Layout - Wish list

Serengeti (Rhino WIP)
23

One feature missing in the ‘fx’ is the ability to include an layout specific autonomous text.

By this i mean that inside a title-block made as a block I want to have a text that can vary from block to block depending on the layout page.
This is useful for information that varies from layout to layout (title, scale, dates etc.) but still needs to be kept inside the title-block block.

Hope this makes sense.

24

Hi Morten - thanks, this one is on the heap-

https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-2250

-Pascal

1 Like
25

I think I see what you mean. Plus, it works fine in V5. I’ve added an item, https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-37388

26

Are there any plans for improvements to layout in V6 ?

Think the one that bugs me the most is that one always sees the border of each detail. Even though one can change the border colour to match background, but then its hard to select. In other programmes one can select the detail box by clicking on one of the objects in the view. In most cases this means one has a larger area / group of objects and this makes it easier to select.

These would be top of my list >

  • Click on object within the viewport to select it, rather then selecting border
  • Custom shapes for viewports
  • Ability to delete several pages, hold down shift to select pages and delete
27

Hi Seamus - this seems like a perfectly reasonable wish to me - I think… do you mean selecting an object inside the detail only, or click anywhere inside the rectangle as if it were a shaded surface? my guess of the moment is that it may not get done for 6.0 but it might (just guessing) be possible in a service release. In any case I’ll add it to the heap. I do not think custom shapes is very likely in V6 (you can work around it to some extent). I’ll add your request to be able to select multiple layouts and delete (you envision selecting the tabs with Shift, correct? It’s probably not too hard to script a simple UI to do this from a list of layouts in the meantime, I’ll see about that.)

@seamus - here’s a quick and dirty python that will remove multiple layouts from a list.

  • not heavily tested
  • NOT undoable!!
  • use RunPythonScript or -RunPythonScript " Full path to script inside double quotes"
import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs
import scriptcontext as sc


def DeleteLayouts():
    
    layouts = rs.ViewNames(view_type=1)
    if not layouts:
        print "No layout pages found."
        return
  
    layoutState = [(layout, False) for layout in layouts]
    ids = rs.ViewNames(False, view_type=1)
    
    dict = {layouts[n]:ids[n] for n in range(len(layouts))}
    
    delList = rs.CheckListBox(layoutState, "Select layuots to delete.", "Delete multiple layouts")
    
    for item in delList:
        
        if item[1] == True:
            view = sc.doc.Views.Find( dict[item[0]])
            view.Close()
        

    
if __name__ == '__main__': DeleteLayouts()

DeleteMultipleLayouts.py (715 Bytes)

-Pascal

28

Thanks Pascal !

Yes that is exactly what I mean for selecting detail box. Here are some examples of how it works in other programmes >

Vectorworks

You have to double click on objects within the detail view. As in only the lines/curves within the box. To adjust box size drag one of the eight control points like in Rhino.

Sketch up layout

You can select anywhere within the box. To adjust box size hover over any of the four edges and handles appear, works very well.

I personally prefer the Sketch up method. Super easy to select (anywhere in the box), and handles along all edges make it very quick to resize, no need to turn control points on. Maybe double click to turn control points on in Rhino would help speed this up. Being able to resize with handles along edges would also be great, like in sketch up layout.

Could also be nice to use box edit within layout. As in if one makes a series of detail boxes one can quickly make them all the same size.

For deleting multiple pages I do indeed mean holding down shift to select and then delete. Thanks for the script, will give it go.

I should also say that I absolutely love working with Rhino, I feel like I only complain when writing on this forum. I just think that if layout had a bit more love you would win over many more customers as the basics are already there. And layout is used across architecture / product design / fabricators etc. So its not a niche feature. And aside from 2D work its a nice way to put together several 3D views on one page. I know you’ve heard this all before…

Thanks for listening !
Seamus

29

Script works great. Thanks