WHen I select object data to apply the data to the other planks on the front and back of the chest tdisappear. I've done evry combo of "H" and local not local to no avail. If I choose on of the other options under link data they re appear but object data does not work . I'm using 2.83
Hi wireman, here's a stab in the dark:
my guess is that all your planks have their origin in the same place. Look at the orange dot.
Before linking the Object Data set the Origins to the geometry as shown here:
Then you should have something like this:
Now you can link the Object Data.
What happened was that the other planks didn't disappear, but they all went to the same position...
The Object Data contains, amongst others, the position of all the vertices of an Object in relation to the Origin of that Object, so if you link the Object Data...well you've seen what happens then;)
It's tricky in the beginning to wrap your head around things like this, but you will get used to it.
I hope this is helpful.