I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while. I often will paste images for trace and can’t figure out a fast way to change the transparency of an image without going to the properties panel. ideally it would work something like:
[Alias] [transparency value (i.e. 10)]
**Result: ** image becomes 10% transparent.
This is my current Alias, which has not been working:
! _-Properties _Pause _Material _Object _Rhinoceros _TransparencyMap Filter On OnOff On BlendAmount
I’ve also noticed an issue when I have gotten certain Aliases to work that I still have to go into the materials panel to click on the “use color mask” option, which makes the shortcut kind of useless because at that point I’m already at the transparency slider. Is there a way to add this to the Alias?
Actually Pascal, I ran into the same issue with this one. See the screenshot below - and in the pane on the right is the box I’d like to have automatically checked. Is there a command that will do this?
This is not possible with simple macro, there is no command access to that checkbox.
I have a script for something similar that I was able to modify and adjust to do what you need, and some more.
To install, save it on your HD and drag-and-drop into any Rhino viewport. It will add a new autocompleting command: PictureAdjustTransparency
When you use it on any Picture object, it will always make sure the “Use Color Mask” box is checked so the display is actually useful with transparency adjustments.
Now you can make new aliases/keyboard shortcuts or toolbar buttons like this:
PictureAdjustTransparency 50 _Enter (to set 50% trasparent) PictureAdjustTransparency Less _Enter (to make it a bit less transparent) PictureAdjustTransparency More _Enter (to make it a bit more transparent)
One more thing to note is that if you have Picture object selected, the changes will apply to the currently selected one. But when nothing is selected or some other objects are selected, or you are in the middle of a command, like drawing a polyline etc., the PictureAdjustTransparency macros will still work, and they will use the last selected/modified picture (if still exists) without the need of having it even selected. I thought that’s pretty handy.
Give it a try, I did not test it too thoroughly, but hopefully it helps.
When I drop the script onto a Rhino 8 viewport I’m asked to choose whether to insert the file or to import the file or to open the file and none of these seem to result in a usable PictureAdjustTransparency command. Is there a menu tool that might give more reliable results than hoping drag-and-drop is interpreted correctly by a Rhino viewport?
That would explain it.
I had been hoping layer transparency would affect everything in the layer, including images imported into the layer, but that’s apparently not the case. I like working in Rhino on maps because it offers scale that most art applications do not, but I do need transparency unless I’m to remake everything in Rhino native objects in order to get the transparency that way, but that’s an incredible amount of labor if I’m using a complex map image generated with another tool.