Grouping or Parenting
 

Whenever I need to join two objects I just group them. I don't understand the Parenting function, since it does the same thing.

When do you group, and when do you parent, and why?

Thanks
Kori

Parenting makes the "parent" object the top of the hierarchy.

Grouping makes a new "group" object the top of the hierarchy with all of the objects within it acting as children.

Parenting can be useful when you want to actively control an object and have other objects go with it. Such as a mechanical arm grasping a tube. The mechanical arm might be in multiple segments, each segment parented to the next one.