Add to/Remove from group behaviour

[jdelavaulx]

Hi there,

After doing some simple testing, I am wondering whether these commands could have more predictable behaviour regarding nested groups. It would be ideal to have the option to preserve original grouping hierarchies.
Please see diagram below.

-Jeremy

[Tom_P]

grouping in rhino is a very weak feature - i recommend to use nested layer-structures to organise a complex document.

i use grouping for very very few workflows - one is to organise curves for nesting as some dxf-based nesting / CAM software need grouping to identify curves that belong together - for example a wooden board (rectangle) with a drill-hole (circle).
i would claim that as soon as you need nested groups in rhino, you should re-thing the approach you structure the document (in rhino) - this might be confusing especially with the background of other programs where grouping and layers mean more or less the same.

If McNeel wants to improve grouping, a interface similar to layer-panel for groups would be nice.
or all group-names could at least be displayed in the object-properties.

with scripting (rhinoscript, phyton, rhinocommon) it is possible to remove an object from a single or from all groups.

hope this helps - kind regards -tom

[jdelavaulx]

Thanks so much for the insight Tom.

I figured as such, and am gradually learning layer hierarchies. It’s often time consuming to navigate a huge amount of layers for a project, hence the use of groups.

I’ve recently learned a hack of nested isolation of sorts which speeds things up. Make a selection, isolate it, make a further selection, then IsolateLock. You can return back to the isolated geometry without losing the original isolation.

Grouping panel would be helpful indeed

-Jeremy

[Jarek]

Hi Jeremy,

in case this is helpful, a while back I posted a script that helps to “extract” a sub-group from a nested group hierarchy:

Remove group from group? possible?

Hi Daniel, I have been using a script I wrote just to handle cases like you have described (to extract a group from a hierarchy of groups). It is a bit tricky as Pascal said since Rhino allows for groups cross-referencing objects. So you need to be a bit careful with that. The script is smart enough that if you try to externalize a group that has sub-groups, it will keep them intact, unless some of the objects are cross-referenced into any groups with objects not belonging to the group you are…

–jarek

[jdelavaulx]

Thanks so much Jarek for the reference and the script!

-Jeremy

[wim (Wim Dekeyser)]

Hi Tom -

@Tom_P

If McNeel wants to improve grouping, a interface similar to layer-panel for groups would be nice.
or all group-names could at least be displayed in the object-properties.

You could take a look at the Object Manager panel (the name is likely to change at some point) in the Rhino 8 WIP. It’s still very early in the development of that feature and nested groups are not yet supported. This is on the list as RH-66499.
-wim

[Tom_P]

thanks @wim for having a look at this. Sorry for not being so active with commenting on the 8 WIP … let s see when i find time to have a look at the Object-Manager or the follow up named version… kind regards -tom