DESCRIPTION
I presume there is no fast way to look at what there is in a layer.
To inspect what is in a layer, you need to click select the layer, right-click, a menu pops up, move down the mouse searching and select “Select Objects”. If there are lots of Layers to inspect, it is time-consuming or not possible.
SOLUTION
Feature Request:
Fast way to select all objects of the same layer.
[Feature] Alt + Layer selection will “Select Sublayer Objects” / “Select Objects”.
By pressing [ALT] and at the same time clicking over the layer name (on the layer tab), you will unselect all and “Select Sublayer Objects” or, if it is not present, “Select Objects”.
Add
[Feature] Alt + Shift + Layer selection will “Select Sublayer Objects” / “Select Objects”.
By pressing [ALT] plus [SHIFT] and at the same time clicking over the layer name (on the layer tab), you will add to the selection.
Hovering
If it is not too demanding in fps, drop for the interface:
by pressing ALT only when hovering over the layer name, it will provisionally select only the objects that are in that layer and sub layers.
The difference between selecting the layer or the object is determined by pressing the ALT key.
Personally I take advantage of the sublayer tree system provided by Rhino and it works wonderfully. For example, while I work on a car, everything related to a door is placed inside numerous sublayers whose parent is the “Doors” layer. The same goes to “Brake system”, “Glasses”, “Steering system”, “Metal plates” (with sublayers for the different thicknesses), “Tubes” etc. Using sublayers actually saves a lot of space and makes it easy to find, select or show/hide the necessary models, so I strongly recommend using them. Years ago, I was only using main layers and that lead to extremely long layer list.
The “Highlight layers” scrips is also quite handy. I use it as a RMB command to the Layers icon. HighlightLayers.py (683 Bytes)
Hello- _SelLayer or _-SelLayer will do that, as well as RMB on a layer in the layer panel > ‘Select objects’ from the contest menu.
Does any of that get at what you are after?
No,
For example, A new 3D model arrives from a provider with several surfaces in different layers.
We need to understand what objects are in each layer in a fat way. There are several layers, as shown in the first screenshot. So it is hard to inspect and remember
Expected: In a standard UI, you just double-click fast the layer name, and it will automatically select only the objects of that layer (and frame it Zoom Selected). But this is not the case in Rhino.
Actually, SelLayer ask you to scroll down and choose a layer. So it is hard if you need to inspect a lot of layers. And is not so intuitive.
Yes: RMB ‘Select objects’ from the menu is better but takes time, and the menu sometimes lags, taking time to pop up. But it is a nice improvement in Rhino 8 because ‘Select objects’ is now on top in the first place! The problem is that it takes three clicks. One to deselect, one RMB, and ‘Select objects’.
Solution
Exposes as a command:
probably a command call SelLayerObjects
or SelHighlightLayerObjects
So in one toolbar button, we can deselect all and selects the object of that highlight layer. I can bind it in a keyboard key and use it in union with up/down key
Now when you highlight a layer and then press the Down key,
you select the next Layer.
I never notice that pressing [ALT] + Down key change
“Nudge 0.200, Cumulative 1.200”
Turns all layers off (except current) and then scrolls through all layers and
turns one on at a time. Hit Enter to go to the next layer; Ctrl+Z or any key+Enter
to go back to the previous layer; hit Esc to exit the script. Exits automatically at either end of list,
and the previous layer visibility scheme is restored.
