How to use the Object Manager
This is probably the most important window in METAbolt. The Object Manager enables you to control and interact with the objects around you. It is possible to perform advanced tasks on this window but here we will cover only the basics.
When you fist open this window METAbolt will retrieve all objects within the set range (see point 2 below) and display them in the list box described in point 3. You notice a progress bar will appear below the "object contents" box while objects are being retreived. You must be patient and allow this to complete. Once it is complete the progress bar will disappear.
So let's take a look at each of the numbered sections in the image above:
1. Search: This is a very powerful search feature. It allows you to search objects by name, uuid, owner uuid, object tag and object description. The range of the objects that are retrieved is determined by the "range setting described in point 2 below. When the search box is empty it means all objects within the set range are retreived.
2. Display: Via this section you can select to display different categories of object. Click on the drop down list to see the categories. This is also where you specify the range of the objects to be covered in metres. The default is 20 metres. The higher you increase the range value the more bandwidth you will use and the slower it will take to retreive all the objects especially if you are in a SIM that has lots of objects. The range setting you see here is restricted by the master range setting that's in "Application/Preferences" (will be covered further down). This is to say that if the master range is set to 20 metres setting the range in the Object Manager to a value above 20 will have no effect because METAbolt will limit it at 20.
3. Objects: This is the list where all the retreived objects are displayed. Bare in mind that these are all "root" objects. Clicking on an object listed here will enable the buttons you see in the "In-world" section and it will also display the selected object's details in the "Object information" section. If the selected object has any child/linked objects those will be displayed in the "Child/Linked objects listbox.
4. In-world: These are the functions that are available for you to perform. They are self explanatory so I will not go into explaining what they are one by one
5. Object information: When you select an object from the list of objects this is where the details of the object is displayed. If you own the object you have selected you can change the permissions on the object by checking/unchecking the permissions option at the bottom of the window.
6. Child/Linked Objects: As explained above, if a selected object has child prims, all the child prims will be displayed here. You will also notice that any action that may be performed on a child prims will be stated in paranthesis. This is so that you can tell if the child prim can be touched or not etc. If the prim is scripted i.e. if it has a script in it that will also be stated. Selecting a child prim and clicking on the "show" button underneath the list box will display the contents of that prim in the "Object contents" listbox..
When a child prim is selected two extra buttons are displayed under the "Object contents" list box called "touch/click" and "sit on". As the names of the buttons suggest, when clicked they perform a "touch" or "sit" action on the selected child prim.
7. Object contents: As explained above this is where the contents of the selected object is displayed. Contents such as scripts, objects, notecards etc
8. Drag and drop items from your inventory to embed into the contents of the selected object. If dropping an object, the object needs to be empty.