Rhino 9 has a Markup feature in development based on the Markup feature in iRhino3D. The Markup command allows you to draw basic shapes with a predefined set of tools on a given view.
Markups get saved into the 3DM format and can be restored via the Markups panel.
This is an early prototype of this feature and can change a lot during the development process based on the feedback I get here.
Command Options
HUD - Enables/Disables heads up display
Tool - Select from a set of tools to draw: Sketch, Sketch Tapered, Rectangle, Text
Color - Color of drawing tool
Thickness - Thickness of the drawn linetype
Text Height - Height of the text when text tool is used
Panel Visible - Toggles Markups panels on or off
Heads Up Display (HUD)
To not have to shift focus between the viewport and the commands panel, most of the command options are accessible via the HUD. This a new type of UI we’re trying out in V9 for some commands. Feedback in this area is also appreciated.
When starting a markup and before anything is drawn, the markup view isn’t yet set. That’s why the HUD moves from viewport to viewport as you move your cursor.
As soon as the first markup object is added, the view is locked:
Orbiting is disabled
Panning and zooming are disabled in perspective views but enabled in orthographic views
When finished drawing, pressing Enter or clicking the green checkmark will complete the command and brings up the Markups Panel
Tip: sketch tool draws jagged dense polylines by default, at the end of drawing and before you release the mouse button hold your cursor in place to apply smoothing
This area needs a lot of work as it’s not yet possible to keep drawing once a markup has been saved. But markup geometry can be somewhat edited when restored. They can be moved around in the view plane, manipulated or deleted.
To make things easier, when a markup geometry is selected, a widget appears that allows you to modify it’s appearance.
Like anything we do at McNeel, the direction this feature goes really depends on the feedback I get here. But there are a few things that I think need to happen.
This is very nice
the HUD is very comfortable to use.
a couple of early comments:
It will be faster i feel if color selection [Vis the HUD] will not require an Enter to accept
[using a Wacom pen here,] it will be much faster to change colors that way.
the tapered lines get a broken fill on tight[ish] curvature.
[is there a way to improve that via settings ?]
Any chance of adding brush pressure? [tapered lines are ok for a mouse. But with a pen, pressure sensitivity is, as you know, much more versatile and useful]
if possible yes.
Since this is only for Markups, one likely just want to quickly scribble stuff and quickly change colours… and a precise shade is perhaps not that important .
I means : if you change colour from the HUD only. There is also the option to pick colour from the command, [regular rhino paradigm ] and this can stay as the regular colour palate behaviour.
Yeah, double clicking on a color should close the dialog. There’s no option to make it auto close otherwise. Not sure if it should ever auto close if you are clicking a color wheel or slider as one would usually use multiple to select a color.
Please, make this annotation friendly and Step 242 friendly and layout detail friendly so we can finally have 3D PMI constructions in Rhino.
Make it possible to create markups not only with pen but also with current Drafting tools
Make it Step 242 friendly
Make it possible to, when adding a Detail select a Markup as a camera.
Make it so blocks can be inserted into the markup (so we can add technical drawing page borders to the view of the markup when exporting as PMI Step 242.
What tools do you need that are missing. I assume dimensions. What else?
If using dimensions, do you want it to report the measured length or want to override the text value?
Can you elaborate what you mean by Step 242 friendly? Does Step have a convention for markups?
Interesting idea, should be possible, I’m curious about the workflow you have in mind?
Basically all tools used for drafting, dimensions, hatches, leaders, line types, clipping planes and visibility state. Maybe this could be an excuse to have an official exploded view too?
I said this based on an old statement from Chuck on a old thread
On the short term, being able to work on preparing 2d technical drawings for assemblies and stuff more easily.
On the long term, allow to have Rhino export PMI data to some free viewer for the operational workers to use it similar to what we use JT2Go and Navisworks Freedom today on the shipyard. (I wish I had an iPad or iPhone to be able to test iRhino).
this short video of JT2Go show what the final long term objective would be. But on the short side.
This one a bit longer show the process of preparation of the PMI
If we had a Rhino viewer only version that didn’t require any sort of license to install on windows would be cool too. Because most of the workers on our shipyard have Windows Tablets but our IT department won’t allow installing trial versions for them because they think we would be abusing the Trial of Rhino and are afraid of McNeel taking legal actions. But this would be another thread subject.
Yes, see image below as example of what I meant, basically being able to have legend and BOMs list and this kind of stuff on some views. It would be almost if the block was an overlay on top of the view.
In summary, it would be almost as if the layout space and model space became one thing and being able to export it as step 242 for clients to use their own tools.
Have you tried snapshots? I looked at the video you posted and seems like full control of every aspect of the model is what you need. Snapshots gives you that.
These two solutions have one fundamental flaw. It changes the model position, so this is not an exploded view, this is an exploded model.
So if I use this to create drafting, I have to rely on “static drawings” a.k.a. Make2D.
Unless the detail window could select different model positions for each detail, that make this unusable in my workflow.
Yes I did try snapshots, but the file becomes too heavy to quickly to the point that I have a few files I can’t even use anymore because trying to activate one snapshot different from the one that the file was saved with just crashes Rhino.
Snapshots are also bad for this solution because everything you create after saving an snapshot needs to be updated manually one by one afterwards, so it doesn’t allow the workflow to flow correctly when you have revisions.
But lets go just one step at the time. Just having the drafting tab tools working with markup would already solve 75% of my problems.
Being able to activate the markup as a camera on the detail view would solve another 20%.
The final 5% with step compatibility for PMI and exporting are not that important and could be replaced by a good lightweight 3dm viewer / read only companion.
This is a known limitation with snapshots in files that contain many objects and object state is preserved by the snapshot. RH-49646 Snaphots gives out of memory error
To be clear, markups use snapshots under the hood, but we only preserve layer state, viewport and view. So you won’t have the same performance issues.
Rhino with expired eval can be used indefinitely as a viewer. It may be the perfect option for you.
Depends on your definition of “Edit”, there are some things you can already do but I’m looking to spend more effort in that area. Can you elaborate what you need in terms of editing?
