Change all block geometry to color By Parent

Rhino Rhino for Windows
#1

I have a hundred or so block definitions in my file, each block containing somewhere between one and ten curves and points. I just realised that what I really want is to have the display colour of all those curves and points be ‘By Parent’ instead of ‘By Layer’. I can make the change manually by using BlockEdit on each block, selecting the geometry, changing the attributes and saving the block, but that’s a lot of tedious work.

Is there a command or button somewhere that allows me to set these properties en-masse?

#2

Hi David, hope this script works. If you already have instances in the file then you may have to re-insert these if I recall correctly. This could also be scripted.

Option Explicit

Sub SetBlockObjectsColorByParent()

  Dim arrBlocks, strBlock, arrObjects

  arrBlocks = Rhino.BlockNames(True)
  
  If IsArray(arrBlocks) Then
    For Each strBlock In arrBlocks
      arrObjects = Rhino.BlockObjects(strBlock)
      If IsArray(arrObjects) Then
        Call Rhino.ObjectColorSource (arrObjects, 3)
      End If
    Next
  End If

End Sub

SetBlockObjectsColorByParent()
#3

Yeah we can program it, but that’s not an option for most users.
Anyway, I also had to move all block definition elements into a separate layer so they wouldn’t get hidden when I change regular layers. So I went with a slightly adapted version of the above script.

Option Explicit

Call SetBlockObjectsColorByParent()
Sub SetBlockObjectsColorByParent()
  Dim blockNames
  blockNames = Rhino.BlockNames(True)
  If (Not IsArray(blockNames)) Then
    Exit Sub
  End If

  Dim blockName
  For Each blockName In blockNames
    Dim blockObjects
    blockObjects = Rhino.BlockObjects(blockName)
    If IsArray(blockObjects) Then
      Call Rhino.ObjectColorSource(blockObjects, 3)
      Call Rhino.ObjectLayer(blockObjects, "Block Elements")
    End If
  Next
End Sub
#4

I don’t think that there is a good “hard-coded” solution for all the properties the users may want to change. Like in your case… also changing the Layer. It is possible to change all properties manually which works for “most users”. If a user has to deal with more blocks than one can handle manually then it is time for a bit of scripting :wink: