Maybe it’s a good idea to follow the name of the viewport with the name of Cplane which is active in that viewport. If cplane is not default but it is not named it could be named as -''not default".
For example:
Perspective - NameOfNamedCplane Cplane
Top View - not default Cplane
Bottom View
An empty name after the name of the viewport would mean that is the default cplane (not changed).
There is also a possibility that not all viewports have the default cplane turned on. So without indication, it`s hard to notice what is turned on where. I think that would make life easier especially for beginners.
I think that people do not complain about this because they don’t know after starting software that some viewports may have not default world origin. If cplane is far from World default then it’s easy to notice but if not it`s a hidden trap IMO.
Yes, and a named view saves the active CPlane.
I’m not saying that named views tell a user which CPlane is active, only that it might give an indication.
At any rate, we apparently have a feature that shows the current CPlane in the status bar.
I see that, apart from showing “none” for default CPlanes, one needs to switch between CPlanes once to get this to show the correct custom CPlane, though.
→ RH-68237 Status bar info: Current CPlane name is not always shown
-wim
The status bar does not show the correct name of a custom Cplane if Universal Cplanes are used. Instead when a custom/named Cplane is used the status bar shows the view name (Top, Front, Right, etc) as the Cplane name. This can be be very misleading. (Perhaps this is because when Universal Cplanes are used and the Cplane in one viewport is changed Rhino automatically changes the Cplanes in the other viewports based on the view each viewport and the Cplane set in the one viewport. When a custom/named Cplane is specified in one viewport the Cplanes in the other viewports may not have names.)
The status bar only shows the name of the Cplane intermittently when additional items are selected to be displayed, at least in Rhino for Windows. Each item is displayed by itself for a second or two in sequence. The user has to pause and wait for the Cplane name to appear. Not good when the user needs the name of the Cplane immediately.
Ok, I used named view on active viewport which also set cplane on that one single viewport. How to propagate that namedview cplane to all 4 viewports? I need to have top view, left view and front view with the same cplane set to start modeling.
Using NamedCplane change all 4 views to that cplane. Using NamedView command change only active viewport and the rest remain as past (no one knows which cplanes are there because there is no indication after having many cplanes). So after using NamedView I have only one set as known cplane. The rest is unknown.
So my point is:
If every viewport has its own separate cplane which is also stored during saving files, there should be a way IMHO to give the user a clear feedback- what is set there especially, if it is related to some modeling tools and could lead to modeling problems.
While waiting for the next big UI rewrite, maybe this simplistic python script could be of some slight help. It will display a list of the CPlane currently in use in each viewport and, for the standard Front, Back, Perspective etc ones it marks any that differ from the Rhino defaults.
SynchronizeCplanes sets the Cplanes in all viewports based on the Cplane in a selected viewport and the views.
If UniversalCplanes is turned on the the Cplanes in all viewports automatically update when the Cplane in any viewport is changed.
Universal construction planes
The behavior of the construction planes in the viewports is linked. They all share the same origin and are positioned normal to each other. Moving, rotating, or otherwise changing the construction plane in one viewport, changes the construction planes in the other viewports, so the 90-degree/right angle/normal orientation of the construction planes is maintained.
If a construction plane is defined in some view, the Front view for example, and Universal mode is enabled, then the construction plane that was defined will be the Front plane of the new universal plane.
Universal construction planes