I have been using move component to for the most part because I find it the easiest to use.
I would like to know when I should use what type to move meshes/blueprints in my levels.
That is a good question. Basically i’ll answer the question of the differences. So timeline vector tracks can move object from one vector point to another. A great example of this is the video that Zak Parrish does for the unreal channel on youtube. I point many people to that because it sets a good example of a simple but important process for using timelines to do this.
Matinee is when you use matinee to create some kind of automatic animation like a car driving around or something like that. Or you can use it for cinematic stuff on the camera, you would have to call that animation to happen somehow in the level blueprint.
And of course you know what move component to does. I generally do not use move component to often because frankly when I got started with UE4 I wanted a ton of videos to see the differences between UDK and UE4 and just picked up the habits that other developers used and they use timelines. I am sure there is a good reason move component to exists I just never looked at it. Hope that helps some.
When I want to rotate for example a ventilator, should I use move component to in that case? Or how can I use a timeline to do that?
Real simple mate. Have the fan blade as a seperate object from the vent mesh so you can access it in blueprint. Then make the following nodes in level BP as in the picture I upload. For this example I made a box with a blade in it in as a blueprint actor but you dont have to make it a blueprint, just make sure the fan blade in the level is set to movable. In a case like this using a timeline would be extra complicated .
Oke, what about an elevator? I use move component to for those but it can also be done with a timeline or a matinee, does it matter at all what I use? Or is it a preference for the user?
That could be preference. I’ll look at move to component later today but I personally would use a timeline because I like that control. How it would work is in the picture example here. So you need to store the current position of the elevator at begin play, which is a vector position and then when you execute the movement you get a reference to the elevator and do a vector + vector from the time line. In the time line do a vector track on the axis you want to move the elevator, like the z axis if you want it to go up or down, the position will be how many cm you want it to move,alt text and plug that into a set current position.
In this example I made for a training website I am moving an elevator up based on a condition being met.