Select geometry in Rhino from Grasshopper

Is there a way to select objects in the Rhino window (i.e., yellow-outline-select) using Grasshopper? HDT Utilities, Horster Reference, etc., allow Grasshopper to pull object IDs, and there are several ways of sending information back to the Rhino command line, but trying to tell Rhino to select a certain ID, or object name, doesn't seem to work.

Another way of asking this might be, when you type in "Select" in the Rhino command line and it asks you to click an object, what information are you actually transmitting to it by clicking the object(s) in the Rhino windows? Is that information able to be entered manually in the command line?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Tietjen on February 24, 2013 at 8:36pm

Grasshopper has a GUID parameter component that can 'pull' guid's from Rhino objects. Other than using a script component I don't see how you could get a guid from Grasshopper back out to the Rhino command line (I'm not even certain that you can do it with a script component). In theory I think you would want to use 'SelID' in the command line and then enter the ID you're working with.

Permalink Reply by Scott Penman on February 25, 2013 at 11:06pm

Chris - thanks for the idea! Andrew Heumann supplied me with the code using your suggestion. Perfect!

Permalink Reply by Sridevi Koonath on February 25, 2013 at 2:37am

Not sure if this is what you were looking for, but there is a method in RhinoCommon called Select, which lets you select objects in the Rhino document via Grasshopper's script components. I'm inserting a screenshot here of a very straight-forward example, but you can obviously be more creative, depending on what exactly you want to select.

Permalink Reply by Scott Penman on February 25, 2013 at 1:06pm

Great! Thanks.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on February 25, 2013 at 10:50am

See the attached definition - shows two ways of doing it, one with standard referenced rhino objects, the other with objects brought in through HDT Utilities.

Attachments:

SelObjsInRhino.gh, 5 KB

Permalink Reply by Scott Penman on February 25, 2013 at 12:55pm

Fantastic, got it working to select objects (and deselect). Unfortunately, this still doesn't seem to be registering as a "Selection" in the Rhino commands. I.e., if you type in "Group" (or "Scale", or any command that asks for a geometry selection), and then use this method, it doesn't move on to the next step in the command (press Enter when done)....

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on February 25, 2013 at 7:59pm

Really? It works for me...

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on February 25, 2013 at 8:00pm

oh wait - now I see what you mean. You're entering the command and then selecting - I was selecting and then typing the command. Is there a particular workflow reason you need to do it this way?

Permalink Reply by Scott Penman on February 25, 2013 at 8:48pm

Sort of - I'm fooling around with 3D gestural modeling (using webcams), and instead of trying to come up with an entire set of pre-determined patterns for the computer to recognize (two fingers = extrude, etc. etc.), I'm trying to work with the Rhino command line as-is. From what I can tell, every single Rhino command only ever uses three inputs: Place a Point, Select Geometry, or Hit Enter. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that everything rides on those (after you've entered your particular command, of course....which could/should totally be a voice-recognition setup). If that is the case, then it would be pretty easy to program gestural input to solve those needs. I've got Place a Point and Hit Enter figured out, but Select Geometry is proving a little tricky.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on February 25, 2013 at 10:56pm

Try this on for size. Credit to Chris Tietjen for the idea to use the SelID command.

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