Obvious Parenting localPosition issue

Really sorry to post this- but can't figure it out myself!

The code instantiates a circle of cubes around a centrepoint, rotates the cubes to look at that centre point then parents them to an empty at the centrepoint.

I would then expect changing the cubes local position.z to move them toward and away from the centrepoint but thats not happening- can someone help- this seems like a really obvious problem I'm blind to. Thanks in advance .

Code (JavaScript):

1. #pragma strict
2.  
3. var emptyPrefab : Transform;
4. var cubePrefab    : Transform;
5.  
6. var noOfCubes     : int = 16;
7. var radius        : float = 10.0;
8. @HideInInspector
9. var cubeArray     : Transform[];
10.  
11. var radiusBool  : boolean = false;
12. function Start () {
13.    
14.     cubeArray = new Transform[noOfCubes];
15.    
16.     var xyzVec : Vector3 = Vector3(0, 0, 0);
17.     var centrePoint : Transform = Instantiate(emptyPrefab, xyzVec, Quaternion.identity);
18.                
19.     var angle : float = (360.0 / noOfCubes) * Mathf.Deg2Rad;
20.    
21.     Debug.Log("angle " + angle);
22.    
23.    
24.     for ( var m = 0; m < noOfCubes; m++ ) {
25.        
26.         var thisAngle : float = angle * m;
27.        
28.         Debug.Log(thisAngle);
29.        
30.         var x : float = xyzVec.x + radius * Mathf.Cos(thisAngle);
31.         var y : float = xyzVec.y;
32.         var z : float = xyzVec.z + radius * Mathf.Sin(thisAngle);
33.        
34.         var cube : Transform = Instantiate(cubePrefab, Vector3(x,y,z), Quaternion.identity);
35.        
36.         cube.LookAt(centrePoint);
37.         cube.parent = centrePoint;
38.         cubeArray[m] = cube;
39.     }  
40.    
41.    
42. }
43.  
44. function Update () {
45.    
46.     if (radiusBool){
47.         for ( var m = 0; m < cubeArray.Length; m++ ) {
48.             cubeArray[m].localPosition.z = radius;
49.         }
50.     }
51. }

 

Changing the localposition of z to radius on every cube will result in a line of cubes at that z coordinate. You still need to use angles like you did when you instantiated the cubes.
Example:

Code (csharp):

1.   functionUpdate () {
2.  
3. if (radiusBool){
4. for ( varm = 0; m < cubeArray.Length; m++ ) {
5. thisAngle = angle * m;
6. cubeArray[m].localPosition = Vector3(radius * Mathf.Cos(thisAngle), 0, radius * Mathf.Sin(thisAngle));
7.  }
8.  }
9.  }

 

Thanks, I had though about doing that but will be updating the radius' of around 600 objects eventually and was hoping for a speedier way of doing this.

I had been under the impression that after rotating an object I could move it locally forwards or backwards by changing it's localPosition.z - am I wrong about this?

Is there another way of achieving this without using what I imagine to be heavy cos and sin?

Thanks

 

In case anyone else finds this here is some code that works. It uses transform.Translate

Code (JavaScript):

1. #pragma strict
2.  
3. var emptyPrefab     : Transform;
4. var cubePrefab        : Transform;
5.  
6. var noOfCubes         : int = 16;
7. var radius            : float = 1.0;
8. @HideInInspector
9. var cubeArray         : Transform[];
10. @HideInInspector
11. var old_radius         : float;
12. function Start () {
13.    
14.     cubeArray = new Transform[noOfCubes];
15.    
16.     var xyzVec : Vector3 = Vector3(0, 0, 0);
17.     var centrePoint : Transform = Instantiate(emptyPrefab, xyzVec, Quaternion.identity);
18.                
19.     var angle : float = (360.0 / noOfCubes) * Mathf.Deg2Rad;
20.    
21.     for ( var m = 0; m < noOfCubes; m++ ) {
22.        
23.         var thisAngle : float = angle * m;
24.            
25.         var x : float = xyzVec.x + radius * Mathf.Cos(thisAngle);
26.         var y : float = xyzVec.y;
27.         var z : float = xyzVec.z + radius * Mathf.Sin(thisAngle);
28.        
29.         var cube : Transform = Instantiate(cubePrefab, Vector3(x,y,z), Quaternion.identity);
30.        
31.         cube.LookAt(centrePoint);
32.  
33.         cubeArray[m] = cube;
34.         cube.parent  = centrePoint;
35.     }
36.  
37.     old_radius = radius;      
38. }
39.  
40. function Update () {
41.    
42.     if (radius != old_radius){
43.        
44.         var radiusDiff =  old_radius - radius;
45.        
46.         for ( var m = 0; m < cubeArray.Length; m++ ) {
47.             cubeArray[m].Translate(0, 0, radiusDiff);
48.         }
49.        
50.         old_radius = radius;
51.     }
52. }