Blindfold tool -- VST

[Robert Anderson]

Hi all, I was asked earlier today by a client if there was a simple tool that would hide objects by clicking on them but didn't have the complexity or constraints of the Visibility Tool. I created the Blindfold tool, a very simple tool that will temporarily hide objects that are clicked on. I say "temporarily" because these are not persistent hides that are saved with the document. To show all the stuff that you have hidden, simply double-click the tool. Simple. I wasn't sure if something like this already existed, but a very lightweight hide tool seemed like a handy thing. 

 

The VST is unencrypted. It's less than a page of code, for an event-enabled tool. So you know it's really simple! I added a simple video that shows it in action. Unzip, install in your user plug-in folder, and add to your workspace. Enjoy!

 

UPDATE: I have attached version 2. No big changes, a click on empty space (no pick) will produce an alert and not an error. Also a user-informative alert if you hide a viewport that may need refreshing on re-display.

 

Sometimes less is more...

Blindfold.vst.zip

Blindfold-v2.vst.zip

[Julian Carr]

Nice one Robert. We've actually had a command like this in the Object Context menu for ages (code below). What I find though, is that it is often a bunch of objects that you want to isolate for a few minutes, so the process in that case is to select the objects, Edit menu > Invert Selection then right click and choose Hide Selected Objects. There should probably be two commands - Hide Selected Objects and Hide Unselected Objects. I added the active layer to the criteria so objects on other layers didn't inadvertently get hidden. We have a matching Show Objects in the Document Context menu.

 

{ HideSelectedObjects v 1.1 - Developed by OzCAD Pty Limited  }

Procedure HideSelectedObjects;
VAR
    gLName : STRING;

BEGIN
    gLName := GetLName(GetLayer(FSActLayer));
    Hide((Sel = True) & (L = gLName));
    ForEachObject(SetDSelect, (Sel = True) & (L = gLName));
END;
Run(HideSelectedObjects); 

[line-weight]

It would be nice to have something similar to hide everything except the objects clicked upon... I am often temporarily putting objects into groups, so I can then click into the group, and have all external context disappear, and work on just those objects I've put in the group. This is often a workaround for the various tools that malfunction when trying to select a specific face in amongst many other objects, such as the push-pull tool.

[Tom W.]

@line-weight I think in this thread there's a script to hide unselected objects:

 

[line-weight]

Ah - thanks!

[drelARCH]

@Robert Anderson it is really useful tool to hide unneeded or objects standing in the way one by one!

 

Unfortunetly I have used it on sheet layer with viewports and they behave out of control now (only on layer

I cant select them with cursor though OIP show viewport selection, ...also they all just disappear...if I use bring forward command they all appear, but the moment I hit update for any viewport they are gone again. Same with accesing annotation space...once entered all viewports are gone and staff is too...hidden

 

Any idea how to fix it?

I deleted script, restarted vectorworks, restarted computer but still the same...?

 

 

[Robert Anderson]

27 minutes ago, drelARCH said:

I have used it on sheet layer with viewports and they behave out of control now

drelARCH, what do you mean by "out of control"? The tool was intended to "declutter" 3D scenes (this is the reason it was requested). How is it useful to hide viewports? Are you trying to work inside of a viewport? I will add code to detect an active layer being  a sheet layer and return an alert in that case. Easy enough. But I'm not understanding your desired use here...

[drelARCH]

Thanks @Robert Anderson for quick response.

 

I understand where this tool is really usefull. As I said in previous post i especially like that I can hide objects one at the time. 

 

It was just me playing with the tool and I had one file opened right on sheet layer so I tried to hide viewport...

 

I think I have fixed those viewports by creating new sheet layer and duplicating those viewports onto it.

 

Thanks anyway!

 

[Robert Anderson]

2 hours ago, drelARCH said:

Unfortunetly I have used it on sheet layer with viewports and they behave out of control now (only on layer

I cant select them with cursor though OIP show viewport selection, ...also they all just disappear...if I use bring forward command they all appear, but the moment I hit update for any viewport they are gone again. Same with accesing annotation space...once entered all viewports are gone and staff is too...hidden

 

Any idea how to fix it?

 

Hi @drelARCH, I have gone back and tested this with sheet-layer viewports (plan-type and section-type). What I find is that plan style viewports show and hide just fine, but section-type viewports require refreshing to show up again (they can be selected by marquee and then refreshed using the OI palette). Please confirm that this is your experience and let me hear. I will be making a v2 of the tool to handle a minor bug (NIL click) and would like to fix this also, by providing a little more info to the user.