Monday, December 10, 2018

Yo - Firestorm Users! Feel the funk with zeee-drop and move animations and inventory fast!

OK, confession time.  I've been binge watching Rock of Ages and have this darn jingle stuck in my head:   "z guyeezz - double the e, double the z, double the flavor", neon clothing and headbands included.  If you grew up in the 80's, you just have to see this movie.

Now that I've gotten my cheesy spins and bad rap out of the way, this post introduces the very hip Firestorm feature "zdrop".

So what is zdrop?  zdrop is a special command you type into local chat which copies the contents from an inventory folder to a prim - rezzed or worn.  Why is this so very dope?  How many times have you wanted to load a large number of animations into a dance HUD?  If you do it manually, you can only move about 25 at a time and the HUD has to be rezzed on the ground.  What about those times you just wanted to add 3 animations and didn't want to take off your HUD?

With zdrop - you can move hundreds of animations at one time AND you can wear the HUD or rez it on the ground.  I'm still in awe every time I use this feature which has saved countless hours and headaches.

So, how does it work?

  1. Under your inventory folder in your inventory window, you create a new folder - maybe something like "Sugarplum animations".  This is important, it has to be a main folder.
  2. Copy and paste all the animations you want to copy to your dance HUD into the Sugarplum animations folder.
  3. Wear your HUD or rez it to the ground.
  4. The command needs the UUID, the unique identifier code for the HUD.  To find this, right click on your HUD, select Edit, and under the General tab click on the Copy Keys button.
  5. Close the edit window.
Now you're ready to make it happen!

In local chat, type the following:

zdrop on <hit ctrl-z here to paste the hud UUID> <name of the animation folder to copy>

Example:  zdrop on 47b9148d-77e9-6b9c-e11b-30386f1cdc80 Sugarplum Anims

That's it!  You can now walk away, grab a bite to eat, or even keep working on other things while the animations are copied to your HUD.

If you need to stop the process before it finishes, type this in local chat: zdrop

Let's go through this step by step, shall we?


  1. Rez you HUD to the ground (recommended) or attach it.  (see note below)
  2. In your inventory, create a folder for the animations to be copied.  Make sure it is created under the main Inventory folder  (not within another folder).  Copy your animations into this new folder.
  3. Right click on your HUD, select edit, and on the General tab click on the Copy Keys button.  Close the Edit Window.
  4. In local chat, type this:   zdrop on <hit ctrl-v to paste the UUID key> <type name of folder>
  5. Now wait for the animations to finish copying.


STEP 1:  What a wonderful day to hug a tree!  Oh, and see my animation HUD on the ground?  You can also do this when wearing your HUD, but for large numbers of animations, I recommend rezzing it.

STEP 2:  This is my folder of animations to copy to the HUD, directly under the main Inventory folder.
(Plus a peek at the madness that is my inventory...)

STEP 3:  To copy the unique key identifier for the HUD I rezzed on the floor, I right clicked on the HUD, selected Edit, and pressed the Copy Keys button.

STEP 4  Ready to copy!  zdrop is the command, then the word "on", then press ctrl-v to paste the HUD key, and type in the name of the inventory folder to copy - must be exact. :)
Example:  zdrop on 47b9148d-77e9-6b9c-e11b-30386f1cdc80 Sugarplum Anims

STEP 5:  zdrop is doing its work!  Coffee break!
All Done!  "Completed transfer from "Sugarplum Anims to blah blah blah"!  Woot!

This applies for any type of inventory item you want to copy.  Useful for cleaning up your inventory and a great way to easily back up your dances - HUDs, rezzer, movers, notecards, etc..  Copy them to a prim rezzed in-world and feel safer knowing you have a second copy of your dance in case of inventory failure or accidental deletion.

Note: If you will be copying a large number of animations to your HUD or are in a high lag area, I would recommend rezzing your HUD on the ground instead of wearing it.  I did receive a "in-world object creation failure" while wearing my HUD and zdropping about 12 animations, but was in a very high lag environment.  This error just means it wasn't able to copy one of the animations, in this case  because of the lag.

Any other ways zdrop can make your SL easier?  Share your ideas in comments!

Enjoy zdropping!

Eva Harley
http://harleyquinadventure.com