Hi Michael ...
I have been noticing comments about the naming of objects but I have not found a way to use the Objects section of my UI ..
I must have missed something .. I am using the October 25th beta
Has there been another one?
cheers,
eric

Hi Eric,
Clcik here:

Hi eric - actually object names are part of v2, you don't even need the latest v3 beta to use them.

But in order to use the Objects section of the scene browser, you first need to assign a name label to one or more objects.

To assign a name, first select the object you want to name, and then the properties of that object will be shown in the properties panel in the upper-right area of the main window, here:



That shows some information about the properties belonging to the current selected objects, including object name, object type, the style that is assigned to it and its size. Some more information on the properties panel here:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/moi_command_reference11.htm#propertiespanel

You can also edit the information that it shows there in addition to just seeing it - to edit it move your mouse over that panel and click on one of the lines that highlight. So for example to edit the object name, move your mouse over top of the first line which shows the object name (it will say "unnamed" if it does not have any name assigned to it yet), and you will see it highlight like this:



Click on it, and then the "Edit object name" dialog will pop up and you can then type in a name and push Enter, that will assign a name to that object:



Now that you have assigned a name, an entry for that name will appear in the "Objects" section of the scene browser, and you can use the controls there for various tasks like hiding, showing, selecting, or locking the object.



Also some more information on how the scene browser controls work here:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/moi_command_reference11.htm#scenebrowser


Basically, it's another method you can use for organizing your objects in addition to using styles.

- Michael

Thanks Michael ..
I just did not know that I could edit the name by any means.
I appreciate the clear explanation about how to use this feature.
cheers,
eric

No problem eric!

So the part that can get interesting is that you can use it in combination with using Styles.

Say for example you already are using Styles to organize a lot of components of your house - maybe you've got a roof that is made up of several different styles for different pieces of things, but then you also want a quick way to hide and show the entire roof sometimes as well.

You can do that by assigning the name "Roof" to all the objects that make up the roof, and then you'll have a "Roof" entry in the Objects section that you can use to hide or show those objects in one click even though they are made up of a bunch of different styles between them.

Basically those different sections of the scene browser can give you some different organizational methods that all work on the same actual model.

- Michael

Hi Eric,

Just something to note as you're also a Rhino user, is that those "Object Names" within MoI, wont appear in Rhino.
Only the MoI Styles will show up as a Layer within Rhino.

HTH, Colin

Hi Colin - actually names you assign in MoI should show up in Rhino, under Rhino's object properties dialog, except for names assigned to edge or face sub-objects - rhino does not support assigning names to sub-objects, only top level objects.

Have you had some problem with the names not coming over into Rhino before?

But yes they won't show up in the layer dialog in Rhino since I don't think Rhino has any UI set up to manage objects by name like MoI's scene browser.

- Michael

Michael,

You must be the only person in the world with 48 hours in a day. :-)
Take a beer on my account Michael. You deserve it.

Peace,
Rich_Art. :-)

Hi Michael ..
I'm really impressed with the functionality of 'objects' now that I am aware of its functioning ... I just did not know that that portion of MoI was even working yet. I did miss something for sure.
The implications for organizing the parts of a building are awesome in my opinion ... I'll have to think on it for awhile but it could make a big difference in my work flow.
Somewhat off topic but related is my search for a way to properly dimension and annotate 2d and 3d drawings ... I imagine the day when I can do this without leaving MoI.
You and MoI continue to amaze me. Your immediate response to your users is completely unique in the software field.
thanks,
eric

Hi Michael,

Thanks for that valuable bit of info.
It hadn't occurred to me to even check the Rhino's "Object Properties" for the MoI "Object Names".
Knowing this will certainly change the way I've been arranging things for later use with Rhino.

Up until now, I'd just move whichever MoI items onto various Styles that are matched up with Rhino's Layers.
That way I'd either open the file with Rhino or could share the file knowing a Rhino User would see the same info.

regards Colin

Hi eric, yeah the basic names has been working for a while.

There is another part of it that is not finished yet which is "groups", which will be kind of like names but the main difference will be that you'll be able to have groups nested as children inside of other groups so you will be able to make a nested hierarchy of names using groups.

That's the part that is still yet to come in v3.

But you can still get a lot done with the current object names mechanism as well.

- Michael