Empty type object should have a pivot, too
I don't know why "Empty" type of objects don't have a pivot. It would be a lot better if they would have one so when we "group" objects within them and want it to rotate or scale about a different position, we don't need to counter translate all objects within just so we can "move the pivot" of the "Empty". BTW who came up with the name empty, once you place an object in them they aren't empty anymore ;).
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If you forsee needing to use a type of "origin/pivot" offset, in order to translate the children, simply use a hierarchy of:
P1
-P2
--children
and move P2
(Agreed that "empty" isn't a great nane for the object."Null" is the term i see elsewhere for this sort of thing.)
Thanks, yeah i do that with script but there should be no need for that. The code for the pivot should be really easy to implement from the standard object. As now you need to store the position before you translate the outer Empty than reapply the inverse transformation to the inner Empty. In Maya a group is a simple transform node, which is straight forward. As it is is just a transform (with all of its features). Deliberately deciding to just not add a pivot to the Empty, is in my opinion shortsighted. As it leads to those workarounds that shouldn't be necessary. As how it should be done is shown in all other apps.
Other workaround: instead using an empty, use a poly object with a single vertex. Now you have a object with a pivot, with an origin that can be moved as you're wanting, and it doesn't render.
Thanks, yeah that is probably the smartest way to do it :).
You are confusing Empty objects with collections I think. Empties are named "empty" because they contain no data. No mesh, no text, no armature, nothing. And they have an origin, with location rotation and scale, like any object.
When you "group" objects in Blender, they are put into "Collections", which are not objects. They have no presence in the scene, they are merely a sorting tag.
And from what I understand, what you ask is basically a form of container object like people asked before:
My description should make clear that i don't confuse an Empty with a Collection. Since i am writing about moving the content of the Empty with it. And that is not what collections are for. The listed other feature requests (related but way more ellaborate) are suggested for years now, and are all good suggestions. Tho they have many upvotes they don't realize those requests, for whatever reasons. But adding a pivot to the Empty so it would be more convenient to work with them, might be something that could be easily done.
Empty objects are transformable in every way.
If you parented objects to an empty objects, moving the empty moves the children as it would with any other kind of objects.
The Empty object has no Pivot and no way to set the "origin" via UI or python. As far as i was able to figure out, it is stated somewhere in the manual. That is why i wrote this simple "Idea". Maybe i am wrong, than please tell me how to do it, that would be helpful. Thanks
Empties have a pivot : their origin. You can't set the origin in a different place because there's nothing in an empty object.
When you set a cube mesh's origin to a different place, it is as if you move the mesh content inside the object relative to the object's origin.
But an empty object doesn't contain any data to move from. It is only a singular point in space.
If you want to move an empty object - or any object - without affecting their children, enable
If you want to offset an empty - or any kind of object - from its children, just enable Affect Only Parents:
That looks handy, thanks. Tho i would still find Blender adding a pivot to Empty a more convenient and simple way to prevent workarounds and have a more consistent workflow. There is really no reason why an Empty shouldn't have a pivot.
There is a big reason: you can' t move two things appart from each other when you have only one. There is no extra pivot point in any object, it's their origin, which you can move relative to their content. Empties are just an origin without content. You are free to add another empty as a parent, that gives you a global parent and an offset.
This is not really a reason it is just how they made it. I am just glad the programs i use and will continue to use most of the time handle it more conveniently