Material Tag

[Fin_Johnson]

Hi,

I am trying to create a material tag using either a ‘leader’ or a ‘dot’ in Rhino. I want the material tag to be able to attach to an object and then generate either the ‘material name’ or the ‘layer name’ so that the objects will display either of those pieces of information. Sadly I am having no luck. The formula I have tried for layer name is ‘%<ObjectLayer()>%’, and the formula I have tried for the material is ‘%<ObjectMaterialName()>%’.

Does anyone know if this might be possible. See screenshots attached.

This is a very common function in other programs such as Revit or Vectorworks and I have also attached a screenshot of these so that you can see the result I am trying to achieve.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Fin

[martinsiegrist]

Click the fx symbol

[Fin_Johnson]

Thanks Martin, the ‘fx’ symbol works for applying to the current layer that I am on. But it doesn’t attach to the object and then read the ‘material’ from that object

[wim (Wim Dekeyser)]

Hi Fin -

@Fin_Johnson

The formula I have tried for layer name is ‘%<ObjectLayer()>%’, and the formula I have tried for the material is ‘%<ObjectMaterialName()>%’.

What’s missing here is a “link” from the annotation object to the object from which you are trying to extract information from.

As Martin pointed out, you need to click the fx button in the text editor and then pick, e.g., ObjectLayer and then the Select Object button which lets you then pick that other object. This then results into something like %<ObjectLayer("52c436c2-b28a-4cde-b605-fbe943217ab0")>% where the GUID links to that object.
If you are stuck, please post a .3dm file that can be used to troubleshoot this issue.
-wim

[Fin_Johnson]

Thanks for this Wim. I have tried and can confirm that it works. But, the issue with this is that it’s a very lengthily process to do for hundreds of objects. Is there a formula that you could add to a ‘dot’ for example that would produce the same result?

Thanks,

Fin

[wim (Wim Dekeyser)]

Hi Fin -

@Fin_Johnson

Is there a formula that you could add to a ‘dot’ for example that would produce the same result?

No. The annotation dot is also an object with its own GUID and that would still need the GUID of those other objects.

@Fin_Johnson

But, the issue with this is that it’s a very lengthily process to do for hundreds of objects.

For automation, you could look at doing this in Grasshopper.
-wim

[martinsiegrist]

@Fin_Johnson

hundreds of objects.

Have you tried Grasshopper?

[Fin_Johnson]

Sorry to ask but could you explain / show me what this might look like in grasshopper? Thanks

[wim (Wim Dekeyser)]

Hi Fin -

@Fin_Johnson

Sorry to ask but could you explain / show me what this might look like in grasshopper?

Creating leaders with an object’s layer could looks something like this:

→ wd-Object Layer Leaders.gh (19.7 KB)

In the WIP, you need to select an object or objects. If opened in Grasshopper in Rhino 8, this makes leaders for all objects.

If you are using the WIP, you could try the new Rhino command DimUserText. That lets you pick from a list of user text and creates leaders.

New Rhino WIP Command: DimUserText

If you use user text, you can use DimUserText command in Rhino WIP to speed up your drafting workflow of annotating drawings. The DimUserText command is most useful when you want to annotate a drawing with a large number of leaders and have the text come from user text of the object. The command allows you to align the leaders to the left and right at the end. When you run the command: Pick a point on an object where you want the leader to point to (object should have at least one user text) …

-wim

[Fin_Johnson]

Hi Win,

Sorry for the slow response. This works brilliantly. Thanks for your help