Hi,
Now that there are annotation styles, what’s the appetite for having a Layer attribute, so annotations always go to the selected layer if enabled? I’d find it helpful to not have to switch to a specific layer and back, or change text/dim layer after the fact.
Eric
Eric -
Do you mean a specific layer per dimstyle?
I haven’t given it a lot of thought, but the dimension, like any other object, does have a layer attribute and it might be kind of tricky managing two ways to control that.
Having a current dimension layer setting that caused the dimension commands to make dimensions on a specific layer would be tractable. Would that do you any good?
Hi Lowell,
Yes, that’s what I was thinking, but my hope was it could apply to all annotations including text objects, which if I understand right also now belong to an annotation style?
Text does now belong to an annotation style.
Getting the layer from the annotation style would be a pretty big departure from how things work now.
Setting the layer when text or other annotation is created according to a field in a style might be doable but maintaining that relationship if the field changed in the style would be pretty tricky with how things work now, and having a field in a style that has a one-time affect would be confusing I think.
I’ll have to revisit this when I’m a little more able to consider it properly.
Got it. Maybe it could be more of a “create annotation on selected layer” option rather than “keep annotation on selected layer”, so the relation to the layer field in the style would not be maintained past creation.
Eric
I’ll ask around a little
Hi @eej,
It sounds like you’re trying to come up with a way to keep your drawings tidy - so that all the annotations of a specific style are on a specific layer. Can you describe why you want them all on the same layer?
Hi, Eric,
As we get an understanding of how this fits into your workflow, would having a “Current Annotation Layer” as a document setting meet your needs?
All new non-annotation objects go to the “Current Layer” unless a command does something special (like make2d) (like Rhino has worked for 20 years)
If the “Current Annotation Layer” is set, then all new annotation objects go to the “Current Annotation Layer”. Controlling the “Current Annotation Layer” would happen in the layer UI in the same way that controlling the “Current Layer” already happens in the layer UI.
It sounds like you’re trying to come up with a way to keep your drawings tidy - so that all the annotations of a specific style are on a specific layer. Can you describe why you want them all on the same layer?
Hi Brian,
My drawings are already tidy 
it just takes too much work to make them that way!
Eric
If the “Current Annotation Layer” is set, then all new annotation objects go to the “Current Annotation Layer”. Controlling the “Current Annotation Layer” would happen in the layer UI in the same way that controlling the “Current Layer” already happens in the layer UI.
Hi Dale,
YES This would be perfect.
Eric
How do you imagine the layer dialog user interface would look to make this discoverable?
And also the “curent layer” drop-down box in the status bar?
I assumed Dale proposed another column in the layer dialog for “Current Annotation Layer” check.
Eric
I assumed he proposed a dropdown box in File->Properties->Annotation Styles - but I can see how doing that would be pretty weird, especially if I got a file from someone else with this setting set.
Adding a column to the Layer dialog seems awkward because the column headers are blank, and having two different checkbox columns would be confusing. I guess one could have an “A” instead of a check to indicate the active annotation layer. But then how would you turn it off? If users accidentally clicked there, they’d get behavior they may not expect.
Perhaps it could something like:
The downside to that is that nobody would ever use this feature.
I wonder if it’s important enough to add more UI to the screen?
What if you had a script on a button that ran something like:
_SelNone
_SelDim
_SelText
-_ChangeLayer Annotation
That way, you could always keep your drawings clean and tidy, and it’d be easy.
That way, you could always keep your drawings clean and tidy, and it’d be easy.
Hi Brian,
Pretty much what I do now. I have enough OCD that I have to hit it after every annotation is made if I’m not on the right layer. Sounds like a personal problem, I know.
Eric
Maybe we could put it on the Dim… , text and leader commands kind of like the current dimstyle is now. Could start out as defaulting to the current layer with no need to set it to anything
It’s not the first time I’ve heard that request.
It sounds complicated from a UI perspective to me and also too specific to annotations. It seems like the very next request is to place all new points on a certain layer and all new meshes on a different one and all objects who’s bounding box is a certain size to another…
I’m sure this is useful for certain workflows, but also seems like something that should be prototyped in the layer manager UI.
It also sounds like a pretty big project. If this continues to be a major problem after Rhino 6 ships, I think we could revisit it then. For now, I’d like to focus on finishing up what we’ve already started.
I logged this wish as RH-37832.