Unisolate not returning to prior isolate group. How to fix?

Rhino
,
1

I use isolate a lot in rhino 8 on pc/windows machine. And lately, I’ve discovered that I can isolate a few from a larger group of objects that have already been isolated, and then doing an unisolate would bring me back to the initial isolation group.Loved this. But today it’s not working like yesterday. Now it just brings everything back, like the show command. What do I need to do in order to unisolate back to the original isolate objects?

2

there is a known bug with isolate and unisolate, when undo and redo was involved, i have not encountered that recently, but i also dont work in complex files lately. the bug was that unisolate stopped working suddenly and the only way was indeed to use show. what you are describing sounds like a new phenomenon since here (mac version) it works as you describe.

3

Do you know how undo/redo cause this conflict? Should I avoid undo/redo when within an isolate group?

4

no, from what i read it is basically fixed.

your issue seems an entire new thing anyway. does that happen with a new file either?

5

Yes, just tested with a new file and unisolate does not work as it should.

7

Just updated rhino 8 and still have the same issue:
Version 8 SR18
(8.18.25098.11001, 2025-04-08)

8

Hi @PeterB,

Can you give me step-by-step instructions of what you are doing that isn’t working?

Thanks,

– Dale

9

Hi Dale,

  1. select a 5 polysurfaces from a larger complex model of many polysurfaces
  2. type “isolate” and hit enter. This isolates those 5 objects / aka, hides everthing but those.
  3. as im working on those 5, at some point I realize I need to work closer on one of the 5 objects and Id like to isolate it from the 5 with the intention of returning to the 5 later with unisolate. So I isolate that one object.
  4. once Im done working on that one object, I type unisolate to bring back the 5 originally isolated objects.
  5. at this point, instead of bringing back the 5, it brings back everything. Unisolate was working correctly until a few days ago. Not sure what happened.

I have since updated rhino 8 to the latest version hoping that would fix it but it still doesnt work.

Any ideas?

Thanks

10

Hi @PeterB,

The Isolate and Unisolate commands have never worked the way you describe.

But there is a way you can do this in Rhino.

First, the Isolate command is really just a command that “runs” these two commands:

  1. Invert
  2. Hide

Knowing this, and knowing about these 3 buttons on the Visibility toolbar:

image

You can do this:

  1. Select a 5 polysurfaces from a larger complex model of many polysurfaces
  2. Run the Invert command then click the A button.
  3. Select one of the 5 remaining polysurfaces.
  4. Run the Invert command and then click the B button.

To bring back the last 4 hidden objects, right-click the B button.
To bring back the rest, right-click the A button.

When you get tired of running the Invert command, you can just modify the toolbar button macros to do this for you.

– Dale

1 Like
11

Thanks Dale. But I must say that it was working earlier as I described and this was wonderful. I just had to do isolate as much as I want and unisolate would just step back the prior isolation.
This new approach seems to do similar but with much more complexity.
Can I ask: how is unisolate different from show?
According to rhino help:

The Unisolate command shows all objects hidden by the Isolate command.

Does that not presume that if I isolate an objecting within a group of already isolated objects that unisolate should “show all objects hidden by the isolate command”? And if that doesnt just show the previously isolated objects, and instead shows everything, how, again, is it different from show?

Not trying to antagonize, just honestly curious what the point of unisolate is?

Thank you.

12

The Unisolate command just runs this command macro:

_-Show $$Isolate$$

$$Isolate$$ is the super sneaky name used by the Isolate command to hide objects.

_-Hide $$Isolate$$

– Dale

13

Ok, so Im super clear, Unisolate functions no different from Show?

I see from searching rhino discussions that this unisolate has a long history of non-functionality… like 10 years of this and still not working as it should? Very confused why Rhino wouldnt just make this work as it should?

14

Unisolate runs the scripted version of Showand specifies an object set name of $$Isolate$$ (see above).

The Isolate/Unisolate commands were added to Rhino 6. Prior to this, the functionality was provided by one or more scripts that we written by those to frequent this forum. Perhaps those scripts worked differently.

I have logged your wish for consideration in a future release.

Thanks,

– Dale

1 Like
15

Thanks Dale. I guess Ill remain confused hahaha. Thank you for submitting it as a wish. Im guessing many people would appreciate isolate/unisolate to function as I described it above.

16

i believe that wish exists for several years to progressively isolate further and that unisolate just reverts the chronological steps, i am sure i have pointed that out myself somewhere in the abyss of rhino discourse if i remember well.

maybe the enhancement makes sense with an Unisolate All option? to get back to where you started initially without going backwards in steps, any thoughts @dale?

scratch that, show does that actually but it still might make sense to keep the isolate stack separate from the show hide stack

17

Yeah it seems very strange that such an obviously useful and simple command would be ignored by mcneel for so many years. Baffles me , but moving on I guess.