Is there a way to copy a surface from a BlockInstance without exploding the block?
I’m generating a bunch of different blocks to design a facade, but for simulations I just need to copy/choose a single specific surface from each of these (same Rhino Name and Layer in all BlockInstances) in a Python script without exploding the block, as it would increase file size.
I can do it in Grasshopper, but I’m learning Python and haven’t been able to find a starting point or path yet, so any suggestions would be a great help
Wow, thanks @dale this is a bit over my level of understanding to integrate…
I currently use this to manually select the surfaces after exploding the blocks, but I’d like to automate it keep the file size down…exploding all the blocks make the file super heavy and slow (I often hundreds of panels with dozens of parts)
def main():
objs = rs.GetObjects("Select surfaces to export data",8,preselect=True) # I'd replace 8 with 4096 to filter for blocks
From the selected blockinstances I’d like to use the surface with the Rhino name “PV Glass” for further processing…or directly select all the sub surfaces named “PV Glass” when the script is invoked.
Hi @dale thanks for looking at this.
Here is a .3dm and a screenshot showing the surface I need. There is also an open polysurface with the same name (the rear of the glass), but I only need the surface that has already been extracted in the block.
I’m playing around with your sketch and have two questions.
How do I modify it to select multiple blocks (pre or post select)?
I’ve tried dropping in Rhino.Input.RhinoGet.GetMultipleObjects() without success and get this message and I’m sure it’s because it is not ready to receive multiple items, but when I do select two instances it selects the polysurface and the surface in the first instance (not the surface), and nothing in the second…
Thank you @dale this works beautifully and I have added another ‘if statement’ to eliminate the polysurface that is also in the same layer, so I only get the front surface…all is well so far.
I’m doing all of this to build upon the easycut script and to create/export a panel schedule with a hit more details. I’ve dropped your code into my doctored script and are having some problems handing off the created surfaces to the existing code…I have been trying different tweaks to make it run, but I don’t have the Python skills.
The error that gets spit out in Terminal is ‘TypeError: iteration over non-sequence of type BrepObject’
Here are a few screenshots from the critical points and the complete code
I think the problems is that what ‘new_obj’ returns from ‘ExtractBlockInstanceComponent()’
id = scriptcontext.doc.Objects.Add(obj, rh_obj.Attributes)
new_obj = scriptcontext.doc.Objects.Find(id)
rs.ObjectLayer(new_obj,"PV-Surfaces")
if new_obj:
new_obj.Select(True)
scriptcontext.doc.Views.Redraw()
return new_obj
doesn’t fit what is used here in makeDeatil() where it is called ‘objs’:
def makeDetail(keys, objs):
if not objs: return
for obj in objs: # I get an error here 'TypeError: iteration over non-sequence of type BrepObject'
for key in keys:
cur_keys = rs.GetUserText (obj)
if key not in cur_keys:
rs.SetUserText (obj, key, "0", False)
else:
val = rs.GetUserText (obj, key)
if len(val)<1 or val==" ":
rs.SetUserText (obj, key, "0", False)
I just don’t know how to make them play nice…
Any suggestion on how to make it over these last bumps?
I’ve tried using coercesurface and coerceguid from RhinoScriptContext thinking it might be the wrong type, but neither work for me…Where am I going wrong?
I hope it is OK that I keep asking for help, but do you have any suggestions @dale ?
