Nested Blocks

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on October 18, 2016 at 7:13am

InstanceReferenceGeometry inherits from GeometryBase - so you can just add other blocks to your instance definition along with any other geometry. If you're working with an existing block instance, you'll need to use the InstanceReferenceGeometry constructor - which accepts the definition Guid and the transform, which you can get off the existing instance. 

Permalink Reply by Ryan Grande on October 18, 2016 at 7:53am

Thank you both for your reply!

Would either InstanceDefinitionGeometry or InstanceReferenceGeometry nest the block, or would it only place the raw geometry within the block?  I need to maintain the nested block's association with the InstanceDefinitionTable.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on October 18, 2016 at 9:25am

Use instancereferencegeometry. It will be the same as nesting a block.

Permalink Reply by Ryan Grande on October 18, 2016 at 10:04am

I have never used InstanceReferenceGeometry or InstanceDefinitionGeometry before.  

How do I assign a blocks geometry to each?  

is it simply something like this?

InstanceReferenceGeometry [] myGeom = InstanceReferenceGeometry(System.Guid, Transform);

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on October 18, 2016 at 10:14am

If you have an existing block instance somewhere, you need to get the id of its definition, and then the transform it's been placed with. See below:


private void RunScript(Guid x, object y, ref object A)
{
//Get a reference to the block in Rhino. Easiest thing is to hook up a GUID parameter
//and right click choose "set one Guid" and pick the block object in Rhino.
InstanceObject blockInstanceInRhino = RhinoDocument.Objects.Find(x) as InstanceObject;
//create a new InstanceReferenceGeometry
InstanceReferenceGeometry IRG = new InstanceReferenceGeometry(blockInstanceInRhino.InstanceDefinition.Id, blockInstanceInRhino.InstanceXform);
//Add the new block to the Rhino Document's Instance Definition Tables
RhinoDocument.InstanceDefinitions.Add("Example Nested Block", "Example", Point3d.Origin, IRG, RhinoDocument.CreateDefaultAttributes());

}


Permalink Reply by Ryan Grande on October 18, 2016 at 12:22pm

Thats for the help thus far!  

I have been playing around with InstanceReferenceGeometry a little, and below is what I have gotten so far.  It works great if I only select one object in Rhino, but how do i include multiple nested blocks?  They are all in the list "myIRG", so I could think I would just change the "myIRG[0]" to "myIRG", but that fails.  

{

  if(run)
    return;
  //Restarts script on button toggle

  List<InstanceReferenceGeometry> myIRG = new List<InstanceReferenceGeometry>();
  // Creates Empty list of InstantReferenceGeometry
  List <Rhino.DocObjects.RhinoObject> SelectedObjects = new List<Rhino.DocObjects.RhinoObject>(doc.Objects.GetSelectedObjects(false, false));
 // Selects Rhino Objects (As Many as Highlighted)

  int i = 0;
  while(i < SelectedObjects.Count)
  {
    System.Guid tempGuid = SelectedObjects[i].Id;
    //create a new InstanceReferenceGeometry
    InstanceObject blockInstanceInRhino = RhinoDocument.Objects.Find(tempGuid) as InstanceObject;
    // Add the new block to the Rhino Document's Instance Definition Tables
    InstanceReferenceGeometry tempIRG = new InstanceReferenceGeometry(blockInstanceInRhino.InstanceDefinition.Id, blockInstanceInRhino.InstanceXform);
    // Creates Temporary InstanceReferenceGeometry of each individual block selected
    myIRG.Add(tempIRG);
    // Adds all InstanceReferenceGeometry sets to a single list
    i++;
  }

  RhinoDocument.InstanceDefinitions.Add("Example Nested Block", "Example", Point3d.Origin, myIRG[0], RhinoDocument.CreateDefaultAttributes());

}

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on October 18, 2016 at 12:26pm

the "InstanceDefinitions.Add" method has an overload to accept a List<GeometryBase> and a List<ObjectAttribute>

Permalink Reply by Ryan Grande on October 18, 2016 at 12:32pm

Ah! Totally missed that!  Thanks a ton! Lifesaver!

Out of curiosity, could you give me an example of how to use InstanceDefinitionGeometry