3D object placement tools?

I can't possibly be the only one to have wanted this...

What is the nicest free and open-ended 3D object placement tool you have ever used?

I'm not thinking of modelling here, or material editing, or rendering, or texturing, or lightmapping. Such features would only get in the way.
I am just looking for a nice, intuitive interface to set the positions of objects in my scene as well as a few variables for those objects to carry. (For example: Surface.resilience = .7).
Nothing fancy; just sleek, tidy and intuitive. (Oh, and cross platform would be wonderful).

The perfect version of such an editor would then output to a nice file format (XML?) that I can use with my own game.
And it must be free because I would want to redistribute it.

Unfortunately, such a generic tool results in a search for very common terms, so there seems little hope in finding it via a search engine.

Thanks!

I use Droplet for this purpose, I think it's listed in the Toolbox under World Editors. These sort of tools are called "droppers" around these parts, although more generically they are "entity placement editors." I like Droplet because it is flexible and can be used to many purposes, but after playing a bit with BlitzMax I'm considering making my own placement editor with a nice MaxGUI.

I think "Ross C" is currently developing one - has been for quite a while.

were making an opensource Bmax one for Flow and ogre. It will come with bmax source. Probably only useful if using ogre assets though.

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=69501#777972

Hmm... well, I do have this one module called MouseMove. You can use it to drag objects around (LMB to drag laterally, RMB to drag vertically). You could perhaps build an editor to use that, and then include an edit box type field to add whatever variables you'd need.

That is if Droplet doesn't do the job you want. From what I know of it, that sounds like a decent & simple program.

X-World 3D is simply great: http://www.freewebs.com/kefir/#xworld

I tried IrrEdit some time ago. Looks like they have a new version. Contains a lightmapper but don't use it if you don't want it. :)

http://www.ambiera.com/irredit/

Export the result to a XML format if I remember correctly.

I didn't realise anyone used droplet anymore!

I've not looked at it for years!

http://www.mentalillusion.co.uk/projects.php?section=Applications&name=Droplet

Hm... IrrEdit looks pretty good :)
(Particularly if I use gMan's Irrlicht module, which I think I'll give another glance).

The problem with using Blitz3D tools is that they only support Windows, but it is important that this game get full support on all platforms.

The reason I have such specific wishes for something simpler is that content here is generated in a very abnormal way, and my level layouts are not like the "conventional" game. There are no buildings and freely moving objects are often built out of height maps, or using base meshes and "substance" properties that cause unique deformations.

By the way, my thread title is misleading. It doesn't have to be 3D. Even a generic node editor with high extendability (visual outputs powered by external programs) would do :)

Thanks for the suggestions! They're all pretty good for the things they do. An excellent resource.