There’s one glaring issue with automatically updating text fields in drawings and other production output that isn’t well handled by Rhino or AutoCAD…alerting users to updated information.
Issuing revised drawings to clients without indicating the changes causes big hassles. As the above link states, automatically updating text fields is a core benefit for “preventing errors in large drawing sets”. The corollary of that is alerting every person involved with every drawing to the changes that have been made, essentially, by the computer.
Would it be possible to put a revision cloud (or something else) around text fields that have changed upon opening a file or when text fields update? A simple polyline would be sufficient.
I suppose that if such feature were to make any sense, it should apply to such updates as well, yes.
I’m not sure how realistic this is, though.
It’s been several years now, but as far as I recall, none of the versions of SolidWorks, Pro/E, Creo, and NX I used automatically created revision markers for the changes that you mention. It’d be nice, yes…
When/if Rhino gets a versioning system, I imagine it’d be easier to implement something like this.
-wim
I hate getting revised drawings without knowing all the changes. With computers updating deliverables rather than humans, even just small bits and pieces, there needs to be a way to identify what is changed between revisions. Making it easier for humans to audit the deliverables is a necessity as more is automated.
Excellent, a niche for Rhino. I use SW and Inventor a little also, updated dims annoy me. I’m glad you see the benefits.
Humans do the creative work, computers do the repetitive stuff.
Would it make sense to have an option to have text fields never automatically update and provide you with a command to tell them all to update? If we had that the command could also do something extra for the fields that are updated (rev cloud, dot, change color)