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Isolate/Hide Object


Mark666

Question

Suggestion:

Isolate - I pick an object I want to see entirely by itself (not using clip cube), right click and select 'isolate object'. Everything is hidden except that object so I can now focus on it. A red exclamation marker is shown in the bottom bar (like the notification bell) to show that an object have been isolated. Click on this mark and select un isolate objects to return to normal.

 

Hide - There is an object in the way of my view so I would like to hide it, right click and select 'hide object'. The object is hidden from view and again a red exclamation mark is shown at the bottom bar. Objects can be added to this 'hidden mode'. Click on that mark and select show all objects to return all back to normal.

 

Reason:

To many times am I having to cut an object and then paste in place to do work. And to cut more than one object, you have to select those objects together as you can only cut once. And OMG when I have forgotten to paste in place..... undo, undo, undo!!!

 

You may think well just turn of the class, but what if the objects are in the same class. There are times when I know I am going to have to keep hiding objects so I have to reclass just for this, time consuming and not required for annotating. Or select all and deselect the object in question and then cut, but again this can cause problems.

 

I know this is a tool in other well known cad programs so can we please have this to save time an improve workflow.

 

 

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There is actually a way to do this but your warning idea is the icing on the cake which makes me think that Vectorworks should definitely implement this anyway.

 

The way to do this is with the simplest of scripts which you can make using the Custom Visibility menu command. (You may have to add this to your workspace)

 

Run the command from the tools menu and select “hide” and also select “create vector script”

 

Click OK, and then choose “Selection State” “is Selected”

 

After that allow the program to create the script for you. 

 

All you need to do is create another script using the command to “show” and then make the criteria “visibility” and “is visible”.

 

Hopefully you’ll be all set. You can then use this script to make a custom menu command so that you can map this to your Right-Click contextual object menu or a keyboard shortcut.

 

 

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Hi markdd.

 

Thanks so much for your advice. I have done what you have suggested and it so far seems to work great!! Only thing I cannot work out though is how to get this as a custom command to add to the right-click contextual menu (although I have it set as a auto hide palette for now which is fine). After a bit of digging, does it need to be done using the plug in manager?

 

For such a useful command which can be turned on in vectorworks (but only if your shown how), why is this not implemented??

 

BTW please vote up if you like

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Thought I'd try this on an old project by importing the script palette, but it did not work 😞

 

When creating these scripts, is layer and class also considered? As I think this is where it is not working.

 

Due to this logic, I have gone back to re make this as new but now show is not working at all🤔

 

I'll keep trying but again, why can't something so simple be implemented into the program as for those of us who have never or cannot understand scripting???

 

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You are correct, the way to make these scripts into menu commands is by using the plug-in manager and creating a new custom plug-in and entering the script into the script section of the tool. Then you need to add them to your workspace in the normal way.

 

I'm not sure layers and classes have any effect at all apart from on visibility. I'll have to test it out a bit more.... Are both scripts not working?

 

Here are my versions for you to try.

 

Hide:Unhide.vwx

 

 

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Thanks for everyone replying

 

markdd sorry but your file would not open for me. I played with it a bit more and for some reason if I created the script from new, I could not get it to work at all so I played with the first one I wrote and found that layers DO have affect with this, so I simply changed each little script line to (ALL) in the that layer bit and hey presto, it now works perfectly!! I have tested it by exporting it into an old job with a lots of layers and classes and indeed it works there too, so I just started a new project and have not stopped using it. This is proving to be the most important workflow tool I can use now. Now to tackle the plug-in manager to get more options.

I'm happy to share this script should anybody like it but unfortunately don't know how to share just this so if somebody could tell me would be happy to do it.

 

I don't understand why this should be in ozcad and not in other worldy versions, surely this should be available to all.

 

For such a simple and important workflow tool (for me anyway), c'mon vectoworks please implement this as still need a visual feedback to show when objects are hidden/isolated.

 

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The other work around that will give you some notification that things are hidden is to Group the objects you want to see. Turn off the preference to View Other Objects when in Edit Modes and then edit the group. Everything outside of the group will be hidden letting you focus on what you need. Copy/Paste in Place if you need to bring more things into the group.

 

When you are in Edit Group mode you will get the orange border around the window.

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Groups for temporary uses like this can be a very efficient workflow. Just make sure that if you use class visibilities to keep the group in a class that is always visible. 

 

Since Groups are container objects, you are only going to see items that have BOTH the Container and the Contained objects in visible classes/layers.

 

The other downside of using groups for this is that all the objects have to be on the same layer as Groups can't contain objects on different layers.

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@markdd, I tried to use your plugin, so far no succes (as I am a newby to scripts). Can you please explain how I get the following done: '............and entering the script into the script section of the tool. Then you need to add them to your workspace in the normal way.' Many thanks.

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There's still no way of doing this (without special scripts) etc is there?

 

I frequently use the "temporary group" method as a kind of workaround and in many cases this works fine.

 

However if I want to work on a wall object that is joined to other walls, it causes problems, because if I create a group with just that wall object in it, I think it causes it to lose its "join" to adjacent walls. This is not always apparent on ungrouping, because nothing obvious about its geometry changes, but then a subsequent operation on it (or an operation on it while within the "group") causes that junction to fail. For example I've just had this issue trying to do a "wall end cap" operation on a wall in a temporary group.

 

This becomes more and more of an issue as models become more complex. Especially when you have complicated wall joins going on.

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Is this on a Vectorworks to do list? I was just working on a complicated object that is covered by other objects. It's just a quick little thing so I didn't want to make separate classes. I thought, there must be a simple isolate object function in VW, searched and was surprised there isn't. I really don't want to mess with scripting for something like this, it seems like it should just be part of the software. Sketchup does it, why can't VW?

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The clip cube is not usually helpful for this purpose. Usually the object is buried amongst and touching other objects, so even if you get the clip cube very close to the object you're interested in, it's still slicing through adjacent objects. Plus, the clip cube can only be a cuboid and the object I'm interested in may not be.

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The other major limitation of the clip cube is that its cut plane just merges everything together into one fill colour, which makes it difficult to see the internals of what's going on, when you have multiple components/objects touching each other. If it could show the individual objects' different fill colours/textures or even draw lines between them in its cut plane it would be a whole lot more useful in general.

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