Layer and Sublayer creation in C#

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andy VanMater on June 27, 2014 at 1:26pm

Update:

 I fixed the layer making part with the oh-so-simple doc.Layers.Add() but I have not figured out how to do sublayers yet. Hopefully you all can help me out

Permalink Reply by djordje on June 27, 2014 at 3:22pm

Hi Andy,

I do not know how this could be done in C#, but python. Sorry for that.

You need to set your child layer's ParentLayerId property (it will be equal to Id of its parent layer).

Permalink Reply by Andy VanMater on June 30, 2014 at 2:41pm

That's the trick. I'm not a big fan of this workaround but you need to add the parent layer to the document, "findbyfullpath" it and then the child assignment works. I also don't like how rhino doesn't let you set the layer ID before you add it to the document.

List<String> sL = new List<String>();

Random r = new Random(2);

for(int i = 0;i < A.Count;i++)
{
Rhino.DocObjects.Layer l1 = new Rhino.DocObjects.Layer();
l1.Name = A[i].ToString();
l1.Color = Color.FromArgb(255, r.Next(255), r.Next(255), r.Next(255));
l1.LayerIndex = 456;
doc.Layers.Add(l1);
l1.LayerIndex = doc.Layers.FindByFullPath(l1.Name, true);

for(int j = 0;j < B.Count;j++)
{
Rhino.DocObjects.Layer l2 = new Rhino.DocObjects.Layer();
l2.Name = B[j].ToString();
l2.Color = Color.FromArgb(255, r.Next(255), r.Next(255), r.Next(255));
l2.ParentLayerId = doc.Layers[l1.LayerIndex].Id;
doc.Layers.Add(l2);
Print(doc.Layers[doc.Layers.Find(l2.Name, true)].FullPath.ToString());
Print(l1.Name + "::" + l2.Name);
String p = l1.Name + "::" + l2.Name;
l2.LayerIndex = Rhino.RhinoDoc.ActiveDoc.Layers.FindByFullPath(p, true);

for(int k = 0;k < C.Count;k++)
{
Rhino.DocObjects.Layer l3 = new Rhino.DocObjects.Layer();
l3.Name = C[k].ToString();
l3.Color = Color.FromArgb(255, r.Next(255), r.Next(255), r.Next(255));
l3.ParentLayerId = doc.Layers[l2.LayerIndex].Id;
doc.Layers.Add(l3);
l3.LayerIndex = doc.Layers.FindByFullPath(l1.Name + "::" + l2.Name + "::" + l3.Name, true);

for(int l = 0;l < D.Count;l++)
{
Rhino.DocObjects.Layer l4 = new Rhino.DocObjects.Layer();
l4.Name = D[l].ToString();
l4.Color = Color.FromArgb(255, r.Next(255), r.Next(255), r.Next(255));
l4.ParentLayerId = doc.Layers[l3.LayerIndex].Id;
doc.Layers.Add(l4);

sL.Add(A[i].ToString() + "::" + B[j].ToString() + "::" + C[k].ToString() + "::" + D[l].ToString());
}
}
}
}

layer = sL;

Permalink Reply by djordje on July 1, 2014 at 12:35am

The LayerTable.Add method returns an index of the layer it has just added to the layertable (that's your doc.Layers.Add(l1);). So you don't have to use the FindByFullPath to obtain parent's layer index.
Not only layers, but all other geometry does not have an Id, until it has been added to the rhino/grasshopper documents.

Permalink Reply by Arend on July 3, 2014 at 4:11pm

Nope. It's not so trivial. I've created these tools lately to handle the recursion of layers with a bit more grace.

See functions here:  http://pastebin.com/xYpE0xNi

Here's the snippet that should do the trick (you'll need to add the methods from pastebin as additional code)

  private void RunScript(string layerPath, Color color, bool bake, ref object A)
  {
    if (!bake) {
      return;
    }
    Layer target = EnsureFullPath(layerPath);
    target.Color = color;
    target.CommitChanges();
  }

It also makes sure not to try to create it when it already exists.

Attached is an example.

Attachments:

• createSubLayers.gh, 9 KB

Permalink Reply by Toni Österlund on October 9, 2015 at 3:06am

Based on your work I was able to implement the creation of sublayers in Giulio Piancentino's "Bake with attributes" component. It's not very elegant - mostly copy-paste, but it now accepts  sublayers and creates them if not present in Rhino doc.

Attachments:

• BakeWithAttributesAndSublayers.gh, 20 KB