New Block Attribute Export command

Serengeti (Rhino WIP)
1

There is a new command in the Rhino 8 WIP for you to try.

Before this command, extracting block attribute values for analysis might have been done with a script, Grasshopper with Elefront or you may have even exported DWG and used AutoCAD.

Here is how you can use the command.

  1. Download a Rhino 8 WIP (Windows or Mac) dated March 15, 2022 or later.

  2. You can preselect blocks with commands SelBlockInstance or SelBlockInstanceNamed.

  3. Start the command.
    Command: TestExportBlockAttributes

  4. Use the preselected block or select blocks with attributes to export

  5. Check the Block Attributes to Export
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  6. Pick name and location for CSV file.

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  7. Open CSV file in Excel, Google sheets or other program for analysis or formatting.

  8. Return the table to Rhino by printing your your spread sheet to PDF and importing your PDF to Rhino. The data is not linked, but the table layout is maintained.

We are sure there will be suggestions to make this more powerful.
But it is a place to start. Let us know if it works for you.

Sincerely,
Mary Ann Fugier

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8 Likes
3

I like this as a beginning of creating BOMs and BOQs. We are now trying to implement this method in our pipeline at my work. One thing I would love to add is dimensional information of the block like width, height and depth. The information is already in the “BoxEdit” and it would be great if we could have it as an attribute.

4

I see a use for it with the setting for a Drawing List where I can extract Sheet Data from a single Rhino File, I haven’t done that but I’ll give it a try soon.

By Tying the below attributes to a title block I get the info for below:

1- Sheet Name
2- Sheet Number
3- Sheet Issue Date
4- Revision Description.

5

I haven’t been using Blocks in Rhino a lot. I am curious how was the data of attributes displayed as text in the 3D space along the elements?

I see this feature could be very useful, for example to edit properties in an excel/CSV file. Import the CSV to populate the block with properties and values, or to change the existing values. This feature could be even more powerful if it could work between Revit properties of a family/type/instance of a component and a block in Rhino, some equivalency, to have interoperable properties.