Relocating a model

Dear all,

my model consists of hundreds of nested block definitions, which are just linked to the model. I recently purchased a new SSD, and want to move the model onto the SSD. Prior to Rhino 5 this was no problem because you could explicitly define a relative path. Unfortunately this option has been removed for whatever reason. The manuals says that relative and absolute paths are used, however when I copy the complete model to the new drive it is obvious that it uses the block definitions in their old location (absolute path over relative path), which in my opinion makes no sense at all.

So does anyone maybe know how to force Rhino to use relative paths? Setting them manually is a nogo, these are hundreds or even thousands of links and you cannot even set them manually but have to locate them via explorer.

many thanks
Cyana

Hi @Cyana, To help it would be useful to know your previous drive setup and the new setup.
eg. Which drive were all the blocks located? C:? or D? Etc.
Also, are you replacing your original drive with the SSD or are you just adding the SSD to your current hard drive setup?
One non-Rhino Solution:
If all your files were on an external hard drive or on a 2nd partition or 2nd internal hard drive:
(Actually any drive except your main windows C: drive)
Then you can simply rename the drives sothat the new SSD is using the same drive letter as your original drive used for block storage, and make the original one another drive letter.
This is pretty simple in Windows. I do it all the time for my external drive because sometimes Windows reshuffles the drive naming of externals.

  1. START MENU - MY Computer (Right click on My Computer)
  2. Click on MANAGE
    3.On the left menu click on STORAGE and then DISK MANAGEMENT
    You will see a list on the right of all the connected drives.
  3. Make now right click on your original block storage drive (eg. D:)
    then click on Change Drive Letter and Paths
    Change it to something else on the dropdown list.
  4. Now go to your SSD and do the same thing and change the drive letter to D:(In this case)
  5. If you copy the file structure over from your old drive to the new D: then Rhino won’t know the difference as far as absolute links go.
    NOTE: DO NOT CHANGE THE DRIVE LETTER FOR C: (WINDOWS BOOT DRIVE)
    I have used this method for years to keep all my data on external drives and I have backup (Duplicate) external USB3 drives. So If one gives up I can swop it out with another an Rhino is none the wiser.
    Hope that helps. Michael VS

Hi Michael,

thank you for your reply! Actually, it’s a bit more complicated - I replaced my system SSD by a bigger one, which left a spare one for other use. So, it’s in fact an additional drive. Unfortunately, I cannot reassign a different drive letter, because the D drive (where the models are located at the moment) also contains the users and appdata (a method to save space on the system SSD) and changing the letter would leave the windows system in a total mess.

best greetings
Cyana

Hi Cyana - I believe Rhino uses the absolute path if it is valid and the link is found there, otherwise it will try the relative path - is that what you are seeing?

-Pascal

Hi Pascal,

this was it! Thanks a lot, now it works great!

best greetings
Cyana