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According to various sources on the interwebs, the process for duplicating an object around a circle is thus:

  • Move the 3D cursor to the centre of rotation
  • Create an empty at that point
  • Move the origin of the object you want to duplicate to the position of the cursor
  • Select the object you wish to duplicate around the circle.
  • Create an array modifier with fixed count and an object offset set to the empty, deselecting relative and constant offset
  • Rotate the empty and see the duplicates of your object rotate around the array.

When I attempt to do this, the following happens: I get copies of the object distorted and arrayed along some other path - maybe rotated, but I don't understand why the distortion is happening and the array is not rotated around the z axis of the empty.

See the screenshot below - the blue arrow is pointing to the original object. I've also attached the system-info.txt dump below.

The modifier settings are in the bottom right of the second screenshot. What I'm expecting to see is something like this youtube clip in the top screenshot. What I'm getting is the second screenshot below. Why is this happening?

Update. The cylinder has had some transforms done to it before the array is applied. If I do it with an untransformed object, The technique works as described. How do I apply this to the transformed object without re-applying the original transformations?

Further update: Here's the file showing the strange transformations happening.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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Pipeline Image Units: 96 Cycles: ===================================== CPU device capabilities: SSE2 SSE3 SSE41 AVX OpenCL device capabilities: Number of platforms: 1 Platform #0 Platform Name: Intel(R) OpenCL Platform Vendor: Intel(R) Corporation Platform Version: OpenCL 1.2 Platform Profile: FULL_PROFILE Platform Extensions: cl_intel_dx9_media_sharing cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_d3d11_sharing cl_khr_dx9_media_sharing cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_icd cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics Number of devices: 2 Device: #0 Device Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3320M CPU @ 2.60GHz Device Vendor: Intel(R) Corporation Device OpenCL C Version: OpenCL C 1.2 Device Profile: FULL_PROFILE Device Version: OpenCL 1.2 (Build 76427) Device Extensions: cl_khr_fp64 cl_khr_icd cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_intel_printf cl_ext_device_fission cl_intel_exec_by_local_thread cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_intel_dx9_media_sharing cl_khr_dx9_media_sharing cl_khr_d3d11_sharing Device Max clock frequency (MHz): 2600 Device Max compute units: 4 Device Max work group size: 1024 Device: #1 Device Name: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 Device Vendor: Intel(R) Corporation Device OpenCL C Version: OpenCL C 1.2 Device Profile: FULL_PROFILE Device Version: OpenCL 1.2 Device Extensions: cl_intel_d3d11_nv12_media_sharing cl_intel_dx9_media_sharing cl_khr_3d_image_writes cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_d3d10_sharing cl_khr_d3d11_sharing cl_khr_depth_images cl_khr_dx9_media_sharing cl_khr_gl_depth_images cl_khr_gl_event cl_khr_gl_msaa_sharing cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_icd cl_khr_image2d_from_buffer cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics cl_intel_accelerator cl_intel_motion_estimation Device Max clock frequency (MHz): 1200 Device Max compute units: 16 Device Max work group size: 512 Enabled add-ons: ===================================== io_anim_bvh (version: (1, 0, 0), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\io_anim_bvh\__init__.py) io_curve_svg (version: (), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\io_curve_svg\__init__.py) io_mesh_ply (version: (), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\io_mesh_ply\__init__.py) io_mesh_stl (version: (1, 1, 3), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\io_mesh_stl\__init__.py) io_mesh_uv_layout (version: (1, 1, 1), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\io_mesh_uv_layout\__init__.py) io_scene_fbx (version: (4, 21, 3), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\io_scene_fbx\__init__.py) io_scene_gltf2 (version: (1, 4, 40), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\io_scene_gltf2\__init__.py) io_scene_obj (version: (3, 8, 0), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\io_scene_obj\__init__.py) io_scene_x3d (version: (2, 2, 5), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\io_scene_x3d\__init__.py) cycles (version: (), path: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons\cycles\__init__.py)
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  • $\begingroup$ Hello. System information is most likely not needed. You can upload your blend file instead (not obvious to see how the selected object is). Please use this site to do it and copy the obtained link here. blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 27, 2020 at 7:02
  • $\begingroup$ maybe you have transformed your empty? Apply its transformation with Ctrl A and rotate again to see what's happenning, or maybe share your file as suggested by Lemon $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 27, 2020 at 7:32
  • $\begingroup$ @lemon - I've uploaded the file as you suggested. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 27, 2020 at 12:58

1 Answer 1

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Object scales are totally uneven. In "object offset" mode when the modifier is calculated, it takes into account both the transforms of the object and the transforms of the array modifier pivot (the empty here).

So simply apply scales on the cylinder CtrlA then choose "scale".

Though, if you want to keep the object transforms, you can select the cylinder, shift select the empty and use the operator "align selected scale to active" (search for it in the search panel). This operator copies the cylinder scale to the empty. As they now have the same scale, that compensate the difference.

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  • $\begingroup$ It turns out that's what worked. Once you apply the transformations it stops trying to apply them on every iteration. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 1, 2020 at 17:26

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