[ODE] dGeom offsets without bodies?

[Paul MacKenzie]

Hi,

I just started looking at the new dGeom offset mechanism as a way to 
replace the use of Transform Geometries (with dGeomSetOffsetPosition(), 
dGeomSetOffsetRotation(), and so on).

I noticed that offsets cannot be used for dGeomID's that are not part of 
a body.  However, I can think of an instance where I would like to be 
able to use an offset for a dGeomID that is not part of a body: say I 
want to create some stock dGeomID's that are to be arranged in a pattern 
about some reference point, but that reference point can be moved 
around.  With offsets I could set the relative positions of the 
dGeomID's once and then set all of the global transforms of the 
dGeomID's to the same matrix, that of the reference point.  Without 
this, I have to individually place them every time I want to move the 
pattern, which means I have to remember their relative placements, etc. 
  Much easier to set it up once and let ODE handle it afterwards...

Is there an easy way to remove the restriction about using offsets only 
with dGeomID's that have bodies?  I can fall back on Transform 
Geometries, of course, but it would be easier to use the new offset 
idea.  I have not gone through this part of the code in detail; I 
thought I would ask the author of this feature for some advice.

Thanks,
Paul