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Utility

zInspector

Geometry counts and quick selection

zInspector counts the geometry in the document by type, live, and gives quick actions to select, show, hide, lock or delete by type. It also includes a built-in backface selection tool (zSelectBackfaces). A separate command, zInspectorToggle, switches the live HUD at the top left on or off without opening the dialog.

Quick start

  1. Run zInspector. The panel scans the current document automatically.
  2. In the ITEM group, tick the geometry types you want to select. The ticks are synchronized to the selection in the viewport.
  3. Or use the shortcuts in QUICK SELECTION (by shape family, by open or closed, or backfaces).
  4. Use the buttons in ACTIONS to isolate, lock, delete, show or hide.

zInspectorToggle

  1. Run zInspectorToggle directly. You do not need to open the zInspector dialog first.
  2. Each run flips the current state of the HUD: on becomes off, off becomes on. The command line says “Inspector HUD on” or “Inspector HUD off”.

The dialog

  • Scope (a segmented control): Document (the whole model space) or Selection (a snapshot of the objects currently selected in the viewport, not live tracking).
  • ITEM group, 19 categories in 3 columns:
    • Curves and surfaces: Open / Closed Curve, Open Surface, Open / Closed Polysurface, Open / Closed Extrusion.
    • Meshes, SubDs and other: Open / Closed Mesh, Open / Closed SubD, Point, Block, Group, Bad Geometry.
    • Other: Annotation, Hatch, Clipping Plane, Light.
    • An empty category cannot be ticked.
  • QUICK SELECTION:
    • SelCrv / SelSrf / SelMesh: by shape family.
    • SelOpen / SelClosed / SelNonGeometry: open, closed or non-geometry.
    • SelBackfaces: a one-shot action. Pick a single-face object and it detects the faces that point away from the current camera and are not hidden behind other faces.
  • ACTIONS:
    • Row 1 (depends on the ticks): Isolate / Isolock / Delete.
    • Row 2 (visibility for the whole document, independent of the ticks): Show / Hide / Swap Hidden.
    • Row 3 (locking for the whole document): Unlock / Lock / Swap Lock.

How the settings work together

  • The ticks are synchronized to the selection in the viewport, one way. Any change of a tick clears the whole selection, selects everything in the ticked categories again and zooms to the selected objects.
  • Isolate and Isolock are available only when something is ticked.
  • Hide and Lock use the selection if there is one, and otherwise everything. If objects are selected in the viewport, only they are affected. With nothing selected, the whole document is affected.

Good to know

  • The HUD exists independently of the dialog. Closing the dialog does not stop the live HUD at the top left. You have to run zInspectorToggle to turn it off.
  • The HUD starts automatically the first time you open the zInspector dialog in a session. It stays on after you close the dialog, and you turn it off with zInspectorToggle. After you restart Rhino, this automatic start resets.
  • SelBackfaces is a one-shot pick and does not correspond to any tick. It depends on the current camera angle, so running it again from another angle gives a different result.
  • SelBackfaces selects only whole single-face objects (a single-face surface, or a Brep or mesh with exactly 1 face). It does not support picking a sub-face of a multi-face Brep.
  • Scope = Selection is a snapshot, not live tracking. Pick again to refresh it.
  • Delete asks for no confirmation. You can only Undo it.