Hi,
I am forever wishing the layer an object sits on shows up when I select the object, some kind of marker maybe .
I need to do many things and this would give me immediate access saving minutes looking up and down what can be a hundred or more layers trying to find the layer, such as move the layer, or duplicate it, or alter colour or turn it off, or alter name, or…and I could go on.
yes there are commands for all of these (are there ?) but to have to remember them all when I could do all those just by finding the layer.
I made a quick script for this some time ago - maybe exactly like Jareks in what it does but in case it helps -
import scriptcontext as sc
import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs
def HighlightLayers():
ids = rs.SelectedObjects()
if not ids:
return
layers = [rs.ObjectLayer(id) for id in ids]
layers = list(set(layers))
for layer in layers:
parent = rs.ParentLayer(layer)
while parent is not None:
rs.ExpandLayer(parent, True)
parent = rs.ParentLayer(parent)
layers = [sc.doc.Layers.FindByFullPath(layer, -1) for layer in layers]
sc.doc.Layers.Select(layers, True)
if __name__ =="__main__":
HighlightLayers()
Hi,
ever since I started with Rhino 4 a large chunk of my build time is wasted trying to find a layer an object is on.
Why cant such a simple thing exist now in Rhino ? V4 then V5 then V6.
that simple fact of seeing the layer an object or curve or line is on is all I ask for, the layer name at base of screen is no help,.
I hope this script does what I want.
Where do I put this and once installed does it show layer every time I launch rhino and select an object or do I have to go somewhere and run script every time I need to select an object ?
Hi Steve- the script does nothing more than what is avilable in the tool menu of the layer panel > Select object layer. It only makes it possible to kick that selection off via a button or alias or something.
I dont have ‘select object layer’ under the hammer, so how do I install this script, anything is better than scanning up and down hundreds of layers.
Its so vital to be able to find the layer and object is on. years of needing this, I struggle on, but hundreds of hours could be saved, all that valuable learning time lost.
Why cant a simple layer highlight when item clicked be implemented ?
Ah, greyed out, I expected to see it select it then click object.
Other way round, select object then click hammer and select it, then layer highlights.
If I make a note of what layer was highlighted so I can continue using that layer for allocation of object or whatever I was doing, this might help !
That it loses the highlight on where I was at is a pain but there we go, its something.
Ideal and hope is that as one clicks on different objects one sees their layers indicated in the layers palette in some way without the layer one has highlighted in blue changing.
I agree that having a light colour for highlighting of layer or layers that show where the selected object(s) belong, while preserving the manually selected layer(s), would be a valuable addition to Rhino.
Hi Wim, would it not be possible to use the side scroll bar in the layers panel ( if you have so many layers as to not see them all at one time) ? It might be better than having to read through a long layer list.
I can imagine a unabtrusive pulsing indicator in the main layers panel ( should a person want to see where that layer is). Thanks, Mark
In the layers panel area maybe there could be the indicator of which layer is being activated by a selected object an do away with the one at the bottom of the work area.
It is obvious that the one at the bottom is useful. Seems more practical to incorporate a highlight (layer)as well. Thanks,Mark
Hi Mark - this thread is about auto-highlighting layer(s) in the layer panel. The reason that this doesn’t get implemented is that we believe that the constant up and down scrolling, collapsing and expanding of layers will only annoy users. “Manual” highlighting of object layers is possible with today’s tools.
If anybody wants auto-highlighting, they will have to provide a detailed description of how this should work in every conceivable situation.
I also think that auto-expanding of layers by default when selecting an object in the viewport may be annoying for most users. It’s enough to just lightly highlight the parent layer(s) that include the object(s) selected by the user in the viewport without auto-expanding them.
Of course, it the auto-expanding is an optional feature, it will be helpful for those with multiple sub-layers.
Either way, automatic highlighting is a great idea.
Sure, this is why in the same post l also wrote the following:
“Of course, it the auto-expanding is an optional feature, it will be helpful for those with multiple sub-layers.”
