In GH in V7, we had the following in the Display>Dimensions menu:
In GH in V8, that component has been removed and this functionality has been integrated into the “Query Viewports” component under the Rhino menu:
This component puts out more info, not just the view, but also the viewport (there is a difference) plus the display mode that is currently active. You can plug it into a “Model View” component to get just the view:
Both of these are based on finding the viewport names. Viewport names are language-dependent. So, If I use the same thing in a French-speaking Rhino I get this:
because “Top” viewport doesn’t exist in a French Rhino template, it is called “Dessus”. You can of course right click on the ModelView component and “Set one view” but that defeats the purpose of having it automatically set. Dunno, maybe there is a way and I missed it.
So, I went looking for a way to specifically define a view projection (for a Make2D operation) that would be language-independent - like an underscore is when running Rhino commands. I thought it best to define the view projection geometrically rather than by name, therefore there would be no possible error. There is this component:
So I thought, that’s easy… But not really.
The component wants a rectangle input. That’s easy enough to define. However, not any rectangle that’s in the view plane you want will do. It has to be of the correct dimensions (big enough) and the camera at least has to be above the the objects used for the Make2D - WAY above, because it actually does have a conical frustum which will cut the objects if it’s not far away enough. Is there a camera input? No. AND, the rectangle has to have the correct CW/CCW orientation, otherwise the view points the wrong way. All that makes it a royal pain in the a$$ to set up correctly without getting it looking the wrong way or clipping your objects.
I don’t really understand why a parallel view projection can’t be simply defined as being normal to a plane. The plane has all the elements needed - orientation in space with the X and Y axes plus the Z normal. The extents should be unlimited (as in a plane) as this is a parallel projection… But this is not possible.
Anyway, that leads me to my request:
As in vectors with unit X, Y and Z components and planes with World XY, YZ and ZX components, we need universal Top, Front and Right view components that can be plugged directly into a Make2D or a ModelView component and work in any language. Perhaps they could even have an “invert” Boolean so we could get Bottom, Back and Left.
