Inserting a Rhino Block using grasshopper / VB

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Permalink Reply by Marc Hoppermann on February 1, 2011 at 2:21pm

Hoi Sander,

 

Currently thats not possible in grasshopper but you can use the SDK to do it.

Just copy this function into the "custom additional code" body of a vb component and call it from the main subroutine:

 

Function InsertBlock(BlockName As String, insPt As Point3d, dblScale As Double, dblRotation As Double) As Guid

    Dim blockTable As docobjects.Tables.InstanceDefinitionTable = doc.InstanceDefinitions
    Dim block As docObjects.InstanceDefinition = blockTable.Find(BlockName, True)

    Dim move As Transform = Transform.Translation(New Vector3d(insPt))
    Dim scale As Transform = Transform.Scale(point3d.Origin, dblScale)
    Dim rotate As Transform = Transform.Rotation(math.PI * dblRotation / 180, point3d.Origin)

    Dim xform As Transform = move * scale * rotate
    insertBlock = doc.Objects.AddInstanceObject(block.Index, xform)

  End Function

 

On calling it adds the block to your scene directly. To be able to keep track of all the inserted blocks I usually collect the guid's in a global variable.

 

Hope that this helps you out,

Marc

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Permalink Reply by Sander Boer on February 3, 2011 at 7:39am

Dag Marc,

 

I've been looking into using the SDK and got stuck, you just unstuck it!

Thanks a bundle !

 

gr

S

 

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Permalink Reply by lmnts on April 21, 2011 at 9:53am

Hi Marc,

 

I'm wondering if you could help me with a similar problem.  I'm trying to replace the geometry within an existing block with geometry from grasshopper using VB but so far I've had no luck.  Any ideas?

 

Cheers,

Scott

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Permalink Reply by ryles on April 21, 2011 at 11:55am

Hey Marc,

 

Stupid script question, when you say "call it from the main subroutine" how do you do that?  It's something I don't quite get with functions yet.

 

Thanks in advance,

ryan

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Permalink Reply by Neil on December 18, 2012 at 3:10pm

Hi Marc,

I am a rather new user to VB scripts and would really like to know the answer to Ryan's question as well - any chance you can share?

Thanks!

Neil

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Permalink Reply by Chris Chalmers on November 30, 2011 at 1:06am

Hi Marc

This is really great - except that it places a new block every time I update settings like a slider value. Can you suggest a way to show the block in GH style preview and bake like other GH data?

Thanks!

Chris 

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Permalink Reply by Neil on December 18, 2012 at 3:10pm

Hi Marc,

I am a rather new user to VB scripts and would really like to know the answer to Ryan's question as well - any chance you can share?

Thanks!

Neil

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Permalink Reply by jose salinas on April 3, 2013 at 5:43am

VERY GOOD!!!BUT FOR NEW USERS

Dim blockTable As docobjects.Tables.InstanceDefinitionTable = doc.InstanceDefinitions
Dim block As docObjects.InstanceDefinition = blockTable.Find(BlockName, True)

Dim move As Transform = Transform.Translation(New Vector3d(insPt))
Dim scale As Transform = Transform.Scale(point3d.Origin, dblScale)
Dim rotate As Transform = Transform.Rotation(math.PI * dblRotation / 180, point3d.Origin)
Dim xform As Transform = move * scale * rotate
A = doc.Objects.AddInstanceObject(block.Index, xform)

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Permalink Reply by Florian Frank on April 7, 2013 at 1:26pm

Hi guys,

You might read this post...there you find a complete solution to this inserting block. I've posted a version Preview blocks and bake them...

The script also get's sure the block is updated each time the geometry changes and is suppressing the annoying prompt from rhino when a block already exists.

Best regards

FF

Attachments:

• bake_n_previewBlock.gh, 6 KB

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