Pretty sure this has come up a while back.
Is there a plan to add a search bar function into the Urban Furniture block library?
We plan on adding a large product library into this which would only really be practical if there was the ability to search for items by name/product code.
Thanks
Hi,
Create a 3dm drawing (table, chairs etc) but 3dm file in a folder named for example “my furniture” and create a new library in Lands design how?
Hope it helps
-Anna
Would that be enough if it searched in the current folder/node only?
Thanks both,
I am aware of the ability to set up my own folder library, but search ability is important.
@albert, would what you propose apply to subfolders meaning a top level search would still apply to folders contained?
We would have a main library and then sub folders (probably split by product type, or range) as there are simply too many to practically have in one folder as it takes too long to load the previews within the furniture library.
I guess that if we decide to implement the search function it’s better to make it truly useful by searching in the whole library and not in the current folder only. I’ve thought on it and it’s not so hard to implement, we can show the search results like if they were the contents of a folder, as long as you don’t need to know at which folder they belong. In fact you’ll be just selecting a block to insert it.
This would be ideal.
The person searching already knows what they are looking for, it just saves a considerable amount of repetitive folder opening which can be quite slow when loading the previews within the lands urban furniture library.
Another useful feature would be the ability to change from ‘icon/image’ view in the browser to simple list view. I presume this would display the contents quicker?
Thanks Albert
You said you want to search by “name/product code”, where the name and product code are in your case? Is “name” the file name? Do you use txt files beside 3dm files to add localized descriptions and/or product codes?
We generally only search by file name (which includes number and name in the title).
We currently have no need for the accompanying text file, although this may change if we see additional benefit to including product information here.
Generally, all our info is kept on a spreadsheet etc.
Would an option to switch the view to list view instead of images be feasible? I presume this would make a significant difference to data loading times as currently it is quite slow loading the previews.
It was intended to be visual, to discover blocks you haven’t seen yet. But in your case it looks like you already know them or you don’t matter what they look like, you just want an specific model.
We can consider it, and yes, loading times would be dramatically reduced.
Can I ask what Lands Library adds to _Insert command (where you can search, select list view instead of icons,…) that make it valuable for you? Is it the “Urban Furniture List” feature for documentation purposes?
Hi Albert,
Yes, the list function is useful, but especially valuable is the 2D/3D switch and browsable library contained within the system.
Currently we use the _import command to locate our existing blocks, and currently we have a 2D layer within each block to do our own switching, but moving over to your drafting tools and also being able to elevate blocks to terrain etc are all useful features.
Thanks
That’s good, merci. We are changing the way 2D/3D switch is done to make Urban Furniture more like the rest of Lands elements. This is, they will no longer be simple block instances (Rhino primitives) but “Lands Objects”, custom objects drawn by Lands and not by Rhino. This could affect users sharing 3dm designs with other users not having Lands. Is that your case?
Also, instances inserted using _Insert (or _Import) command won’t be computed in Lists (though we could add the option to compute them).
I had my doubts about whether this change was a good idea, but this way urban furniture elements will be more compact and resistant to _purge command.
How would we go about setting up our own items within the Urban Furniture Library?
Would it differ to the current method using a b2d, b3d, image and txt file within the folder?
We don’t share any Rhino files outside of our organisation.
Any file sharing is done in the form of DWG exports or PDF printouts to keep things simple, so making lands more embedded would unlikely create any challenges for us initially.
Having the option to have lists of urban furniture items remains important, and as per another thread it would be good to be able to manually select items we want to include within a list…
For example, selecting a range of items and then creating a list for just those items.
This would offer the possibility to have multiple shorter lists on a drawing for collections of items in different areas of a plan…
Also, I notice that if these lists are physically moved, they auto update, so any list that is setup with hidden layers, suddenly shows the hidden items again if they have since been switched on since creating the list.
In the last version, published yesterday, we have added a “Search…” box at the top-right corner of the Urban Furniture Library. It’s quite basic but does the job. It searches in the current folder and all its subfolders.
