Linked files warning issues | Rhino 8

Rhino Rhino for Windows
, , ,
1

In Block Definitions/Block Manager, the changed linked file is not working as expected.

First of all, by replacing the “File is newer” warning with an icon, we lost the “Nested Linked files are newer” warning. This is useful when working with several levels of ‘nestedness’.

Second, when a 2nd level nested is changed but not updated in the 1st level nested, if the 1st level is updated, the 2nd level will stop reporting if it is updated…

This is not the easiest to explain and let me caveat that in Rhino 7 it also didn’t always work as we think it should. However, this one specific issue was working correctly.

  1. Create a Child.3dm, a Parent.3dm and a GrandParent.3dm.
  2. Insert the Child in the Parent as a block Linked and Embedded.
  3. Insert the Parent in the GrandParent as a block Linked and Embedded.
  4. Close the Parent. Save the Child.
  5. In GrandParent, you will see the symbol to update Child (you see no warning on the Parent).
    Update Child.
    All seems ok, but remember that the Child in Parent has not been updated.
  6. In GrandParent, update Parent choosing “replace with imported blocks” (by convention and after years of testing this is our go-to choice).
    You will see that the Child is reverted to previous version and no warning will be shown.

This worked similarly in Rhino 7, but here is where it deviates.

  1. Open and save Child (Note: do not use BlockEdit, open Child independently)
  2. In GrandParent, there is no warning that the file was updated. in Rhino 7 there is the “File is newer”

(a) We believe the issue on point 8 is a bug.
(b) The issue in point 6 is also a bug (although it was already in Rhino 7). We believe there should be a warning whenever the file on disk is newer than the file on the file.
(c) The absence of the “nested files are newer” (on point 5) should come back because it is useful.

Looking at the new Block Definitions/Block Manager window/panel, there are things that could be much improved and I may write a different post about this, but here is a quick note.
It would be useful that the (nested) block definitions could be seen as a tree. At the moment, you also see all other objects as entities, and you see every individual instance of the nested blocks. That is too much and has limited to no use.
If you could see the nested blocks as a tree it would make it perhaps easier to navigate the updates, as well as clarify which blocks are actually in the model and which ones are visiting relatives…

Thanks N

1 Like