If you close and open AutoCAD it should load the aliases. And if you open a new drawing (I think I can't remember). But ya it's convenient to setup everything in a single session without having to close/open stuff.
Hey man, thanks for the tutorial that I started. I tried to resolve my little issue, but guess that I need your help. In your video, at the minute 8:55, when you split the conic surface and the screw, a very little "open edge" appears, that prevent me further to get the solid closed surface... I tried to link the surface, but it does not work, I guess it is so small... And it alos prevent me to make the boolean operation for the nut. Any suggestion ?
It could be your file tolerance. Check that first. From there, it becomes a series of uglier and uglier solutions starting with exploding the polysurface and using the "join" command. It might be better to start over if that doesn't work. Since posting this I've been looking at McMaster-Carr's database. Their 3D models are really good. There's also the bolt gen app I mention in another video. Those things existing as they do mean this is more of an exercise rather than something you'd use every day. If you can get fast it'll improve your Rhino skills, so don't fret too much about having to start the process from the beginning.
@@randomCADstuff hey, thanks for your reactivity, i fell less lonely in this situation :) I tried your recommandations and unfotunately it does not work, but I learned from it and tolerances parameters. I started again your tutorial since the beginning, and I found my mistake ! Actually, I was using the TRIM tool instead of SPLIT, but result is the same... still having open borders. I used the file in inch as you mentionned and your sizes, that I did not really followed ad I used a file in MM. And in my version I used a 8MM long helix when you use a 77MM one. So i looks like you use a bigger size but I'm not sure this makes the difference as well. Probably the important step is when you place the circle at the INTERSECTION of the helix, at the minute 8:23. As simple as it, now I have a close solide polysurface because I followed your tutorial strictly. THANKS
HA! Few min in and I can promise you I will watch the whole 4 hrs. Thank you so much for these vids been learning a lot and having a lot of fun making useful tools for work
Thanks for the comment! My videos aren't exactly the crown jewel of AutoLISP resources out there. I originally started making videos basically because nobody else really does - kind of sort of... my aim is to conclude the tutorial with something a person can maybe use in their day-to-day work. As I dabble in other programming languages I've come to realize how good the AutoLISP resources actually are (Start with AfraLISP.NET because it's pretty amazing itself but has links to many other great resources as well).
@@randomCADstuff vids are awesome man and they help a lot of people. Something about programming for cad that helps with your day to day stuff is addicting, I deff got bit by the lisp bug.
I think I mention that in an earlier video. The vaSectionView (Visual ARQ 2's that is) works really good but also requires more knowledge as well as a VARQ license. I find that it is a little unpredictable in the way it updates. And sometimes it grabs geometry that I would prefer it didn't. And no projected hatches. Using Make2D is slower but somewhat more predictable I guess. Visual ARQ 3 is in Beta and I'm dying to try it out right now but just don't have the time. Rhino 8 has some advantages that negates the need for model space linework, so in R8 my approach might change. If I stayed with R7 this is probably how I would do things.
@@kalpit3d934 I think you have to get in touch with Asuni (The company that makes Visual ARQ) to get the Beta. You also have to have a Visual ARQ 2 license. It's impossible to share.
This is a fantastic series of videos. I'd love to do all my modelling and construction documentation in Rhino, I think its a fantastic piece of software but people tend to look past its capabilities for producing great 2d drawings just because its so amazing at creating organic 3d forms. Thanks for the vids they will help me a lot. Please make more :)
I recently had a need for bolts. Used BoltGen with Rhino3d v8. Seemed to work very well, other than the 'specialty' option. Got around that by creating the closest diameter to what i needed with the desired pitch and then a 2D scale to get the desired final diameter. Worked well for the 3D printing that I needed.
I created that myself many years ago. Unfortunately, I lost most of what's shown there in a computer crash. Also installing the dialog onto someone else's computer would be a lot of work on their end. Especially for the images used for the dialog buttons.
I'd love to see it! The fun part is playing with the materials. But a person can easily waste a day (or two) getting caught up in that. I'm waiting on a hardware upgrade before I do any real serious rendering.
Can't you press ctrl + R when you're in the larger viewport and that will cycle you back and forth between the 2 viewports on your page? That would avoid your VPMAX issue.
I never knew that thanks! The only drawback would be if you have more than two viewports in the layout, you'd have to cycle through them. Obviously that's a non-issue for some but might be for others. I just use my copy trick because it's easy enough to memorize. I'm not as good at memorizing key strokes as I am command aliases (not sure why, younger people seem to prefer the keystrokes though so maybe it's age ;-) ).
Sure, I rarely have more than 2 or 3 viewports so I'm happy to cycle through but I understand how it would be a pain if you have many. Glad to be able to show you something new for once! 😄
That works but I like my way better because I can see the boundary of the viewport. The "VPMAX" command that's triggered when you double-click on the viewport is for me at least kind of an unwanted feature. I guess I could change that in the cui.
I'll find something to ramble on about for 2 hours straight just for this very purpose haha! The longest continuous videos I have are the ones on the Grid Bubble LISP (note that I've improved the code immensely since making that tutorial) and the stairs video in Rhino 3d. Not too many people watch longer videos... hard to find the time. So I try to keep them short, but sometimes fail at that even.
@@randomCADstuff That would be great! haha 😜 Sometimes I face the spesific small problem and try to fix that on that moment so I look for a shorter videos, But if I decide to learn something from scratch I don’t mind with the length. It might even be better.
Dynamic Blocks are amazing, however not used very often as users believe its way too complicated. Would appreciate the beginner to the advanced of what can be achieved following my mantra of "Why do it when you don't have to"
I've never really considered it and you're the first person to ask. Outside of creating videos I don't know if I'd have anything of real value to offer. I also learnt Rhino in an unconventional way: I created a series of test projects to assess the viability of using Rhino instead of more expensive applications (like Revit, steel detailing platforms, etc...). That might make me not the best choice for someone just starting out because I have a somewhat 'patchy' skillset. Just for a reference: recently I found out that I was taking 3 or 4 extra steps because I never bothered to test out the "Boolean Split" command (watched a video where the creator used it). For now... I would watch videos where the uploader models something similar to what you want to create. Try to reproduce it (maybe with your own twist) and that should get you close. I can also upload quick videos on specific tasks (within my ability) on a whim. Also, look up the Rhino Level 1 and Level 2 training. I will dig up those links for you if you're interested and can't find them.
My problem right now is that AutoCAD work is paying the bills. I m however trying to migrate towards Rhino as much as I can. It's definitely more fun. What type of project(s) do you have in mind?@@rmdemaray
I'm not 100% sure if you are doing your own program, or referring to the code's behavior. In case it's the latter, I will mention that I'm going to release a better version of this (the code not a tutorial) soon. The new version would allow you to enter "A-1" for example, and it will increment "A-2", "A-3" and so on...
@@TheWhiteLarryByrd If you go to about the 12:00 mark of this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DtjEhLm8dms.html, you'll see exactly what I changed.
I'm not 100% sure what you mean so you'll have to be more specific. There's a few changes to the code just for better performance and compatibility with the template (automatic layer selection for example). @@JakksonSloann99
You talk about "reactors" quite a bit and I'd like to understand a bit more about them. I don't think you've done a video on that specific subject and I couldn't really find any videos at all that cover it? I've got some blocks that represent an electrical terminal and they each have a unique number which is stored in a attribute called TERM. The problem is that the number is supposed to be shown in 2 places. I know that you shouldn't duplicate the same attribute because it causes problems. Therefore I created another attribute called TERM_COPY and I have a lisp routine that I can run which iterates though all of the blocks in the drawing and copies TERM to TERM_copy if those attributes exist. I wonder if this could be done better with a reactor? Or maybe there's a much easier way altogether?
AfraLISP.net has 3 tutorials on reactors. Here's the link to the first: www.afralisp.net/visual-lisp/tutorials/reactors-part-1.php You'd need to read all three tutorials as they built into one another. The third tutorial gets into "object" reactors. That would be your ticket, but it gets pretty involved. If you're familiar with programming you might have heard of something called "events". Reactors are very similar. I suspect that Revit uses "event driven programming" to make their tags work as they do. The craziest LISP code I ever wrote would actually create symbols (variable names) at runtime (something C# can't even do). The variable name would contain an object's ID handle. And I'd use that to attach the reactor to each object (I actually can't remember exactly how I did it). My concern was that it would populate the drawing with too many reactors and maybe slow things down. I drew 200 beams with tags (this was basically just a beam tag) and no slow down. I think I recall that if you didn't have the callback function loaded, an error would appear any time you tried to edit one of the beams. Although it seems to be working it needed a lot more testing. Reactors can be a little risky (not as risky if you're around to manage them but with this template I won't be). It was something I was doing off to the side hence I never went any further with it. The end result was better than Revit tags because the tag was just MText (Revit tags are very un-editable; you can't even rotate them). All that said, my recommendation would be to stick with your database sweep. Unless your drawing is super large, a database sweep shouldn't take that long. Depending what I am doing, I will create a custom "REGEN" command that regens, but also runs some sort of sweep at the same time.
These templates are awesome! I've checked them out before and learnt so much. I borrowed a lot of ideas from you when I setup my own template, even though I'm coming from an autocad electrical standpoint. Thanks for all your work!
Thanks for sharing this! That was one of my main goals, that is making the standards adaptable to any given field. It's nice to hear someone achieved that. I would recommend looking into the Electrical Toolset if you're using AutoCAD Full . Apologies if that's a no-brainer but I only recently discovered that many toolsets are now included. At the very least there might be some good dynamic blocks/symbols/etc...
Yes, we use the Electrical toolset already. It's pretty useful for our line of work. It includes a lot of tools for managing projects, automatic bill of materials generation, report generation, etc. And of course, a large library of blocks. It's a bit buggy though! For instance it doesn't support dynamic blocks properly. Officially they say to avoid using them. You can use them if you're careful but because of the anonymous names some of the tools like the report generator often don't pick them up correctly! It's one of those things where you learn ways to work around the bugs! 🙃
It's a little frustrating that we have to figure out so many work arounds when we pay so much for this stuff. I think that's one key reason why AutoCAD LT is seeing more and more use: no use paying all that extra money for things that don't function 100%. Basic = reliable and no surprises. I was about to place AutoLISP onto the backburner (I was gravitating towards C#, a whole other programmer language) until they included AutoLISP in AutoCAD LT. Now we have a much lower-cost alternative to implement automation. I still use AutoCAD full because I need the Visual LISP editor (not included with AutoCAD LT) until I finish a project I'm working on.@@PMSteve
There are advantages to using Visual ARQ but it depends what you're doing. I created a window style in Visual ARQ and although it works good, if it's not the exact style I need then I need to either make a different style or create one from scratch again. It takes time. Ultimately, the time involved was what stopped me from going further with Visual ARQ. I might try Visual ARQ 3 when it comes out, but I'm not doing much (or really any) architectural drafting/modelling at the moment.
Thanks for your response - Have you ever used Vector Works - I'm still deciding on what I'm going to end up using - Been using FormZ for A long time. Although Vector works is quite expensive. @@randomCADstuff
Be aware that there are smarter ways to model some of the stuff you're seeing/saw. My strategy is just to have one or two ways to model something that while not the outright fastest way to do it, are quick enough, reliable, and easy to remember. I'm thinking about making a video of just one set of stairs (probably the winder) where I do the handrails and maybe even render it.
I'll give you the short answer with a brief explanation, but the real answer would require a short essay. My short answer is NO. I more or less only decided on RhinoCommon (and C#) because I wanted to use the same language to program both in AutoCAD and Rhino. Rhino has multiple API's. Hindsight being 20/20 I probably would have learnt Python (I went back to using AutoLISP for AutoCAD anyways). Other options include Grasshopper of course (amazing but can be a time pit), RhinoScript and even just maximizing Rhino's command macro (it's the most versatile I've ever seen in any program). The RhinoCommon API is a really good but both the help documentation and sample code is lacking in my opinion. If you get into coding/API programming you really have to to a cost/benefit analysis (with the cost being your time). Architects and other designers have a lot on their plate and only a finite amount of energy, so wrestling with coding challenges might not be practical. Also consider how long it actually takes you to write the code verses how much time you'll save, or your team will save (hint, the less people using the code the less likely that the time savings will justify the creation of the code).
I'm getting reading to make an updated video relating to this topic. I've tried out a few different programs as well... testing CAD clones became somewhat of an unintended hobby. @19:30 (about) I mention that the AutoCAD clones are progressing faster than AutoCAD itself. This was the case... sort of... and still is... sort of... but lately I've been noticing a trend I'll coin as "software regression", where for whatever reason, the software actually gets worse after an upgrade/update. We've noticed this in the past but it usually gets fixed. But many CAD clones don't feel the need to update/fix their products after release. And when next year's release comes out, some features are fixed but more new bugs also appear. At the time I made the statement I did feel like it was accurate. But recent developments would have me saying that product development is more or less equal between AutoCAD and it's clones at this point.
Is it possible if you could show us your process of modelling this amount of detail in rhino? It'd be great to see what more I can add/subtract to my existing workflow.
If there's something specific you're looking for I can just make a video of that. I want to make a full video on modelling an entire house (or building) in Rhino 8 but I haven't used the new version enough to even dare quite yet - so that's on hold for a while. The modelling itself is all quite basic, but there's just lots of it.
@@randomCADstuff oh, yes i'm trying to explore Rhino 8 more and figure out the updates to the documentation part. I just finished watching the "window demo", i think maybe a stairs demo please?
You might have noticed that I did manage to get that stair video uploaded. It's very long. And I also don't model some of the stairs as efficiently as you could in Rhino (98% of my stairs are concrete and straight flights). @@sashan1281
Thanks for the video, very clear explanation and easy to follow. Now I don't have to create multiple drawing for different purposes and can do it all in 1 drawing, made my workflow alot easier!
Thank-you so much for sharing your thoughts. My analytics tell me that not to many people actually make it all the way to the end of this series. It's far from perfect but the best I could do at the time. I've since found ways to improve video quality in various ways and would someday like to revamp the whole series. But of course... not enough free time :-( . Glad you liked the series and thanks again for sharing your comment!
I have a block with two attributes whose TextHeight I wanted changed. I found a solution that scaling the attributes size up / down through Scale action. Unfortunately it meant that I needed two linear parameters to accomplish this while I wanted both attributes to be of same size, hence one parameter. Thanks to your use of Lookup_Table, I managed to resolve my issue!
A really good video! The only one who goes into depth of the Layer States clearly, and also mentions the disadvantages/problems of the tool and when they apply. Thank you! But I've got a question in regards to Layer States (LS); When I create a new LS when I'm in paperspace, the "Space"-colom states "Layout", and in modelspace it states "Model". But what are the limitations and advantages of creating LS with one or the other? I ask this because I noticed that you used the "Grey-out" LS, which is a modelspace LS, to set the viewport LS in paperspace. And with the "Red Title Block" LS, which is a Layout LS, it's not clear to me why I'd bother with the LS being Model or Layout.
I had to play around with that after reading your comment. And unfortunately I can't come up with a cover-all-cases answer. To make things more complicated, I'm seeing some strange behavior when I create the Layer State in PSPACE (I'm using AutoCAD 2024). It's not allowing me to unfreeze layers for some reason... the fix for that is just to delete the delinquent layer state and re-create it. I also wasn't able to peg down the exact behavior of the "Layout" Layer State when used in MSPACE and vice-versa. My recommendation would be to: Only use a layer state in the space which it was created. With the exception to that being using a layer state when you have a viewport activated. For that I just use one I created in model space. I should try and find some time to figure this out in the future.
@@randomCADstuffI did find out that, depending on the view you're in (model-, paper-space, or viewport), certain "Layer properties to restore " get greyed-out. This doesn't seem to be linked to the "Space" column. I'm using 2022, but will soon switch to 2024. But I'm having trouble with the transparency-property with hatches. Because when I use a LS in any view, the transparency of hatches changes in some views. So change it in one VP, it also changes in another VP, but not all. It seems to be random for me, but I'm assuming that I'm doing something wrong. This seems to be the only property to do this. Maybe you know what could be the problem? Or do you encounter the same problem in some cases?
I think you've found a bug. I have AutoCAD 2024 I can reproduce what you describe. But if I use different properties (color for example) it behaves as expected. I haven't checked everything yet.@@tomvos5594
At first I thought that maybe it changes the "global" transparency instead of the "VP Transparency", unfortunately it doesn't. It seems that vpTransparency is in fact global. $2,000 per year you'd think they have enough revenue to tidy these things up lol ;-).@@tomvos5594
If you download the model I should (I think/I hope... I intended to at least) have the same display settings included within the ZIP file. To be honest though my display settings aren't anything special. I usually start with either arctic or rendered and add the edges.
I have it uploaded on Food4Rhino. It's a free download you just have to sign up for Food4Rhino. It's not a "complete" project because I more or less ran out of time (experimenting with stuff). But... you can grab ideas from it.
