Builder helping tools Skids Primz Vs Prims.Docker

Some weeks ago I read on some blogs about an interesting event in sl: RoseLinUK London was organizing classes on how to build and cited a “copy create tool” which should make easy aligning prims when building.
I contacted her and had information on the copy create tool, and she gave me a quick, yet incredibly informative learning session on using the grid and this tool to have good prim alignments, then told me that I could experiment “Skidz Primz” as a useful tool for aligning prims.
I experimented with the “free” tricks she gave me and also bought Skidz Primz, but also found that there is another tool, called Prims.Docker which apparently did the same things as Skidz Primz, but was much more cheap: around 500L$ instead of 1500L$. So I bought both of them and experimented with both.
Here I want to give you a feedback on the three ways of building:
– free “expert” hands (using grid, copy create tool, reference and other tricks),
– skidz primz
– prims.docker

What I tried to build is very very simple: just a 10×10 box (6 sides) and on one side simulate a lateral door. Here are the results:

Free Hand: zero L$

Description & Setup:
– Use grid options
– Use world ruler
– Use copy selection tool
– NO SETUP needed except for grid options with proper values, and possibly coloring your prims

PROS:
– ZERO linden cost
– prims built in this way are surely yours 🙂 no need to do strange voodoos for marking them with you as creator
– no need to wear huds or have strange tools with you
– no need to insert and clean up scripts on your objects
– building the door is paradoxically easier than the other methods

CONS:
– you have to know very well how to set and use grid, numerical positions, word/local/reference coordinates
– you also need to be very aware of the prims properties
– you loose sometimes a lot of time in moving around assessing you are doing correctly

Skidz Primz (from Skidz Tweak) around 1500 L$
USE and SETUP:
– wear the belt and the hud
– setup for being creator just needs to substitute the Primz in the belt with your own starting prim
– needs a bit of auto-learning before using it productively

PROS:
– no need to use numbers for aligning objects: just use special markers (red points rezzed by your interface)
– very smart textures put on Skidz Primz showing you x,y,z axes, cutting direction and so. Very useful for teaching and understanding where the object axes are 🙂
– very excellent way for filling gaps. Also the others, when you have understood the trick are very intuitive.

CONS:
– price
– a lot of object rezzed just to act as coloured markers. Be sure to use them temp or hybrid so not to waste prims in your land!
– even if gaps are ok, building of doors is not exactly so easy. Better doing free hand with the grid options!!!

Prim.Docker from Riefa Rennebohm
SETUP:
– just one hud to wear
– need to set client->rendering->Axes to understand axis directions.

PROS:
– cheap
– very useful for multiple safe same level alignments
– copy also textures!!!

CONS:
– need to put client script in each prim
– spanning (filling the gaps) works in an almost unusable way 😦 Too dependent on the local axis, and in some circumstances cannot understand what it is doing

So my final conclusions are:
1\ you can live even without these expensive tools (you can build without much problems if you really have big experience in building
2\ even if you are experienced builder Prim.Docker can really help you since it can manage multiple objects at the same time (being sure they have the same z or be correctly centered),
3\ for beginners, Skidz Primz is better because it is much more visual and also have a very smarty texture helping you in understanding cutting, axes and so.
4\ For making windows or dealing with gaps, sometimes grid hand methods are preferable. Skidz and Docker might make you lose a lot of time trying to use them for simple tasks
5\ if you have a lot of L$ like me it is very funny buying them and using them alternatively for easying the building task

I’m currently thinking to build myself some tools for building, completing the gaps each of these systems have.

BTW: Latest building I tried I didn’t use these tools, or just used them very sparingly.

So a good classroom with RoseLinUK is 100 times worth the usage of these tools… 🙂