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Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping

by hodgson3d·Workflow

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Why we like it

Stands out in the superhive library for bringing Maya-style grouping to Blender, with operators reachable from both the 3D view and the Outliner.

What is Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping?

Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping is a Blender add-on from hodgson3d that adds group-style organization by parenting selected objects or groups to a new empty object. Its operators are reachable through a pie menu that can be called from both the 3D view and the Outliner.

The Group operator creates the empty, with location and rotation adjustable from the redo popup panel, and Group Size controls how large that empty is. Add To Group and Remove From Group manage which objects sit inside a hierarchy, while Dissolve Group removes a group but keeps its children in place, with a Dissolve Children option for clearing groups down the chain. Selection uses Blender's built-in select hierarchy tool, with the "[" hotkey to select up the chain. Preview Children auto-selects a group's contents when it is chosen, and Group Visibility toggles the visibility of empties that contain children.

The add-on is a Blender extension compatible with Blender versions 4.2 through 5.1, released under the GPL license. Documentation is included.

Who is Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping best for?

Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping is best for blender artists organizing complex scenes who want to treat multiple objects as a single unit for moving, rotating, scaling or modifying them together.

How much does Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping cost?

Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping is completely free to download and use.

Key features

  • Group operator that parents selected objects or groups to a new empty, with location and rotation set from the redo popup panel
  • Pie menu that can be called from both the 3D view and the Outliner
  • Add To Group and Remove From Group operators for managing what sits inside a hierarchy
  • Dissolve Group with an optional Dissolve Children setting to clear groups down the hierarchy chain
  • Streamlined group selection using Blender's built-in select hierarchy tool with the "[" hotkey
  • Preview Children setting that auto-selects a group's child objects when the group is chosen
  • Group Visibility toggle and adjustable Group Size for the created empties

Tags

#grouping#outliner#scene organization#hierarchy#Blender add-on#workflow#empties

Frequently asked questions

Does Maya Groups work with Blender 4.2 and later?

Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping is a Blender extension listed as compatible with Blender versions 4.2 through 5.1. It installs as an add-on, and once enabled its grouping operators become available through a pie menu that can be called from both the 3D view and the Outliner. If you run a version inside that range, the tool should work as described; for versions outside 4.2 to 5.1, check the developer's page for the latest compatibility details before installing.

How do I create and adjust a group with Maya Groups?

Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping creates a group with its Group operator, which parents the selected objects or groups to a new empty object. After running it, you can set the location and rotation of that new empty from the redo popup panel, and the Group Size setting controls how large the created empty is. To manage contents afterward, Add To Group and Remove From Group adjust which objects sit inside the hierarchy, and Dissolve Group removes a group while keeping its children in place.

What license is Maya Groups released under?

Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping is released under the GPL license and is packaged as a Blender add-on extension. In this catalog it is listed as free, so no purchase figure is shown here; for current licensing terms and any pricing, check the developer's page. The add-on also ships with documentation, which covers its operators such as grouping, adding to and removing from groups, dissolving groups, previewing children, and toggling group visibility.

How does selecting group hierarchies work in Maya Groups?

Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping uses Blender's built-in select hierarchy tool for choosing single or multiple hierarchies, with the "[" hotkey to select up the hierarchy chain. The Preview Children setting adds to this by automatically selecting a group's child objects whenever that group is selected, which makes the contents of a group easy to visualize. Group Visibility complements selection by toggling the visibility of any empty objects in the scene that contain children.

Alternatives to Maya Groups - Industry Standard Grouping

Also in Workflow for Blender.

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