Pasting into a different layer

Howdy Y’all,
I’m working on converting a complex AI file into actual 3D and in the process I am trying to copy and paste from one rhino layer to a different rhino layer, but it doesn’t seem to want to do it. I will enable the layer I’m copying from, select the shapes I want to copy, copy them to the clipboard, then switch to a different layer and make it the active layer, lock the previous layer and make it invisible. When i try to paste, it just toggles the original layer back to visible and pastes on the same old layer instead of pasting on the current layer. How do I accomplish this? Is there some special keyboard shortcut I have to press to get this damn thing to paste into the current layer I am on?
I absolute LOVE the Rhino UX, and often use it as a example for how 3D apps SHOULD be done, but this is just baffling to me.

To be clear, I know I can paste on the same layer and then move the pasted objects to the layer I want, but I have to do this for a LOT of shapes (Several 100s) and that adds an extra step that I really don’t want to have to do.

1 Like

Have you tried (first select your objects) “CopyToLayer”?

// Rolf

That would be better than what I am doing if it has a keyboard shortcut. Really, what I want is simply for paste to be layer aware and paste the copied object on the layer I am currently working on, not the one I just locked and hid. I mean, I just locked the old layer. Logically, I shouldn’t be able to do ANYTHING on it.

Hi @Keith1,

try to create a button or key shortcut with this command macro:

_Paste _ChangeToCurrentLayer

I am not sure if you can prevent that the object is pasted on the layer it was copied from. I guess this is by design.

c.

Clipboard Copy/Paste ARE layer aware - just not in the sense you want them to be. All Rhino objects have “attributes”, which include things like layer, color, linetype etc… These attributes are preserved when using copy/paste. This is incredibly useful in most cases when you are copying objects between files, importing, exporting etc… Your objects are always synchronized and are not subject to unwanted layer changes.

You are simply using the wrong tool in this case. Use the Rhino _Copy command to copy objects within a file, and _CopyToLayer to copy objects to a different layer. You can also use the macro ! _-CopyToLayer _NewLayer to let you create a new layer during the operation.

–Mitch

2 Likes

Even _Copy doesn’t work that way. You can _Copy an object, switch layers, hide and lock the old layer then start clicking and it will happily place new copies of your object inside the hidden and locked layer, everywhere you click, even though the layer is locked.

_-CopyToLayer would work, but there is no predefined option for “current layer” so creating a macro is not helpful since I would need to create a separate macro for each layer that I would want to paste into, and if I created any new layers, they would need their own macros too.

So maybe copy/paste should also be file-aware. Why not just use the extra attributes only when pasting to a different file, and use the current layer when I am in the same file on a new layer and have hidden and locked the old layer?
Or perhaps a _CopyWithoutAttributes function is needed, or maybe just a _PasteToCurrentLayer

What I’m going for here is basically Ctrl-C, switch layer, Ctrl-V. Even using the commands you suggested and creating my own macros and shortcuts, that just doesn’t seem possible.

On top of all that, the simple fact that you can paste into a layer that is LOCKED seems broken to me. Am I alone in thinking this?

Yes, _Copy always retains layer info…

Actually the default is the current layer if you look at the command line.
So ! _-CopyToLayer _Pause _Enter should make a copy to the current layer.

Yep, I do this fairly often… (pasting stuff into hidden and locked layers)

–Mitch

Ah yeah, I missed that. Looks like that will be my workaround. Thanks for the help!

After a long pause (a few years) I am using Rhino again and this behavior completely threw me on a loop today

So, it is definitely not intuitive. It is useful that Rhino is layer aware, but also a pain at times.