Batch CaptureToFile in multiple DisplayModes in 8 ReleaseCandidate?

Serengeti (Rhino WIP)
1

Hi all. Now we will have both Rendered, Arctic and Monochrome DisplayMode in Rhino 8 and the “Tiling Issue” on CaptureToFile on highres is finally solved, I would love to be able to “Batch CaptureToFile in multiple DisplayModes” from any Snapshot (complete with ClippingPlanes and SectionStyle) in Rhino 8.
Also I would expect the “thumbnail-view” of the snapshots in the future will reflect the actual Clipping…
The screendump display the current thumbnails of multiple Snapshots (from Beta 17. October 2023) where it is impossible to see, that all of the snapshots actually has a clipping-plane active (see PDF).
The PDF display the result I would look for but other mixtures of Wireframe, Ghosted etc could also be nice. Ideally I would like to select the dimensions, the fileformat (PNG) and tickmark the DisplayModes.
If “Monochrome” could be improved with “endcap-style” and an ability for us to choose the Silhouette thickness (similar to SketchUp and others) it would be great, but I will make a separate post about that.

GUI_Rhino_8_Beta_Oct_17_Snapshots_HD
GUI_Rhino_8_Beta_Oct_17_Snapshots_HD1920×1080 152 KB

Chair_SubD_11_LOD_v8+Snapshots_Tim.3dm (858.4 KB)
CaptureToFile_Matrix_2xSheets.pdf (667.0 KB)

@andy @Erazmataz

2

you can do this with a macro. a simple macro can render all your named views or snapshots and then switch to a different display mode and repeat renderings or captures.

3

I suggest embedding this feature in the CaptureToFile dialogbox, so the user can create multiple snapshots, rename them etc without relying on a macro (with fixed names, resolution & filetype).
Also it would be preferable without the macro if you are experimenting with custom DisplayModes.

4

Yes, integrating such a batch function into the gui would certainly be a very nice thing for many users. Until this becomes a thing, here is how you can get there via macro:

-SetDisplayMode M y Enter (here “y” sets raytraced as display mode)

See the keys for the different display modes here (might be different after you added custom ones):

SetDisplayMode 01
SetDisplayMode 01997×84 4.34 KB

This is the command for capture:

-ViewCaptureToFile W 1536 H 1024 N 400 "C:\foldername\filename.png" (in this command the resolution and the number of passes is set. Much more is possible:

CaptureToFile 01
CaptureToFile 011900×55 4.97 KB

This is how you restore your snapshots:

-Snapshots R "Snapshot 01" _EnterEnd (“R” stands for restore)

Snapshots-01
Snapshots-01742×54 2.7 KB

I use grasshopper to generate the macro. Mostly you only need a bit of concatenate and merge. With that you can generate big macros very easily.

When you have a long macro, then these two commands are recommended at the start:

NoEcho
SetRedrawOff

but don’t forget to reverse this at the end of the macro:

SetRedrawOn
Echo

5

When doing a Batch CaptureToFile, you could automate the naming of the resulting file to include and reflect the following: Name of the Snapshot + Name of the DisplayMode (with comment if non-standard) + Dimensions in pixels (WxH). Selecting a folder for Output and Fileformat should be done dynamically.
Resultingfilename could be: SectionVertical_Arctic_8000x6000px.png - all automated for the Snapshot.

6

A macro doesn’t need to have fixed names, resolutions or filetypes. You can obviously change that for every single image. Of course that would be a lot of work if you do it manually, that’s why you can use grasshopper to generate it. There you can set it up to have every filename to be descriptive in relation to each image.

I get that many would like to see more batch functionality via the GUI. Though I would simply like to remind that Rhinos’ command line with its macro functionality is extremely powerful and a killer feature, especially when combined with grasshopper - or more native scripting of course.

You can do exactly that with grasshopper, by almost only using the text components.

8

Would it be possible for you to create a new post? I use Layout a lot and it has its own very separate issues, such as not being able to print individual pages on their respected papersizes, which is really what 99 % would like to do with exactly Layouts. This is however NOT the topic in my post at all.

11

I have a solution from GIJS for the thing I wanted (as highlighted in the Solution TickBox).

17

Here is a copy of the modified script from Gijs. You need to add the *.py2 fileextension manually if you would like to use it in Rhino 8 Beta. The script prompts for a folder and takes your Snapshots as input.
Here you can see the result of just having 4 Snapshots and 1 (movable) ClippingPlane in a single file.

4xSnapshots_in_5xDisplayModes_in_60sek_cropped
4xSnapshots_in_5xDisplayModes_in_60sek_cropped972×505 178 KB

import scriptcontext as sc
import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs

def savesnapshots():
    filepath = rs.BrowseForFolder(message="Select folder to save files")
    if not filepath:
    return
    names = sc.doc.Snapshots.Names
    for name in names:
        cmd = "-_Snapshots _Restore \"%s\" EnterEnd" %name
        rs.Command(cmd)
        rs.Command("'_SetDisplayMode _Shaded")
        file = filepath + "\\" + name + "_Shaded"
        rs.Command("_-ViewCaptureToFile _Width=1920 Height=1080 \"%s\"" %file)
        rs.Command("'_SetDisplayMode _Arctic")
        file = filepath + "\\" + name + "_Arctic"
        rs.Command("_-ViewCaptureToFile \"%s\"" %file)
        rs.Command("'_SetDisplayMode _Wireframe")
        file = filepath + "\\" + name + "_Wireframe"
        rs.Command("_-ViewCaptureToFile \"%s\"" %file)
        rs.Command("'_SetDisplayMode _Rendered")
        file = filepath + "\\" + name + "_Rendered"
        rs.Command("_-ViewCaptureToFile \"%s\"" %file)
        rs.Command("'_SetDisplayMode _Monochrome")
        file = filepath + "\\" + name + "_Monochrome"
        rs.Command("_-ViewCaptureToFile \"%s\"" %file)
savesnapshots()
1 Like
20

Fair enough. I mentioned the layout export-to-image issue here. Looks like motivation is high to fix the print dialog soonish.

21

Would it be possible for you to create a new post and delete your two entries on this post? I use Layout a lot and it has its own very separate issues, such as not being able to print individual pages on their respected papersizes, which is really what 99 % would like to do with exactly Layouts. This is however NOT the topic in my post at all.