Proposal: Named Objects Panel

Rhino Rhino for Windows
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In Bongo every animated object gets a name. Working on a complex model I often use the Bongo Animation manager as a kind of ‘catalog’ of objects which allows me to :
• get an overview of the named objects
• select a specific object (or multiple objects) by its name
• easily rename an object(s)

Without the plugin Rhino users only have the SelName command to manage (i.e. select) named objects.

I suggest a ‘Named Objects’ panel similar to Named Views, Named Positions and Named CPlanes. A graphical visualization of the objects nature (point, curve, surface, polysurface, group, block)like in Bongo’s Animation Manager would be helpful.
In the named Position a similar graphical visualization of the concerned object might be interesting, leaving the current icon for multiple objects.

16 Likes
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McNeel is well into their second decade of ignoring requests for this type of feature. Don’t get your hopes up.

2 Likes
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Hi. @jordy1989 was kind enough to make a very useful plugin on the thread below which I use every day since. Thanks again - Michael VS
I think this will do what you require, and replace the Bongo utility.

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This is awesome. Does anybody know if there is a way to try this out in the Rhino WIP?

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Thanks Michael, the plugin is nice.
I miss the standard Window’s edit ‘at the spot’ to rename an object, though. And indeed Michael I miss some kind of highlighting in the panel when an object(s) itself is selected via a Rhino viewport.
The object nature’s icon would be welcome, as well as the reflection of the object’s layer via the color of the name’s font.

Yes, the plugin is fine but I feel a build-in Rhino panel would be far more elegant.

BTW Bongo’s Animation Manager does more than displaying object’s names. I primarily manages object’s Hierarchies and hence is irreplaceable.

2 Likes
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Some utilities:
• Graphical info on objects that are hidden (or on hidden layers) –e.g. grayed out
• Various sorting orders: by Name (alphabetic up/down), by object Type (point, curve, …), by Layer (alphabetic or custom order (ref to layer panel)), visual/hidden or hidden/visual.

4 Likes
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Hi Luc- we do have this on the pile, the request is not currently one of the public ones so I cannot link it, but it’s there and I’ve added a link back here as a sort of +1 (or many) to that request.

thanks,

-Pascal

3 Likes
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Thanks Pascal. It just seemed a good idea. Notice: 9 likes (so far).

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Just looking through the forum to find a thread on this. Where can I add my +1 for an objects panel in Rhino. You would think it was one of the first things to do, yet here we are with Rhino 7 and still no way to see an actual list of objects I have in my scene or see what is contained in a Layer.

Can someone from McNeel explain why it wasn’t deemed necessary when there is not a single 3D programm out there that I have seen that does NOT have one? I mean even Sketchup had this before they were ever bought by Google in the early 2000s.

I just don’t understand what is so hard about that? All the information is there. There are Panels for so many obscure things… a web browsers, tutorials, etc. There is a separate panel for Lights and many others that could all be reduced down to a simple Objects/Layers Panel. You have your layers and in the layers you have your objects. They can be anything, meshes, NURBS objects, lights, etc.

It would solve so many issues. If you want to lock or hide specific things you select them and then hide them. But then how do you know what you have hidden? You have to unhide everything and then select and hide things again. Why? Why can’t I just see all the objects in a panel and it has a little icon for hiding/showing and one for locking… like in so many other 3D softwares. Its not like it will get in the way of anyone, even if it is part of the layer panel. If you just want to see the layers, you just keep them collapsed, but if you want to see and interact with the objects you click to open the layer and you see the objects. I mean right now you can’t even tell if a layer contains any objects or how many. Or how about accessing an object in a group? So easy if you have an outliner and can see object hierarchies.

I think this screenshot from an article how to transfer stuff over to Unreal Engine shows a nice side by side comparison of the panels. Notice how Rhino just stops at the layer level and Unreal just goes one step further and makes it so much more useful to be able to see and interact with the actual object in a layer:

oultiner
oultiner1248×800 180 KB

Don’t get me wrong, I love Rhino, and its precisely why its so frustrating that it has all these incredible capabilities and in some areas, mainly the UI and user experience, it just feels like its light-years behind others (as evidenced by that huge thread on the UI overhaul).

And I know the old argument that you are catering to the pro users and they’ve all been fine so far, but that is not a valid argument. You keep pushing the expert stuff, but don’t forget about the basics. Rhino always had a technoligical edge with NURBS and Grasshopper that meant everyone just put up with the quirks. But that doesn’t mean that anyone would mind these basics to be there. It would lower the barrier for entry and just make everything a little more accessible for newcomers. And its precisely why Grasshopper is such a success. Great design and attention to detail in the basics!

2 Likes
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Hi @pascal, do you know if this was finally implemented ? From our architecture/engineering point of view at setec, the object panel is really THE thing we miss in rhino.

BR,

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+1 from setec company (Paris). We are currently working on BIM workflows across different softwares. The (almost only) thing that we miss in Rhino is an ObjectPanel, with a hierarchy of objects, just like there is a hierarchy of layers.

2 Likes
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It is being worked on. There will be some sort of outliner / data manager / whatever-we-are-going-to-call-it in Rhino 8.

2 Likes
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Here is hoping it will just be a simple panel. “Data manager” already sounds like the Block Manager, which is not really a high point in Rhino.

Please, just keep it simple and do it like in any other 3D software out there. Layers and Objects in 1 hierarchy tree as a Panel. Visibility, Lock, Material also per Object. I mean it’s basically all in the Layers Panel already, just need to add objects and then decide how far down you can go.

Thank you!

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A panel is the current idea. We’ll see where the future brings us…

1 Like
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Any updates on this? I can’t see anything in the WIP, except the new blocks panel, which sort of goes in that direction.

Is it really that hard to at least get started on a panel that shows all the objects and lets me select them, hide them, lock them and apply a material.

I always have to laugh when I see yet another tutorial in Rhino (like the nice tutorials by: https://www.youtube.com/@DesignGoBrr) and they always show you how you basically have to create a layer for each object or at least ones with the same material, because this is kind of the only way to apply materials and have a nice way of seeing your scene hierarchy. Meanwhile in any other software you can apply materials to a group or even individual object in a super clean way because you just see them all in a list.

I wonder if we will see something like a proper outliner by Rhino 10… like 20 years after everyone else.