Is it possible to make all objects in a layer not-renderable and/or non-printable?
It would be a really hefty feature for auxiliary elements (meaning all the scafoldings and cumbersome objects we create and are too lazy to keep in order)
Does turning off the visibility for a layer do what you need or do you want to see some layers in the viewport but not have them render or print? If that’s the case, you could assign a 100% transparent IOR of 1 material to a specific layer so those objects would not be seen in the render. For printing, Lock the layer you don’t want printed and then there’s a Visibility section in the Print dialog where you can uncheck locked objects.
1 Like
Hi, Brian.
Turning the visibility would work as to avoid printing, but what I want to avoid is the need to swith on-off each time I want to print or render. My goal is to have such scaffoldings as always visible (I use them a lot) but never renderable or printable. The layer locking system won’t work as I constantly need to work on these elements…
I tried the 100% Transparent with IOR 1 material with Rhino renderer and it rendered…
an idea would be to write a short macro which uses the layerstate manager to turn off the layers which you dont want to see prior to printing, then prints it and turns them back on again. you can make an alias or a command with this and replace the regular printing command.
1 Like
A sort of “print, but print my way”… Nice workaround. Hoped it could become a wish, it is in Auto*** since I know of it.
Hi @arquitextonica,
If you don’t want an object or layer to print, you might consider setting it’s print width to “no print”.
– Dale
5 Likes
I use this for all printing. I create various rectangles and page numbers in 2D model space to show me the borders of my viewports so when I’m in model space I know which material is on which page, and so forth. It’s an essential feature in my workflow.
that would be actually the way to go, i didnt think that setting it to no print will also include picture frames and text files. always thought that concerns the width of the lines only.
understandable i believe when its declared as such, maybe worth thinking about renaming the column?
1 Like
Super! Thanks @dale , I think I might have not noticed it as it appears at the bottom of the witdhs list, below values I would not even consider… Value gets to -1mm, might be more logical for it to be at the top. wouldn’t it?
Could there be a no material or no render for the rendering variation of the problem?
1 Like
VRay and Rhinorenderer.
VRay works, but “costs” rendertime (same image with all cubes transparent 3,5s no cubes 1,9s.)
Rhino Renderer doesn’t work…
I´d like to have the option of making any render engine ignore the objects in this layer completely.
Is it that hard codewise?
Sorry, forgot the file… WishUnrenderable.3dm (3.5 MB)
1 Like
Thanks @pascal. IMHO if it´s achieved through materials, it could be render-engine dependent, no? I think it would be easier and more direct to make it a layer/object property.
Thanks for the sample file. I didn’t see that artifact in my test so it must be something to do with the basic material when many objects occlude one another. I agree my idea won’t work currently in that case.
Another option that I thought of that might help your workflow in the meantime is to use the LayerStateManager to hide any scaffolding layers quickly before a render or print. If you save over your template file to include the layer names you use for these objects you can then use an Alias to control the layer state. For instance, if you always put these objects on layer “scaffold” you could save a layer state with this layer off and name the state “ScaffoldOff” (no spaces) . Then the alias in Options could be written…
"-LayerStateManager R ScaffoldOff Enter" You could even add “Render” to the end of it and make an alternate alias for returning to all layers being visible. This would require using the same layer names for these object in every model for the alias to work but if you overwrite your template file you’ll only have to set it up once. Just an idea.
1 Like
Thanks @BrianJ. It´s übercool that we can work this custom-pseudocode-workarounds in Rhino. With your ideas and @pascal adding it as a wish you confirm again McNeel is a superbcompany to stick to (just a parallel idea to compensate the ranting of some users). @bobmcneel keep all these guys around, they are our Rhino´s heart!
1 Like
Thanks! That’s very kind, hopefully we can get ray control by layer added to make it easier in the future too.
1 Like