Properly aligning meshes

Unity Engine
1

I have a game where you place beams around. You click on a point, it puts the start of the beam there, then when you click on another point, it sets the end of the beam there.

At the ends of the beams are two spheres, that are added when a beam end is placed. (They are not a part of the beam prefab as the beam is stretched to fit and that stretched the spheres as well.)

I create a new beam with:

beamInProgress = Instantiate(newBeam, new Vector3(), Quaternion.identity);

Then I set its start and end points with:

beamInProgress.GetComponent<NewBeam>().SetStartPoint(placementHighlight.transform.position);
beamInProgress.GetComponent<NewBeam>().SetEndPoint(placementHighlight.transform.position);

Which refers to this:

public class NewBeam : MonoBehaviour
{
    Vector3 _top = new Vector3(0,0.5f);
    Vector3 _bottom = new Vector3(0, -0.5f);
    float scaleFactor = 1/1.42857142857142857f;
   public void SetStartPoint(Vector3 start)
    {
        // NewBeam is scaled to one height.
        bottom = start;
    }
    public void SetEndPoint(Vector3 end)
    {
        top = end;
    }
    public Vector3 top
    {
        get
        {
            return _top;
        }
        set
        {
            transform.localScale = new Vector3(transform.localScale.x,( _top - _bottom).magnitude * scaleFactor, transform.localScale.z);
            transform.position = value - ((value - _bottom)/2);
            transform.up = _top - _bottom;
            _top = value;
        }
    }
    public Vector3 bottom
    {
        get
        {
            return _bottom;
        }
        set
        {
            transform.localScale = new Vector3(transform.localScale.x, (_top - _bottom).magnitude*scaleFactor, transform.localScale.z);
            transform.position = value + ((_top - value) / 2);
            transform.up = _top - _bottom;
            _bottom = value;
        }
    }
}

(I have scaleFactor there because the visible beam is enclosed in a larger invisible beam to make it easier to click.)

As I move, I run beamInProgress.GetComponent<NewBeam>().SetEndPoint(placementHighlight.transform.position);
This way the end of the beam follows the player. Then, when I set the point, I stop calling that and the beam is set.

placementHighlight is an indicator of where the object will be placed.

Here are the results I’m getting:

Starting the beam:

1025×566 18 KB

Extended and placed the beam:
1019×564 32.2 KB

Now, here’s where the problem is happening:
First, the end of the beam is fine:
1024×568 25.9 KB

But, for some reason the start of the beam is off:
1021×564 20.2 KB

The first thing I thought of was scaleFactor, but it’s accurate and also it would be evenly off on both sides, so it’s not that.

2

Run the game until you see the problem, then pause it.

Find the object that you are scaling… now go up its hierarchy parent to parent and verify that every single scale is unity (1,1,1).

Now do the same with the sphere… I bet one of them has a non-unity scale in its parenting.

3

They didn’t have (1,1,1) scaling originally, although their scales don’t appear to have changed.