it on the curve, then converted to a mesh.

 

My second attempt did work, yay! So the process is:

   Make text & extrude it

   Object -> Convert to mesh

   Object->Transform->Geometry to Origin

   File > Export to babylon format

 

Thanks :-)