# Assembly Groups

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Assembly Groups are a great way to encapsulate a series of modifiers and/or channels. They can then be re-used as a preset or instanced an manipulated in a variety of useful ways. In this video Rich covers the use of Assembly Groups and demonstrates some uses for them.

Users can jump ahead to a specific section by using the Chapter selection widget on the right side of the player or by directly clicking any of the Chapter Title links below.

Tab | Time | Chapter | Description
1 | 00:08 | Definition | Details of what an Assembly Group is and how they are useful.
2 | 01:19 | Basic Demo | Rich demonstrates the building of a basic Assembly Group.
3 | 09:00 | Add Complexity | Some additional modifiers are added to an existing assembly.
4 | 11:04 | Instancing | A demonstration of instancing of an assembly and why that is useful.
5 | 16:37 | Assembly UI | Explores the relationship between the Groups viewport and related Assemblies.
6 | 25:51 | Using Items | Using output items in an Assembly.
7 | 38:50 | Mirroring | Mirroring of the Assembly.
8 | 45:58 | Assembly Preset | Defining a Preset to allow the Assembly to be used in different scenes.
| 53:18 | Total Video Time |

Frequently Asked Questions--

Q.) He uses the terms "Up Stream" and "Down Stream" what do they mean?

> A.) It's just another way to describe input and output connections. This stems from thinking about how data can "flow" (as in like a river) from a set of nodes into the item in question and then flow back out. Check out the Schematic section for more info.

Q.) So wait, you can have modifiers shared between more than one Assembly Group?

> A.) Yes you can... and yes it could become VERY confusing when you start doing that. modo allows this so there are no arbitrary limitations, which is great, but it's on you to do your best to keep things as compartmentalized and structured as you can.

Q.) He uses the term "Prim" what does that mean?

> A.) A "Prim" or "Primitive" is just a way of saying "Item". Don't let his kooky terminology confuse you too much :)

Q.) He uses the term "Inherit" and "override" quite a bit, what do they mean?

> A.) If you "Inherit" information from something, its the same as saying a child "inherits" his or her father's eye color, but with the ability to keep this connection live. So if the father's eye color changed, his son's or daughter's eye color would also change. In our case here we are talking about the "Source" / "Instance" relationship and not genetics but the term "Inherit" makes a lot of sense. Now an "Override" is a setting that you manually change on the "Instance", that from that point on, will no longer "Inherit" from the "Source". In our genetic example the child's eye color would change with the father's until the child decided to change it themselves... then from that point on the father's eye color could change all the time and the child's would not.

Q.) When he keeps saying "The Master" am I the only one that thinks of that short lived 80's TV show?

> A.) Well clearly not, since it's here in the FAQ before you knew to ask the question in the first place :)

Resources--

Links to the modo in-line help system
Docs: Groups
Docs: Modifiers
Docs: Instancing
Docs: Schematic

Links to other pages in this training
Training: Assemblies and Rigging UI
Training: Groups
Training: Modifiers
Training: Channels
Training: Duplicating and Instancing
Training: Schematic
Training: Transform Items
Training: Modifiers in Action

Files--

Links to the modo scenes used in the video
(click to open in modo)
File: AssemblyGroups_01.lxo
File: AssemblyGroups_01b.lxo
File: AssemblyGroups_02.lxo
File: AssemblyGroups_03.lxo
File: AssemblyGroups_03b.lxo
File: AssemblyGroups_04a.lxo
File: AssemblyGroups_04b.lxo
File: LockLogic.lxp

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