Yep, a Windows-only issue.
https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-72466
Many users don’t use layouts. So we didn’t want to confuse them by placing them side-by-side. Mary’s video discusses this. You can re-order columns - drag where you see fit.
– Dale
This is a Mac-only feature (issue for some). I’ll log the complaint when I get a chance.
– Dale
Very nice Mary!
I know, that seems not very important, but I don’t see many different colors and need to choose wisely for layer colors (mainly based on color relative brightness, like yellow is itself much brighter than blue), also there are some colors you don’t want to have chosen randomly like a bright yellow (where objects would always appear highlighted) or a pink (which I personally use to display backsides of surfaces in ghosted mode).
I’d prefer a list of colors and have rather the option ‘new layer with next color from list’ or random from a list to sort out some unwanted colors.
I have the impression that the current attempt to solve visibility across layouts, details and model space is getting rather convoluted still. Like, if you want to make sure several details have the same visibility or even linestyles, materials or colours, there’s a lot of manual work in the process. What I would prefer is if Rhino were to adopt Revit’s Visibility Graphics approach.
Instead of putting all of this in the layers panel, you should have control over ‘templates’. What I would like is to set all the associated colours, visibility of objects, linestyles etc. and put everything together under a ‘detail template’ any changes you make to this template are then propagated to all detail views that make use of the same template. Similarly, you could have ‘layout templates’ that you can apply to override object visibility in a ‘detail template’ (e.g. to only show design A and not design B in one layout and vice versa). This may sound complicated, but because everything is linked to a template, you can make changes in advance and after the fact much easier. It is also insightful what you change and you know it applies to exactly those views you specified, without hunting through them.
not shure if I already posted this request:
A nice feature to have would be seperators between layers (as in other CAD or Graphic apps).
As a workaround I use underscores as layer names. This is not very handy as layer names have to be unique. So my first separator is called “_______”, the next one “________” and so on.
Hi @stevebaer,
I’ve been thinking about your suggestion of adding a column for object count. This would be A LOT more useful than just knowing if a layer is empty.
In the last few days, I have been working on 2 different projects where file organization is critical. I realize that an object count per layer not only assures me that I have the expected number of objects in a layer, but if the e number is more than expected, I also know that maybe I left some curves behind in that layer or on object contained in that layer has some split/exploded surfaces, so the count is higher than expected if it was all one single polysurface.
It would also be very useful when you import something and see when the imported objects went and how many they are.
I’d love to have this column added, it would be awesome! I mocked it up here also showing a variant where the zero is grayed out for easier identification.
and here’s the version if we gray-out the zero number: (Or maybe we can bold it?)
pleeeease… thx!
G
Big fat + for this count column!
With the gray zero.
It will add ‘visual character’ to the layers. One might sometimes even guess, just by the number, what’s on the layer, or remember more easily.
Guess it’s even a relative simple thing to add.
Very cool improvements! Here my thoughts related to this topic because I have been thinking on this for very long! Maybe some ideas are funny but let’s share them.
I find quite useful a way to put a object automatically on new layer with a random color. Each object you create, a new layer is created without too much clicks. It could be a function like “Always Record History”.
Drag a object onto a layer. When I’m doing some teaching, people find quite complex the process to put objects on layers. The easy way that I found is to create a new one in the left classical panel and then select the object and go to the panel next to the units and select the new layer. People never remember the right click for this because there’s a lot of commands when you do that. If you want to create a new layer you can use the icon, you don’t need all the options in that panel, again.
Hopefully you can find some ideas here. Let me know your thoughts!
Everything is easy when someone else is doing the work. But the fact that Steve himself suggested this gives me a lot of hope.
It’s such a genius and simple idea that gives some much clarity to what’s going on in your file as you are modeling, organizing, importing, get ready for exporting, etc. There’s a ton of value here in this little feature.
G
I really like the idea of the “Count” column as well! I was not crazy about the grey out the empty layer name or background since it would possibly close the path to what I am hoping one day will be implemented: custom color coding of the layer panel ( Color coding layer display : RH-43252 (myjetbrains.com) ) The Count column feature would nicely solve it plus there is more value in it other than quickly indicating the “empty” layers.
There is one tricky part with that solution though: how do you treat objects that are part of a block definition that are assigned to a layer? You can see now how often this part is confusing for many users when they can’t delete a seemingly empty layer because there are some in-block-definition objects on it…
One suggestion I have for Count column is if a layer has any objects that are part of a block definition (NOT block instances, these should count as regular objects!), they can be displayed next to the main count in parenthesis.
So a layer with 10 regular objects and 2 that are only part of block definition would read 10(2).
Empty layer only with two objects in block def. would be 0(2).
A layer with 10 objects and no objects in block would simply be 10.
The parenthesis would also quickly help to see which layers contain objects that are part of block definitions.
I don’t see much value in summing up “normal” and in-block objects, and also ignoring the “in-block” objects would be very misleading…
Curious to hear what you guys think.
+1 for count columnt for sure, great idea @stevebaer
-j
for the object count column +1
I would love to see another feature regarding naming of dublicated layers … i know it s a papercut…
current:
Layer 01
Layer 01 - copy
Layer 01 - copy - copy
Layer 01 - copy - copy - copy
would love to see
Layer 01
Layer 01 - copy
Layer 01 - copy02
Layer 01 - copy03
or maybe
Layer 01
Layer 01-001
Layer 01-002
Layer 01-003
there should be an ability to to lock and/or turn off the selected layer!
Thanks, I’ve added that as a comment to RH-39540 Object count column
I’ve added that feature request as RH-75611 Layer: Drag object to layer in layer panel
That request is on the list as RH-56680 Layer: Separator to facilitate layer organization
-wim
Now I want symbols after the name of a layer to show if it contains annotations, dimensions, curves, surfaces, polysurfaces or blocks (perhaps even color coded to show if they have history or not)… 
Yes, exactly!
I think about it each time I work in Rhino. Ability to select each object on the layer would improve workflow significantly.
Hi -
That’s something that would go into the “Object Manager” panel, rather than the Layers panel.
The first incarnation of such Object Manager is the Block Definitions panel in the Rhino 8 WIP, and the thought is to develop this further during the Rhino 9 WIP timeline.
-wim
I haven’t looked at the Object Manager yet, but my immediate thought is that each Layer/Sublayer entry in the Layer Manager should open to a further “sublayer” that displays a list of the object names in that layer along with the object type. Objects with no name should be displayed with some type of default “No Name” indication. Rolling over the list should highlight the object in the viewports and clicking it should select the object. The standard Windows method of clicking with shift or control to select multiple objects should be used. Also selecting (or perhaps rolling over) an object in a viewport should highlight the object name in in the object name list when it is open.
Just my thoughts on how to do it. I’m sure others can provide improvements.
It showed up shortly in the R8 WIP, then disappeared again. There was some discussion about it already.
we already have NamedSelection.
what about adding an option for “SmartSelection” ?
… that would allow a complex logical (and,or,not, …brackets ()) combination of
Layer, Color, Geometry-Type, Material, open/closed, Keys/Attributes, …
some custom combination of all the _sel*** commands and properties
And of course that would be evaluated live as soon as called…
I remember vectorworks has this kind of functionality - but with a very “bumby” / unappropriated implementation or Interface.
Hi @Jarek, when I first read this I thought: “oh God nooo, a normal would never know what this whole count collum is all about now”
…but then the more think about it, the more sense it makes. This is my reasoning:
If I’m a new/novice user and I don’t use blocks, nor I know what they are I would never see this weird parenthesis stuff, I’d only see regular numbers in my happy simple world.
After living my simple Rhino existence of no blocks, no weird stiff, one day I get a file from someone that has all this weird ‘group’ that does not ungroup. And I learn the hard way that something different is disrupting my simple Rhino life. And I see these parentheses stuff happening, I also see, in object properties that this is something different. I have enough nits to look into this further (or explode the crap out of it until I kill all the parentheses, and I go back to happy simpleton life.
So in summary: I like this approach of X(Y) numbering for both novice and expert users.
@stevebaer, while you are still coding this… want to put in a couple of extra hours and add a mouseover behavior on this column?, that gives you a object-type itemizer of your total count number? like this?
Best,
G
