I bet that all Second Life builders will lose a creation at one time or another.

Scenario one

The first time it happened to me, I turned a ball transparent and then clicked off of it or escaped out of editing it. Of course, it was completely invisible, and it was small enough that no amount of clicking around helped me find it. A friend of mine later showed me that all I had to do was go into the View menu and click Highlight Transparent. Then it was a piece of cake. Whew! It would have been no tremendous loss, but I hated to have something hanging around that could cause some kind of problem later on.

Scenario two

The second time I lost something, I was editing the object and accidentally made it so tiny I couldn’t see it. Again, I clicked off it or escaped out of editing it, and poof!

As with the first time, I could have re-created the object pretty quickly. But, as in the first scenario, I didn’t want a problem later on. I was also on a small parcel. Each parcel allows only a certain number of prims, the basic building blocks of Second Life. If you own a whole island, you don’t have much to worry about. But with smaller parcels, you have to watch that limit very carefully.

Well, this time the prim was not transparent, so having the Highlight Transparent setting on didn’t help. So I did a little Web surfing and found a handy video showing how to find it. Here are the essentials:

Use the Mini-Map to get the general location

If you don’t have a good idea of where to look for your object, the Mini-Map may be able to give you an idea. There’s a button at the bottom of the screen that opens it. Locations of objects you own are marked in blue. Use the Mini-Map to get close to your object and figure out which direction you need to face. (Of course, the entire area you’re in may be highlighted in blue, if, for example, you have a house.)

Get in the mode

1. Go to the Tools menu and turn on Select Only My Objects (an X will appear next to it).

2. If you are not in build mode, click on the build button at the bottom of the screen.

3. When the build window appears, look at the row of buttons at the top of it. The one in the middle has a little arrow. When you hover over it, the tooltip says “edit.” Make sure that that button is selected.

Find the object by selecting it

Now it’s time to select the object. Left click and drag across the screen. You should see a yellow rectangle grow as you drag. Don’t worry if the build window disappears. Whenever your rectangle fully encompasses an object you own, it will become highlighted. If you don’t succeed, then turn in a different direction. How far you are from the object should not matter. If more than one object is highlighted, you will need to escape out and right click on the object you want (so remember the location when you escape out).

This procedure also applies if you accidentally sink your object into the terrain.